Reasons That Passionate Novel Writers Fail to Publish - Part III

EGO TIMES TEN. 

 Hubris itself will not let you be an artist.

We realize a certain amount of ego is necessary to propel a writer forward, but too much ego is a disaster waiting to happen.  The overly egoistic writer is puffed, living in a state of I-know-better. She or he is therefore incapable of successfully editing their work. Friends, relatives, or agents printing out boilerplate replies have told them their writing is good, and their story interesting; and to make the situation even more complicated and susceptible to causing delusion, perhaps the writer is a big success in their other career, so why shouldn't they also know-it-all when it comes to writing a novel?  See our video post on this blog: SO YOU WANT TO WRITE A NOVEL.

We once had a successful venture capitalist person hand us their 15 page synopsis and the first few pages of their novel. The synopsis was absurdly long and unable to summarize the story in any interesting way; and the first couple of novel pages needed a good line editing because the prose was inadequate and one tended to speedbump over at least one awkward sentence per paragraph. Of course, these facts were unknown to the venture capitalist (and forever will be--who is going to tell him, IUniverse?). This person presented us the work with a grand TA DAH!, expecting corroboration.  Isn't that what he received from everyone else in the universe?

Well, of course, irritation set in when we tactfully pointed out shortcomings. This person also did not believe us when we explained that the vast majority of agents would not, repeat NOT read that 15 page synopsis regardless (and if they did somehow manage to muck through it, the novel ms was DOA regardless).

Reasons That Passionate Novel Writers Fail to Publish - Part II

MISUNDERSTANDING THE MARKET - REV UP THE TIME MACHINE

Virtually every time you speak with a new writer (especially genre writers) you discover that she or he has not sufficiently researched their market. In other words, they don't have a clue as to what types of first novels are currently being published in their genre. Why is this important? Because first novels provide the writer with a concept of what the market is looking for. Also, it helps steer the writer away from starting a project that will be DOA on arrival due to being way way too deja-vu. 

Though old news, far too many writers still make what I call the Dan Brown mistake, i.e., they attempt to emulate a well published author, falsely believing this decision will result in success. They don't understand that a only a very privileged few can get away with horrible crimes and still become published. Instead, the writer needs to forsake folly and examine what types of first novels have been published in their genre over the past few years. What are publisher's looking for? The writer must investigate story types, settings, protagonists, etc. The research always yields productive results.

btw, we're not telling you to chase trends, but you must understand that certain types of story premise and characters, preferred viewpoints and more, change and evolve over time.  For example, the typical gumshoe detective of the ancient past has been replaced by protagonists more exotic and diverse. Terrorists, dragons, and Covid stories are pretty much dead on arrival, and Miss Marple clones have caused countless sad writers to shelve their manuscripts and return to their wage slave existence.

Keep in mind too that providing good comparables in your query letter can prove difficult if you are not well read in your genre. Also, if you ever meet with an agent or editor and they question you about your genre, or what you've read lately, you'll fall flat if you don't appear knowledgeable on the subject of what is hot and/or upcoming.

 

Reasons That Passionate Novel Writers Fail to Publish - Part I

INADEQUATE WRITING SKILLS OR STORYTELLING/ STRUCTURE PROBLEMS.

In the case of the former, the writing itself does not display the energy, creativity, and polish necessary to convince an agent to go deeper. This is perhaps the number one cause of failure (and obvious on the first page). Usually, the writer is not aware--or at least, not sufficiently aware to enable productive change. Perhaps this is a first stab at fiction, she or he not realizing that tech or law or medical writing ill prepares one. Also, the writer does not know a good editor or reader, and therefore, has never received truly helpful crit. Or perhaps an ego obstacle is the issue. Also, we have the "birthed baby" phenomenon: the writer has produced a passage, a character, or scene they can't possibly do away with. It is sacred to them. So it remains, defacing the narrative like a major pothole, jolting agents and publishers alike each time they meet it.

In the case of the storytelling/structure issue, the writer may be very accomplished at connecting the word dots. The agent or publisher gives it a good read then backs off. Why? Well, the story goes nowhere. It is insufficiently interesting, quiet, or perhaps even confusing. Just recently a fine writer handed us a sample of his ms. His prose skill kept us turning, but finally, we bogged down on characters who spun endlessly in place, who never really took action or engaged in any reaction worth noting.