Authors are Extraordinary; Publishers are Ordinary
I gave a presentation called “Publishing 101” at the Brookfield Public Library on Sunday. I’ve given this presentation a couple of times before, and it treads familiar territory for me. I do an overview of types of publishers, types of contracts, and some good-to-know pieces of information for anyone interested in the industry (usually folks who would like to publish a book). I’ve got one key slide whose message I spend a fair bit of time imploring: Authors are extraordinary. Publishers are ordinary. It’s one of the most important things for authors to know!
Here’s what I emphasize with this slide:
1. Writing a book is a significant achievement, and sending it off to be judged takes guts. There’s nothing simple about any of it. Even if the prose was flowing and the author pounded out the text in a frenzied weekend, putting together a book-length story is an immense creative achievement! Sending it out requires bravery and a willingness to face rejection, even ridicule. There are so many writers—including famous ones!—who have lost their interest in that second part of this creative process. They may still write with passion, but when it comes time to try to get published, they aren’t interested. This is where great agents come in and earn their cut. So authors need to recognize that completing a book and even considering trying to publish it is something that should be celebrated as extraordinary.
2. Publishers and editors are just normal people who (hopefully, but not always) like books and reading. They probably read faster than the average reader, and they probably think more critically (hopefully in a constructive way) than the average reader. But in the end, we go home to our families and cook dinner and pick up toys and bungle home DIY projects and… okay, maybe I’m just talking about myself here, but you get the idea. The image I use on this slide is for John Legend’s song “Ordinary People” because that’s what we are!
3. Of course, we’re ordinary people imbued with power because we’re the ones making decisions about what we publish and don’t publish. But when I trot out the figure “We publish about 15% of the 350–400 submissions we receive each year,” that number can be misleading. I want to publish 100% of the great submissions we receive. And we publish 0% of the submissions that aren’t right for us or aren’t ready for publication. So an author with a great book can find a home for it! And an author with a manuscript that isn’t ready can—from us, anyway—get some feedback and notes to help improve. We want to wield our power to make everyone’s writing even better.
4. Any publisher or editor who makes it hard to have a real interaction with them is probably not the partner you want along in your publishing journey (I write as I stare at a dozen emails I need to reply to!). Putting up walls and barriers to interactions, making themselves seem inaccessible, suggesting that they are too important to talk to an author… those are all concerning signs that this person is not going to be supportive. They are the trappings of superiority. “I’m too important to spend 30 minutes on the phone with you,” the publisher or editor would like you to believe. Don’t believe it! But do take it seriously.
This guidance is easy to give but often hard to accept. Feeling mistreated leaves an author with few options other than “I’m going to take my manuscript and go home!” But that’s only because publishers have more submissions than they can publish. Being able to be selective is a privilege that I will always recognize and be grateful for. It will never be something I abuse because that privilege comes from the extraordinary creative work of authors. I get to be ordinary, and I’m happy with that. Being ordinary when surrounded by the creative talents of authors and designers is a fantastic feeling. I’m going to leave the extraordinary to them.
How has your experience with publishing been? Are there times you’ve felt lifted up? Or times you’ve felt belittled? How do you make sure you recognize how extraordinary you are? Share your thoughts in the comments!