Blogger: Janet Kobobel Grant
If you read the book, What to Expect When You’re Expecting, you probably were motivated to do so to glean as much detail as possible from those who had gone where you had not yet ventured. Well, publishing needs a What to Expect When You’re Expecting to Publish. Sure, everyone harbors a vague notion of what it means to be published, but until you dive into the deep end, you don’t discover how little you really knew.
A few of the misconceptions (oh, gosh, that’s a pun, isn’t it) about publishing that I encounter regularly include:
Writing Career Expectation #1
Life as You Knew It Will Change Dramatically
- Once you sign a multi-book contract or have had three or so books published, you can quit your day job. Or buy that new car you’ve had your eye on. Or invest in a vacation home. Barring best-sellerdom, the dreams of financial freedom remain unlikely when a writing career is in its infancy. A multi-book contract provides you with a lump sum that’s handsome, but that money, in actuality, will have to last you for a really long time. And, if the books don’t quickly earn out the advance (which is a typical scenario, by the way), getting the next contract could be a hard-won battle.
Writing Career Expectation #2
Deadlines Are a Best-Guess Proposition
- If life interrupts your creative writing process, the publisher will understand a missed deadline. It really doesn’t matter if the publisher understands or not. Certain immovable forces come into play once a book’s production schedule is set. The wheel of publishing is stronger than the author, the editor, the agent, and the publisher. Once that wheel gathers momentum, it can’t stop suddenly.
Writing Career Expectation #3
Your Manuscript Belongs to You
- Your creative effort belongs to you. I know this sounds just plain wrong, but when you sign a contract, you sell your baby to the publisher. While the contract provides certain protections for the author in terms of how much of the manuscript can be changed, the publisher retains the right to declare the manuscript unacceptable–which means the book won’t be published and you’ll have to return your advance. Such a situation is unlikely to be in anyone’s interest–the author’s or the publisher’s–and plenty of efforts to find common ground are employed before the situation reaches this point. But sometimes the author and the publisher simply differ on what the book is supposed to be.
Writing Career Expectation #4
You Have Veto Power over the Title and Cover Design
- If you don’t like a title or a cover design, those elements will be adjusted. Nope. The publisher reserves the right to make the final decision. Hopefully you and your agent can present compelling reasons to alter a title or a cover, and I’ve seen some publishers bend over backwards to make sure the author is pleased with the outcome. But other times, not so much.
Writing Career Expectation #5
Once You Get Your First Contract You’re “In”
- An author’s career maintains an upward trajectory. That’s what we all dream will happen, but that is more rare than common. At times circumstances occur that are out of everyone’s control, such as the economy taking a serious dip; your editor (and in-house advocate) losing his job or taking a job with another publisher; a cover that didn’t connect with the intended reader; or a national disaster occurring the week your book launches. Or the news cycle doesn’t favor you, as happened for one of my clients, whom many national talk shows were seriously considering to appear to promote her book for Mother’s Day. But that week the talk shows were informed they needed to focus on the swine flu. Mother’s Day–and my author–were forgotten.
Writing Career Expectation #6
Once You Have a Contract, Your Work Will Be Published
- Your publisher will still be publishing your type of book when you finish writing it. Publishers encounter strong headwinds, and sometimes, despite best efforts, they find themselves pouring more and more money into a line of books (a fiction genre, fiction in general, or nonfiction published to reach a specific segment of the population) that is operating in the red. At some point, the publisher needs to cry “uncle” and let the line die. That might happen when you’re in the middle of writing your contracted manuscript. Suddenly your boat is unanchored and adrift in stormy seas. Most publishers will let you keep the portion of your advance already paid and might even publish your WIP. But your boat truly is unmoored; the publisher is unlikely to support your work as would have happened before the decision.
Managing Writing Career Expectations
So how does an agent manage an author’s great expectations for his career? By talking honestly about these and all the other issues that confront an author. By walking through each event with the author. By being proactive in avoiding false expectations for clients. By pointing out the best path to trod that will eventually lead to a well-crafted, satisfying career–most likely much farther down the road than the author expected.
But when that grand day of hitting the best-seller list occurs for you, be prepared. Here’s a short video that will help you to set your expectations at an appropriate level.
What expectations have you had to adjust so far in your writing career? (By the way, I’ll be at our agency’s client retreat; so discuss your expectations among yourselves.)
TWEETABLES
Do you have realistic #publishing expectations? Click to tweet.
Hints for setting realistic #publishing expectations. Click to tweet.
Common #publishing misconceptions. Click to tweet.
Well, this is gonna be fun.
* Expectation #1 – ‘Catholic’ and ‘Christian’ are synonymous. I hope no one was drinking their morning coffee when they read that bit of naivete. If so, sorry about the mess on the screen.
* Expectation #2 – People would laugh if I said I’m an author. When prodded by the sharp-elbowed Barbara, I would say, “uhyeahwellokido somewritinglikeyeahabook”. At which point I would become the center of uncomfortable attention in which I actually have to TALK about the thing.
* Expectation #3 – I love reading good description, and thought I would love writing it. Very wrong. I enjoy writing dialogue, and am OK with narrative action, but writing the lush descriptions I love reading is about as fun as a Saturday night visit to an urban ER. The only thing worse is writing introspection. You can’t write what you never do.
