Everyone is looking for the NEXT BIG THING. If you’ve seen the promotional ads for the new TV show looking for the next big idea in a new restaurant, “America's Next Great Resaurant”, you know what I mean. Who doesn’t want to invent the next pet rock or Rubik’s cube and make millions? You know you wish you were the one to do it. Well, authors are just as guilty. I know I am. We want to be the one to write the next Da Vinci Code, Twilight, or Harry Potter stories. It can be the source of great angst, especially among authors like me who are published with small independent publishers. We want our special stories to be read far and wide. We want people to love them and make them into a movie. We want them to be translated into foreign languages so people overseas will love them too. Is this a crazy pipedream or what?
I’m starting to think it is crazy simply because nobody really knows exactly what the public will respond to. If they did know, those people would already be bizillionaires over and over again. It’s like my husband’s graphic design business...he gets people who want something done like a sign or a logo, but they don’t really know what they want until they see it.
Voila! An epiphany! That’s the problem with writing the next big blockbuster. Nobody knows what they want until they see it.
So we soldier on, toying with different ideas, running them past friends and family to see what they think, and expanding the plot until we finally have a book. We think it is the next best thing since sliced bread and so do our friends!
Next comes the reality check…actually submitting the book to agents and editors. Now you’ve gone and done it! You’ve opened the flood gates and opinions start rolling in from the outside world—the publishing world where even J.K. Rawlings had rejections. Oh, yes. The rejections come. Most of them are vague, like “not for me” or “not what I’m looking for at this time”. But once in a while you can get a rejection that gives an author something to go on. I got one rejection for my latest manuscript where the editor told me that the conflict between the hero and heroine wasn’t strong enough. Now we are getting somewhere! I can make them fight with each other more. Sure, I can do that! But with the glut of authors vying for publishing spots, we often don’t get a second chance to fix the story and resubmit to the same editor. They’ve moved on to the next story, which the editor is hoping will be the next big thing.
So we learn from our mistakes, shore up our broken egos, try our best to fix what is perceived to be wrong, and submit the story to someone else.
And so it goes…
~Diane
P.S. My manuscript was accepted by Vinspire Publishing. Look for MOONLIGHT AND ILLUSIONS to come out soon. Yippee! Celebrate for a few days and then…
Hmmm…I wonder what the next big blockbuster story idea might be?
I’m starting to think it is crazy simply because nobody really knows exactly what the public will respond to. If they did know, those people would already be bizillionaires over and over again. It’s like my husband’s graphic design business...he gets people who want something done like a sign or a logo, but they don’t really know what they want until they see it.
Voila! An epiphany! That’s the problem with writing the next big blockbuster. Nobody knows what they want until they see it.
So we soldier on, toying with different ideas, running them past friends and family to see what they think, and expanding the plot until we finally have a book. We think it is the next best thing since sliced bread and so do our friends!
Next comes the reality check…actually submitting the book to agents and editors. Now you’ve gone and done it! You’ve opened the flood gates and opinions start rolling in from the outside world—the publishing world where even J.K. Rawlings had rejections. Oh, yes. The rejections come. Most of them are vague, like “not for me” or “not what I’m looking for at this time”. But once in a while you can get a rejection that gives an author something to go on. I got one rejection for my latest manuscript where the editor told me that the conflict between the hero and heroine wasn’t strong enough. Now we are getting somewhere! I can make them fight with each other more. Sure, I can do that! But with the glut of authors vying for publishing spots, we often don’t get a second chance to fix the story and resubmit to the same editor. They’ve moved on to the next story, which the editor is hoping will be the next big thing.
So we learn from our mistakes, shore up our broken egos, try our best to fix what is perceived to be wrong, and submit the story to someone else.
And so it goes…
~Diane
P.S. My manuscript was accepted by Vinspire Publishing. Look for MOONLIGHT AND ILLUSIONS to come out soon. Yippee! Celebrate for a few days and then…
Hmmm…I wonder what the next big blockbuster story idea might be?
If you are interested in seeing what I come up with, you can sign up for my newsletter at http://www.dianewylie.com.
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