If you will be in the Philadelphia/Cherry Hill area on Saturday, October 6, please check out the Collingswood Book Festival, an extravaganza of book-related activities, including readings, workshops, and general celebration of the written word. I will read and sign my book from 2-3PM, so please come by and introduce yourself--I'd love to meet you!
Dear Dr. Sue,
I’ve been very fortunate and had two books published by a major publishing house. They’re decidedly “midlist,” I received modest but respectable advances for them, and they have sold modestly but respectably—without the publisher putting a lot of resources behind them, and with quite a bit of work on my part, despite the fact that I’m holding down a pretty much full-time day job as well as writing and promoting my own books.
Recently, I found out through my agent that unless my second book does at least twice as well as the first, I may well never get another publishing contract, or if I do, it will come with a very small advance and even less promotion than before. This was a bit of a shock to someone who thought, “Phew! I’ve been published! That’s one big hurdle. Now I can really just keep writing and trying to make my books better and better.”
Since I heard that depressing information, I’ve had a hard time building up enthusiasm for my works in progress. That’s right, “works” in progress. I flit from one idea to another, finding myself panicking over whether I’m doing the right thing, writing the right book, and whether anyone will want to read them, or even whether I’m writing something anyone will want to publish. Now that I’m out there, so to speak, I can’t just sit back and say, “oh, well, if it happens it happens.” It’s officially a career, even if it’s not yet supporting me. And I feel that I’m not in control of what happens next, no matter how hard I work on my writing. I’ve already spent serious money I don’t really have on publicity for my current book, feeling that I have to do something to make sure it sells as well as it can, but short of that, it’s out of my hands.
My question is how to step back from that feeling of panic and inadequacy, the feeling that I dove head first into the publishing waters and may well sink to the bottom anyway, despite all the swimming lessons I took beforehand. Every once in a while I get to that zone again, and I write and lose myself in my work, but I’m much more easily distracted than I was. That’s not good, because I don’t have time to waste. Are there ways I can approach this to get back to my work without worrying about everything else?
Published and perishing
Dear Published:
It’s very well to say that writing well should be its own reward—and of course it is, otherwise we’d all put our energies into such higher-yield activities as buying lottery tickets and betting on horses—but we also write to communicate, and the more authentic our writing is—the more fully invested we are in communicating our vision—the more painful rejection, or the threat of rejection, can feel.
We get tired, too. Once we’re past our energetic and optimistic youth, managing a day job, family obligations, and a social life while struggling to produce our best possible work can be exhausting. And believing we’ve finally grasped the brass ring, only to have it snatched away, is demoralizing.
Panic, self-questioning, and “flitting” from one project to another are all perfectly reasonable responses to the command to perform magic. I imagine that the miller’s daughter ran around in circles after being ordered to spin flax into gold, and that Psyche started a million little futile seed-separating projects before the ants took pity on her. Unfortunately, short of engaging the book elves to manipulate your sales figures, there is no way to control the numbers. Good writing and energetic promotion increase the chances that a book will sell well, of course, but beyond that, if there were a foolproof formula—well, someone would have written a bestselling book about it.
I would suggest finding ways to detach your creative process from the business concerns that are the legitimate province of your agent and publisher. You might try submitting shorter work to literary journals, where it can be read and appreciated without regard to commercial viability. Take a class with a teacher you admire; join a critique group that is focused on improving the quality of its work; reread the “greats” to try to isolate and articulate what it is that lifts their art above the mundane—and, perhaps, to reignite the inspiration that drew you to this work in the first place. It may be hard to find the time for these pursuits, but they can be vital to your sense of yourself as an artist, independent of your commercial prospects. While there is no guaranteed route to success, one of the surest routes to failure is to worry about how a book will sell while you’re still writing it.
I hope those elves do intervene, and that the result is a fat contract. Remember, though, that many fine writers never manage to support themselves with their work, yet they live fulfilling and artistically successful—if often harried and fragmented—lives. This may not be an ideal situation, but for most of us, it remains infinitely preferable to not writing.
Susan O'Doherty, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist with a New York City-based practice. A fiction writer herself, she specializes in issues affecting writers and other creative artists. Her book, Getting Unstuck Without Coming Unglued: A Woman's Guide to Unblocking Creativity, is now available in bookstores. Send your questions to her at Dr.Sue at mindspring dot com.
