In November, I announced that I’d be querying literary agents with my new women’s fiction novel, THE SEESAW EFFECT, about a professional Democrat who loses her job after the wave election, only to watch her husband become the next Rush Limbaugh. (That post and my query letter is here.) I ended up querying only those agents who’d read KEEPING SCORE, so it was a pretty short list. (Plus two who had favorited my tweet about the book during a Twitter Pitch festival.)
The stats: 15 agents queried. Eight asked for pages, while four said no thanks and only three did not respond at all. Of those eight agents, seven have passed on the project. Here are their reasons:
I’m afraid though that the story fell flat for me. The hook just wasn’t there and I didn’t think the ante was big enough to keep most readers reading. In a nutshell the story felt a little too familiar.
I'm afraid this doesn't seem like the right project for me, but I'm sure other agents will feel differently.
Although I was intrigued by the initial premise of the story, in the end, I just didn't feel the writing was what I was looking for. For me, it came down to a purely subjective decision. While I thought the premise was there, the writing itself just didn't connect with me enough.
The subject here just leaves me cold. It just doesn’t sing to me.
While your pages are interesting, unfortunately, I have had several editors tell me lately that they didn’t think political fiction was working well on the market and unfortunately, I didn’t see another hook in this story to get us past that hurdle.
While your novel has merit, I am forced to give serious consideration to the realities of the marketplace when deciding which writers to represent.
While I do like the premise here and thought the back-and-forth dialogue between Erin and Jack was fun and well-written, I'm afraid I'm going to have to pass on going further with this project. Reading through these early pages, unfortunately I just didn't connect with the narrative voice the way I had hoped to.
I really appreciate these agents reading my pages and taking the time to get back to me with their reasons why they passed. As someone who reads for an agent, I know how difficult it to is to find that project you love and that the marketplace will embrace. I’ve passed on so many novels, it’s karma that my own book is now the one being passed.
In his book On Writing, Stephen King advises writers to give their manuscripts to early readers for feedback. If one person has a specific complaint it’s safe to ignore it, but if three or more come back with the same point, you have to pay attention. He didn’t have any advice on what to do when the feedback is different but the result is the same.
I sent out these queries knowing that the book would be a tough sell, and indeed two of the rejections seem to point to that. Others seem to say they like the story but not the writing; some agents liked the writing but not the story.
I know every published writer has a long list of rejections they received before they signed with that one agent who plucked them out of the slush pile. But for every writer whose dreams of representation came true, there are dozens of writers who never got picked.
How do you know when to keep going with a specific story, or when to give up and concentrate on the next one? I have a friend with strong story sense giving THE SEESAW EFFECT a read right now … hopefully she’ll be able to come up with some major ideas for a rewrite. Nibbling around the edges isn’t going to cut it. I’ve recommended several books that had problems, but if I really enjoyed the premise and characters, a few minor problems weren’t an issue. Obviously this book has major problems … I just need to find out what they are and fix them … if possible.
In the meantime, if anyone has some wonderful “I got rejected by a hundred agents and then agent 101 loved it” stories, I need to read them!
Monday, February 23, 2015
Monday, February 9, 2015
Relying on the Unreliable Narrator
The first Agatha Christie book I read was “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd” … and it was almost the last. I was about 10, and ready to give up my “Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators” and “Trixie Belden” books for some adult mysteries. I picked up “Roger” one day in the library. With only an hour to read, I got through the first few chapters, and then skipped ahead to the end.
Spoiler space in case you haven’t read the book and someday might ….
The last few paragraphs of the book are the narrator cackling to the reader how he was the one who killed Roger. I practically threw the book across the room. I hadn’t even read the entire thing, and I was still furious.
A novel – especially one written in first person, as “Roger” is – is a personal dialogue between reader and protagonist. The reader assumes that the protagonist is giving the reader all the information needed to follow the story, in a mostly unbiased account. When that trust is broken, chaos ensues. Apparently “Roger” was very controversial when it was originally published.
