Babbles from Scott Eagan

At what point do you say, well, this book is going no where? What I am talking about here is when you have been sending that book out to agents and editors and getting rejections left and right. What do you do? What is the next step?

Ok, I know a lot of you will start to dive into the social media urban myths of how many times supposedly all of your favorite authors got rejected. I always love to hear these stories by random authors at conferences. The numbers reach in the triple digits. But who cares about them, what about you?

Probably some of you have been revising that darn manuscript every time you got a rejection and trying again and again with still no forward progress. So now what? 

In today's world, here is what I am seeing many authors doing, and personally, IMHO, and yes it is a big IMHO it is a big mistake... they decide to self-publish the book. They take the "to hell with them approach" and I will prove them wrong direction. And here is why?

First of all, if people have been telling you no, they have been saying so for a reason. It is probably not marketable. It might be it is not right for the market. It might be the writing. It might be for any number of reasons. The key is, people have been giving you hints over and over again and you are not listening to them. Why aren't you taking a hint. Catch a clue!!!!!

Secondly, you are now putting your name on a product that is now out in public that is going to reflect poorly on you. Now, when you approach an editor or an agent with potentially a good project later, and we see what you have put out in the past, ugh! Not cool. You have now ruined your reputation. 

Next, I have talked about this before, but unless you are familiar with marketing and you know the costs that go into self-publishing, you might be spending a lot of money and getting nothing in return. This is one of those early chapters in Business 101 called COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS people. Go check it out!

Ok, so some other people will take another version of the self-publishing approach and try to hide it by starting their "own publishing company." Come up with a cool name, "Barking Dog Books" (Just came up with that one since Editor Benjamin and Editor Steve Rogers were barking at the Amazon Prime delivery driver outside) and make it look really good. Still, it is the same things so read the earlier paragraph.

So, let's try a third option... go back and try to edit the heck out of the story and "fix it". You'll make it all better and try to resubmit it. Hey, some of the people liked some of the story, right? You remember there were some people who sort of hinted that there were things they liked, right? 

Now you spend 3 months rewriting, reworking, retweaking that story. You change character names. You come up with new titles. You rewrite the synopsis. 

But do you want to know something? That is 3 months that will get you nowhere fast. That is 3 months that you could have spent moving on.

Honestly, the best bet is to just look at it. Say thank you for what you have learned from that writing exercise and put it int he bottom drawer of your desk. Put a big ribbon around it. Leave it there and move on. Think of it this way. Remember when your computer died and you took it to the computer guys and they say it is cheaper to buy a new computer than to fix it? 

Same thing here!

Besides, you can now take that manuscript to those conferences where you will be a keynote speaker after you are a New York Times Best Selling Author with that new manuscript and show them your first lesson learned as an encouragement for other new authors. 

Do you love all of the types of food that your friends like? Probably not. Any why is that? We all have different tastes, right? What about vacation locations? Restaurants? Outfits? You name it? We don't all like the same things? And the same goes for books. In the publishing world, it is all about subjectivity.

Yes, we are very much trying our best to be rational and looking that things objectively and whether or not a book is marketable, but let's be honest, we are all still human. We all have our own likes and dislikes. There are simply times when we read a proposal and something just doesn't click with us. It is that simple. Does it mean the book is not marketable? No. Does it mean the book is poorly written? No. It just means, it isn't right for us. 

This is part of the reason why I am always pushing for you as authors to take the time to truly research those editors and agents. Find out their likes and dislikes. Don't just see if they acquire your genre, check to see what it is about that genre that they like and hate. 

For example, let's talk about romance. Are they someone who likes the stories really spicy or are they someone who says, make it spicy but keep it not so graphic. Do they like Alpha males or just the subtly hot guys. Do they want the heroines to be damsels in distress or kick butt heroines?

How about tropes? Are there tropes they hate? Come on now people, how many times do I have to say, I am not a big fan of road trip tropes or "band" tropes to get it to sink it? And yet...

