{"id":4533,"date":"2015-06-18T06:25:34","date_gmt":"2015-06-18T10:25:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=4533"},"modified":"2015-06-18T06:25:34","modified_gmt":"2015-06-18T10:25:34","slug":"new-authors-wishful-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=4533","title":{"rendered":"New Authors’ Wishful Thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"wishbone\"

(photo: Dayna Bateman, Creative Commons license)<\/p><\/div>\n

The SheWrites website recently posted a Brooke Warner essay<\/a> on ways aspiring authors can be tripped up by wishful thinking. If you\u2019re an author\u2014or a friend of one\u2014you may recognize these thought patterns. I do! Their root is often simply impatience. After spending so much time writing the book\u2014years, maybe\u2014we want to move on. Warner says:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. New authors shortchange the time spent on their query letter, proposal, and marketing strategy, in the hope it can be planned and implemented in \u201ca matter of months.\u201d I am a prime example. I have sent out query letters for my \u201cfinished\u201d manuscript, been mostly rejected (or ignored), worked on the manuscript more, revised my queries, tried again; lather, rinse, repeat. Finally, having worked with an external editor, I\u2019m so much closer to having a publishable manuscript than when I was first querying\u2014but I didn\u2019t realize that then!<\/li>\n
  2. Authors hope they can avoid doing promotion by outsourcing their social media activities. Although there are services that would do this for me, I\u2019ve never considered it. I learn a lot from doing my own social media, and while I\u2019m not 100% successful, at least it\u2019s me, not a \u201ca hollow message\u201d that potential Facebook friends and Twitter followers see.<\/li>\n
  3. As a last resort, they purchase social media lists. At best, a short-term strategy. Doesn\u2019t work.<\/li>\n
  4. They hope to avoid the additional delay and expense of having a book copyedited and proofread. I don\u2019t know whose fault it is\u2014ultimately, no one should be more committed to a good outcome than the author\u2014but I\u2019ve seen so many books lately that were not given the chance to be their best. Is this just a cosmetic quibble? When I see a book that consistently calls an Italian gentleman Signore Rizzo, when it should be Signor Rizzo, it shows me the author has a tin ear. And if he makes that kind of error (among so many others), how much care will have been taken with every other aspect of the writing?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Ultimately, authors must not be trapped by wishful thinking, because the competition is so tough. \u201cTake this as a reality check that it\u2019s hard, especially as a debut author, not only to sell books but also to get a book deal, to get serious media attention, to get reviews.\u201d Eyes wide open, says Wagner, give authors the best shot at avoiding disappointment and achieving a satisfying publishing experience. But it’s hard not to wish it were all a little easier . . .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The SheWrites website recently posted a Brooke Warner essay on ways aspiring authors can be tripped up by wishful thinking. If you\u2019re an author\u2014or a friend of one\u2014you may recognize these thought patterns. I do! Their root is often simply … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"New Authors' Wishful Thinking - avoiding traps on the road to publication","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[62,174,64,256,29],"tags":[419,28],"class_list":["post-4533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-authors","category-first-draft-blog","category-promotion","category-social-media-2","category-writing","tag-publishing","tag-writers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1b7","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4533"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4535,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4533\/revisions\/4535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}