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The Nature Of Numbers

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A few weeks ago, Lev Grossman, the book critic for Time, had this to say about literary fiction:

"There is a certain brokenness among American literary publishing. I find it quite incredible, the energy and attention given to publishing books that are bought by only 10,000 people."

You walk into a bookstore -- assuming there is still a bookstore near you -- and you see all of these books on the tables in the front and on the shelves and do you, like me, wonder: who's buying these books? Someone is certainly buying them, or else these authors wouldn't continue to be published. But if you're not buying these books, and I'm not buying these books, then who is?

You know I hate to always be cynical but it's difficult, especially when talking about publishing and writing. I mean, we spend all our time writing stories and novels and submitting those stories and novels and getting those stories and novels rejected until, hopefully one day, an editor(s) likes them enough to actually publish them. And so then we wait and wait until the stories or novels come out, and then ... then what?

If we're talking about a short story being published in a print journal, well, good luck on having it read by a lot of people, not unless it's The Paris Review or some other venerable journal. And online, well, you're going to have better luck getting people to read your story, but after the first couple of weeks, then what? A new issue comes out and pushes the issue with your story off the main page, and it keeps getting pushed further and further away.

If we're talking about a novel being published, well, good luck on having it read by a lot of people, not unless the publisher paid you one million dollars and is doing everything it can to earn back its investment. Most likely, the bulk of the promotion will be on your shoulders, and sure, it's cool seeing your book in the bookstore, but wait a month or two and check the bookstore again. See your book there? Probably not.

Again, I hate to be cynical, but this is the reality of writing and publishing. Not that it should dissuade you from doing it. Nine times out of ten, you're a writer because you want to be a writer, you need to be a writer, and so what if only a handful of people read your stuff -- at least someone other than your parents are reading words you created, and that, honestly, is something special. Sure, we all want the big advances, we all want to be read by millions and millions of people, but the reality is all of that will probably never happen. If we're lucky, we'll maybe get read by those 10,000 people Lev Grossman mentioned.

But numbers, man, they are important, aren't they? Especially in publishing, where your numbers follow you around for life. Your first book doesn't sell well? Good luck then on trying to get a second one published, as hardly any publisher will be willing to take a chance on you.

That's one of the great benefits about doing it yourself -- numbers don't matter as much, at least not in the same vein as they do with major publishers. I mean, yeah, the more units you sell, the better, but if a book isn't doing well, it's not the end of the world. Those numbers could stay the same or they could go up or they could go down -- whatever happens, it doesn't mean you will have to scramble to try to get another book published.

Recently I've been seeing some writers make statements like "I'm not going to write the second book in the series until this first book sells 5,000 copies," as if it's some kind of threat. And the thing is, even if it is some kind of threat, who are they threatening?

I actually asked one of these writers why they just don't start writing the second book now, as some series don't take off right away and it's only after the second or third book that they do. After all, I reminded this writer, The Girl With the Dragan Tattoo sold terribly at first. Here was the response (I've Xed out the book titles for obvious reasons):

I've been on this train before, even if it's the first time I've self-pubbed. I was writing a sequel to a novel I hadn't sold yet (XXXXX), and it was a frightening time. If XXXXX hadn't sold, then the follow-up XXXXXX would've had an even harder time selling, making the whole exercise pointless.  I don't want to spend another 8-10 months on series books while the series isn't selling well. Many in regular publishing get lucky enough with the 2 book deal, so they have freedom to not care. But when it's a self-pub, I'd rather sit back and wait. I'm busy writing other books right now.

At least this particular writer is busy writing other books. That's the most important part of being a writer -- always writing something, not matter if it's the second book to a series that, so far, isn't selling very well. Sometimes, though, I just feel that these writers aren't writing, and that they're just waiting for their sales to improve to give them the excuse to start writing again. That seems like an odd motivator, and maybe I'm way off base here, but there you have it.

Actually, I do know where this particular writer is coming from. Years and years ago, I'd written a novel (I mentioned this one before, the 90,000-word novel I wrote in a frenzied three weeks). It's the novel I got my first agent with, the novel that got me into the wild and wacky world of publishing (at least on the agent side of things). At the time, it had only been meant as a standalone novel. But then, as I began to think about it, I realized that it could actually be the first book in a trilogy. So what does the young and naive Robert Swartwood do? He starts writing the second book, just hoping for the best. And, obviously, the best never happened. Only maybe that's not the case. Because, well, now I have two books already written in a proposed trilogy, and ...

