Previously Published? Buzz Off.

Normally I adore Nathan Bransford and consider his agent blog to be much more respectful to writers than others, but he really dropped the ball today on his post today about previously published authors. I commented and here’s what I had to say;

Goodness gracious. I can't imagine why anyone would find this post encouraging. It's a very, very sad statement on a writers' place in the publishing world.

First of all, editors and agent can have all kinds of failures and still hold their jobs. As a writer, on the other hand, one false move and you're toast. How many people are wildly successful right out of the gate? Why are writers held to such impossible standards? What happened to career building?

Take Dan Brown for instance. His editor stuck with him through several books with lackluster sales and then, surprise,
surprise, he knocked it out of the ballpark.

Like any business, publishing takes a while to learn. Dan Brown figured it out and kudos to his editor and pub company who didn't dump him just because he was a slow starter.

And any agent who is queried by a published author is lucky indeed. They are getting a letter from a person who already knows the business, is a savvy marketer, knows how to take edits and is already been vetted by the publishing world. A published author is frequently miles ahead of the average person who queries an agent (not to diss unpublished authors but there are a LOT of dabblers out there and that's what I mean by "average.")

And yes, if you're a published author, you do hope that agents will treat you a wee bit different from the dabblers, and be respectful of your accomplishments without saying with a sniff, "A debut author is easier to sell."

After all, aren't agents and editors with a track record treated differently than newbies? Why should it be so different for writers? Yes, I understand about the dreadful Bookscan obstacle but most writers are only too happy to take on a pen name. And I do think published authors should follow the “query rules” but no need to yell at them with caps if they don’t.
Sady debut authors are more exciting than "previously published authors." They are so grateful and they don't ask a lot of pesky questions. They are discoveries and therefore celebrated, that is until they have disappointing sales and are the summarily discarded.

There are precious few writers who have hit the big time on their first few times out, but as statistics bear out, more authors fail to earn out than don't. And if you look at the backgrounds of most bestselling authors you will see a slow climb to the top, with many failures along the way. Thank goodness they were helped along by some editors and agents along the way who understood and appreciated their worth.

Next post: a little something about royalties and (big shock) how the author is the last to be paid.