F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction (New Weird) Author

agents

Tail Wagging the Dog?

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Watch Out. We Do Bite Back. (By Sharla Perrin [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)
Watch Out. We Do Bite Back. (By Sharla Perrin [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)
It’s really bugged me, this thing that goes: “write what readers want to read.”

It’s also really bugged me this thing agents and editors say: “can you make this into a series?”

You see, as an artist, I take a certain umbrage at being told I have to write what others want to read. To me—to the artist inside me—I want to write what I want to write. What begs to be written by me, the stories that percolate and surface beneath and onto the surface of my mind. For me to have to write what others want to read is rather mercenary, at best. It’s looking at the whole thing from the wrong point of view (in my not-so-humble opinion), at worst.

Do painters and sculptors paint and sculpt what people want them to paint or sculpt?

Oh, and try telling that to a poet!

What happened to writers doing what they wanted to do, creating and expressing their own inner muses and creativity?

What happened to the single-book novel, nay I ask, what is so wrong with the single-book novel?

Anything can be sold. Abso-fricking-lutley anything.

I don’t want to write about vampires (without the “-yres”), I don’t want to write fantasy. I don’t want to write romance. I don’t want to be easily pigeonholed. I want my work to bridge genres. In and of themselves, there’s nothing wrong with any of these genres…except that there are too many of “the same” IMNSHO. I’m all for writers being successful, and feel there is room for all of us, but I am not for crappy writing being thrown around and slapped between two covers just because it will sell. I’m not for tritely cloned stories. And I feel for the writers who partake in this, because they feel they have to, to make it in this biz. If they want to do it, then that’s all them, more power to them, but, please, don’t do it just to cow to the Powers of Publishing. I have tied to read a lot of mid-list books a couple years ago, and found I just couldn’t do it. To me, and for the most part, the stories were tired and flat. Uninteresting. Trite. Poorly written.

Yet they sell.

Now, one or two were well-written, but the stories just didn’t interest me. Okay, that’s fair. I’m not everybody, and everybody’s not me, and my work isn’t for everybody. Different tastes keep life interesting. But, please, don’t coerce, intimidate, nor cajole me into writing like some other story out there just because some people are buying that particular “thing.” Fine, compare me, if it’s complimentary, but don’t force me into something I’m not.

Please, allow me (and others like me) to write what we want to write. If you don’t like it, fine, don’t read it, don’t take me on—but do not not take me on just because I’m not like what’s already out there, because it’d take just a little more Brain Power on your part to market and promote me. For chrissakes, people have told me my work has given them nightmares! You don’t get nightmares from stuff that doesn’t interest you, doesn’t bother you, doesn’t affect you in some, moving, profound, way! So, I’m betting that someone out there will like it. I don’t say this out of ego…I say this out of understanding humanity. If I like something, chances are someone out there will also like it. We’re really all quite similar in how we operate as Humans. If someone likes something, chances are so will others of our kind. I’ve written and published three novels. With one exception I can think of, the reviews are all favorable. So, I know I can write something–stand-alone books,  no less!—others would find interesting enough to read and review (and I thank all who took the time to review my books!)…have nightmares over!

It’s not that I’m so much against the Publishing World…as I am against the mindsets that drive it. I love most of the editors I’ve met, and some of the agents. I’d love to be able to work with a traditional publisher, regain agenting. I’m just asking for the mindsets to change…just a little. Become more open, more humane.

So, please, allow us to express our own unique creativity. Don’t force us into boxes that don’t exist. It is not a case of getting us to be more salable. You may think it is, but it’s not. You may have created a business out of distribution, but that doesn’t make it right that you impose your ways on us. You should work with us, as we are [trying to] work with you. You may feel like you have (or have had) the power to make or break us, but whether or not that may be the commercial case, that should not be the Human Way. You should not try to screw us over with your greedy, author unfriendly contracts. If you had no authors, you’d have no business. No power. If it wasn’t for us, you’d be nothing, and you’re power-purse-strings approach seems to squelch that for most, who succumb to your whims, but it doesn’t make what you’re doing right. This should be about distributing the work that we love and create—yes, with whatever needed improvements and polish that comes from professional editing—but, letting us do our job of writing what we love to write, and you do your job of distributing our work.