This letter speaks exactly to what I'm feeling right now -- the sales concerns, the questioning and self-doubt, flitting from idea to idea.
I try to take it one day at a time, be happy for reaching my goal of being published, and try to keep in mind the realities of "the business" without getting too overwhelmed.
Still...
fs
Posted by: Frederick Smith | October 05, 2007 at 03:00 AM
Thanks again for a great answer to a troubling question, Dr. Sue. Focusing on the work at hand is vital and the only way, and you've given several useful suggestions about how to do that.
Posted by: Susanne Dunlap | October 05, 2007 at 06:09 AM
Frederick, thanks for writing. It really is harrowing. I wish you all the best with Right Side of the Wrong Bed.
Susanne, as you know I've seen some of your WIP and it's gripping--fingers crossed!
Posted by: Susan O'Doherty | October 05, 2007 at 06:16 AM
Everyone faces this issue and it is somewhat valid but I don't believe what this agent is saying. And I think the author should think about talkign to some new agents when the new book is done.
If a second book doesn't do well, the author might have to take a lessor advance but there are hundreds of authors who have publishers who belive in them and keep on pushing.
Bad sales numbers can be absolutely be overcome.
My advice - practical - not psychological would be to get excited about the new book understanding the problem might be the damn agent not the sales figures.
Posted by: M.J. | October 05, 2007 at 09:18 AM
M.J., thanks so much for this business-end insight. This is important information
Posted by: Susan O'Doherty | October 05, 2007 at 11:12 AM
"Reread the “greats” to try to isolate and articulate what it is that lifts their art above the mundane—and, perhaps, to reignite the inspiration that drew you to this work in the first place."
This is great advice for all writers regardless of where they're at in their career.
This letter made me this of Jeff Lindsay whom I met 10 years ago when he was a struggling mid-lister whose books (FL based mystery series) were about to go out of print because his publisher dropped him - low sales.
Jeff regrouped, wrote a new book under a slightly different name, a book called "Darkly Dreaming Dexter." The NY Times gave it a nice review and the rest was history - a hugely successful TV series based on his Dexter books.
I known writers who've sunk into obscurity and never wrote again after being dropped, and then there are others who turned the negative experience into a positive motivation to try something new and different.
Published and perished, I hope it all works out for you.
Posted by: Josephine Damian | October 05, 2007 at 11:28 AM
More great advice, thanks, Josephine!
Just this morning I read a quote from Morgan Freeman's daughter, who said the most important guidance he gave her was to tell her, when things weren't going her way, "You're still in the game--what's your plan?" As long as we're still writing, we're still in the game, I think.
Posted by: Susan O'Doherty | October 05, 2007 at 11:51 AM
Boy, good question. I agree with MJ that the agent doesn't inspire confidence. I know what (s)he's saying is conventional wisdom, but it's not the attitude of a dedicated advocate, which your agent should be, shouldn't she? It doesn't sound like constructive criticism, either.
Another suggestion, if the second book doesn't do as well as your publisher would like, is to get familiar with some small presses. Your sales numbers might look better to them, and you don't necessarily need an agent to get their attention. And while their advances are probably smaller, their attention to their individual books is almost always greater.
Posted by: Jennie | October 08, 2007 at 08:52 PM
Man does this resonate with me -- so thanks to Dr. Sue, MJ, and Josephine for practical advice and also encouragement. At times I feel like the punchline to the old joke ("when will we get to England?"). I just try to keep my head down and keep swimming.
Posted by: Clea Simon | October 09, 2007 at 12:07 PM
Jennie and Clea, thanks. I am so grateful to be sharing this space with M.J. and other experts in the business aspects of writing and publishing. It would never have occurred to me to question the agent's wisdom as M.J. and Jennie knew to do. This is really important advice.
As a psychologist, my primary concern is for writers' ability to maintain emotional equilibrium and artistic authenticity despite the vicissitudes of the market. I'm working on a column dedicated to that issue, that I hope to post tomorrow--stay tuned.
Posted by: Susan O'Doherty | October 11, 2007 at 09:54 AM