Advice From Editors and Agents—Revisited

If this were a typical year, I would be attending Colorado Gold conference this month. Besides a few workshops and the social activities, I would make sure to attend the editor and agent roundtables, where “the experts” answer questions and give advice to aspiring writers.

Over the years, the questions asked at these programs were often the same, and the answers the editors and agents gave tended to be pretty consistent. With all the many things changing in the publishing world, I got to wondering if this advice from the past remains meaningful. Let’s take a look. (All opinions are my own, based on what I hear from other authors, and my observations as someone who purchases fiction for a library and follows the publishing business.)

Don’t write to trends, because by the time your book is finished, the trend will be over.

Before digital publishing, years might pass between when an author sold a book and when it was published. Now, the process often takes only a matter of months. That makes it much easier to write to trends. Also, despite the perception that trends in fiction are fleeting, in fact, a lot of them last for quite a while. Gone Girl triggered a huge reader demand for psychological/domestic thrillers. That was in 2012 and the trend is still going strong. So, following trends—if you can write the sort of books that are popular—can actually be pretty helpful to a writer’s career.

The best thing you can do for your career is focus on writing the best book you can.

In the past, writing quickly often wasn’t a huge advantage, because lot of publishers were only willing to publish so many books by the same author within a certain time frame. Back then, even many well-known authors only had a book out every nine months to a year. That’s completely changed. Now, readers in a lot of genres expect authors to produce a book every few months, and it seems like getting books out quickly has become very important to success.

Rather than worrying about marketing, focus on writing the next book.

Until recently, few editors or agents encouraged authors to spend a lot of time on promotion, as there was little an individual author could do to influence sales. Things are much different these days. Now the publishing industry expects authors to do a lot of promotion. Even relatively successful authors are pushed to develop a strong social media presence. Which means successful authors have to both write the next book (quickly) and market their work at the same time.

Writing the best book you can write is the most important thing you can do to assure your success.

Call me cynical, but I’m not sure quality matters as much as it used to. Quantity seems to be a lot more important. We are a society that demands instant gratification, and authors are striving to keep up.

If you find a formula for writing success, keep doing it. Don’t try anything new or you might lose your readership.

Agents and editors seldom came out and said this in so many words, but I’ve always felt that this was their attitude. The industry, as a whole, doesn’t encourage writers to take risks and change career directions. There is a valid reason for this. Readers like what they like, and even when established authors try to spread their wings, readers don’t always follow. They may love Janet Evanovich’s Between the Numbers (Stephanie Plum) books but turn up their nose at her other series. And John Grisham’s “non-legal thriller” books aren’t nearly as popular as the ones he writes in the genre in which he became famous.

Changing genres and branching out is a gamble. At the same time, as readers’ interests change, even authors with hugely popular series risk “going out of fashion”. There are authors who consistently made the bestseller list for ten or fifteen years who no longer have such stellar sales. Often, these are the very authors who did stick to the same formula. You can’t win.

On the other hand, if you don’t already have a strong career going, it certainly doesn’t hurt to branch out in new areas. You never know what path will lead to success.

Don’t write about “X” because you’ll never sell it.

This wasn’t talked about much at the roundtables, but I heard it more than a few times during pitches I made and so did many other authors. There would be sub-genres and topics that were discouraged because the agents couldn’t sell it to editors and editors couldn’t sell manuscripts like that to their sales staff. But often, a few years later, or in some cases, a lot of years later, that same thing would be “in”. Nobody wanted romances about musicians and sports stars back then; now they’re popular. World War II stories were a tough sell for years. Now, they are everywhere.

The takeaway is that trends and reading tastes change and if what you love to write isn’t popular, maybe it will be in a few years.  

No one knows what makes a bestseller.

This is still true. Although a lot of bestselling authors have gradually built a readership over years, plenty of books on the lists come out of nowhere, The route to the top remains a serendipitous process, involving good timing and good luck.

Persistence and hard work are more important than talent.

This is as true as it’s ever been. Writing is a tough, tough business and the people who succeed tend to be hard-working, rather obsessive types.

A final comment about all the editors and agents who have shared their advice and opinions. Many of them have had to answer the same questions dozens of times, not to mention reading hundreds of proposals and queries. But almost without exception, you can tell that they still have that excitement, the sense of expectation, that first got them into the business. They are always hoping that the next proposal or query will be the bestseller, or at least the beginning of a great career. There is a lot to be learned from this. No one knows what’s going to happen, so you might as well dream…and dream big.