Money will be made.

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Shifting Gears

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Clutched? Shift!
Clutched? Shift! (Photo: RambergMediaImages.com)

Grind me a pound, will ya?

I feel…like a huge weight has been lifted from me.

Yesterday, I had a long talk with my agent about this SF-y action/adventure I’d been working on the past year, because the editor who came to me with the proposition (a first) turned it down—and (perhaps) rightly so.

Science fiction is really not my thing. I’ve written only one science fiction-y manuscript (actually a conspiracy theory with elements of science fiction…), and it’s a stand-alone, based in part on my early life, which I wrapped around aliens, government conspiracies, and gave new meaning to the term “extended family.”

NOTE: no, I have had no (zero-zilch-nada-nichts) personal extraterrestrial alien interaction at all.

That I know of.

Okay, back to this rejection thing. As much as the editor loved the ENERGY of my writing, the plot, he did not.

And I’m okay with that. I had issues with it, too.

But I tried, the past year, in doing something different, something outside “my box”…and I realized it’s simply not my thing. With an exception to follow, science fiction is not for me [to write]. I love writing about normal people experiencing weird shit. It’s that simple. Hey, it’s not like that stuff’s sold, either (though am considering other options)…but it’s what I love penning (penciling? keying?). In fact, I even try to be a little literary about it, my stories, whether or not I succeed still remains to be seen…but I try. Exception still to follow….

Not going to get into all the gory details—there really aren’t any—the whole series idea simply didn’t work, that’s all. We didn’t see eye-to-eye. That’s okay. And this whole time I worked on the project I felt…well…I felt conflicted…working on it (11 months on the thing as a whole, 8 months on the first draft). I just don’t do science fiction. And I don’t really do action/adventure, per se, though elements do surface in my material (but, at the same time—here’s the exception—I really do want to write an X-Files-like story…someday…so I might resurrect elements of this work later…). I do supernatural and paranormal. Everyday people. Mashing the two together. Somehow…I have to make that work better—correction, make that more salable. Or go indie publishing, which I’m still really considering for a couple works of mine. And, like my agent and I talked, it’s best I figured this out now, rather than forcing myself to continue plodding along at something I don’t really like doing or get stuck in some other project with less of an escape, if that be possible. It’s good to try new things every so often, even if they don’t pan out, because you always learn from everything you do. I truly believe that nothing in life is wasted, even if you can’t figure out what’s happening at the time or the why behind it….

But, he loved my energy!

I can bring a piece of paper alive, and I appreciate that from this editor-who’s-been-around. We get so few compliments on our work, so it was nice to receive this one.

My agent and I talked about other possibilities, I threw a couple ideas out—one of which I was working on directly before this project—and she liked them. Actually kinda liked the one I’d already started (120 pages in). And this one could even become a series—don’t know if I’ll go there, but I’m certainly going to put some thought toward it. But over the night and this early morning I also thought about maybe again looking into the Amazon CreateSpace route for one manuscript in particular, my supernatural whydunnit murder mystery. Stay tuned for possible developments.

But, oh, do I feel so much better! I appreciate all the help a handful of writer friends lent in creating this project, but it just didn’t feel right to me. Sometimes, I feel like I’m already in overdrive and am running out of gears…but I always have to go back to why I write in the first place (downshifting…). For the enjoyment, the imagination, the creativity. I’ve been doing this since I was six. I hope to keep doing it.

So, sure, I’ll grind a pound for ya—or ten. Want some cheese with that?

Shifting….

Joe Konrath and Jeffrey J. Mariotte on The New Publishing World

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Here’s a great post by Joe Konrath and Jeffrey J. Mariotte. Things are changing, and here is some stunning proof there is some good in all this publishing upset (and all for $2.99!). As the post indicates, it’s not about writers screwing The Big 6, agents, or anyone else–it’s about writers making a living. I love agents and print and even the Big 6, but a publishing outlet is a publishing outlet, and unless and until things change in the current model, the exodus will continue.