Tough Decisions

At our last virtual get-together, one of my writer friends announced she was getting back the rights for a book she’d recently sold to a small press. The company had published several books for her already, and she’d been happy with those books and the publisher’s support. But the publisher wanted her to take this latest book in a different direction than she’d envisioned. Because of that, she felt she had to part ways with them.

I think some of the other members of the group were surprised and maybe even shocked by her decision. For a writer who is not yet published, turning down a contract from a reputable publisher seems unthinkable. If all they wanted was a little tweaking of the story, why not do it?

I know there was a time when I felt that way. Early in my career, I was ready to do almost anything to sell another novel. But as I get older, instead of growing more practical and cynical about the writing process, I’m becoming more idealistic. More committed to writing the books that are meaningful to me, even if they are much harder to get published, or end up making less money.

When I encountered my friend a few days later in person, I told her I understood her decision completely. Writing a book is difficult; if it isn’t the book you want to write, it’s even more of a grind. We agreed that if she thought writing this book to please this publisher would make her a lot of money, really launch her career or change her life, then maybe compromising would be a lot more palatable. But the fact is, getting a book published these days, even by a solid and successful publisher, is unlikely to do any of those things.

Few writers I know these days are able to make a living simply being writers. If anything, the pay per hour is more abysmal than it used to be. As for launching your career, if you’re writing a book that’s not really what you want to write, then your career isn’t likely to take off in a direction that will make you happy. If a book does well, your publisher is probably going to want more of the same kind of story and you’re going to end up stuck writing in a genre you don’t enjoy.

As for changing your life, truly breakout books are almost always “books of the heart”. If you write a book to please someone else, it’s unlikely to be your best work… or to lead to a future you will find satisfying.

On the other hand, I know another writer who had to make a similar decision years ago. She made the opposite choice and has never looked back. She had a publisher interested in her manuscript, but they wanted her to change it from a mystery to a romance and also write it in third-person instead of first-person. She made the changes they asked for, and embarked on a successful career writing romance. That book was even nominated for a RITA, the romance industry’s highest award at the time.

The difference is that she didn’t see herself so much as a mystery writer as a writer. She’d written books in several other genres already and was still trying to find herself creatively. For her, making drastic changes to her story was the right thing to do.

So, the issue of “writing to the market” is a complex one. For some people it works. For others, it leads to frustration and unhappiness.

Perhaps the key to the decision is thinking about how you would feel if the change made you successful. Would you be truly pleased, excited to have your work recognized? Or, would there always be a lingering dissatisfaction that this is not what you’d meant to write? Would you feel the book you wrote to meet the criteria of your publisher doesn’t really represent your creative vision, or who you see yourself as a writer?

These are difficult decisions. It takes soul-searching and deep analysis of your writing goals and your dreams. Sometimes saying, “No, I don’t want to do that.” is the smartest decision possible. Other times, the right answer is, “Sure. Why not?”