Day 89: Hitting The Editing Wall

A manuscript can be over-edited to the point where it loses its voice and vitality.  If you remove every adverb, every word that might not work for readers, every peculiar idiosyncrasy that makes a story yours, then you’ve lost your way as a writer.  Writers are supposed to have their quirks and even though a lot of these quirks can be edited out, the essence of the tone could be lost and the story loses its soul.  Nobody wants a grey accounting of a fiction, they want a richly woven tapestry that plays with language and helps them imagine in colour. Don’t keep the spelling and grammar mistakes, don’t keep in the redundant words (especially tautology, most of which are cliched), but do keep the funny little things you do that belong to you.  Think of it in terms of music; a great band is one that is instantly recognisable by their distinctive sound and a great writer is recognisable by their distinctive voice.  Don’t edit that out trying to please the ‘rules’ of fiction.  Any rule can be broken as long as it works.

This is not the ‘editing wall’ I mean but it is something that can happen in the editing process.  I’m up to version ten of my manuscript, but I’m not really up to version ten in editing.  I change the version when I start making bigger changes, so one heavy pass through in editing might yield three versions of the manuscript.  I did, however, reach the stage of my manuscript where I couldn’t see the value of it.  Many questions arose:

Why would anyone want to read this story, it’s boring/ridiculous/pathetic/stupid?  Do I really want this book as my first publication (because I know I can do better)? Who on earth is going to pay money for this?

The good thing is, I’ve intellectualised the editing process so much I can distance myself from my own doubts.  Since I had an epiphany a couple of months ago about the editing process, I no longer feel overwhelmed by these feelings.  I can reason through them.  I still feel them… I can’t stop that, but I can certainly apply logic and counter them with positive thoughts and feedback from others.  Sharing my manuscript has helped me immensely; that others I trust have told me they liked it.  It’s enough that they like it, I don’t have to cause ripples of impact through their very soul with my story.  This is only my first book, after all.

I believe the editing wall is hit when you’re sick of looking at the same words over and again.  It’s very hard to motivate yourself when you just want it to be over.  The best thing about having a deadline (and my release date is 30 May, so it’s coming up soon), is that it’s a great motivator.  I can see an end and it’s helping me battle through this manuscript so that the experience for the reader will be as smooth as possible.

And hopefully enjoyable, because my goal is to entertain.

Day 28: Where Am I?

Where am I?  What am I doing?  What’s going on with this indi-publishing project? One month in doesn’t look like a lot, but I know there is.

WRITING
The manuscript is complete at 63,748 words.
Currently on version six.

EDITING
Performed a strategic edit.
Performed a copy edit.
Currently line editing.

READERSHIP
Identified the perfect target reader.  She is a young woman aged between 18-21, who enjoys speculative fiction with a touch of romance.
Potential reader overlappers: readers of romance, spec fic, light sci-fi, fantasy.  There’s potential YA crossover.

BETA READERS
Have four beta-readers for the complete book.  (2 x writers, 1 x reader out of target readership, 1 x reader in target readership).
Have access to two other beta-readers in target readership age (unknown genre preference).  These readers will experience the serialised version.
Feedback given will lead to more editing.

HIRE PROFESSIONAL EDITOR
Do not skip this part!  Must find editor that likes sci-fi/fantasy.  To do.

E-BOOK CREATION
Create a professional cover. Mostly there.
Currently writing a blurb.
Getting an ISBN
Have to create .epub .mobi and .pdf files.

AUTHOR PLATFORM
Have a facebook page.
Have a twitter account.
Have a blog.
Have a goodreads account.
Need a website with store enabled.

MARKETING
Got some ideas for release.
Note to self, do not rush.
Still researching/reading/absorbing all the information I can.

POST RELEASE
Finish writing vampire politic/romance, only one chapter(ish) away.  Woo!

Controversy Doesn’t Necessarily Sell

Controversy can be a great marketing tool, or a divisive way to get your book mentioned for free by journalists who want a story that sells.  If your book is picked up in this manner, even negatively, it can actually be a boon for you.  Think of the negative press that the Twilight series and 50 Shades of Grey have received (though I’ve read neither I certainly know a lot about them).  It lends credibility to the phrase: “There is no such thing as bad publicity.”  This is a quote often credited to P.T. Barnum (from the well-known Barnum and Bailey circus), but nothing has surfaced to prove he said it.  However it has been well documented that Oscar Wilde said: “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.”  This quote strikes closer to the core for me.  The Twilight series and 50 Shades of Grey both received different kinds of negative reviews about their writing – not something either author wanted, but the controversy was more prominent for the latter due to the subject matter, and it was this controversy that elevated sales to epic proportion.

I recently attended a seminar about Publishers and Literary Agents, and what they did for their clients – as well as how to become their clients.  Considering my current series of books contains something that I foresee as controversial (unintentionally), during question time I brought it up.  Both the publisher and the literary agent both declared they didn’t really care about whether the book was potentially controversial.  This was not a decision maker for them!  The biggest factor is the target demographic – would it appeal widely enough to the target audience? I was surprised that the idea of a book with potential for being controversial wasn’t a main consideration.  Of course this was the opinion of only two people, and other publishers or agents might disagree, but I thought all of them would have a strong opinion one way or the other.  I’d assumed they’d either love the idea of controversy or hate it.  It was recommended to me by both of them not to change anything I was doing because the controversial matter in my book was unrelated to the story arc.  If the story itself was written well and could appeal on a commercial platform, the conversation about the controversial part of it could come later, once I’d garnered interest in the project.

Something else I knew but also had confirmed; publishers are not in their business for the money, much like writers.  We don’t write to make millions.  If we were motivated by money, we would not be writers, we would be entrepreneurs or property investors or any other kind of business-related field (or professional field through academia, such as doctor, lawyer, and so forth).  We write because we want to, because we have to.  Today I read an article by Rob Garbin, where he discusses the matter of controversial topics coupled with the idea of publishers being “money hungry”.  While I understand his point – one that was well-made amid candid self-analysis – I have a different perspective.  Publishers aren’t going to reject a controversial tale because it might upset their readers because they target specific readers – it’s about understanding your target market.  People like you, for instance; if you’re interested in writing it, there must be people like you that are interested in reading it, so identify your own demographic.  Don’t be concerned about the remainder of the public, who prefer to be like the people in this cartoon panel. Publishers are trying to do the same thing writers are – to put our words in the hands of the readers.  They’re on our side.

Is it enough to be well-written, well-thought, well-researched to be well-received?  In a perfect world, sure, but we don’t live in a bubble.  We have to make our stories interesting.  We have to craft each word and waste none.  We have to think about who we are writing for, because if we don’t think about our readers, they won’t think about us.