Redefining Success

When writing a novel, the goalposts can move. Not as a matter of sales or success, but as a matter of what you think you need. I thought I needed an agent, and I would still like one, as some of my favorite presses insist on having one, but I am happy to have a fine university press or private press take this book and set it out into the world. When I first started it, I honestly didn’t know if it was a short story or something else. Then I wasn’t sure if it was a novella. Pretty soon I was sure it was a novel, and I felt like I had some sort of literary/commercial mashup. Perfect for agents, I thought.

Right.

I don’t know what to think. The literary landscape feels like a TV game show anymore. And while I like Jeopardy as much as the next person, I cannot stand fluff and contrived showmanship. I often think of Ernest Hemingway or Virginia Wolfe walking around an agent conference, looking for representation, or traveling to AWP. And as much as I would like to see that (or write that), I am exhausted from the game. Make sure this sentence says this. Make sure this paragraph says that. Don’t query after 3 on Fridays; she hates that.

“Hey, how about you read my manuscript and see if you like it? How about that? Jesus H. W. Christ.”

I know agents get a massive amount of queries every week. But as a former fiction editor and college professor of creative writing, I also know that at least 75% of the work that comes in (conservative) can be removed from the slate within a chapter, if not the first couple pages.

I am a young 55 years old. I am who I am. I am not going to be someone else for you. Take it or leave it. I don't understand wanting a certain type or style because that is what is hot right now, either. If the book is good, it will make the style. If the author can attract people through whatever personality they have, then by god, that’s it. I can’t be that author for you. I won’t be. That used to be a good thing.

Let’s go back to when authors could be themselves. When a good book was a good book, and trends were made, not followed. Let’s redefine success together.