Be Honest: Why are you Really Not Published Yet?

[skip.knox]

When it is finished, then what will you do? Self-publish? Send it to an agent? Because it isn't really finished until it is out of your hands.

 

[Aldarion]

Here's the difficulty I have with perfectionism: how does one judge perfection? Here am I, as imperfect a specimen as anyone would care to encounter, setting myself up as so expert as to know when something falls just *this* much short of perfection, and so I must keep on keeping on.

It seems a version of Zeno's Paradox. I get halfway to perfection, to perfectly completed. Take a breath. I get halfway closer. Breathe. Halfway closer yet. But I can never reach it. I can see I can never reach it, but I keep claiming it's reachable and that I'm the one to get there.

Perficio means to complete, to do thoroughly and completely. I'm happy to settle for ficio, just doing.

To me, perfection means internal consistency. Knowing there are no contradictions.

 

[Finchbearer]

When it is finished, then what will you do? Self-publish? Send it to an agent? Because it isn't really finished until it is out of your hands.

Me? I like the idea of traditional publishing for some of my work, but I’d like to start by sending some short stories to magazines and online platforms first. I also like the idea of self publishing for some of my works that I think would be fun to DIY. I’ll try not to take the rejection too personally!

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

I will finish A project. Which one (I'm working on two) is a toss up.
Deadline is 1 Year From Tomorrow.
Will I publish it? I need to get a project finished first don't I?
Where will I publish it? Probably Kindle, or some online retailer. If I can anyway.

 

[skip.knox]

Me? I like the idea of traditional publishing for some of my work, but I’d like to start by sending some short stories to magazines and online platforms first. I also like the idea of self publishing for some of my works that I think would be fun to DIY. I’ll try not to take the rejection too personally!

Too many targets can make aiming a challenge. If you have short stories, by all means send them off. If you haven't yet finished one, finish that! Once you've sent the story off, you can forget about it and work on the novel. Or another short.

My very first effort was a short story. I was enormously lucky to get feedback from the magazine and was allowed to make some changes, then they accepted it. Nothing for pay, but I didn't (and don't) care.

 

[Prince of Spires]

I'm blessed with a different brain from many people here I guess. I write start to finish. Once done, I can go through it 3 or so times, hand it to an editor, process their comments during a fourth pass through the manuscript. And by then I'm so sick of the whole damn thing that I never want to touch it again. It's done then and I have no desire to change anything to it anymore. Which makes it very easy for me to push publish.

By that point, there's little emotional attachment left to the thing. Of course, I still like it and I'm proud of having finished it. But I get none of this "a work is never finished, it's only abandoned" feelings. For me it is finished, warts and all. It is what it is.

I also apply a paraphrased version of pareto's principle here. 80% of the quality comes from 20% of the work (though the percentages don't completely line up). Your first draft is good enough to get it to 80% of its final quality. I put in about as much work again to get it to 90%. However, closing that final 1 or 2% in quality will take a lot more work that getting to that initial 90+%.

Also, there's only so much you can improve by polishing a specific book. At some point, your skill has advanced to such a degree that simply editing an existing work isn't going to use those improved skills. To use them, you'd need to actually rewrite it from the ground up, telling essentially a different tale. Why not just write the next book then? That's a much better use of your time, because then you'll have 2 books instead of one. And I have more then enough story ideas to last me a lifetime, so writing the next idea is more attractive to me than just rehashing the same old idea. Also, here's another quirk of my brain. It refuses to rewrite stuff I've written. I can edit no problem. But I have to force myself to write something I know I've written before. My mind just rebels.

Lastly, writing is a skill. You only can get good at a skill by practicing it. And here I agree with Skip. You need to practice all of it. If you only world build, then you'll become better at worldbuilding, not writing. If you only start stories, then you'll become better at starting stories. If you only work on a single story, you'll become better at writing that specific story. If you want to become good at telling stories, then you have to write a lot of them, from start to finish.

 

[Finchbearer]

I find it ironic though how many agencies on their submissions pages say ‘they are constantly looking for new authors’, when the odds of getting traditionally published are fairly low. It will be interesting to go through the process to see just how selective these agents are!

 

[Finchbearer]

Too many targets can make aiming a challenge. If you have short stories, by all means send them off.

I get the feeling that trad literary agents expect you to be coming to them with an existing social media presence and some awards or writing accolades to be taken seriously, so I figured that submitting short stories could be a good avenue to walk down?

