Breaking the rules

When I was writing and editing AHiP, I read a lot of advice from writing communities on places like Reddit and Quora. Some of it was extremely helpful, especially in detailing how to work with Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing and IngramSpark, and in whether and why I might want to work with both or with other self-publishing services. There was plenty of helpful information on abstruse topics like ISBN numbers and registering with the Library of Congress (come to think of it, I still need to send them a copy!). There was also a lot of interesting discussion on how different authors work, whether outlining in advance, or writing sketchy first drafts and adding details later. There were cautions against publishing crap and expecting it to sell, and against expecting any book, no matter how good, to sell without a lot of marketing.

A lot of it was really, really useful.

There was one thread of advice I found less useful, though; the constant admonishment that you will start out writing terrible stuff. This came from some people with a lot of published books, even some best-sellers, to their name, so I took it seriously, but, as with so much in the writing world, I don’t think there is one universal truth in this area. A good thing, because, as much as I enjoyed writing the book, I’m not motivated to write for myself. I could never keep a diary for than a few days, any time I tried, yet I maintained a daily blog for ten years, writing every weekday – because I was writing in community. Other people would comment and I’d read and comment on theirs, keeping it an ongoing conversation.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m far from thinking AHiP is a masterpiece. I’m reasonably certain an experienced editor would peg it as a debut author’s first book at once. As I’ve said before, I’d never written any fiction longer than a couple of pages before this, and not even a lot of short pieces. There are errors and typos in it, despite the efforts of a professional editor, a whole bunch of beta readers, and innumerable editing passes on my part. It’s light reading, not likely to change anyone’s worldview. And despite being relatively fluffy, it takes place in the aftermath of the pandemic, which apparently touches a nerve for some people even though things were much better by the time I’m writing about. Scar tissue, I guess.

On the other hand, I’m reasonably confident AHiP doesn’t suck. I have a whole bunch of reviews on Amazon and Goodreads saying that, if this isn’t a great book, at least it’s a book many people need to read right now. It’s oatmeal with plenty of cinnamon and sugar or a big bowl of popcorn with butter and salt; not haute cuisine, but comforting.

Maybe I’m a bit of a special case. After all, this is my first novel, but not my first book. And I’ve been writing (essays and poems, blogs, knitting patterns, technical documents and training materials) and maybe more importantly reading, my whole life. When I started writing AHiP, I realized that in a way, I’d been studying how fiction works for well over fifty years. On the other hand, being old isn’t that much of a special case! Two or more of my favorite authors didn’t start writing seriously until after retirement.

Admittedly, the first fiction I ever wrote, in college when a friend asked me to write something for a school magazine, sucked mightily. And again, I’m not saying I did it all well. There are some odd gaps. There’s not a ton of description in the book as published, for instance, and there was a whole lot less of it in my original draft. Characters’ last names are barely mentioned. Stuff like that.

But I am saying, it’s the first novel I’ve written, and I don’t think I should have stowed it away somewhere and written two more books before trying to publish anything

I did always bear in mind the idea that it might suck. I asked a friend who is a book reviewer I trust to read the first 5000 words or so, to see if she thought it was even worth going further. As noted, I asked plenty of people to look it over and tell me where it sucked and how to make it better. I would never encourage any author to publish a first draft without editing, polishing, and other eyes on it – maybe that one really is a universal rule. But being told that your first work will suck, that it will be too bad to be worth polishing, is a far cry from “Don’t publish your work until it’s as good as you can make it, and get independent opinions on whether it’s good enough.” I think the blanket statement that early work is unfixable might be too discouraging to insecure writers. So I’d say, write more. Edit more. Get other opinions. And always consider the possibility that your work might suck. Or not.