Published Too Soon: Alas Poor Yorrick

There’s a complicated issue in the writing world, and that’s when someone is ready to publish.

In this day of easy self-publishing, accessible small presses, and e-books, it’s simple for anyone who can put words down in pixels to be able to publish their works. And that is both a good and a bad thing. Small presses and self-publishing give people an opportunity to share their work who otherwise might not manage to run the gauntlet of the big publishing companies; trying to get anything other than a form letter back from most major houses is partly a matter of luck, not just a matter of skill.

The options available for new authors used to be either hoping to hit the lottery or dealing with a vanity press which would wring money from an author like a towel dropped in a swimming pool. Options now are wider and more seductive.

Frustratingly, not everything which gets published by large publishing houses is good. I’m sure most anyone who writes has experienced reading a book or story by a major publisher which is really awful (and worse yet, popular!), and wondering, “How did they manage to get published, when I keep getting turned away at the door?”

But with so many options opening for writers, it’s easy to start publishing before your writing is ready, and that also has some consequences.

I finished my first book in 9th grade. It was awful, but I didn’t know that. I was terribly proud of it, because after all, I had written a Real Book, and wanted to share my ideas with everyone. If I had been able to get it published, I would have been thrilled beyond words – and I might have stopped working so hard on perfecting my writing. The fact is, that at sixteen, I was not ready to publish, did not have a high level of skill, and couldn’t have dreamed of writing what I’m now capable of. If I’d stopped there, I might never have been pushed to writing the work I’m doing now. I might never have understood it was even desirable to push myself that hard.

Of course, there is the opposite problem that many authors also fall prey to – if you keep on trying to make something perfect, you will never publish. There is a point at which you have to say, “That’s the best I can do at this time,” and cut it loose. Sometime that’s not the best you are capable of, but simply what you’re capable of at the time. There’s a mid-point between the two extremes, and it’s got to be looked at subjectively. But that’s another story for another time.

The reason I’m writing about this is that the explosion of self-publishing in particular has enabled some very fine writers to get their works out there – and has enabled some very bad or just plain mediocre writers to get their works out there. Sure, there is a place for this. Everyone deserves to be able to share their ideas. I’m not trying to sound like a ridiculous elitist who is telling everyone they must write the way I want them to. But – at least subjectively – the mediocre and bad writers are in a much higher proportion in self-publishing. Problems include elements such as poor understanding of characterization and motivation, flimsy plots, overuse of coincidence, trite themes, and very especially, a lack of copyediting. (The last has a really simple fix, but somehow a lot of authors don’t want to go through the trouble or potential expense of getting a copyeditor.) Some of these people get better. I have the utmost respect for someone who is always trying to improve, even when they are gaining a reasonable amount of success.

Small press is a different game, and bit of a mix. In one sense, they are getting the rejects of the major publishing houses. On the other hand, they can afford to take more risks on different works, since their money comes from selling a few copies of a wide range of books, rather than massive amounts of individual books. As a result, the quality varies widely. A given individual has a much greater shot at getting published by a small press, but small presses are also (obviously) pickier than self-publishing. I’d say there are fewer ghastly works published by small press, but a lot more mediocre ones – works that don’t have anything horribly awful about them, but which don’t have anything unique and compelling about them either. As I said, a certain amount of whether something is “well-written” is subjective – one person’s trash is another person’s pearl of perfection. The element that is both objective and subjective is how well the story is transmitted to a diverse range of people; how engrossing it is; how deftly words are used.

I am going to reiterate – there are some very fine small press and self-published authors, and I respect them tremendously. I’m a small press author, and my next project is a self-published one, so I’m not one to say either of these options means one is a bad writer.

So what are my thoughts on how someone prepares themselves for publishing? Workshopping is something I highly advocate. If you can’t find one, sometimes you can start one. There are also online options which can be very helpful. The important thing about workshopping is to find one that suits your particular needs and is helpful rather than harmful to your writing. That doesn’t mean that the members should hand around warm puppies and cocoa before telling you how wonderful your work is; it means finding a group that can help you improve in a way that you want to go. For some people, this means an almost cutthroat level of critique, for others it means something gentler but still incisive and clear on what works and what doesn’t.

Beta reading is another option – getting a few people to be the first readers and give you the first feedback. Asking your sister or cousin or best friend to beta read is usually not the best way to get objective opinions, unless they have a degree in English or a background in writing or critiquing. Asking the person who last read a book ten years ago is certainly not the best way to get objective opinions. It’s important to find people who read, and who you can trust to tell you what they don’t like as well as what they do. It can be tremendously helpful to enlist the help of someone who doesn’t normally read your genre or sub-genre, because they are often much better at sifting through the actually literary elements without getting distracted by liking the genre elements. However, it’s important to make sure that person is committed to being objective, and will not complain simply because they don’t like the genre. It’s equally important not to get someone who, in trying to be “nice”, won’t mention what doesn’t work for them.

Ultimately, when one feels they are ready to publish is a subjective decision. For some, it’s enough to write something, release it, and have people enjoy it. There’s nothing wrong with that, even though it’s not a route everyone wants to go. For others, however, making sure that one is ready to put out polished, finished work can take a lot longer than the physical act of writing. Perhaps deciding when you are ready depends on what you ultimately want to get out of publication, and how confident you are in your strengths.