 

[mbox]

This may be an odd standpoint because it seems to me that many writers want to be published "offically".
My problem isn't finishing - I've completed 3 books so far.
But, early on, I thought about chasing agents and trying to be published. I saw that it's really a lot of work and very time consuming. Not only should you reach out to as many agents as possible (playing the numbers game), the suggestions I saw were to have a social media presence, do newsletters, and attend conventions.
But...I already have a good, full time job and really don't want to spend what little free time I have doing all that. I just like the writing part. So all I do is write and once I have something satisfactory, I self-publish. I don't advertise or push it in anyway...I just get it out there and move on to what I want to do next. I am pleased with the satisfaction of what I did within myself and if others enjoy it too, cool.
I keep thinking, maybe, if I still like all this when I retire (far future) and time is less of a constraint, maybe I will play the whole game.

 

[Finchbearer]

This may be an odd standpoint because it seems to me that many writers want to be published "offically".
My problem isn't finishing - I've completed 3 books so far.
But, early on, I thought about chasing agents and trying to be published. I saw that it's really a lot of work and very time consuming. Not only should you reach out to as many agents as possible (playing the numbers game), the suggestions I saw were to have a social media presence, do newsletters, and attend conventions.
But...I already have a good, full time job and really don't want to spend what little free time I have doing all that. I just like the writing part. So all I do is write and once I have something satisfactory, I self-publish. I don't advertise or push it in anyway...I just get it out there and move on to what I want to do next. I am pleased with the satisfaction of what I did within myself and if others enjoy it too, cool.
I keep thinking, maybe, if I still like all this when I retire (far future) and time is less of a constraint, maybe I will play the whole game.

From what I am gathering, lit agents generally look for people who want a writing career, who they can trust to also be a face for them to some extent, and yes I agree that is a lot of work, akin to a part-full time job. They need to make the return on the book I suppose, or ideally make a profit. That also comes with accolades for writers who become traditionally published authors because it’s like getting a job you really want.

If you already enjoy your full time job and are happy with self publishing as more of a hobby there’s nothing wrong with that at all. It’s a creative pursuit at the end of the day and should be fun.

 

[The Dark One]

I find it ironic though how many agencies on their submissions pages say ‘they are constantly looking for new authors’, when the odds of getting traditionally published are fairly low. It will be interesting to go through the process to see just how selective these agents are!

In my experience they are highly selective and seem to make choices on fairly arcane criteria. The publishing industry in Australia is very small and seems to be getting smaller so there are very few slots available for new writers - who mostly come through the network of postgrad writing courses.

That said, I've twice had an agent (both of them quite big) and technically I still do - although we've not talked in about four years. They were both useless - they have a bit of a go at first but as soon as they get rejected they lose interest and devote their time to those clients which make them money. I do get that but it's awfully frustrating and your hands are tied on your own efforts, until you sack them.

I've had five novels published (two of them quite popular). Four were trad published and all of those deals I landed through my own efforts after my agents had given up.

Hopefully they try harder in other countries.

 

[Super Fantasy]

I only started writing about two years ago.
I write when things come to mind.
I like writing silly short stories.
I also like writing silly or short poetry.
I feel taking my time is more important than completing writings.
I began writing multiple short stories and only four or five novels.
So much of my work is spread out over different topics and themes and such.

 

[Finchbearer]

In my experience they are highly selective and seem to make choices on fairly arcane criteria. The publishing industry in Australia is very small and seems to be getting smaller so there are very few slots available for new writers - who mostly come through the network of postgrad writing courses.

That said, I've twice had an agent (both of them quite big) and technically I still do - although we've not talked in about four years. They were both useless - they have a bit of a go at first but as soon as they get rejected they lose interest and devote their time to those clients which make them money. I do get that but it's awfully frustrating and your hands are tied on your own efforts, until you sack them.

I've had five novels published (two of them quite popular). Four were trad published and all of those deals I landed through my own efforts after my agents had given up.

Hopefully they try harder in other countries.

That’s interesting. For a country the size of a damn continent that the publishing industry should be so small!

 

[The Dark One]

That’s interesting. For a country the size of a damn continent that the publishing industry should be so small!

The population's only 26 mill so we're a small and isolated market for the physical products with significant distribution costs.

It's far more cost effective for the market to focus on the big titles from OS so the industry starts behind the eight ball before we even get to the Australian industry - which struggles to compete. Oz titles tend to be more expensive than the mass produced OS titles.

Not a lot of room for anyone, including agents.