* Expectation #4 – Writing is a solitary and lonely path. SO not true; being part of this community means more to me than any other part of my writing life. If I were given a can’t-lose offer by Random Penguin on the condition that I never darken this blog again, I’d suggest that they imitate the famed Antipodean Concentric Bird, that worthy beast which flies in ever-tightening circles until it disappears up its own…well, you know. Community is everything.
Community means so much. 🙂 I’m so thankful I found y’all. 🙂
yes it is…
Great input. An additional expectation that I had prior to being published is this: The publisher does all the promotion so that the author can focus on writing. – of course this was a false expectation and I have since learned how to effectively self-promote, but it was still a shock at first.
Shawn, how DO you effectively self-promote? I’m sure a lot of people here would love to hear what you have to say. I sure would.
Andrew –
I am sure that there is no one way to self-promote. For me, the key to self-promotion is knowing your audience. In my situation, it is those that like Fantasy and/or Christian fiction as I write in those genres. Once you know your audience then you must ask yourself “How do I get I front of these people as much as possible to promote my writing?”
For me, this included things like making sure I am on the vendor/speaking list at area Sci Fi/Fantasy conventions. In addition, I market on Facebook to specific groups of people that “liked” things similar to what I write and have received quite a few sales that way. Also, keeping a database of contacts is important. I have the emails/contact info of entities such as area library/bookstore/news outlets/as well as any other organization that may be interested in receiving press releases from me as new books release. This list includes any place that has allowed me to do a book signing in the past.
That’s about it, just remember again, the main thing is determine your audience and then figure out how to be seen by those people.
If anyone else has anything to add to this list, I would sure be happy to hear any input as I am always trying to improve – Thanks Shawn
Thanks for sharing all this info, Shawn!
*My book is my baby . . .
*My human babies, now fully grown, didn’t turn out the way I expected (they’re way better). And our adoption–don’t get me started on how far that was from my suddenly-one-big-happy-family expectations (and we weren’t exactly the rich, jolly, patient and indulgent parents our boys were expecting).
Moral of the story: expectations are like Silly Putty. Stretched, kneaded, reshaped and sometimes downright silly.
Just think of the expectations that were held for the coming Messiah, two thousand years ago.
Loved this, Shirlee. Expectations truly ARE like Silly Putty! Great thoughts.
Love that, Shirlee. Silly Putty. Yes.
Thanks Janet. I’ve learned so much from you and your team at, books and such. As I continue to learn, I must begin to follow up, and apply the tips I’ve received. Bless u.
It was here at Books &Such that I first learned that signing with a traditional publisher meant we couldn’t do many of the things we wanted to do with my novels. The problem wasn’t that the publisher might want changes I didn’t want to make. It was the loss of ownership so we couldn’t use the books to support mission orgs through more creative ways than sending a check for the royalty money. When the man who started the fiction line at Thomas Nelson told me last spring that the only way I could do what I felt called to do was to indie-publish, I turned down that twisting path. Now I’ve started my own business (Cerrillo Press – cerrillo means “little hill” and I’m the baby in the Hill family). This is something I never even imagined I’d do and never, ever wanted to do.
*The first novel should be in market by the end of this week or maybe next. Everything takes longer than you expect. We’ll be able to use it for missions in all the ways my husband and I had imagined, but I also have the pain of dealing with semiannual reports to the state, taxes that will need an accountant instead of TurboTax, and big out-of-pocket expenses before each launch.
*Would I recommend this path? Ask me in a year or two! You gotta go where God calls, but it might not be a fun trip.
If you’re doing it for God, He will honor your efforts Carol!
My first misconception–or misexpectation–was that I would sign a contract–period–with an agent or a publisher–with my first book. HA HA HA HA Sorry. I couldn’t stop myself. I’m not sure which is worse–my misconception or that I still carry it somewhere in the back of my mind. You know, for when I’m ready for prime time, for when I think I can actually meet deadlines, for when I’ve learned all I need to know and put it all into practice…. I better stop while I’m ahead. 🙂
Thanks to Books & Such and other straight-talking, reality-based bloggers, I have able to keep my book-launch expectations to a bald minimum. As a result, I have had no negative surprises (so far), and many happy ones, made all the happier because they were unexpected. I think we authors have to have enough hope/confidence that good things WILL happen–or else why persevere?–but keeping expectations modest is sound advice in all sorts of endeavors (not just publishing).
Here’s a true sign of my naiveté when I first began this writing journey: I was sure I could produce a publishable manuscript a year after I began writing. Yeah, you can laugh with me. 🙂 I know, that was a “slightly” unrealistic expectation.
*I used to expect that the publisher would do all the marketing for any books that they bought of mine. I realize now, that much of the marketing responsibilities are placed on the author. I’ve begun working to place myself in a position where this will be a littler easier if I ever have a book a publisher is interested in.
*I expected writing a book to be easier than it is. I’ve discovered it’s a stretching, leaning-hard-on-God endeavor that brings me to my knees regularly.
*I also expected that I would have to know everything in order to be successful as an author. I’ve discovered that relationships are paramount in this business. I’ve been blessed to be hooked up with wonderful authors who have gone before me and are helping me to learn. And this has been a huge unexpected blessing.
Oh my personal trauma! I love writing, but it turns out I love procrastinating more…also my much loved stream of consciousness style doesn’t translate well to my day job, and is proving hard to break. Writing for other peoples’ purpose is humbling and challenging. No wonder I didn’t get great marks for essays in school.