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Having spent more time narrowing down submissions, my tastes and preferences have reared their ugly heads far more often. Why? Well, out of 290 submissions, how many do you think I can successfully take into the agent round? A hell of a lot more than 1. #PitchWars (1/12)
A few would be a cake walk, since they& #39;re already as good as what& #39;s being sold to major publishers. Others have some issues that I& #39;m confident a competent writer could handle with proper guidance, and so I wouldn& #39;t hesitate to take them on. (2/12)
Then there are those that are good, but when I read them... it just doesn& #39;t click. The writing isn& #39;t bad, but I can& #39;t really articulate why it& #39;s not for me other than I can& #39;t connect with the setting, the characters, the voice, or what have you. (3/12)
It would be difficult for me to point at any one thing and say, "That& #39;s the problem. Change that." (4/12)
Everyone who subbed to me knows I& #39;m accepting (and therefore enjoy) SF/F, or thrillers, or historical fiction, or whatever else is on my wishlist, but I doubt anyone would expect me to go into the sci-fi section at the bookstore and love every book I pick up. (5/12)
I can browse the shelves in B&N, skim through some opening pages and resonate with what I see, or find some that just aren& #39;t for me. A book could be sci-fi, sell hundreds of thousands of copies to critical acclaim, and I still won& #39;t like it. (6/12)
I think a lot of unpublished writers aren& #39;t a fan of generic feedback like, "It just isn& #39;t for me" or "I just couldn& #39;t connect with the story." Those in the business might give this feedback because they don& #39;t have time to give clear, (7/12)
helpful feedback on how to improve one& #39;s story while also individualizing it to the hundreds of writers they interact with each month. It can also be because they& #39;re worried about giving the wrong advice. A story that doesn& #39;t work for them might work for someone else, (8/12)
so there& #39;s the risk of compelling a writer to edit something until it isn& #39;t right for anyone. Obviously from the writer& #39;s POV, they have no way of gleaning from a form rejection or a no-response-means-no what the problem was; whether it was due to quality or preference. (9/12)
When you first start out, chances are it& #39;s the former, but the longer you pursue publishing, more frequently it& #39;s the latter. That& #39;s why you have to keep going until it finds the right person at the right time. (10/12)
To circle back, there are submissions I& #39;m passing on because I think the writer needs to continue working on their craft. Other submissions I& #39;m passing on strictly due to preference. In a perfect world, (11/12)
every book of publishable quality would get the same treatment, but publishing is a world of preference, and unfortunately that sometimes supersedes quality. (12/12)
