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| C. Kevin Thompson |
We’ve all heard it said, “Walk a mile in someone else’s
shoes.” In other words, have some empathy. Try to understand how that “someone
else” lives, what they deal with on a regular basis, and why that person comes
to the conclusions he or she does, whether you agree with those decisions or
not.
For us, the author types, there is no position we should have
more empathy for than an editor.
That’s right. I said it. In some of your minds, I just slipped
on my Darth Vader helmet and asked you to come over to the dark side. But hear
me out first before you rally the rebel forces.
Imagine yourself sitting at your desk. You’re the new editor
for XYZ Publishing, in charge of making this new division not only solvent, but
profitable. You have six months to a year to make that happen. It’s week four,
and in your e-mail inbox are two hundred query letters, each complete with a
synopsis, a marketing plan, an author bio, and the first few chapters of the
work. About sixty pages each, give or take. And these are just the agented but unsolicited manuscripts that
have arrived in your inbox. More arrive each day.
Also in your inbox are the agented
and author-only manuscripts you requested at your first writers’ conference
two weekends ago. And there will be more on the way. Current count sits at
thirty-five, and you have two more conferences coming up within the next four
months.
Now, as you sit there, you have to decide which ones get
promoted to the “I need to examine these more closely” pile and which ones get
placed in the round file (aka, the garbage). All the while, you’re thinking
about lowly writers like James Patterson, whose first book, The Thomas Berryman Number, was rejected
thirty-one times. That means thirty-one of your fellow editors back in the day
“missed out” on landing the author who sells more thriller novels than anyone
in the world.
Or what about Daniel Handler’s first novel, The Basic Eight? Many people have
probably never heard of Handler’s first novel because many people don’t know
who Daniel Handler is. Neither did thirty-seven other editors, apparently, when
he kicked off his writing career. However, everybody knows him now…65 million
copies later…as Lemony Snicket.
Then there was that little-known author with the backwards
name of Elmore Leonard…He had his first novel, The Big Bounce, rejected eighty-four times. It’s only been made
into a movie twice since its publication.
Then in today’s market, of course, there are the works of
folks like Lisa Genova who never make it across your desk. Her first novel, Still Alice, was rejected by roughly one
hundred agents who sent rejection notices or simply never replied at all.
Finally, Genova went Indie with her book. It did well enough to catch the eye
of an editor from an imprint for Simon & Schuster. It only spent forty weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List and
was made into a movie starring Julianne Moore.
So, now, in these days of self-publishing, you, Mr. or Mrs.
Editor, must also scour the sales reports of entities like Amazon to try and
find that next big hit from the ever-growing,
why-does-everybody-think-everything-they-write-should-be-published indie crowd.
Say goodbye to your personal life. The hours required to make
all this happen will leave you with about fourteen minutes of sleep a day, if
you’re lucky.
Are you getting the vibes here? Being an editor would be
easier if everyone had the talking mirror in Snow White. “Mirror, mirror, on
the wall, who will be the next best writer of them all?” So, would being an
author. “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, which story in my head is the greatest of
them all?”
In other words, fellow author, take heart and have empathy.
Your first novel, even your second, third, fourth, or fifth, may be “the one”
that finally gets noticed. And it will probably not be the very first editor
you encounter who does notice it. Actually, the odds are against it.
I often tell folks Michael Crichton’s first hit novel, The Andromeda Strain, was not his first
novel. He wrote several books under the pen name of John Lange while going to
med school. However, the book that made him more of a household name was a
little- known book called Jurassic Park.
That was his what? Twelfth book?
So, the moral of this story is:
- Have empathy for the editors out there. They have to find you first. And even if they do, and love you and your work, they still have to sell you to the editorial board.
- Editors have budgets like everyone else. They are allowed to publish only a certain number of books a year. Can you empathize with narrowing down three thousand submissions a year to twenty published books? Which twenty would you choose?
- Editors make mistakes. Often, they are costly. Choosing those twenty books is like playing roulette. A few land on Red 37. Most don’t. If enough land on Red 37, you have a job next year. If too many do not, there’s always that sign-twirling job out in front of that mattress store down the street.
- Keep writing. Your first few books may remain obscure. Maybe even unpublished. However, could it be that God is waiting for you to write your next novel? Just ask Lemony Snicket. He is glad he kept writing.
A
Clandestine Mission.
A Cryptic
Message.
A Chaste
Promise.
Blake
Meyer dreamed of a peaceful end to a dutiful career with the FBI. Married now,
his life was taking him in a new direction—a desk job. He would be an analyst.
Ride it out until retirement. Be safe so he could enjoy his grandchildren some
day.
But when
a notable member of the IRA is murdered in a London flat, Blake’s secretive
past propels him into the middle of a vindictive, international scheme so
hellish and horrific, it will take everything Blake possesses—all of it—to save
the United States from the most diabolical terrorist attack to date.
C. KEVIN THOMPSON is a
husband, a father, a grandfather, and a kid at heart. Often referred to as
“crazy” by his grandchildren, it’s only because he is. He’s a writer. Need he
say more?
The first three books of his Blake Meyer Thriller series are
out! Book 1, 30 Days Hath Revenge; Book 2, Triple Time; and Book 3, The
Tide of Times, are now available! Book 4, When the Clock Strikes Fourteen is coming soon! Also, the second
edition of his award-winning debut novel, The
Serpent’s Grasp, is now available!
Kevin is a huge fan of the TV series 24, The Blacklist, Blue Bloods, NCIS, and Criminal Minds,
loves anything to do with Star Trek,
and is a Sherlock Holmes fanatic, too. It’s quite elementary, actually.
Website: www.ckevinthompson.com/
Kevin’s Writer’s Blog: www.ckevinthompson.blogspot.com/
Facebook: C. Kevin Thompson –
Author Fan Page
Twitter: @CKevinThompson
Goodreads: C.
Kevin Thompson
