From: chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach)
Newsgroups: misc.writing
Subject: Re: You really want to be a writer?
Date: 13 Apr 92 16:18:13 GMT
Organization: I is a writur

geoff@pmafire.inel.gov (Geoff Allen) writes:

>Why is this guy selling photographs when Jackson is overrun with better
>photographers (many of whom are successful, just not as successful)?

Ahh. THIS is why I disagree with Tom Maddox (I knew there was something I
disagreed with, but couldn't figure out what until now).

First, let me back up a bit. What Tom says has a lot of validity, but a
number of limitations.

"Letting the business take care of itself" is not a good business practice,
especially in a fiercly competitive buyers market like fiction.

I don't think Tom is essentially wrong. I think he's putting too little
emphasis on the business aspects. I also think that I've been putting too
much emphasis on it in my postings. 

Hence:

o If you're just starting out, you need to get the technique and craft down.
If you're not writing publishable stuff, all the knowledge in the world
about how the market works won't help you. Period. Get it good, and then
worry about getting it published.

o If you're writing publishable fiction, you can be naive about the market
and get published. you can "let the business take care of itself" and still
see print.

What you won't do by being passive is find the secondary markets that help
increase your income (Mike Resnick just sold Lithuanian rights to a number
of stories, for instance). Or track down the secondary publications that
might buy a story that the major markets won't. Or markets that create
opportunities that otherwise wouldn't exist.

What you also do by being passive is lose the ability to maxmimize the
potential of your work (especially true in novels, but still valid for short
fiction). Being market-naive will make it VERY tough to get the best deal
for your book -- why sell a novel for a $5K advance when it could have been
sold for $10 if you knew how (and/or who) to ask for it? Or run the risk of
pushing for too much money on an advance and losing the entire deal? (I know
of someone who did just that, and still hasn't found a new home for his
books). 

So "letting the business side" take care of itself is the wrong strategy,
but being market-aware has to be kept in perspective. It's not the be-all or
end-all of things. Being market-aware won't make you publishable. It will
allow you to better leverage what's already publishable. Considering how
poorly writing pays, any leverage you can get helps. 

But these things have to be kept in perspective. It's definitely worse to
focus on market and networking to the exclusion of fiction than it is to
focus on fiction to the exclusion of marketing -- but the synthesis of the
two in right proportions is what you want. I've been harping on the
marketing aspects because it's something most new writers neglect, but at
the same time, I've been pushing it out of perspective in the way I was
presenting it without realizing it, too. For which I apologize, adn I'm glad
Tom brought it up. 

-- 
            Chuq "IMHO" Von Rospach, Enterprise Products Support
            chuq@apple.com | GEnie:CHUQ & MAC.BIGOT | ALink:CHUQ
               Book Reviewer, Amazing Stories =+= Member, SFWA
           Editor, OtherRealms =+= #include <standard/disclaimer.h>

And lo, though I travel through the valley of the archetypes, I shall fear
no evil, for I know that the author can't kill me off for at least another
150 pages, no matter how stupid or trite I become, or he ruins the book.