An Amateur Novelist on Stephen King's ON Writing

[Egglesplork]

_____Stephen King worked hard and was a success. He has been called by
some quarters in the the domestic and foreign press as the hardest-working
writer. He went from being a college grad, blue-collar worker and English
teacher to becoming a published monarch in American literature. It took
hard work, but his works WERE accepted. Imagine composing whole novels
on typewriters...that don't even use electricity...and leaving nary a
single mistake. Now THAT is work. By the way, you'd best believe I call
King's work literature, and to Hades with those chicken-headed, caviar-
-eating, Martha's Garden-visiting jokers in Manhattan who only
consider "literary fiction" and stuff written a hundred years ago to
be "literature." It's the Horatio Alger myth made good and all that stuff.
_____Some rather impatient people are probably going to start asking some
questions of this-here post at this-here point in this-here space-time
continuum. Don't we KNOW most of that biography stuff about America's
most important writer? Is there a forking POINT to this post? Heh, maybe
some of y'all are thinking that I'm just talking out the wrong end of my
digestive tract and have been perusing the text-based equivalent of
something decidedly soft, brown and sometimes smelly...depending on what
was for dinner last night. (I had five packets of Top Ramen noodles prepared
in a microwave and a great big cup of hot chocolate, consumed whilst
meandering through Clive Barker's IMAJICA. How about you?) There IS a
point; the above was just getting you primed for it, those who have the
patience for such in this world of literary anorexia where "less is more,"
everything is supposed to be said in two syllables or less, and most folks
have attention spans the length of a New-York minute.
_____Having taken the approach outlined in ON WRITING, trying to become a
published novelist myself, I am not doing too well. It has been nine years
since I wrote my first two novels in the waning years of my college education
and mis-education. Tried marketing those amateur works to publishers and
literary agents alike, but they weren't saying yes. Years beyond, almost
a decade now, having entered contests, having tried literary agents, having
worked all kinds of jobs--even a two-year gig with Uncle Sugar's Army--to
earn a living even while writing and reading, the collective answer from
literary agents is STILL not in the affirmative. Nothing seems to be working
these past nine years--not submitting requested items to literary agents, not
entering contests, not even the economy.
_____It's not my work which is necessarily the hitch in the process here.
People have successfully read and critiqued my work, my writing style
having been vastly improved since my years of Ivory Towerification. Those
who have read my online fanfiction novels have been leaving messages like
my works being "too good" for the web-sites on which they have been
featured. Others have called my fanfiction works the best that they have
ever read. In the long meanwhile, I have written over a dozen novels, half of
them works of fanfiction to be judged by the public to make sure that my
writing style was in line with reality. In fact, my current novel-in-progress is
yet another fanfiction work--to be uploaded later this year, all two-hundred-
and-some-change pages of it. So please, please do not be like some
published writers or others in the industry. Do not say that I'm not published
because publishers in the publishing industry of publishable people only
publish works that are publishable--publishability considered. In short, don't
say that I'm not published because I suck. My work is ALWAYS improving
and getting better all the time, and I am not the best, but--darn it--can't
fault a dude for trying.
_____It's not working. Know this, and know it well. Hard work and talent
don't matter much anymore. I've been trying to be hard-working and trying
to improve my talent all the time. Judging from comments made by strangers
in other countries regarding my work, I'm getting there when it comes to
having something like good writing. I'm getting rejections. So were all the
other amateur novelists I knew. We're getting rejections regardless of our
talent or experience. Trying doesn't mean winning.
_____Let's drive the point home with something other than anecdotal
evidence, shall we? Why, yes... Yes we shall. An executive from a major
New York-based publishing house came to visit a public library in Franklin
Township, New Jersey. I so happened to be in New Jersey at the time and
at that library. Maybe it was just the winds of fortune or just dumb luck
which gave me that opportunity to get some info out of him. What did he
have to say to an amateur novelist who wasn't published? He said that
there is already a LOT of talent and something about editors being like
necessary anuses--undesirable but vitally necessary. He did say the a-hole
word for real, though. Keep trying, he finished. Yeah, keep at it.
_____So what DOES work? Merit doesn't. Being a blood-relative of a
published writer DOES matter. Look at Adam Bellow, Brain Herbert, and that
one daughter of that mystery writer who part-timed it on soap-operas before
getting her own books published. Darned if I can't remember her name.
Better yet, just be a publishing-industry insider--like a literary agent or
an executive--and write your works under some noms-de-plume. It's not
WHAT you know but WHO you know. It's late, I already had to re-write the
last three paragraphs 'cause this machine malfunctioned, and by brain is
semi-fried from doing this in a single sitting. I'm going to immerse myself in
mainstream culture until dinner--which looks to be noodles and fruit punch
with IMAJICA as the main course. Maybe I'll check back on this thread
tomorrow.