You can even see this by looking at sites such as Publishers Marketplace and seeing who editors and agents are signing. You will see a pattern really fast and figure it out. 

Again, we all try our best to not say, "ewwww, I personally don't like it" but hey, if I have to read this over and over again to edit it, you should want me to like it, right?

This one is going out to all of you who love going to conferences and workshops, or those of you who love surfing the net for those little nuggets of knowledge to help you out with your latest work in progress. You know who you are. I have seen all of you, sitting there diligently with your notebooks, furiously jotting down notes, nodding your heads, asking questions, and discussing what you learned during those quick coffee breaks between sessions. 

And you are the same people who, after one year, are still working on that same story. 

So, why are you still on that same story? The answer is simple. At every one of those conferences, with every one of those blog posts, workshops, articles or books you read, you found something you "learned" and then you felt the need to change your story. We're not talking about just something to pay attention to, we are talking about a full blown "remodel of your story." Ugh!

Now, don't get me wrong. If a story is in REALLY bad shape, there is nothing wrong with throwing an entire project out. I have told authors that in the past. Sometimes, authors did not think it out before they started writing which I have talked about here before. However, the odds are, in many cases, many of these authors are just over reacting.

I have sat in workshops and speakers have made statements such as "if you do this, it will make your story amazing or marketable" and "every agent or editor will buy it." Well, heck yeah, I'm going to buy this product. This is like those guys in the old west selling Snake Oil to unsuspecting buyers. What the authors don't understand is that these steps may indeed work assuming other variables are in place. The authors don't hear that part.

The other problem with making all of these changes after every one of these workshops and conferences is that these changes are often contradicting each other. Sure, one of those changes may have worked with helping developing your character, but then the other change you make to adjust pacing now ruined that change you just made with your character. 

Finally, a lot of you are just making these changes without thinking. You heard that these changes work and not thinking if this change is going to work with your story. If you have read my posts here, I often say that what works for one person may not work for someone else, and even then, what works for one of your stories may not work for another story. I am talking about the same thing here. 

Look, I want you to learn from these workshops, but I also want you to think before you leap.

The opposites attract storyline is always a fun one to play with. How do we bring people together, who we think should not fit, into a relationship. It has a built in conflict at some level so why not try it. For those of you who struggle with trying to find a conflict in your story, this might be a great approach. 

HOWEVER

Yes that is the class Scott Big HOWEVER...

Be cautious that you have not created people that are so polar opposite that they would never, in any time or place, ever come together. This is when reality is blown completely out of the water. 

A lot of times, authors try so hard to create these opposites, that the story becomes farcical. It just becomes plain stupid, and then they wonder why they are getting so many rejections. Sure, their critique partners might think some of the scenes you created are fun and entertaining, but remember, you are not selling a scene, you are selling a FULL story. 

I remember reading one many years ago where the author was proposing a story where pretty much a social elite (think Paris Hilton, or Kardashian level) falls in love with a homeless guy who was a drunk and a drug addict. The guy didn't even come from any prior background such as a fall from grace. He was literally a nobody (and don't take that the wrong way, everyone is human and I think we need to help out all of the people in these situations one way or another). The point here is that there is no way and no situation that these two would ever be in a situation where they would be together long enough to build a relationship to fall in love. 

Sure, they might be in a brief meeting such as a homeless shelter where she is serving at Thanksgiving, but the odds of anything extending beyond that are slim to none. Their social spheres are so different that they would never get together. 

Look, as much as I would love to have dinner with Stanley Tucci, the odds of that are slim (yes, I do have a link through the literary world, but... working those connections is a bit slimy...although I am always open to an invitation, hint, hint!).

I am going to return back to what I am always saying. Would your character really do that? Would your character really talk to that person? Come on, think about the talk they have in The Breakfast Club toward the end of detention. They all openly admit that on Monday, they won't talk to each other that they think that sucks and is stupid, but is 100% true.