The other day, I was thinking about the publishing process -- or, to be more specific, how the hell to actually explain what's involved with publishing to someone who knows nothing about it. I think the stereotype still exists of some joker saying "I wrote a novel, it's in my closet somewhere," so when you tell people that you're working on novels, they don't quite understand what that means.
So, to borrow from This Is Spinal Tap, I've broken down into ten steps that go to eleven. See if this makes sense:
1) Finish your first draft. This could be the longest, most difficult part of the process.
2) Workshop and revise.
3) Edit, edit, edit.
4) Revise, revise, revise.
5) Polish, polish, polish.
6) Put together a query letter.
7) Send the letter to agents that accept your genre.
8) Send them a partial manuscript.
9) Send them a full manuscript.
10) Get accepted and let them submit your manuscript to publishers.
And...this one goes to 11) Start an insane bidding war by publishers that leads to a well-paying lifetime of writing.
(Hey, if you're gonna go there, go there, right?)
Of course, steps 8, 9, and 10 are kind of out of your control. But you can't get there unless you finish the first six steps. And I'm still shocked at the number of writers who think they can query after a first draft -- or the number of writers who feel they can go it alone without outside critiques.
The best way I could explain it to non-writer folks is to compare it to a business and vendors. If you're running a business and going to source from a vendor, would you hire them if they're only kind of ready with the parts, disorganized, or somewhat apathetic about the due-dilligence process? Or would you go with the vendor with the solid track record and time-tested workflow? From the vendor perspective, the only way you can fulfill the latter is if you perfect both your product and your process.
That seemed to make sense with people, but I think the notion of "Wow, that's a lot of work" still floats around. I guess they just don't realize how therapeutic the creative process can be for some people.
And on that note, here's one of my favorite scenes from This Is Spinal Tap...
Lol, this is too awesome--I can't wait until I get to step 11. :)
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