[Bryan James]

Egglesplork,

You just can't force it.

Grab a story, caress it, and tickle it out one letter at a time. It's all about the story.

And when you have to do it, kill your darlings. Trash garbage when you recognize it. Hell, sometimes trash it when you think it might be garbage, and resurrect it later...Pheonixize it.

But please don't Umberto Eco-ize or Pat Conroy-ize it.

I do wish you luck and health,
BJS

[Miri]

Egglesplork,

I, too, am an amateur novelist. I, too, have written novel-length works of fanfiction that have garnered praise from the worldwide fandom community. I, too, am hoping one day to break through the glass ceiling of the publishing world and become a successful novelist. In these things, I completely sympathize with you. It's a tough world, and that is why I have been teaching now for eight years when I only planned on teaching for one or two while I finished my first novel. (Note: don't get me wrong; I love teaching, but I love writing more.)

However, my sympathy with you ends when you begin speaking of literary talent being a nonissue in the current world of publication. I have never read your fanfiction, but I take you at your word when you say it is good. Mine is good, too, and I have had many similar comments ("best I've ever read," etc), but fanfiction - while an absolutely wonderful tool for honing the skills of a writer - is NOT original fiction. With fanfiction, you take someone else's world and you tweak it, add to it, and sometimes subtract from it to make it your own. It's a wonderful way to learn. In original fiction, however, you are charged with the responsibility of completely creating said world.

That, my friend, is an entirely different ballpark, no matter your chosen genre.

However hard the struggles become, be faithful to your works and to your characters. New novelists with no relatives or connections in the publication world make it all the time. With enough elbow-grease and faith, you can be among that privileged number. I hope, someday, that I will too.

Good luck to you.

[Mr Nobody]

New writers get published all the time. Relative to other eras, there are now more writers getting published than at any other time in history. It's just a shame that every second person either seems to be a writer, or wants to be. Blame Stephen, blame JK Rowling, because people look at them and think 'It's easy! And you get to be rich!' But it's not easy, and you can spend ten years or more trying to be the next overnight success.
Honestly, I don't why people expect literary success just because they have it in them to write. Anyone with basic language skills can produce a narrative, but it has to be quality - and, sorry, but impressing a few folks with fanfic doesn't mean you'll impress editors. And even if you do impress them and/or agents, maybe what you write is too similar to stuff produced by people they already have a relationship with. It might not be fair to miss out because of that, but it happens and there's not a lot you can do.
Let's put it another way: all walks of life are competitive. Would you expect to walk into a job and suddenly get promoted because you've been noticed as something special? Yes, it happens...but not to everyone.
How many good/very good football and basketball players fail to make the grade in the big leagues? How many never even get drafted and drift away to do other things? Plenty. Mainly, it's because you've got several entire youth squads trying to make it, and teams might not need a certain type of player, or any players, because their roster is already full. Then there are free agents - in books, their equivalent would be people who have some kind of career but go from publisher to publisher because they get dropped for lack of output, sales, etc but always get another chance because someone, somewhere, thinks 'We can make it work out'.
Besides, novels aren't the be-all and end-all: write short stories, see if they sell. Write op-ed pieces (these can be a real hard sell, though, unless you're 'known'). Most importantly - and this can't be stressed enough - ONLY approach those agents and publishers that work with the genre you write in...and if you don't know which genre(s) you broadly fit into, you won't get published. Again, it might seem unfair, but editors and agents want to know how to market you. Publishers (magazine and book) are in business, that means they are in it for a profit: if you don't fit a spot in the market, or if they can't see a potential angle they could use, you won't be picked up. Simple as that. At the end of the day, no profit means no company, which means no one gets published anyway.
Unless they are specifically looking for it, most agents/publishers will reject work that seems derivative - everyone is scared to death of plagiarism suits, though some do sneak through. That includes fanfic. There are those that might appreciate a look - Titan Books used to print the Star Trek-based novels, no idea if they still do - and they may (may!) offer a commission...but I think that'd be a bit of a long shot, too. (And I speak as one who once wrote some SG-1 fanfics for my g/f, who then shared them online, and I later saw oddly familiar plot-lines emerge in the series. But since MGM owned the site and said clearly that, by posting, you waived your rights if they later nicked the idea, it was just a case of sigh and enjoy the show.)

