Why Publishing Pros Must Love Your Work

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Over the years, I’ve seen some statements made online about the necessity (or not) of agents and editors loving your manuscript. These statements, which I’ve seen repeated multiple times in various words go a little something like this: 

Agents/editors don’t need to love your work to represent/buy it. They just need to think it can sell. 

This confused me when I first saw it years ago, then made me frowny as I got to know the industry better, and now just makes me a teensie bit annoyed, because you guys? It’s not true. It’s not even a little bit true.

The publishing industry, as it turns out, is not comprised of soulless, money-grubbing robots. Agents and editors (and assistants and copy editors and everyone else involved in the business) are people who genuinely love books and genuinely want to see manuscripts (and authors) they love succeed.

That, right there, is the core of it.

Now, that’s not to say that the potential to sell a manuscript isn’t important—it absolutely is, and writers get rejections along the lines of I really loved this, but I don’t think I can sell it all the time.

But the reverse is equally important, because it doesn’t matter how much selling potential your manuscript has, an agent or editor who doesn’t love your manuscript isn’t the right agent or editor for you. (And vice versa—a manuscript an agent or editor isn’t passionate about isn’t the right manuscript for them).

Think about it: publishing a book traditionally is not a one-man project. It involves writers and agents and editors and copyeditors and assistants and publicists and cover designers and layout designers and probably other people I’m not thinking of at the moment and you know what they all have in common? They all want to make your book awesome. And for agents and editors especially, who are most involved in championing you and your book and making your novel as amazing as possible, trying to do all of that work for a manuscript they didn’t love would not only be difficult, but it’d probably be a tad bit painful.

You don’t want an agent or editor who doesn’t love your work, because they won’t be able to do the best job possible for it (and for you). You want industry pros by your side who love your book as much as you do, because they’re the ones who will be able to help you bring your book to its fullest potential.

And when that happens? It’s pretty incredible for everyone involved.

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree that it’s important for publishing pros to love your work? 

Twitter-sized bites: 

"An agent or editor who doesn’t love your manuscript isn’t the right agent or editor for you." (Click to tweet)  

Is it necessary for agents and editors to love your work? @Ava_Jae weighs in her thoughts. (Click to tweet)

Discussion: What Do You Love to Write About?

“Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The key word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for.” –Ray Bradbury (via Brainyquote) 

Photo credit: Bethan on Flickr

Like most art, writing is fueled entirely by our passions. Our obsession with translating imaginary worlds, people and situations into words on the page—our want—no, need—to create something out of nothing. But while we writers all share a passion for creation with words, what exactly it is that we like to create—that is, what we like to write about—varies greatly from writer to writer. 

The important part isn’t what we write, per say—it’s that we write whatever it is that we love to write about. For some, that’s contemporary romances with quirky characters that have readers laughing and crying throughout the course of the novel; for others it’s action-packed with paranormal or magical elements that awe or terrify our readers. Sometimes it’s lighthearted stories about growth and development, and other times it’s much heavier themes about loss and death. There isn’t a right or wrong answer—there is only passion.

I can’t stress enough how important it is to write what you love. Forget genres or what’s currently trending on the marketplace or what’s been popular in the past—the best thing you can do for yourself and your future readers is to write something that you’re passionate about, because the first step to getting your readers to fall in love with your story is to love it yourself.

Identifying elements that you love to write about is a fantastic way to kick off brainstorming for new projects or to re-infuse current WIPs with that new WIP excitement you had when you first began writing. I dare you to create a list of elements you love to write about and not want to write about it.

As for me, I love to write about deeply conflicted characters. I love exploring (and exploiting) inner demons, and overcoming impossible odds, and fighting not just external forces, but internal battles as well. I love writing about relationships—both romantic and not—about the impossible, the improbable and the so-called non-existent. I love to write about characters who haunt me long after I’ve finished writing for the day, I love to test the boundaries of their strength, their will, their self-preservation and their love.

And in the end, after I’m sure they hate me for it, I love making them stronger from their experience.

That’s a sample of my love list—now I want to hear yours: what do you love to write about?

On Writing Your First Novel

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An interesting question is sitting in my inbox, today.

As I’m sure most of you know, despite popular belief outside of the publishing world, it’s common knowledge amongst writers that most times, the first novel you write will not be the first novel you get published—that the debut novel is very rarely the first novel the author ever wrote, it’s just the first to hit the shelves.

With that in mind, one of you wonderful readers asked how you choose which story to write first, especially when you know the first novel you write will likely remain unpublished.

Now that’s a bit of a tricky question, because while it’s true that something like 95% of the time, that first novel will end up trunked and likely later be referred to as a practice novel, that doesn’t mean you have to mentally doom your first novel to be just a practice novel.

What I mean is this—yes, chances are that first novel is going to be a practice novel and it’s not unlikely that your second and third novels may also end up in the drawer, however, you should still believe in every novel you write. You should still love the idea and the characters and be passionate about your story before you commit it to paper, even if you know it’s probably not going to get published.

I’m going to take it a step further, and you can feel free to disagree with me here, but who cares if your story is going to get published? Knowing that it’s probably not going to see the limelight doesn’t mean you have to love that story any less than the ones with publishing potential. Just because 95% of authors don’t get their first book published doesn’t mean you should treat your first novel like a throwaway book before you’ve even written it.

I guess what I’m saying is this: just because you’re pretty sure your first novel isn’t going to be the one, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t treat it like it might be. Because no, most writers don’t get their first novel published, but that doesn’t mean it never happens. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible. That doesn’t mean your first novel is doomed before you even start.

