j_cheney: (The Thinking Angel)
J. Kathleen Cheney ([personal profile] j_cheney) wrote2009-01-16 07:23 am
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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?

[identity profile] j-cheney.livejournal.com 2009-01-16 09:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Here I'm specifically addressing getting a first book published. Not a popular first book, not a good first book, just a first book.

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.

[identity profile] rcloenen-ruiz.livejournal.com 2009-01-16 09:59 pm (UTC)(link)
*slaps forehead* I get it. Brain is going slowpoke on me. Hmmm...so if I somehow did something spectacular I would get a book deal because of that. Even I know who is Joe the Plumber and I can see how that would be marketable, because I would probably buy a book too, just to see how funny it is or how serious or probably just out of curiousity.

[identity profile] j-cheney.livejournal.com 2009-01-16 10:07 pm (UTC)(link)
He's gotten a job as a war correspondent for a news agency now....I'll bet he has great qualifications for that, too!