I know that as an avid reader and writer, a trip to B&N is supposed to be nirvana…but to me it’s more like torture.
Take the romance section, for example. First, you’ve got your shelf hogs, starring Nora Roberts as chief pig followed closely by Diana Gabaldon and several others. These prolific authors take up an amazingly huge chunk of space. Next you notice the books turned face out (there’s a marketing name for this which I’ve forgotten but when the time comes you can be sure I’ll know it) taking up valuable room in their own way in order to catch the consumer’s eye. Last, there are the yards and yards of spines, some with recognizable names, others you’ve never heard of.
And, guess what? Harlequin publishes a crapload of romance titles per month, and Barnes and Noble doesn’t even stock them.
All of which boils down to the following daunting news: a helluva lot of writers are out there already—all vying for the reader’s dollar.
And so, to go at this whole writing thing backwards, the lesson here is that getting published is only a part of the battle. Because if no one buys your books (let alone falls in love with them) you’ve blown your chance for that second or third one.
You must stand out from the crowd just to get noticed.
Hm. Sorta like having to stand out from the crowd to get noticed by an editor or agent.
Which brings me to the single most important thing I’ve learned about writing over the past year: Crafting a well-written story isn’t enough to get you published.
The proof is in the rejection letter I received via email while writing this.
Sigh. For those of you keeping score, Stealing Amy is now 0 for 2.
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2 comments:
Don't give up. Do let me read something.
I don't even bother with B&N because I can get depressed enough at Walmart's book section.
I'd probably give up if I visited a real bookstore.
You're braver than I am.
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