But if you treat it like it’s doomed? Well, then you’re just setting yourself up for a self-fulfilling prophecy. Because it won’t be nearly as good the story you might have written had you believed in it in the first place.

I hope this doesn’t sound harsh, because I don’t mean it to be. All of this is just a long way of saying that if you have multiple ideas for a first novel and you love them all enough to eventually turn into a book and you’re worried about automatically dooming the first book into the drawer before you even begin—don’t. Don’t worry about publishing, or what’s going to happen to the book when you’ve finished, or if you’ll ever be able to get an agent with it, or if it’ll sell a single copy online. Don’t worry about any of those things, in fact; don’t even think about those things.

Just write the book that you want to write and worry about the rest later. For now, just enjoy the ride.

What do you think about writing the first novel? I’d love to hear your thoughts and tips.     

How to Finish Writing a Novel

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So the other day, the lovely @j_a_bennett brought up an interesting topic on her blog—namely, finishing a novel from first draft to polished prose.

I know a lot of writers who struggle with this—especially when they haven’t fully completed a novel before. And let’s face it—finishing a novel from start to finish isn’t easy. It’s difficult enough to put together a coherent first draft and even harder to take that first draft and transform it into a fully revised, layered story.

But truth be told, I feel like finishing the first book is more of a mind game than anything else. If you have a pattern of not finishing, it can sometimes be difficult to overcome that little voice that says the reason you haven't finished a novel is because you can't (which isn't true, by the way. The little voice lies). It’s often a matter of self-confidence, of fighting the underlying doubts that tell you inevitably something is going to happen to keep you from completing your story—whether it’s a gaping plot hole, loss of inspiration (or interest) or something else.

There are a million and two reasons to stop writing a novel. When battling these doubts, what you need to find is the one reason to ignore everything else and write it anyway.  

For me, finishing a novel from first draft to last revision takes two very important things:

1. You have to LOVE your book. Really. You're going to be working on that baby a long time. If you don't love it, it's going to get exhausting very quickly, and another shiny novel idea may very well pop out of the blue and rip your attention away.


2. Patience/perseverance. I know technically those are two different things, but they go hand-in-hand. You don't need to survive just one round of revision—but anywhere from 3-10+ drafts, and that's before you even try to get it published.  Not only that, but you need to be patient with yourself. You need to accept that you’re still learning, that it isn’t going to be perfect, and that it’s ok.

There’s a third thing too, that mostly ties in with the second point—understanding and acceptance. I’ve talked about this before, but not every novel you write is going to get published. Not every story is meant to be released to the world—some of them are meant for you, the writer, to learn from.

You need to understand that you may very well spend a couple months or even years working on a novel that will sit in your desk drawer. You need to understand that it’s only natural to write two or three (or five or seven) novels before you’ve developed your writing skill enough to be ready for the publishing world.

You need to understand that if you really want to be a writer, you’ll need to go through this process many many times. And sometimes you’ll get tired. And sometimes you’ll get bored. And sometimes you’ll wonder if you’re wasting your time with your current WIP and if you should start on something else or if you’ll really be able to survive a couple rounds of revision.

And all of that is ok.

Love your book. Have patience with the process and with yourself. Push through the obstacles, both mental and physical, until you have a gleaming, fully polished novel.

Then go write another one. You are a writer, after all.

What tips do you have for completing a novel? 

How Important is Loving Your Novel?

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So not too long ago I read this post from fellow writer Ara Grigorian (@araTHEwriter on Twitter) in which he made an interesting statement:

“If you don't have a passion for your story, you'll get sick of her, before she's had the chance to evolve and shine into the beauty you know she will become.”

He argued that you need to love your story if you hope to reach a fully completed manuscript, then went on to ask if he was being overdramatic.

I don’t think he was being overdramatic—in fact, I think he was right on.

The thing with writing a book is it takes a long time—more than time, it takes a huge amount of effort. It’s emotionally draining and exhausting work that often requires huge amounts of rewriting after you’ve already poured your heart and soul into the story. And no, I’m not being overdramatic, either.

Seriously guys, if you don’t believe 150% in your novel, who else is going to believe in it? If you aren’t absolutely sure that you love your characters, your story—then guess what? Maybe you shouldn’t be writing it at all.

I’m going to push further. Maybe you love your story, but there’s this one character you aren’t so sure about. That iffy feeling you have about that character shouldn’t be ignored. That’s a sign, guys. That’s your subconscious telling you, “Hey, you could probably do better with that character.” Do NOT ignore the iffy feeling!

Here’s a homework assignment: if you have a completed manuscript and you feel “meh” about one of your characters—scrap them and rewrite them completely. It’s a scary thought, I know. It’s a lot of work. But it’s absolutely worth the effort, trust me. I’ve done it myself.

Maybe it isn’t a character you feel iffy about, maybe it’s a scene, or a chapter, or a paragraph or a sentence—hell, maybe it’s even a word. Point is, if you don’t love it, then chances are you could make it better. So what are you waiting for?

Because the truth is guys, you need to love every aspect of your story. How will you endure reading it 10-15 (or more) times if you don’t believe in the words on the page? How will you survive a review that points out the flaws in your story if you weren’t sure about it to begin with?

You need to be passionate about your story—there’s no way around it. Writing a novel isn’t easy. There will be times you’ll be tempted to give up, moments when you’ll glare at your manuscript and swear that if you’d rather be mauled by a pack of rabid ferrets then read it one more time. And when you reach that moment, you’ll have to make a choice—do I continue, start over or give up?

And there isn’t a wrong choice, really. It just comes down to how much you love your story.

What do you think? Are we being overdramatic? Is loving your story really that important?