How Many Writers Are REALLY Publishable? |
Author: Matt Austin (---.dynamic.mts.net)
Date: 08-05-08 15:23
Writing a book is a big undertaking.
Making it good enough for the public to buy and read cover to cover is even harder.
How many writers are actually talented enough to pull it off?
One in ten? One in a hundred?
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Re: How Many Writers Are REALLY Publishable? |
Author: jayce (---.mob.bellsouth.net)
Date: 08-05-08 15:57
Many are called. Few are chosen.
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Re: How Many Writers Are REALLY Publishable? |
Author: Keith . (---.dhcp.spbg.sc.charter.com)
Date: 08-05-08 16:23
Talent isn't enough. You need talent, tenacity and a dozen other qualities. A little luck doesn't hurt, either.
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Re: How Many Writers Are REALLY Publishable? |
Author: Keith . (---.dhcp.spbg.sc.charter.com)
Date: 08-05-08 16:57
Oh, and I've heard 99.5% of manuscripts are unpublishable.
km
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Re: How Many Writers Are REALLY Publishable? |
Author: Gravity Fades (---.43.18.203.nw.nuvox.net)
Date: 08-05-08 16:59
Unless you send them to PA.
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Re: How Many Writers Are REALLY Publishable? |
Author: William Falo (---.cmdnnj.fios.verizon.net)
Date: 08-05-08 17:14
I read something like one out of thirt-four thousand are chosen. Regardless, if you write for fun and because you love it every page is a victory.
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Re: How Many Writers Are REALLY Publishable? |
Author: Stacy Copping (---.hsd1.ga.comcast.net)
Date: 08-05-08 20:42
Some books are unpublishable and yet they fly off the shelves. Maybe I should get a boob job, convince a billionare to adopt me, and make a public mockery of myself.
Stacy
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Re: How Many Writers Are REALLY Publishable? |
Author: Wonky (192.250.49.---)
Date: 08-05-08 20:46
How many? 3,976.
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Re: How Many Writers Are REALLY Publishable? |
Author: Wonky (192.250.49.---)
Date: 08-05-08 20:46
How many? 3,976.
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Re: How Many Writers Are REALLY Publishable? |
Author: stevenlabri τΏτ (---.dsl.mindspring.com)
Date: 08-05-08 21:33
Really?
good lord.
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Re: How Many Writers Are REALLY Publishable? |
Author: Keith . (---.dhcp.spbg.sc.charter.com)
Date: 08-05-08 21:45
Stacy, can I watch? Me likey ...
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Re: How Many Writers Are REALLY Publishable? |
Author: d. Leroy (---.hfc.comcastbusiness.net)
Date: 08-06-08 10:49
In all fairness, a book that is publishable is a book that is sellable.
If a book is flying off the shelves, then regardless of what you think of the writing, I'd say it's publishable.
Not attacking you, Stacey, just distinguishing the difference - one is subjective and the other is the bottom line. It is the affect to the latter that tells the tale.
d.
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Re: How Many Writers Are REALLY Publishable? |
Author: Stacy Copping (---.hsd1.ga.comcast.net)
Date: 08-06-08 11:36
Keith,
You are a riot.
d. Leroy,
Yes, I see your point. Have you seen Ms.Hilton's books? I have. The pages display her single sentence thoughts scrawled across photos of her.
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Re: How Many Writers Are REALLY Publishable? |
Author: larry moses (---.185.40.101.wirelessworld.vi)
Date: 08-07-08 13:52
Yeah, Brangelina's book will fly off the shelf be it crapola or jargon or none sense.
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Re: How Many Writers Are REALLY Publishable? |
Author: larry moses (---.185.40.101.wirelessworld.vi)
Date: 08-07-08 13:55
There are many, many good books by SP writers. You mark my words. One of these days, some SP writers books will become best sellers. Their books just have to fall into the right hands.
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Re: How Many Writers Are REALLY Publishable? |
Author: Rick Anderson (---.hfc.comcastbusiness.net)
Date: 08-09-08 02:04
> Have you seen Ms.Hilton's books?
It's hot.
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Re: How Many Writers Are REALLY Publishable? |
Author: Ann Crispin (---.proxy.aol.com)
Date: 08-09-08 05:21
I once "read" a third of an editor's slush pile. Probably fifty manuscripts.
