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Forward progress...
No work on DD yesterday, but I did rewrite section 4 of IS.
Once again, I'm supposed to have a great day. Given how normal most of my recently-predicted 'great days' have been, I'll take this with a grain of salt.
As far as your work is concerned, today may well be the day where you get the green light for something you have been waiting for...an issue is being resolved, you are gaining acceptance. Who knows, there might even be a promotion on the cards. But most definitely, your situation will be more secure.
Talked last night with a friend about what gets a book sold (someone who's also getting no love from agents).
I think there are 5 contributing factors, and one need not have all five to break through:
1) Talent
2) Perseverance
3) Marketability (like being a sixteen-year-old, or recently dead, or having talked to a Presidential candidate)
4) Knowing the right people
5) Luck (the editor/agent doesn't spill coffee on their pants and use your query to mop it up.)
Any other thoughts that don't fit into that list of 5?
Once again, I'm supposed to have a great day. Given how normal most of my recently-predicted 'great days' have been, I'll take this with a grain of salt.
As far as your work is concerned, today may well be the day where you get the green light for something you have been waiting for...an issue is being resolved, you are gaining acceptance. Who knows, there might even be a promotion on the cards. But most definitely, your situation will be more secure.
Talked last night with a friend about what gets a book sold (someone who's also getting no love from agents).
I think there are 5 contributing factors, and one need not have all five to break through:
1) Talent
2) Perseverance
3) Marketability (like being a sixteen-year-old, or recently dead, or having talked to a Presidential candidate)
4) Knowing the right people
5) Luck (the editor/agent doesn't spill coffee on their pants and use your query to mop it up.)
Any other thoughts that don't fit into that list of 5?
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Also, I think of the five that #4 and #3 are the least important. The axis, in my opinion, is luck, talent, and perseverance, plus the synchronicity...
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#3 and #4 are the kind of things that will get a first book published (like Joe the Plumber's book, or the book by that 16-year-old Harvard applicatn that later turned out to be partially plaigarized). They will not help build a career, but they do, at times, get people published who otherwise would not be.
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The term you want for #3 is "Platform."
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Star Wars, Star Trek, Anne McCaffrey
I know there were others, but it's been a while. We've all done our derivative work - mostly when we were 16 - and there's a reason they were never published.
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I was distressed once when a very talented author got dropped by a publisher...who had just picked up another author for a 3-hardback deal.
The old author had fabulous reviews, is well respected, but the series they put out wasn't quite 'blockbustery' enough, and the publisher stopped promoting it after the second book.
The new author had good blurbs from a couple of really famous people, went to the right workshops, etc.....and when his first 'blockbuster' novel came out, Publisher's Weekly panned it (and yes, the panning was deserved). They didn't review the two sequels.
Lesson learned by me? Nothing guarantees that you'll get the next contract. The publishing world is fickle. You jsut have to keep trying....which is where #2 comes in, I guess.
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you know, you have just summarized Malcom Gladwell's entire book in one line -- The Outliers.
it examines the succesful and often how surprisingly fortunate they were to be in the right place at the right time and with the right background.
luck is far more prevalent than most people are comfortable with, re: success in any venture.
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I probably need more coffee.
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this way is much better.
I can live with all those things, and agree, but have to admit that #4 really rubs me the wrong way. just the very concept, and yet it's undeniably true.
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One of the nice things about the WSFA award is that the stories will be judged blind. The stories have to stand on their own, so 2,3, and 4 won't come into play. That always makes me hopeful ;o)
I could father about that, but I figure you already know what I would say, so I won't waste your time ;o)
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#1 goes nowhere without #2, and alas in this highly competetive world #5 seems to count more than #4. Still, I'll go with 4. I'm not so sure about #3, because how do you know it's marketable? Only the reading audience can put a book on the map. Harry Potter was put on the map by its readers.
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On #3, the most obvious instance recently is that "Joe the Plumber" has already gotten a book published, despite the fact that he isn't a writer. He's simply momentarily famous, and therefore the publisher thinks "Oh, hey, a book from this guy could make us money".
Or the 3-book deal that Fabio got to write romance novels, without having written any. Only because people know who he is.
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