Read on Twitter
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're already as good as what's being sold to major publishers. Others have some issues that I'm confident a competent writer could handle with proper guidance, and so I wouldn't hesitate to take them on. (2/12)
Then there are those that are good, but when I read them... it just doesn't click. The writing isn't bad, but I can't really articulate why it's not for me other than I can'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's the problem. Change that." (4/12)
Everyone who subbed to me knows I'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't for me. A book could be sci-fi, sell hundreds of thousands of copies to critical acclaim, and I still won't like it. (6/12)
I think a lot of unpublished writers aren't a fan of generic feedback like, "It just isn't for me" or "I just couldn't connect with the story." Those in the business might give this feedback because they don't have time to give clear, (7/12)
helpful feedback on how to improve one's story while also individualizing it to the hundreds of writers they interact with each month. It can also be because they're worried about giving the wrong advice. A story that doesn't work for them might work for someone else, (8/12)
so there's the risk of compelling a writer to edit something until it isn't right for anyone. Obviously from the writer'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's the former, but the longer you pursue publishing, more frequently it's the latter. That'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'm passing on because I think the writer needs to continue working on their craft. Other submissions I'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)