In it I found one manuscript I referred on to her, because it was very well written, though it wasn't suitable for her publishing imprint (thriller sent to s.f. and fantasy line). I later heard that the editor referred the writer to a colleague at an appropriate house. (The book may have been The River Wild...I only read the first three chapters and glanced at the remainder, and this was back in 1986.)
Anyhow, none of the fifty or so ms's I went through was publishable by that line.
I'd guess that 1 out of a hundred is a possible contender, and maybe 1 out of a hundred of THAT bunch gets a green light from an editor. And the editor doesn't have the final say, the book has to go through a couple more levels before it's approved for acquisition.
The odds are slim...there is no way to sugarcoat the situation.
But, you have to realize that almost every one of those 50 or so ms's I "read" was "rejectable" after reading the first page and skimming the first chapter.
So if your book is well written, with a good story, that puts you way above the herd of the Great Unwashed.
-Ann C. Crispin
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Re: How Many Writers Are REALLY Publishable? |
Author: Rick Anderson (---.hfc.comcastbusiness.net)
Date: 08-09-08 13:25
Ann,
I know this is probably asking a lot but that post you just wrote is fascinating to me (and others here, I would imagine) and I wonder if you would elaborate a bit. I'm especially interested in the "first page... first chapter" part. I'm curious what kind criteria would a person in that position use to make that kind of determination. I understand things like grammar problems or uninspired writing styles probably rule submissions out within the first page, but I'd love to hear about the criteria for ruling out submissions where it takes an entire chapter to judge. It seems to me that there is probably a lot of nuance in the process at that point, and I'm especially curious about that.
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Re: How Many Writers Are REALLY Publishable? |
Author: Ann Crispin (---.proxy.aol.com)
Date: 08-10-08 15:06
I wrote a long, detailed answer to this question and it seemed to have vanished into thin air.
I'll try again and hit the high spots:
Presuming a manuscript has been submitted to the RIGHT publishing house or imprint (sending a romance to an s.f. publisher, for example, guarantees a fast rejection), the reasons I found to reject manuscripts fell into the following order:
1. Poor writing style. If you've never seen any really bad writing, go to the POD vanity sites and read the excerpts of the books posted there. You're bound to run across some really poorly written stuff. It sticks out like a sore thumb.
Some of the most common stylistic problems: all sentences start with the same word for entire paragraphs, all sentences follow the same pattern (usually noun/verb, noun/verb which results in them sounding very monotonous, the writing rambles, isn't focused, the dialogue sounds stilted and unfocused, the writer never shows anything, just relates events by "telling" them...which makes them seem dry and dull. Poor subject-verb agreement, dangling participles, and other grammatical errors.
A lousy writing style makes an excerpt painful to read. You can't wait to put it down.
2. If the writing style is readable, the storytelling technique is poor. No narrative hook within the first few pages. No characterization. The characters are one-dimensional. The plot seems "tacked on" instead of a natural outgrowth. Coincidence abounds. There are often endless flashbacks that stop the forward movement of the story, and sometimes, (shudder) flashbacks within flashbacks.
The plot often seems contrived, the characters manipulated.
3. If the writing style is readable, and the writer is telling his or her story pretty well, the story itself may just be dull. This happens sometimes in literary novels, where the authors fall in love with their characters and concentrate on them and their foibles to the exclusion of the story. In genre fiction stuff has to happen, the plot has to progress. There has to be drama. The characters can't be protected, they have to have problems, suffer, be in danger of bad things happening to them, either physical, emotional, financial, mental, etc.
4. If the writing style is readable, the storytelling is pretty good, and the story is exciting, you often end up reading to the end of the book and then reluctantly turning it down because it's just too deriviative. This is a common problem in s.f. and fantasy publishing.
Anyhow, that's what I remember from that experience back in 1986. Hope it is helpful.
-Ann C. Crispin
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Re: How Many Writers Are REALLY Publishable? |
Author: Rick Anderson (---.hsd1.wa.comcast.net)
Date: 08-11-08 03:03
> Hope it is helpful.
Very helpful and interesting! I love getting a glimpse of the inner workings like that. Your list is also encouraging to me. I'm almost compulsively self-critical when it comes to my writing and I'm keenly aware of all the things you've listed and keep them in mind every time I sit down to write.
I appreciate you taking the time to answer that. Thank you.
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