Comments on: Necessary losses

By: Catherine Bybee

Catherine Bybee — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 21:32:22 +0000

Ohhh, hard call. Yes, there is work out there that might be better under the bed. But then fiction is subjective. Can an author tell if their work is flawed. I think they can. They might look away and publish it anyway, but I do think they know that there is something wrong with it.

It’s easy to point to a self published book and say, “That shouldn’t have been published.” But again, I’ve read big name authors, with big name books that, IMHO, shouldn’t have been published. And if a different name was slapped on the cover, it wouldn’t have been.

By: ryan field

ryan field — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 04:18:50 +0000

If you check out reviews on goodreads for books that are classic you’ll find that some readers didn’t think some of the best literary works of all time should have been published. I just think we should all embrace the choices writers have been given thanks to technology and continue to read what we love most. It’s not hard to vet self-pubbed books anymore and no one is forcing anyone to read them.

By: Julia Pierce

Julia Pierce — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 02:18:16 +0000

I think that is a really hard call for a writer to make, especially an unpublished author. There are so many contradictions assailing you while you are laboring over your work, that at times you don’t know what to believe. For example, if I love my novel, my beta readers loved it, my critique group loved it… but agents aren’t interested in it, should I seek out a self-publishing route? Or should I confine it to the drawer (a.k.a. Pit of Despair)? Sometimes I find myself swinging between the highs of getting good feedback from readers, and the lows of getting very few bites from agents… how do you find objectivity in all that? I’m new, so I don’t know yet just when you should give up. If I can’t find an agent for a work that I feel in my gut is a good story, then I would probably seek out publishing on my own (terrifying as that might be). I don’t feel that I have enough objectivity to put a work away (barring my first couple attempts… I mean, really). Maybe I’m just too new, and that shiny optimism hasn’t worn off yet, but I would like to believe that if you put in the work, you will eventually get a good (a.k.a. salable and interesting) product. However that’s not going to stop me from moving on to the next project in the meantime!

By: Kaitlyne

Kaitlyne — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 23:32:51 +0000

I agree 100%, but I’m not sure how easy it is for a writer to judge his/her own work. I remember when I first started writing and the sheer love of the characters and world I’d created were enough for me to think it was worthy of publication. It was hard for me to see past that love and recognize that the book had major problems. Looking back now it’s easy to see the many flaws in that book .

I also went through a period where everything I wrote was crap, even if others told me otherwise. I doubt I was publishable at that stage, but I do know that I tended to be incredibly hard on myself. Nowadays I’m stuck somewhere in the middle. I think my writing is pretty good, but I fluctuate between thinking it’s at least as good as the other books on the shelf and that it’s still not there yet.

Even with friends and family giving opinions, heck, even with objective beta readers giving opinions, I think it’s hard to really judge how good something is. We’re just so close to it.

By: Kristin Laughtin

Kristin Laughtin — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 20:47:13 +0000

Oh, I certainly agree that some of my work should not ever be published, and I’d be willing to argue this is the case for most writers. The problem is that these writers aren’t usually sending the “lost” volumes out for publication themselves; some family member or scholar is doing it long after the fact.

I want to believe that writers can make the call on their own work. However, that ability is certainly honed by time and perspective.

By: Tamara

Tamara — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 19:06:27 +0000

Exactly! In the heady love affair that is the creation of a book, how does one know that they’ve kissed a frog, rather than a prince?

By: Nicole McInnes

Nicole McInnes — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 17:49:52 +0000

Ah, but I have more than one drawer full of not-ready-for-primetime-but-definitely-for-the-shredder works of “art.” While I believed in each of them initially, it took a combination of time, rejection and honest comments from beta readers and agent to help me see that I would not be doing myself or the world any favors by pushing to have them published. Of course, looking back, I’m grateful for the necessary learning process, and I like to think the stories that failed to launch are now helping me create ones that will.

By: Dave Sosnowski

Dave Sosnowski — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 17:48:48 +0000

I think it’s hard for a writer to make the call on his or her own work, in large part because of all the time a book takes to write, all the life that could have been lived, but for its being spent in the protracted labor that resulted in… that? It’s especially hard when the writer starts to engage in comparisons to other, lesser, though nevertheless bestselling writers. “Well, at least it’s better than,” we think, cutting ourselves a great big helping of slack. Of course, the work we need to be comparing ourselves to is our own, best work, and what the current work will do to it by comparison. Ultimately, the writer needs to pry him or herself away and start something else. After all, the best way to get over a doomed love affair is to start another, hopefully less doomed one.