With the success of “Gone Girl” and the current release “The Girl on a Train,” unreliable narrators are coming back in fashion. I’ve also read several in the slush pile for the agency I read for. (These were not done well.) If you’re considering writing a novel with an unreliable narrator, be advised that this is one of the hardest gimmicks to pull off in fiction. And it is a gimmick. When done well, the narrator’s inconsistency will be just another feature of the book. If done poorly, the entire book will revolve around this sleigh-of-hand, and readers will feel cheated.
In written fiction, the unreliable narrator is very similar to the trick ending in movies popularized by M. Night Shyamalan – and he was only able to get away with it once. Basically these movies hinge on the fact that the protagonist doesn’t know the truth about his identity, whether it’s that he’s a ghost or he’s mentally ill. Similarly, the unreliable narrator works when there’s something about her life that the protagonist doesn’t know, or she’s lied to herself so completely that her lies seem like the truth – for instance, how a stalker ex-boyfriend might view his ex-girlfriend and her new family.
If you’re considering an unreliable narrator, ask yourself a few questions:
Will my story work just as well with a conventional narrator? The answer here should be yes. If not, the unreliable narrator is a gimmick.
Are there other aspects of my story that will clue in the reader that an unreliable narrator is at work? Again, the answer here should be yes. You want your reader to end the book by hitting herself on the head, swearing that she “should have seen that coming,” and immediately re-reading the book to spot the clues she should have seen in the first read.
When is the best time to reveal that my narrator is unreliable? There is no one definite answer to this – a talented writer could pull this off in the first paragraph. “Gone Girl” alternates between Nick and Amy’s point of view – Nick is revealed as an unreliable narrator when his previously unmentioned girlfriend texts him from outside his sister’s house; Amy’s revelation comes when her faux diary ends. The first reveal lets the reader know it’s possible Nick did kill Amy after all; the second assures the reader that he did not. However, most books using an unreliable narrator save that reveal for the end.
Is the only thing noteworthy about this book is that it features an unreliable narrator? The answer here needs to be “no.” The plot has to be compelling without that feature.
Am I using an unreliable narrator to get away with not having to give the reader certain information or fully develop characters? Again, the answer here needs to be no.
Having an unreliable narrator can be a fun twist that makes a book unforgettable. It can also be a gimmick that frustrates and annoys readers. It’s a very difficult trick to pull off, but with careful plotting and studying, it can be done successfully.
Goodreads has a long list of books featuring unreliable narrators; check it out here.
Spoiler space in case you haven’t read the book and someday might ….
The last few paragraphs of the book are the narrator cackling to the reader how he was the one who killed Roger. I practically threw the book across the room. I hadn’t even read the entire thing, and I was still furious.
A novel – especially one written in first person, as “Roger” is – is a personal dialogue between reader and protagonist. The reader assumes that the protagonist is giving the reader all the information needed to follow the story, in a mostly unbiased account. When that trust is broken, chaos ensues. Apparently “Roger” was very controversial when it was originally published.
With the success of “Gone Girl” and the current release “The Girl on a Train,” unreliable narrators are coming back in fashion. I’ve also read several in the slush pile for the agency I read for. (These were not done well.) If you’re considering writing a novel with an unreliable narrator, be advised that this is one of the hardest gimmicks to pull off in fiction. And it is a gimmick. When done well, the narrator’s inconsistency will be just another feature of the book. If done poorly, the entire book will revolve around this sleigh-of-hand, and readers will feel cheated.
In written fiction, the unreliable narrator is very similar to the trick ending in movies popularized by M. Night Shyamalan – and he was only able to get away with it once. Basically these movies hinge on the fact that the protagonist doesn’t know the truth about his identity, whether it’s that he’s a ghost or he’s mentally ill. Similarly, the unreliable narrator works when there’s something about her life that the protagonist doesn’t know, or she’s lied to herself so completely that her lies seem like the truth – for instance, how a stalker ex-boyfriend might view his ex-girlfriend and her new family.
If you’re considering an unreliable narrator, ask yourself a few questions:
Will my story work just as well with a conventional narrator? The answer here should be yes. If not, the unreliable narrator is a gimmick.