The bottom line is, carry on writing. There are plenty of people who were underground by the time they got published. There's no guarantee of success and riches within your own lifetime, if they come at all. Anyone who is what you might call a 'born writer' knows and accepts this. If you're one who wants to write as a way of chasing fame and fortune...well, good luck but don't be surprised if it doesn't happen.
Writing and the world of books are what they are. They're not some last resort for those who can't write music or act.

With all that in mind, best wishes, keep going, continue honing your skills, and hopefully you'll turn the corner. It won't get easy from there on, but you will know where the benchmark lies.

[Bryan James]

The 2010 Edition of "Writer's Market" shipped yesterday.

BJS

[SeleneM1]

Yes and no. This is going to sound cynical, but don't write expecting to become a "brand name" or sell a lot of books, the way Mr. King does. He says himself (somewhere, possibly On Writing or another book about writing), that he gets the big advances because the publishers know his name will sell a lot of books. Fact is, the publishing industry is a business, and they're in business to MAKE money, not LOSE money. They won't invest in you unless they know they'll get a return on their investment, no matter how good a writer you are--as Mr. King also said somewhere, Talent is Cheap.

Back when I was in university (lo these many years ago), I was in a student organization (actually the president of the club at the time) called the Musicians' Network. One day I was at the college radio station (where I also volunteered), and picked up a card from a marketing rep at a major record label. Possibly out of sheer audacity, I called him up and asked if he would come and give a presentation on Marketing in the record industry; he obliged, and brought the Marketing Manager from the same label. It was divine. But I learned a HUGE lesson that day: In order for a record label to sign you, the record label needs to know you'll move records. In other words, you have to do on your own what a label would be able to do for you. You have to already be famous, that is, you have to create a "buzz." Just as an example, Barenaked Ladies were in heavy rotation on MuchMusic and had sold 80,000 copies of their first demo by the time they were signed to a major label.

The publishing industry is similar, I'd bet. A major publishing house won't pay attention to you unless you have an agent...and an agent won't pay attention to you unless you're pretty much already famous. This is why Joe Hill (whose work I haven't read yet, I'll admit) has a better shot at being published than Joe Schmoe...sad but true. The really crazy part, as Mr. King ALSO points out (I think in "On Becoming a Brand Name"), is that once you're in, if you're really good you'll starve. If you can pay the rent by writing, you're considered a hack.

Personally, I'd rather be a hack with money than sit down to Mr. King's "Alpo and noodles casserole" any day...blah. The part that KILLS me, just KILLS me is that if I could sell 80,000 copies of a book and I didn't have to pay anyone the overhead (publishers, agents, profits, production costs, all of that eats up the income from the book)...why the heck would I need a publisher in the first place?

Now, HOW to create a buzz...I really don't know. I'm still in the "trying to produce a good novel" stage. I'm working on my third novel and thus far, I think it's all crap-ola! So I write out of the pure bliss of writing, and I think I'm richer for it. Maybe none of it will ever "go anywhere," but at least I'm writing and creating and experiencing joy.

I do sometimes wonder, if Mr. King were just starting out today, if he'd be successful at all. He lucked out in meeting Bill Thompson, I think, lottery-winning odds. The only other thing you can do is just keep sending out your stuff for publication and don't give up. Be sure you have an extremely professional query, synopsis, CV, and 3-chapter MS package (a number of How To books and websites show examples of these). JK Rowling was turned down by seven publishers, and that's WAY on the low end. One of the writers in the current issue of Writer's Digest was turned down by FORTY publishers before someone took a chance on his work...but he found a publisher eventually.

Where can I read your work?