On Being Published

Speaking unscientifically, and possibly also from a prejudiced viewpoint, I think there is a stronger case for randomness in individual publishers identifying what will sell well than for randomness in the industry as a whole selecting what is worth publishing at all, although admittedly the latter is largely a subjective judgment. That is to say, individual publishers have again and again demonstrably missed the boat in recognizing bestsellers, but I am not so convinced that getting one's book published, by some publisher, is quite so random. I do think that effort and diligence can pay off. Although success, even defined as legitimate publication, might not be guaranteed, I think authors can shift the odds in their favor. I guess that to form a decent estimate of the chances, one would have to know how many book length manuscripts are submitted, how many are sub-literate or sent to obviously wrong markets, and a lot of other things there is probably no way to know. The older brother of my best friend, who lived next door to me when I was growing up, has had books out, from Random House (if I recall, for one) after having also been published in places like "The North American Review." What kind of coincidence would that be if writing success was nothing but a lottery?

Wow! Thanks for sharing this. I enjoyed reading this article and I am considering assigning it for one of my creative writing classes in the Spring. The author is certainly right about "chance" and the way luck dominates whether novelists ever get published, are successful, etc.

But he really lost me when he started a) advocating that agents charge reading fees and that, b) writers self-publish, or give their labors away for free online as "pro-am" authors (professional amateurs) who, like hobbiests, have the pleasures associated with displaying their work. Balogna. That's like saying, a) that if you pay to get in the door of a casino, your odds will be better at the slots, and, b) that if you play at the kiddie tables where you don't have to buy chips but play with valueless plastic that you'll still enjoy the game. You won't. Especially if you win big.

While it's true that novel writing as a career IS something of a fool's gambit, writers shouldn't be encouraged to give away what little power they already have over their enterprise and what little reward they have to glean from it. That's my opinion anyway. The literary marketplace might be an unpredictable mess, but the literary property a writer produces should still be managed like the property it is. STILL: an excellent, sobering, read!