*whoosh*

[ksmith]

It's a windy day. My leaping reindeer lawn decoration is half toppled, and given the roaring I heard during the night, I fully expected to find my wreaths had been stripped off the side of the house and tumbled to parts unknown. But they were still attached, as was the one on the garage. The wonders of really solid hooks.

I've been pondering the writing business, which is bound to make one crazy but there you go. Someone I know from another list just separated from their agent. I remember when this person signed on with said agent, who was their first choice and a grand choice overall. Great agency, with lots of bestsellers. The agent zirself had a very solid rep.

No clue what happened, and I don't know this writer well enough to ask. It didn't sound like it was their decision. I could guess that it was due to a list purge. Maybe a business disagreement. So now this writer needs to start the search all over again. They've done it before, and will likely end up well, but they're still dealing and it can be a shock. But it's also a reminder that agenting is a business just like writing, and one agent's "solid" can be another's "not worth the time." ETA: I should add that this writer has contracts to fulfill. Definitely a working writer. If I could hazard a guess, I would say that this agent doesn't have much patience with career upsets at the non-bestseller level, but that would just be a guess. I'm just glad I never took certain folks' advice and applied to this agent. Not that they would have taken me, but still. One time when it paid to listen to the little voice.

Also talk on the list of where the publishing business is headed. Some folks seem to feel that The Long Tail may help save the midlist, assuming that there are sufficient smaller publishers out there willing to publish those works, along with a decent distribution system. One fear is that this may ring down the curtain on the higher advances--by "higher", I mean low-mid five figures, enough that one or two books a year could cover major bills or even be enough to live on. Advances of a few thousand, and smaller sales, will make it more difficult for midlisters to make a living writing fiction. Bestsellers, mainstream and genre, will, I think, always have a home with the Bigs in NY. The rest of us...I think it's going to be an adventure, which may turn out well. But the journey will be rough and what we wind up with may be very different than what we face now. Granted, what we face now sucks, but it's the devil we know.

You're not going to hear a lot of rah rah writing talk from me. Been there, done that. Maybe it's that I don't take coaching well--it gets me to a certain point, but then I'm still on my own. If I don't have the fuel or momentum to power through on what becomes an increasingly solitary journey, no amount of external push is going to get me where I need to go. At various stages, I simply reach the point when where I am at the moment isn't enough, and I need to move on. "Stop going to the conferences and just write the damned book." "Try writing something else." "Make up my mind how I'm going to approach this business and make it fit in my life instead of the other way around." Discussing things with others can help, but in the end, I need to make the decision. Put in the time. Deal with the realities of the business, which can lay waste to the sturdiest egos.

Graham Greene's sliver of ice in the heart. You need to save some for the business side of things. At least, I have to. My terms, as much as is possible.

And that's my ramble for the day.

Comments

[juliabk.livejournal.com]

I always love reading your rambles. :-) While you and I are very different in many ways, the places where we're in synch are fairly deeply set. Risk aversion, for example. That fuels more of my decisions than I sometimes care to think of.

I never heard the term "the long tail" before, but it makes sense. Should be interesting to see how it plays out over time.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Risk-aversion, yes. Comes from instances of no Christmas, or the need to seek help, or simply the observation over a long period of time that other adults in one's life were irresponsible in the extreme.

I've been hearing the Long Tail discussed for months now. Hope springs eternal--it makes sense that publishing could undergo cable-ization, a house for every taste. I think I will--knock wood--likely be able to sell my stuff. For how much, and how will it be released? Them's the questions.

[juliabk.livejournal.com]

Yeah, 'how much' is always a question. Still, being on the shelves and *staying* on the shelves is a biggie. If you're not there, you can't sell.

[jimhines.livejournal.com]

One of the things I liked about my agent when I first signed with him is that he said several times that his approach is to stick with his clients for the long term. Given all of my newbie insecurities, this was very reassuring. But you're right, it's still a business relationship, and stuff happens...

The long tail phenomenon is interesting. That makes a lot of sense though, for publishers willing to keep a book in print for a while. (Or with small-press/POD re-releases.) I imagine it would be especially true with writers, since every new release will likely generate interest in the author's backlist as well.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Your agent is a sticker. From what I've seen, mine is a sticker, as well. It's one bit of stability in an unstable environment.

I think the next decade in the publishing industry is going to be interesting. Bumpy and teeth-gnashing, but interesting.

Listening to "Silent Night" by "Celtic Woman". Very nice.

[jimhines.livejournal.com]

"Bumpy and teeth-gnashing, but interesting."

Sounds about the same as my last decade of writing, actually :-)

[moon-happy.livejournal.com]

What you wrote resonated here. I like being able to watch the changes in publishing without worrying that the next one will be a personal catastrophy. I'm a tough old broad, but I like to think I'm smart, too, to work at three careers between two people and keep the family intact! Hard, hard for many years; easier now. I like your path, too!

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

It's a trade-off. I lose writing time, but I build the cushion that will cover the majors when I decide to take the retirement plunge and write full (or possibly part) time. I have to hope that my habit of being the late bloomer plays out with writing as well, that I'm still producing in my late 50s, 60s, 70s, when traditional wisdom holds that my output should slow.

There are certain experiences I had with the Jani series that I don't want to repeat, mostly on the business side.