Why Good Writers Don't Get Published

After a discussion among my authors about why their works were rejected, I put forth the following suggestions:

As far as why so many good writers have a hard time getting published, and why it’s so hard to sell short stories, here are some reasons from my own experience:

1. We can only buy so many short stories because of space and time limitations. Among the ones we buy, we need to make sure we have a variety of styles, genres and sub-genres. If we have our quota of stories about polka dot cyborgs, we aren’t going to take any more.

2. On a similar vein but slightly different, we don’t publish stories about telepathic hippos because our publisher hates hippos.

3. Because we have a story by Mr. Big Name writer in this issue, we can’t take two other stories that are actually better but nobody’s ever heard of those authors.

4. The story is 5000 words long, but we only have room for a 3000 word story,

5. The story is 1500 words long, but we need 2000 words to fill the space.

6. I like both these stories but I met this person at a convention last year so I’m going with his story.

7. Aw! It’s a story about cats! I love cats! Sure, it needs some work but the cats are so cute. Forget about all these others, we’re taking this one.

8. This is a great story, but every story in this issue was written by an orange alien from Alpha Centauri. We’d better look for something by a blue spaceman from Mars or else the Martians will complain that we are discriminating against them.

9. I’m in a really crappy mood today so I’m not taking anything unless the author’s name is JK Rowling.

10. These 5 stories are all terrific but I can only take one of them. I’ll throw a dart to see which one gets the nod.

Your Editor Is Not Your Enemy

Everyone has editing horror stories. I have a few of my own that still send shivers down my spine. In most cases, however, your editor is the best friend you will have throughout the publishing process. Editors are very brave people-- they take on the job of turning people's prose into a published work of art, knowing that the writer may not necessarily be appreciative of their efforts. And that is precisely the reason why editors are there-- because they
look at the work objectively and bring an outside perspective to it.

If a writer consciously or unconsciously includes inappropriate stereotypes in a manuscript, the editor is the one who will catch it. I've had writers protest, "That's not what I meant!" to which my response is, "Your editor saw it that way, and chances are, if she saw it like that, your readers will too."

Your editor will probably find the line that you are especially proud of and make you take it out. That's because it sticks out like a sore thumb-- your entire work should be a cohesive whole. If you have one particular line that disrupts that flow, it doesn't belong there, no matter how inspired it is. If your jokes aren't funny, your editor will be the one to point that out to you. Again, if your editor doesn't think something is funny, odds are, the reader won't either.

Your editor may suggest you restructure your manuscript. S/he may rewrite some of your passages. S/he may point out technical inaccuracies in your work. S/he may point out when your manuscript steps outside the realms of belief. S/he may suggest you delete passages or ask you to add some more details. Your editor does all of this because s/he absolutely hates you as a person and thinks you are a worthless worm who can't write worth a dried pickle.

No! Of course that's not true! But at some point in the editing process, you will probably feel that way. That's because your editor is not as close to your work as you are. The editor is able to take a step back and look at the words you have put in place without the advantage of knowing what you actually meant to say. Your editor has no sacred cows. If you have a totally useless
character in the book that reminds you of your great Aunt Gertrude, your editor is going to point out that the character has no reason for being.

Your editor is NOT your enemy. S/he is trying to make your book be the very best it can be. S/he will make mistakes-- sometimes there is just a mismatch between an editor and an author and another editor needs to come in and take over. Sometimes the editor just plain misses the boat. But 99% of the time, I find my editors to be right on target.

Be nice to your editor. Thank him/her for the time spent on your manuscript. Let him/her know that you appreciate it. And LISTEN to your editor's suggestions. Writers need editors because we cannot be objective about our own work. That's what the editor is for.