Are there other aspects of my story that will clue in the reader that an unreliable narrator is at work? Again, the answer here should be yes. You want your reader to end the book by hitting herself on the head, swearing that she “should have seen that coming,” and immediately re-reading the book to spot the clues she should have seen in the first read.
When is the best time to reveal that my narrator is unreliable? There is no one definite answer to this – a talented writer could pull this off in the first paragraph. “Gone Girl” alternates between Nick and Amy’s point of view – Nick is revealed as an unreliable narrator when his previously unmentioned girlfriend texts him from outside his sister’s house; Amy’s revelation comes when her faux diary ends. The first reveal lets the reader know it’s possible Nick did kill Amy after all; the second assures the reader that he did not. However, most books using an unreliable narrator save that reveal for the end.
Is the only thing noteworthy about this book is that it features an unreliable narrator? The answer here needs to be “no.” The plot has to be compelling without that feature.
Am I using an unreliable narrator to get away with not having to give the reader certain information or fully develop characters? Again, the answer here needs to be no.
Having an unreliable narrator can be a fun twist that makes a book unforgettable. It can also be a gimmick that frustrates and annoys readers. It’s a very difficult trick to pull off, but with careful plotting and studying, it can be done successfully.
Goodreads has a long list of books featuring unreliable narrators; check it out here.
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Try a bit of That Old Black Magic!
Synopsis:
Lizzie Hart hoped her first day back at work after nearly being killed would be uneventful. No such luck. Before she can finish her morning coffee, Lizzie and her co-workers find a dead body on the rooftop of their office. Media vultures that they are, the Liberty Chronicle employees are psyched to have first-hand news to report. Lizzie, however, is devastated when she realizes that the victim is her ex-boyfriend’s brother.
When evidence begins piling up against one of Lizzie’s friends, she reluctantly dons her detective hat once again, determined to find the real killer. She’s not thrilled about chasing another psychopath around, but she’ll do anything for a friend. Lizzie’s love life is rapidly becoming a hot mess, too. Her latest attempt at sleuthing isn’t leaving much time for her budding romance with town hunk Blake Morgan. Add that to the fact she’s hiding a secret so big it could rock the very core of their relationship, it’s no wonder that Lizzie’s in a tizzy.
Poor Lizzie ends up juggling a murder investigation, a wacky Wiccan coven, and two men vying for her attention—all while nursing injuries left over from the last time she decided to play Nancy Drew. It’s a good thing she always has a few tricks up her sleeve.
Rafflecopter!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
In honor of the release of THAT OLD BLACK MAGIC, Lizzie’s first book (IT’S JUST A LITTLE CRUSH) will be on sale for $0.99 all this week!
Buy links:
IT’S JUST A LITTLE CRUSH:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
THAT OLD BLACK MAGIC:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Revising the Revision Process
As every writer knows, writing is rewriting – except for those who insist writing is editing. Either way you slice it, you can’t get away with writing “the end” and saying “I’m done!”
One piece of advice I got early in my journey to publication was to write a “vomit draft” – just get everything down on the page, as quickly as possible, while silencing your internal editor. Don’t look back; just keep going and going until you hit “the end.” The danger in “editing as you go,” this direction warned, was that you’d stifle your creativity and spend so much time just trying to get certain words right that you end up never finishing the book at all. I’ve always followed this advice, mainly because I’ve been terrified about not finishing projects. While every writer has a computer or trash can filled with unfinished stories, no one makes their dreams come true if none of those stories has an ending.
The Writers in Paradise conference I just attended (and when I named this blog I had no idea there was such a conference) had two separate speakers talk on the art of revision. Neither of them recommended that a writer complete a first draft before starting the revision process.
Author Ann Hood (An Italian Wife, The Red Thread, The Knitting Circle, etc.) believes every writer needs to develop his or her own editing system. Hood personally starts her writing day by reading the previous day’s pages out loud. Other systems she mentioned:
The writer prints out and reads to revise in 50 page increments.
Saving every Friday for “editing day.
Editing at the end of every writing day.
Beginning each writing day by reading and revising everything that’s been written so far. (I imagine days would get pretty long near the end of the novel!)