Well, I don't want to get too ahead of myself. It's been years since I looked at them last, and I know they need some work, so even if I were to release them at some point, it won't be any time soon.

But, yeah, numbers. The important numbers aren't the amount of e-books you sell a day (though that is important in a way). The important numbers are the words you write a day. Even if it's not a lot, only a few hundred, or even a few dozen, just as long as you're writing.

Also, is it just me, or did Sesame Street pave the way for a lot of kids to use psychedelic drugs?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUL4T8WcFdA

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Hint Fiction Contest Progress Report

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Let's go over some stats, shall we? 648 stories were submitted to this year's Hint Fiction contest, which is about 300 stories more than had been submitted last year (in fact, after this post I'm just going to call it 650 because that sounds better and easier to remember).

Out of those 648 stories, 564 had titles, 84 had no titles (it's interesting to note that some of the submissions included one story with a title, one story without a title).

254 stories were submitted in the comments section.

After having done an initial pass, I picked out 112 stories that I felt required a second reading. Out of those 112 stories, only 6 had no titles.

This weekend I plan to read through those 112 stories and cut that number in half, if not more.

In the meantime, are you ready to rock?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5ftgv3BHd0

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The Art Of Rejecting Rejection

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Rejection is the most common thing a writer can experience. When it comes to writing, rejection is the rule, not the exception. If you cannot handle rejection, don’t be a writer.

The above basically sums up a massive post Roxane Gay did earlier today at PANK’s blog about writers rejecting rejection. This whole rejecting rejection phenomenon is so fascinating to me. It shouldn't be, of course. I used to edit a magazine years and years ago and we occasionally got the impulsively rude and snide rejection of a rejection. Even when I sent out responses to the Hint Fiction anthology I got a few of these. Writers, it seems, have the most fragile egos, which is odd because, as Roxane says in her post, when it comes to writing, rejection is the rule, not the exception. Everyone gets rejected at one point or another. I cannot seriously believe that there is one lucky writer out there who has never been rejected, not unless they wrote one decent story and sent it to a somewhat respectable journal run by a sibling who took pity on them and accepted the story and that writer never submitted anything else. In fact, I'm pretty sure I even once talked about how rejection is important for writers, how it actually helps them become better writers. All too often I see some writers publishing stories in the same journals and magazines; they have established a relationship with the editors there and, who knows, maybe have found that their stories will almost always be accepted and so they continue to submit there again and again and again because they don't want to play the whole rejecting game. And while there's nothing wrong with submitting to the same editors all the time, it's important that writers submit to other journals and magazines, ideally those of top tier quality, because otherwise it's possible their career as writers will plateau ... though I don't think these particular writers care much about whether or not this happens and instead are just happy to be keep their rejections to a minimum.

In the past I've gotten many, many rejections, but never have I fired off a snide reply. Well, that's not true. I remember there was one rejection where the editor called me "Mr. Smartwood" and I was in a bad mood at the time and quickly replied with something like "Thanks for reading the story, but it's Swartwood, not Smartwood." If I could go back and stay my hand from pressing the SEND button, I would. Then there was one rejection that was just snide and uncalled for. I didn't reply to the editor in question but forwarded it on to the publisher, explaining that while I didn't care much about the rejection itself, I didn't think it was professional for the editor to be so rude. The publisher agreed, apologized, and that was that. I never submitted to that particular market again, so I have no idea if the editor in question changed his ways. Honestly, I don't much care.

If you want to know the truth, the Internet has made it all too easy for writers to be this way. They sit down, open their email, read a rejection, and immediately send a reply. I can't imagine many actually think it over for an hour or two, try to get the wording just right, maybe even have a few close friends look the rejection's rejection over before they send it. No, it's all done in the heat of the moment, the writer's fragile ego making it so they can't think clearly. This is why a friend of mine once told me, years and years ago, he preferred to read paper submissions, because that way he almost never heard back from writers as opposed to email. And he's right -- it takes too much effort to actually write out a letter, put it in an envelope, seal that envelope, address that envelope, place a stamp on that envelope, and put it in the mail. At some point, that writer's anger would have dissipated and allowed them to think clearly.

