The No News is No News Purgatory Thread, Vol. 7

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Snappy

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Fly, piece-of-shit synopsis, fly!

Flap those stubby, in no way mechanically practical wings!

Isaidflapyousonofabitch!

:ROFL:

You try again. And again. And again if need be. You try and improve and adapt until you can't or won't do it anymore.

This

Bottom line, it's a rough industry. Sometimes it feels like you've gotta feed your soul into it in order to succeed, but somewhere between typing THE END and sending the book out into the great big world, you find a way to yank your soul back to where it belongs. It'll be more helping writing the next book than it will be gathering dust in someone's overstuffed inbox. :)

Exactly.

Fire, GORGEOUS cover!

(((Jo)))

Cindy, congrats again on 15 years. :D
 

ink wench

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(((Jo)))

That's it! I'm flexible. If I can sell it, I'd love it.
Count me in there too.

Right now I'm in the "screw it" stage though. Am working on a plot for the sequel to the totally unsalable fantasy I wrote. Some days I think I write just so I can fill up space on my hard drive.
 

xiaotien

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yay lily pie!!

the hard truth is:

write what you love, there is no guarantee it'll sell.

write to market, there is not guarantee it'll sell.

make a deal with the devil, you might have better
chances. but probably, no guarantee there either.

ha!
 

kellion92

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Go Lily!

I hear you, Xiao. I know I can't write just ANYTHING. Like whenever I joke around about some totally ridiculous idea that would sell, I think to myself, "That really WOULD sell!" But that doesn't mean I can write it.
 

Snappy

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I sold my soul for a book deal. WWJJD do? ;)
 

xiaotien

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cheeky, *that* is true.
jesse would have our backs. =D

inkie, i'm almost always in the
Why the Fuck Not? stage with my writing.

i want to do it.
why the fuck not? ha!

life's short. what have i got to lose?
in the end, i still wrote a novel and if *i'm*
proud of it? and i've learned as a writer?
it's a good thing.

everything else is bloody noise.
i won't say i don't get sucked into the emoster.
but i always try and drag myself out of it once
in a while for a deep breath or three.
 

Blondchen

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I wish there was a better way to test concepts before writing a novel. I get that unpublished writers need to write the novel and can't sell on proposal, but sometimes a concept doesn't interest agents and they stop reading at sample page 10. And then, while everything the writer labored over from page 11 to page 300 might be a learning experience, it would be nice to learn from a novel that had a chance.

Of course, the flip side is that a concept an agent doesn't think they can sell in May 2012, might be the concept they are desperate to acquire in January 2014!

Also, all agents are different. Some look for the immediate sell. Some look for career authors. Some just rep what they like. It all depends on their situation - financially and professionally - and of course, is completely different for each of them.
 

Blondchen

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FIRE!!! Love the cover and the branding. Congrats!!!!!

ETA: does anyone else hear Michael Stipe singing "Fiiiiiiiiiiiire" from "This One Goes Out to the One I Love" when quoting Fire's name?
 

Blondchen

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Bottom line, it's a rough industry. Sometimes it feels like you've gotta feed your soul into it in order to succeed, but somewhere between typing THE END and sending the book out into the great big world, you find a way to yank your soul back to where it belongs. It'll be more helping writing the next book than it will be gathering dust in someone's overstuffed inbox. :)

Incredibly well said, RAB.

ETA:

And even for all that, I have one book she couldn't sell, another she didn't think was fixable, and I have no idea how this one's going to do. So... yeah.

This is exactly what happened to me. Exactly. W'sE didn't sell. In the meanwhile I wrote a passion project (YA historical spy fiction) that my agent felt wouldn't sell in the current marketplace. We never took it out on sub.

Then I wrote P0SSESS.

It took almost three years for me to sell a book just from the time I signed with my agent.

THIS IS A LONG GAME. Instant gratification is rare. If that's what you're looking for, there are other routes available.
 
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Tasmin21

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Caleb just threw a paperclip at me.
 

Blondchen

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Rab and Fire, I understand why an editor or agent would WANT to love a book, but making an editor or agent happy isn't the purpose of a publishing enterprise. It's producing profitable books.

But I think the two go together. If your publisher loves your book - which in theory means they think it will be profitable - the odds of your book being successful go up because they're going to push your book harder. So there is some incentive to please.
 

Blondchen

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Right, you don't know, but it's part of the game. I hate the advice I see about how you should write what you love to write and if you write it well enough, it will get published. No. Publishing is a game and you have to know how it works and have a strategy to play the game.

I'm not sure I agree with this. I think publishing is significantly more unpredictable than a strategic game. There is no "If I do X and Y, I'll get Z" formula. It's more like craps than blackjack.
 

firedrake

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But I think the two go together. If your publisher loves your book - which in theory means they think it will be profitable - the odds of your book being successful go up because they're going to push your book harder. So there is some incentive to please.

This.
There are different types of book love from my point of view.
There's the books I love to read personally.
There are the books that give me an 'oh hell yeah' buzz when I'm editing.
There's that fizzy excitement love when I read a great new sub.

So, yeah, I do have to love a book. I am not going to be happy if I have to edit a book I hate. I'm grown up enough to put my all into editing a book even if the plot/characters/etc. do nothing for me. I know enough about the erotic romance genre, to know what works and what doesn't.

ETA: Wahey, Cindy! Congratulations!
 

Haupe

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Love this conversation.

Don't forget people also get ghost-writing deals through subbing. They might not have an idea of their own - yet - that the publisher will pay to have executed, but they might have the perfect voice for an in-progress series, etc.

You just never know the offshoots of the sidebranches that will lead to a breakthrough. But this requires putting *something* out there that people can see and react to.

ETA: Congrats, X-Cin. 15 years is a huge accomplishment.
 
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