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You don't need advice from editors on rejected manuscripts

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Re: You don't need advice from editors on rejected manuscripts

#21

Post by lamasery »

bombcar wrote: post #8
raincole wrote: post #6

I've found the traditional publishing industry really interesting. It's so hard to get approved or even noticed from the gatekeepers[0]. Even getting a rejection from an agent can take months. And agents are just the very first gate. Being agented can be lightyears away from getting published. And after so many layers of gatekeeping and due process, what got to the shelves are like, uh, Kiss of the Basilisk . I mean…

Everyone and their LLM is flooding them with slop every day, it's no wonder it's hard to get any feedback whatsoever. And even if you do get selected, you may fail for reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of your writing.

As far as I can tell it's nearly impossible to get picked up by a major publisher now unless you're bringing a very large social media following.

If you've got the social media following, your book can be really bad and it'll still get published (examples... abound). The book hardly matters, guaranteed sales via an audience you bring to the table (so, no work for them) is what they're interested in.

I mean, it was already nearly impossible, but now it's nearly-impossibler (nearlier-impossible?), with the social media following being almost necessary to make it even a very-long-shot instead of a no-you're-definitely-getting-rejected.

Re: You don't need advice from editors on rejected manuscripts

#23

Post by bognition »

mwigdahl wrote: post #2

I liked Zvi Mowshowitz' summary of this: If someone tells you what's wrong, listen to them. If they tell you how to fix it, ignore them.

I heard very similar advice from some investors. They said:

> If you ignore what we tell you its possible we'll fire you. However, if you do everything we tell you to do its almost certain that we'll fire you.

Re: You don't need advice from editors on rejected manuscripts

#24

Post by alecbz »

grvbck wrote: post #22

> You don't need advice from editors on rejected manuscripts. Continues to tell us how he did listen to the advice because the editor actually had a point that made the story better, got the book published and won him an award.

Yeah I think the lesson is that specific suggestions for what to do aren't as helpful as just hearing how someone else experienced your work, and then drawing your own conclusions about how to fix that.

Bug reports should describe the problem but often shouldn't try to prescribe a solution.

Re: You don't need advice from editors on rejected manuscripts

#27

Post by alecbz »

falcor84 wrote: post #20
shimman wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's a popular writer, but hardly good. No one is going to be reading his books in 50 years, let alone 200.

That's an extremely high bar. But to the extent that critics and awards are the metric we have, he is an objectively good writer.

I don't know that you can establish objectively if someone is a good writer. He's an acclaimed, award-winning writer, sure.

Re: You don't need advice from editors on rejected manuscripts

#29

Post by vynase »

tptacek wrote: post #16
fastaguy88 wrote: post #14

Well, perhaps Orsen Scott Card does not need editors’ advice. But odds are you do.

"Don't try to make a living writing genre fiction for established publishers".

The money in literary fiction is even worse.

You are basically working for exposure until someone puts it on a screen.

Re: You don't need advice from editors on rejected manuscripts

#30

Post by vynase »

mwigdahl wrote: post #2

I liked Zvi Mowshowitz' summary of this: If someone tells you what's wrong, listen to them. If they tell you how to fix it, ignore them.

It’s more like you should have 5-10 readers. If they all say the same thing they’re right. If half think the pacing is too slow and half think it’s too fast you are probably spot on.
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