"Why do people choose the substitute over God himself? Probably the most important reason is that it obviates accountability to God. We can meet idols on our own terms because they are our own creations. They are safe, predictable, and controllable; they are, in Jeremiah's colorful language, the 'scarecrows in a cornfield' (10:5). They are portable and completely under the user's control. They offer nothing like the threat of a God who thunders from Sinai and whose providence in this world so often appears to us to be incomprehensible and dangerous . . . [People] need face only themselves. That is the appeal of idolatry."
- David F. Wells
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
People ask me all the time how I got published or how they can get published. Some thoughts:
1) You have to be a good writer. There are exceptions. But don't try to be one. Get critical feedback. Don't be like those honestly deluded folks on "American Idol" every year. Just because you think you're good, and your spouse does too, doesn't mean you are. Get better.
2) Get an agent. It's harder and harder to get viewed well by an editor if you are not represented. It's sad to say, but long looks at unsolicited manuscripts are going the way of the dodo, including in the Christian publishing world.
Once you're in an editor's hands, if he or she likes what you've written, the process is kinda weird. Here is a great post from my agent on how the decision to publish a book gets made.
The pub board makes or breaks you. It's a business, folks.
My first novel Otherworld (still unpublished) -- which I know some of you have read -- got quickly snatched up by a zealous editor in charge of helping launch a Christian publishing company's new "supernatural fiction" imprint. The editor loved it and pitched it with a select few other faves as books to launch the imprint with. But the pub board didn't love it. They said female readers wouldn't like books about UFO's.
It didn't matter that the book wasn't about UFO's (not really, anyway) or that, if women readers are your target, "supernatural fiction" probably isn't the best genre to go with. They didn't think the book would sell, so they said no.
(I confess a smidgen of schadenfreude when the imprint folded a year later.)
Before Kregel picked up Your Jesus is Too Safe an editor at another good publisher wanted it and pitched it to his company. Again, the pub board said nope.
So I guess the final bottom line is "Write a marketable book and pitch it to a publisher who deals in that market."
That's all I got.
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Trackback URL: http://thinklings.org/bloo.trackback.php/5523.
Comments on "Write a Book That Sells":
5. t.smith
- 07/22/2009 9:04 am CDT
Hey, I read Ed Stetzer mentioning your book on my husband's facebook homepage! Cool!
6. Lars Walker
- 07/22/2009 9:07 am CDT
Getting published is kind of like the formula for plotting a book. Try something. Fail. Learn from your mistakes. Repeat until you succeed or die.
7. Jared
- 07/22/2009 9:18 am CDT
Lars: LOL. Yup yup. Rinse, repeat.
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t.smith: Stetzer has an interview with me about the book up on his blog today.
8. jen
- 07/22/2009 2:30 pm CDT
ginh - I'm a woman who'll read most genres, too. It's unfortunate that publishers like to pigeon hole audiences. If it's a good book, then publish it.
I was a fortunate one to read Otherworld and Black Dog Man. I still hope both or either will get published, but I'm happy to have the manuscripts on my shelves in any form. Good reads, both.
9. Thirsty Bear
- 07/23/2009 10:17 am CDT
I'm a member of a Writer's Group in Houston. Join one. There are a lot of resources to gain by joining. For example...Critique groups.
As a writer...I would say "just write" then rewrite your manuscript when finished. You are a much better writer at the end of your work than when you started.
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Oh, there's lots of other tips too, like "Have a platform," "Go to conferences," "Join a workshop or writer's group," etc etc.
I also meant to include the disclaimer that even though I have an agent and (finally) a published book, I'm no expert. I'm still learning as I go, and there's no guarantee anybody would care to publish another book of mine.
So, you know, grain of salt and all that.