Forward progress...

[j_cheney]

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?

Comments

[sarah-prineas.livejournal.com]

Serendipity. Which is kind of like luck, but means all the other things lined up at the right time, too. Maybe synchronicity is a better term.

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...

[reudaly.livejournal.com]

I think you forgot either the "Holding the tongue just right" or "The stars aligning just right" as a contributing factor -- it's a bit more skill than simply "luck" 8-)

[scbutler.livejournal.com]

You may not need all 5, but I think you have to have number 5. As with all things. But having the other four in sufficient quantity sure gives you more of number 5.

[alaneer.livejournal.com]

I agree with Sarah; synchronicity is an important factor.

[gwyndolin.livejournal.com]

I think number 2 is the big one, without which the rest don't matter. Talent grows if you work at it. Luck only happens if you keep showing up to let it.

[displacedtexan.livejournal.com]

I've read plenty of books that left me believing that numbers 4 and 5 are the only ways they could get published. Those by an author with the initials of "DB" come to mind.

[babarnett.livejournal.com]

I'd agree that all five of those elements. I'd suspect that #5 is the big one, though, as it can encompass all the others. Though for the writer, that makes #2 the important thing, as luck seems to be rather unpredictable in its appearances. And judging by some of the stuff that does get picked up, I don't think #1 is nearly as important as I'd like to think it is.

[david-de-beer.livejournal.com]

#1 is an attribute awarded to a writer after success has been obtained. It would be embarassing to proclaim talent and said talent then gets nowhere.
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.

[rcloenen-ruiz.livejournal.com]

Good luck on the WSFA again. I think you've got a very strong story going there. Makes me wish I could vote.

#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.