And then, of course, you have the writers who so completely not with it that they will then partake in a flame war in the comments section of a blog post about your rejection of a rejection:

I’m the angered rejectee, and even though I ALWAYS regret my immature behavior, I see no good definitive argument in Roxane’s blog against it. Why is it wrong to react angrily and correct to bite your tongue? Is that just an opinion? Personally, I think people should express their true emotions more often than is the norm. Being phony is a choice, one that all you people in agreement can make for yourselves, but if the point of the blog is to convince me with logic that my actions were worse than just immature and uncalled for, but somehow morally wrong and reprehensible, then you’ve failed. It might be ugly behavior, but it isn’t the type you should spend your time condemning, and it isn’t the only ugly behavior going on here, is it?

So it’s like a lottery? We have to send the right piece to the right person at the right moment AND you’re deluged with submissions AND you want suggestions as to how to work more efficiently or lessen the lottery-like nature of the process? I’m glad you asked. Make it less subjective. Come up with a statement regarding ‘what you’re looking for’ so we know whether or not to waste everybody’s time with an unwanted submission. Simply telling writers that what they submitted is not what you’re looking for (a practice all you journal editors have taken up), it does nobody any good. Why do you even write that? Is it simply because it’s the norm?

It goes on and on. Be sure to check it and the rest of the comments out if you want to kill a half hour.

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Today Monkeybicycle’s Steven Seighman gave my story "Crash Test Dummy" a shout out for Short Story Month:

This story feels like it could pertain to a lot of different people: domestic troubles, job frustration, the need to get away. But the author puts a fun new twist on those very relatable things by making them happen to a crash test dummy. When you hear that phrase, you can’t help but think of exactly what it is: a mannequin with little yellow and black marks all over him in a jumpsuit, going through the windshield of a car in slow motion in a testing warehouse. Or is that just me? (I also think of–of course–the band that brought us “Mmm, Mmm, Mmm, Mmm.”) The idea of an animated one of these things living the life of an everyman is intriguing, and Swartwood tells its story perfectly.

Thanks, Steven!

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On a final note, this looks really interesting, doesn't it?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhw6OeTVcwM

 

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And He Went A-Tumblin'

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Late last night I went downstairs and my foot slipped on one of the steps and I took a hard tumble. Luckily the ground broke my fall. It wasn't a bad fall, per se, but I was laid out on the ground for a good few minutes just staring up at the ceiling. And, as I happened to have my phone with me, I of course tweeted about it. What lady and what commercial?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQlpDiXPZHQ

No, not that lady. This lady.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug75diEyiA0

Yes, after taking a tumble down the stairs, all you can really think about at first is Where's the beef?

Anyway, you have less than three days left to enter the Hint Fiction contest, so do it to it.

If you were putting off purchasing The Calling because 99 cents was just too much, well, I'm sorry to say the price has gone up to $2.99. That was, of course, what was meant by an introductory price. Also $2.99? The Dishonored Dead, which already has a five-star review up at Amazon (thanks, A.M. Donovan!).

I haven't really had a chance to thank everyone who "attended" my live reading the other week. I hope you enjoyed it. It was fun, but, as it was my first time, there were some technical issues, namely that for some reason comments weren't coming through and that I had completely forgotten about Ustream's chat option. If I ever do something like this again -- and I probably will -- I hope to make it much smoother and more entertaining (and will, despite their rambunctiousness, have the pets back). In the meantime, I want to address a question that was asked by Horace Torys:

Can you talk about taking your stories from a concept to making an outline, planning scenes, writing the thing out, etc.?

The simple and easy answer is no, because mostly I don't outline or plan scenes out, at least on paper. Usually a story idea will pop in my head, or a character, or even a first line or story title, and I'll mull it over for a few days or weeks or months or even years before I finally sit down to write it. By that time I have most of the story planned in my head, or at least have an idea of what the story is about. It's like what Harlan Coben once said when writing a novel: "I don't outline. I usually know the ending before I start. I know very little about what happens in between. It’s like driving from New Jersey to California. I may go Route 80, I may go via the Straits of Magellan or stopover in Tokyo … but I’ll end up in California."

The same applies with me, because I almost always know what the main story will be, but different things might occur along the way. Then again, there are exciting moments like the one I had with The Dishonored Dead, as I had originally planned for it to be a novella, but at one point a very minor character appeared, a simple janitor hanging in the background for no good reason, and it wasn't apparent why until a few chapters later -- and that created a whole new conflict and ended up changing my novella into a full-fledged novel. That never would have happened had I stuck to an outline.