I'd like to clarify something from the post about unskilled writers.
There are basically four groups in play here:
1. newbie writers whose prose is seriously flawed
2.
sophisticated fans with a better command of grammar, puctuation,
spelling, etc. than the newbie writers. Some are aspiring writers, some
not.
3. actual working writers and editors
4. predatory publishers, editors, and agents
None
of these groups (except maybe #4) are monolithic in behavior. Some
newbies who don't know how a sentence is supposed to work will
eventually learn what they need to know to succeed. Some will get
discouraged and quit. Some, however, are the ones I'm mostly talking
about. They're the ones who think their every word is golden, that
their work should not be criticized or edited, but nurtured with
effusive praise, and that any deviation from this dream is due to a
conspiracy among major publishing companies to reject anyone with a
Unique Artistic Vision, and/or to publish only work by Big Name
Writers. They want no part of the cycle of submissions,
rejections and improved writing skills that are facts of life for
nearly all working writers.
The sophisticated fans have probably
done much more reading than the newbie writers. They know where to
place a comma, when to start a new paragraph, and all that other
correct English stuff the first group slept through or failed to
understand in school. These fans have a good working
knowledge of what's been written in the genre (I'm mostly talking about
sf and fantasy fans here), and can therefore spot a cliche a mile away.
They've probably done a lot of writing in blogs and journals,
newsgroups and comment screens. They may have contributed
online reviews to IMDB and Amazon. Having
spent a lot of time online with like-minded people, some of these fans
get cliquish and smug, mocking poor shmoes who don't meet their high
standards. Others, more tolerant, may be sympathetic to the
shmoes in question.
The working writers and editors, by and
large, have a good grasp of what it takes to get published. They often
have an even better grasp of the novice mistakes that eliminate a
manuscript from contention when a first reader pulls it from the
slushpile. Not being cruel people, most of them want to
educate the newbie writers so they can avoid common mistakes,
both in the writing and in the decisions they make. For an editor,
there's a certain amount of self-interest in this, because a
well-written, well-formatted manuscript is much more pleasant to read
than an awful one. The good one may even result in a successful book,
one that makes back its advance, gets periodically reprinted for years
or decades to come, and launches a new writer's career. Isn't
that what we all want from the process? Even the established
writers don't want the newbies to fail. For one thing, they
remember their own struggles with rejections and honing their writing,
and want to help the next crop of writers understand what they're in
for. For another, they know that Joe's first novel isn't going to cut
into the sales of Steve's thirtieth novel.
The last group are
the main villains of the piece. Knowing that newbie writers often don't
understand why Tor or DAW doesn't want their 96 page manuscript
that's one long paragraph (or 96 chapters!), they manipulate the
newbies into paying them for services the newbies in most cases
shouldn't be paying out of pocket. Although some freelance editors are
legitimate, others take money to do a uselessly superficial, flawed
edit. Agents who charge the writer to read manuscripts are generally
considered predatory. The legitimate agents are the ones who
charge a commission on sales, plus expenses.
At the top of the
predatory food chain are the vanity publishers, such as PublishAmerica
and AuthorHouse. These companies lure in the newbies with supportive
words about their unique artistic vision, false promises of editing,
and assurance that the author's book will be available from Amazon and
other major retailers. They don't mention that Barnes
& Noble is highly unlikely to stock the book, partly becase the
quality of the writing is unlikely to be up to the standards of the
major publishers. If the book is good enough to be worth buying, why is
the writer paying someone to put it out, instead of being paid
themselves? So again, legitimate
editors, established writers, and even some of the fans will try to
educate the newbies, trying to save them from wasting their money on
something that's unlikely to meet their high expectations.
For some projects, vanity publishing or
self-publishing may be a reasonable choice. My own husband
self-published books for years, and almost made a living at it. But for
many of the newbies, especially the ones who haven't a clue how to
write well, they're in for nothing but a fleecing from group #4,
mockery and sympathy from group #2, and good but painful advice from
group #3 - advice that many of them will ignore. Check out, for
example, the politeness and helpful advice addressed to Daniel Rice in
most of the postings about his eBay manuscript in the Making Light
blog. The blog's owner, editor Teresa Nielsen Hayden, was particularly
gracious, until Rice responded to the kindness with anger,
threats and abuse. Even then she gave him a grace period to
get over his understandably hurt feelings. His rhetoric only got
nastier, however, so she "disemvoweled " him, removing the vowels from
his comments on her blog. (I should have defined that term
before. Sorry!) By and large, the writers, editors and fans who
hang around Making Light treat newbie writers politely, sympathetically, and with unwanted honesty in their advice.
Karen
Making Light: A brief note on linguistic markers
Making Light: More linguistic markers
Making Light: Slushkiller
Making Light: On the Getting of Agents
Making Light: Looking at the Writers' Collective
LiveJournal: a somewhat cruel discussion of Circle's, with samples from the book.
Musings from Mâvarin: It's All Fun and Games Until Somebody Loses.
1 comment:
Very interesting stuff. I would think aspiring writers would know better NOT to pay anyone~~ agent or publisher in advance, but I noticed it being advised over and over again as a "be aware" kind of thing.
~jersey
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