Thursday, March 16, 2006
BG Letter
Yesterday I received this letter from a BG (used with permission):
Thank you so much for your Monday "Fickle Emotions" blog entry! It was just for me!
I've been battling those "my first book was a fluke..." thoughts and delaying in sending my book proposal to my too-patient agent. After I read your blog I settled down, finished my sample chapters, proofed everything and sent it to my agent.
Within a few hours I heard back from her. She raved about the proposal and sample chapters and immediately sent everything to the publishers who have expressed interest in the proposal.
Thank you for being vulnerable and ministering to a nervous author.
I rejoiced at this news. Wrote the BG back and said as much. And meant it. Then it hit me. Drat. No wonder I’m a beleaguered, cabinet-kicking, angsting novelist. God uses it to help others.
It gets worse. Knowing His wry and ever efficient sense of humor, He no doubt wants to continue in this vein.
Does this mean I’ll never get to be an oh-writing’s-such-a-breeze, 10-book-a-year, don’t-you-wish-you-were-me novelist?
And I was so close.
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4 comments:
Bless that BG for sharing that with you. It's nice for those who give encouragement to also get it.
Those kind of notes can keep you going awhile, huh?
Being a writer who seems to struggle much like you, your story, daily blogs, ups and downs are an encouragement. I will never be a Karen Kingsbury, writing a novel in 3 weeks and simply taking dictation as though someone is whispering the story in my ear. (Though wouldn't that be nice).
But I can look to someone who I can identify with, that's you, and tell myself that even some (probably most) excellent authors suffer the same frustrations.
Brandilyn, thanks for the info in your comment yesterday. Dollar driven--I should have guessed.
Still, it seems a little nuts. I mean, publisher #1 knows they sent bookstore chain 2, X number of books. Then when Y number of returns come in, they know that the bookstore chain sold X-Y number of books.
Comparing that with what authors from other publishers are selling seems to be the issue. Point of bragging rights for the top pub. Point of embarrassment for the pub at the low end.
BUT, most readers, I don't think, pay that much attention to who the publishers are. They want to know how their AUTHOR is doing. (Yeah, we readers get a little proprietary. heheheh)
As to your angst-driven writing--God can change that direction any time he wishes, so I suggest you keep that seatbelt fastened! ; D
Becky
Becky, readers can generally know how their authors are doing--that's what the bestseller lists are for. And although publishers don't always release numbers on their authors, sometimes they do when the author's doing really well. You might see "1 million books in print" kind of thing. Of course, what's in print and what's sold to the booksellers, and what's actually sold to the customers are all different numbers. And therein lies the rub of releasing hard numbers to the public--the public doesn't know how to read them. 30,000 books out the door (upon release)--is that a good number or a poor number? Readers would have to see data all the time and fully understand the market to even know how that compares. So, again, in the end the comparison comes back to the bestseller list as the best general indication.
"Karen Kingsbury, writing a novel in 3 weeks and simply taking dictation as though someone is whispering the story in my ear."
Gina, say it isn't so! If I get my current novel finished inside 3 YEARS I'll be relieved.
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