Addled by the Heat We Confront The Grim Realities of Writing for Publication
Let’s be honest. It’s not the heat. If it were the heat, we could leave the kitchen or have the buck stop here, grab life by the love handles and never let go. In dallying with links, I came across Agent 007’s gripping post about how things in publishing really work. With blacklisted agents, short attention spans, mass confusion, career worries, quotas, quotients, 007 dishes the unvarnished truth about submitting stuff to editors. Readers are strongly cautioned: this gets ugly.
Insider knowledge. We thought the moon was made of cream cheese until Neil Armstrong went up there and checked it out. Big spoiler. Maybe it was blue cheese. The consolation was the knowledge that anyone could visit the moon and jump high in the air. And real estate is cheap. Some rocks are resting in the Smithsonian, proof positive of Neil’s no cheese hypothesis.
I think most unpublished writers, the serious ones, not the dilletantes, already know what a waking nightmare this business can be. Entire web sites are devoted to rejection, and a couple of editors at TOR have devoted a lot of time to the thesis that rejection, while painful, is abundantly deserved. They’re very frustrated that those of us who are stuck with this avocation persist in annoying them with submissions. Now 007 comes along to tell us that rejection is tainted by non-reads. I didn’t read this, but I don’t like it. I don’t like your agent. Telephone pitches confuse me. I have a blacklist.
This is silly. It’s nice that 007 wants to share with the rest of us, but she is not one of us. Since the basis of her post is predicated on the notion that bad things happen to good submissions, what difference do the reasons cited make? None. So, is 007 offering information that is of any use to us? What she is doing is reminding us how dumb and naive we are, how agents suffer on behalf of writers. Maybe 007 has forgotten that writers have more at stake than a commission, a bad lunch, or a rejection based on a non-read. As Richard Curtis pointed out this is not a meritocracy. Books are bought for all sorts of reasons, some good, some not so good. A trip to the bookstore will confirm his point.
Let go of this stuff, my friends. Do your work, find an agent, or don’t find an agent, send it in and stop reading all this crap about blacklists, lunches that go horribly wrong, evil assistants, and non-reads.
You need skill and luck unless you’re famous. That’s all there is to it.
August 26th, 2005 at 4:55 am
I surfed over here via Agent 007’s blog. I’m not certain what your beef is with Agent 007, or even if you have one, but you’re echoing her with your comment about needing luck and skill. Sites like Agent 007, Miss Snark and POD-dy Mouth are a good way for unpublished writers to get a feel for the business.
September 22nd, 2005 at 5:12 pm
Amen! (I also navigated here from 007.) As it happens, I’m a devoted Snarkling, but that’s because Miss Snark is wicked funny. She’s also quite sweet behind closed email doors, but at least she seems to have her head on straight about the fact that this is business. Having just read her entire archives, Agent007 is just ponderous and whiny.