Starting out

Diana Peterfreund must have a looming deadline or something because she’s written two wonderfully helpful posts for writers who are brand new to the publishing industry. They include a glossary explaining what exactly, for instance, an agent does. Check ’em out!

One of the things she glancingly touches on is the idea that the already published are actively resentful of up-and-coming writers and go out of our way to lessen their chances. If that’s true why then do so many authors’ spend huge chunks of time offering advice and help the way Diana is right now? (I mean other than procrastination reasons.)

Publishing is very competitive. That’s true. Most professions are. But not in the way that most people think. One book being hugely successful can increase the chances of other books. J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books created a boom in children’s and YA publishing. Garth Nix says that before Rowling he was happily paddling along and then he got caught up in a tidal wave. He’s not the only one. I don’t know a single YA or children’s author who isn’t profoundly grateful to Rowling. She made our careers.

If a person really likes a particular book they don’t (usually) just read that one book over and over and over again; they try to find other books they like as much. Many kids who loved Harry Potter have gone onto read Nix and Diana Wynne-Jones and Eoin Colfer and Jonathan Stroud and so on. It’s not the end of the road; it’s the beginning.

Reading Dorothy Dunnett led me to Geraldine McCaughrean’s historicals and so on. Every time I hear there’s a new historical that’s approaching the genius of Dunnett I check it out as fast as poss. Jane Austen led me to Georgette Heyer. You develop a particular kind of reading thirst then you have to find the books to quench it.

16 comments

  1. Jaida on #

    Not to mention that I personally have only found these fabulous already established authors to be more than willing to give me all the advice and support I needed, when I needed it. Procrastination may have been a part of it–but hopefully that wasn’t the lone reason. 😉

  2. Justine on #

    It’s defnitely not just procrastination! I was helped by so many pros when I was starting out. Not only by those I met (which came way late in my starting out) but by those who wrote books about how to get published and about writing and so on. When I was first trying to get published there was no internet.

  3. Dess on #

    no internet?!?! *gasps in mock horror* i’m sure not having the internet made contacting other authors who could potentially help you difficult though.

  4. Dawn on #

    I’m actually very glad that the field is competitive. As a writer hoping to be published someday, I would like to have the feeling that amongst so many, I got picked to be published. Plus, if publishers only published certian kinds of books…we’d all be rather sick and tired of reading the same thing over and over. Because there is so much out there, I have the opportunity to read a whole bunch more and make myself better because of what I read. Who doesn’t need a challenge every now and then, anyway? Life isn’t meant to be easy all the time, and that includes your career.

  5. PJ Hoover on #

    I’ve found established authors to be surprisingly helpful. I think the blog phenomenon has made authors seem more approachable also. It kind of gives a glimpse that – hey, they might be published, but they’re also real people and not just icons.
    No internet! Yikes! It sounds like a scary, lonely world.

  6. Justine on #

    Dess: I didn’t meet or correspond with any proper writers until I’d been trying to get published for years and years. My only contact with proper writers way back then was via books. So, yes, the internet has made everything easier.

    Dawn: Absolutely! I just get sick of people who seem to think that the success of one writer will take away from other writers. So not true. I have actually heard wannabe writers point at news of a new writer being published in their genre and say, “Look. There’s my spot gone.” What crazy rubbish.

    PJ Hoover: No internet! Yikes! It sounds like a scary, lonely world.

    Well, we didn’t know what we were missing so it wasn’t too bad. It was the having to brush our teeth with twigs that got me down.

  7. Rebecca on #

    jonathan stroud!!

    I have actually heard wannabe writers point at news of a new writer being published in their genre and say, “Look. There’s my spot gone.”

    this seems weird to me, but at the same time, i kinda understand their thinking, b/c a lot of businesses are cutthroat like that, so probably people assume the same about writing, since it’s so hard to get published. maybe they just don’t realize why it’s so hard to get published. one of my friends reacted sorta like this, b/c she discovered that someone had just published a book very similar to the one she’d started shopping to agents. she figured it lessened her chances of selling it and pretty much quit the project. don’t know that she blamed the other writer though, just that she was upset for her own book’s chances.

