{"id":4225,"date":"2011-02-14T11:17:18","date_gmt":"2011-02-14T18:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/?p=4225"},"modified":"2011-02-14T11:17:18","modified_gmt":"2011-02-14T18:17:18","slug":"paradigm-shifts-and-finding-balance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/paradigm-shifts-and-finding-balance\/","title":{"rendered":"Paradigm shifts and finding balance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, I was going to write a post about how pathetic this past week was: I only wrote about 1.5k per day (while unemployed), and spent most of my time on the internet reading blogs.<\/p>\n

However, after reading some more of Dean Wesley Smith’s blog series, Kililng the Sacred Cows of Publishing<\/em><\/a>, I have to admit that this week wasn’t a total loss.\u00a0 Because of what I’ve read this week, I’m starting to have a major paradigm shift about the publishing world, and that likely will have a huge impact on my writing career, hopefully for the better.<\/p>\n

If I can sum up how my views have changed into one statement, it would be this: that in order to succeed in this business and avoid the common pitfalls, I need to learn how the entire publishing system works as a whole, so that I can game it to my advantage.\u00a0 A lot of the hard and fast “rules” of the industry are actually myths that make for bad business, for writers as well as editors and agents.\u00a0 But when you look at the system from a rational choice perspective, the flaws become obvious.<\/p>\n

Take, for example, the “rule” that editors only accept unagented submissions.\u00a0 What does that do for the industry?\u00a0 It turns agents into the first tier of gatekeepers that new writers need to get past.\u00a0 But agents don’t pay writers; they get a 15% commission off of the books they manage to sell (which, according to DWS, is excessive, but that’s another topic).\u00a0 And they don’t get paid at all<\/em> for reading slush.<\/p>\n

So agents are spending more of their time doing things that pay less money, pressuring them to take less risks and work only with what they “know” will sell.\u00a0 This leads them to ignore the fresh, unconventional voices that turn the tropes on their heads and have the power to take the market by storm.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, because of their newly christened gatekeeper status, they make their writers rewrite their manuscripts until they read just like clones of Harry Potter or The Davinci Code.\u00a0 And when the agents’ three or four closest buddies turn the book down, they come back to the writer and tell them to write something else.<\/p>\n

It’s an extreme view, for sure, but it has a few good points.\u00a0 The incentives are all in the wrong places, with too many opportunities for the gems to fall between the cracks.\u00a0 And while the response from everyone in publishing is to cling to the myth and scream “the system works!” I have to wonder, does it really?<\/p>\n

This comment from one of the threads struck me with particular force: <\/strong><\/p>\n

“The biggest mistake you can make is giving complete power over to someone who will never care as much as you do.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Youch.\u00a0 And yet, it makes so much sense.\u00a0 How many writers’ careers have been ruined by doing just that?\u00a0 Ceding too much power to people who simply don’t care as much as they do, all in the name of some “rule” of publishing?<\/p>\n

Of course, that’s not to say that the publishing industry is full of cheats and sleazebags.\u00a0 I’ve spent some time with professionals at World Fantasy and other conventions, and I’ve been very impressed with all of them.\u00a0 It’s just to say that writing is a business,<\/em> and that writers need to approach their careers in the same way as anyone who’s self-employed.\u00a0 Certainly it’s important to work with other professionals, but that doesn’t mean handing over the fate of your business to them.<\/p>\n

So anyways, what with all the business research I’ve been doing, I suppose the last week isn’t a total loss.\u00a0 However, I definitely feel a need to get back into writing.\u00a0 My deadline for WAFH is in two weeks, and the next 40k are going to require the biggest changes.\u00a0 So here’s my plan for the next two weeks:<\/p>\n