You're Not Going To Do Publishing Right

There is no Right

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Hi friends,

When I’m on a call with a potential client who kinda doesn’t know what a literary agent does or isn’t sure of the bounds of my job, I always say that the most common question I get from my clients is Is this normal? Isn’t that what we want the advisors in our lives to tell us? Is this mole normal? Is that what a house costs? Does my kid need extra help? Shouldn’t I have been promoted by now? What am I here for if not to provide information to my clients and assure them (or prepare them) for what is or isn’t normal?

Unfortunately, there is no normal. I mean, your editor should email you back, eventually. Your publisher should get books on shelves (or pixels), and do what they say in the contract. There should be some marketing plan. But your marketing plan is not her marketing plan. And your launch is not their launch. And her bestseller doesn’t prove your bestsellerdom. Your book is not his book or their book or anyone else’s book.

And your next book isn’t even the same as your first book!

(The clients, yes plural, who thinks this is about your right now—it’s not. It is a little but I’m not like talking AT YOU right now. I’ve told you all this already anyway. I’m talking to the whole class.)

If there was one way to write, publish, and promote a book, then we’d only have one book and everything would be boring. We wouldn’t have sleeper hits and big flops and oh did you like that one? or the bestseller list is full of crap or graphic novels aren’t REAL books or the only thing that counts is literary novels or whatever bad hot take we’re tweeting about this week (#feralhogs). If everything was the same, if there was only one way to do it, then how could we have all this different opinions about books and how they should be consumed? How would we ever be surprised?

Is this normal? and Am I doing it right? are questions that (naturally! understandably!) come out of anxiety and fear. Querying, writing, publishing, promoting a book is scary because we care about it so much. We want (need!) our books to be successful and we want other people to like them (us). There’s a lot (of us!) on the line when we put our work out there in the world. We want someone to tell us the precise way to do it so we don’t blow our shot and negate all that hard work we’ve done. There’s just…. not one way you’re going to blow your shot the same way there’s not one way you’re going to ensure success.

The only thing to do is do the work. I’m not going to write the whole Yoda quote because even though it’s true and even though my birthday has been COMPLETELY CO-OPTED by some stupid meme—I am Star Trek or GTFO all the way—all you can do is do the work. Read, write, research. Put yourself out there and try. It might not work. But it also might. There is not one single thing you can do wrong that will doom your fate (ok, like don’t be a jerk and try to write a good book but other than that). There’s also not one single thing you can do to ensure your success, except write a good book. What’s good? Lots of things.

If you have an agent, keep sending them your is this normal? emails. That is exactly what they’re there for. If you don’t have an agent, try to find a way to work out these anxious questions—on twitter, on message boards, with friends, on the page. The goal is not to get THE ONE TRUE ANSWER to your questions. The goal is to get the anxiety out so you can get back to work.

I fall prey to this, too. I want the one thing that will make all my clients bestsellers or whatever, too. It just dosen’t exist. And/or it’s different for every book. Query your book. Write your book. Promote your book. Let everyone else do the same with theirs.

I hope this helps. I hope you’re able to do something you love while the world crumbles around us. Please support gun control measures on the state and federal level. Please vote for Senate candidates that will kill the filibuster. Channel your rage and anxiety in helping this country get its shit together, and let your book be your book.

OXOXO,

Kate