  8. Dawn on #

    Wow. I really can’t believe that you’ve heard writers make comments like that! I’ve never once thought that my chances were lessened because someone else finally got their chance to be published. The main thing is–a good book is a good book, no matter who else is out there. No one could deny quality work if they knew that it would sell. If you’ve got something excellent on your hands, then there is a place for you in the published/writing world. And…(for the good or the bad) the publishing world is always changing. Just because someone is popular now doesn’t mean that they always will be. Of course everyone hopes for a career like Orson Scott Card or Lois Lowry…where your books will stay on the shelves for years and years to come, but it’s not so. For some writers their actual career is but seasons of their lives. For others, it’s much longer.

  9. haddy on #

    i definatly dont want to read harry poter but as scott also says “Teen books make more money. For this one, I would like to publicly thanks J.K Rowling, every single day of her life.” so i guess they do and its horribal authors say that lazy

    my friend today said harry potty 😀 funny

  10. The Scarlett Tree on #

    Yes So True! As an Unpublished writer, (so far) I do have to admit that I had imagined estabished writers might feel the need to protect there ‘Spot’ at the front of the line. I personally feel that the more good books out there, means more reading and so-on- and -so -forth. I have been encouraged by how sharing many writers are with their knowledge and experience! I for one, feel very grateful…..Justine LOVED Magic’s Child!

  11. Penni on #

    Great post Justine.
    I’m a reader before I’m a writer. I want new books, so I can read them. I want to explore other worlds. God, imagine living in a world where the only books to read were your own? Eek.
    Plus I want new young writers so I can suck out their life energy at industry dos, how else am I going to gain immortality?

  12. Diana on #

    Agreed. Books are a gateway drug.

    But I’m just following the example of the amazing writers who helped me along when I was a newbie. I’m so glad I fell in with generous, brilliant, talented, people rather than a bunch of miserly cut-throats.

    I’m clearly doing a horrific job of “protecting my spot.” What crap. If the only way I sell books is to make sure that people with good books don’t get them out there, then I’m doing a disservice to myself as a reader, to start with. Love good books. Want there to be more. Helping promising writers is totally a selfish move on my part.

    Also…my procrastinatory tendencies.

    bad diana. Bad!

    Seriously, though, What is up with the suspicion? I’ve actually seen people say with straight faces (one assumes) that agents who give advice are clearly lying, because they are out to discourage new writers.

    Madness!

  13. Maggie on #

    Wow, those *are* really great posts! I’m bookmarking them! 🙂

  14. robin on #

    Just out of curiosity, would you also describe yourself — or most ya writers — as “profoundly grateful” to Cecily von Z, who arguably jump-started this whole boomlet in teen fiction?

  15. Diana on #

    robin, that’s not an argument I would make, actually.

    jk rowling, now… she was the reason the NYT invented the children’s list. I think the reason teen fiction has taken off is because the children who read harry potter became teens. But “teen” interests in general have had a huge boom in this century — the number of teenage music acts, teen television shows, teen movies, etc. have been much much much higher since the late nineties. When I was a teen (in the mid nineties) there was pretty much only one tv show aimed at teenagers: 90210. In the late nineties and the first half of this century, there was a whole network pretty much devoted to the concept: the WB.

    But I would say I’m grateful to anyone who furthers the cause of young adult fiction. Since 2000, you’ve really seen an explosion of a lot of YA authors, in fantasy (thank you JK Rowling) and in “chick lit” (thank you Meg Cabot, Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, and yes, Gossip Girl… and so many others.)

  16. liliya on #

    There was a funny case in the UK when two really well-known (adult) writers both published novels in the same year about Henry James. They spent the next year writing learned articles in literary journals in which they sniped at each other for stealing their ‘spot’. So its not just wannabes who get jealous… (although can you imagine the horror, you spend years slaving over your utterly original book and then someone else has the unbelievable gall to write something the same at the same time!!)

    Reading blogs like this one, it seems that many writers are very generous with their time and advice (Thanks, Justine!). I suppose you never know when the wannabe who takes your helping hand is going to turn out to be the next JK rowling and remember you fondly from their exalted heights of literary world domination… But really, it’s amazing and great how much helpful stuff there is these days for aspiring and even established writers.

    oh, and well done on the Bloomsbury deal – brilliant. does this mean they’ll be publishing your stuff in the uk too?

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