Personally, I like the “save Friday for editing day” edict, as my Fridays tend to be too busy for writing but there are pockets of time where I can make notes. For me, editing can be done in spurts no matter where I am, while writing requires a long stretch of time and a quiet place. I also plan to work on the book outline at the same time – I continually strive to be more of a planner than I actually am.
Although these steps seem glib, the revision process is anything but easy. It’s one thing to realize your protagonist comes across as shallow; it’s another to take the steps in the writing that show her in all her layers. Writing is hard. Rewriting is harder. But for most of us, it’s not a choice.
What’s your editing system? Let me know in the comments …
One piece of advice I got early in my journey to publication was to write a “vomit draft” – just get everything down on the page, as quickly as possible, while silencing your internal editor. Don’t look back; just keep going and going until you hit “the end.” The danger in “editing as you go,” this direction warned, was that you’d stifle your creativity and spend so much time just trying to get certain words right that you end up never finishing the book at all. I’ve always followed this advice, mainly because I’ve been terrified about not finishing projects. While every writer has a computer or trash can filled with unfinished stories, no one makes their dreams come true if none of those stories has an ending.
The Writers in Paradise conference I just attended (and when I named this blog I had no idea there was such a conference) had two separate speakers talk on the art of revision. Neither of them recommended that a writer complete a first draft before starting the revision process.
Author Ann Hood (An Italian Wife, The Red Thread, The Knitting Circle, etc.) believes every writer needs to develop his or her own editing system. Hood personally starts her writing day by reading the previous day’s pages out loud. Other systems she mentioned:
The writer prints out and reads to revise in 50 page increments.
Saving every Friday for “editing day.
Editing at the end of every writing day.
Beginning each writing day by reading and revising everything that’s been written so far. (I imagine days would get pretty long near the end of the novel!)
Personally, I like the “save Friday for editing day” edict, as my Fridays tend to be too busy for writing but there are pockets of time where I can make notes. For me, editing can be done in spurts no matter where I am, while writing requires a long stretch of time and a quiet place. I also plan to work on the book outline at the same time – I continually strive to be more of a planner than I actually am.
Although these steps seem glib, the revision process is anything but easy. It’s one thing to realize your protagonist comes across as shallow; it’s another to take the steps in the writing that show her in all her layers. Writing is hard. Rewriting is harder. But for most of us, it’s not a choice.
What’s your editing system? Let me know in the comments …
Monday, January 12, 2015
Welcome 2015!
This is the third January that I’ve been writing this blog, and I was certain that I must have written a post on New Year’s resolutions for writers, and I had planned to crib off that one. But no dice. So without further ado, here’s a list of a few things writers should resolve to do this year:
WRITE. I know this sounds obvious – writers write; non-writers don’t write – but it’s surprising how many people call themselves writers and then fail to write anything. Professional writers write every day. Professional writers usually have three projects going on – one in the planning stage, one in the writing stage, and one in the editing stage – and that doesn’t even count the ones that have been published and are in the marketing stage. Write something. If you can’t write every day, write once a week. But for goodness’ sake, write!
READ. Again with the obvious. But let’s face it, there’s a lot of good TV and movies out there. But writers need to read books. A lot of books. Mostly in their genre. They need to keep track of what’s hot and what isn’t. And just for chuckles, they also need to read books outside their genre. I generally read two-three books a week, although most of these are either manuscripts for the agency I read for, or books I’m reviewing for Chick Lit Central. I read on the treadmill, so I knock out exercise and reading at the same time. GO ME.
HELP ANOTHER WRITER. This isn’t just to be noble and helpful, although those are good things too. Reading other people’s raw manuscripts will help you become a better writer. It’s easier to see mistakes in others’ writing than in your own, and once you do, you’ll keep an eye out for them in your own projects.
GO SOMEWHERE. Go to a writer’s conference, join a writer’s group, go on a writer’s retreat, just GO. These events force you to take yourself seriously as a writer. (Unless your writers’ group is filled with people who don’t take themselves seriously, in which case find another group.) They stress deadlines, editing, networking, education. GO YOU.
SET SMALL GOALS. This may seem counterintuitive, especially for a New Year’s resolution post, but the main reason people fail at achieving the goals they set is they set them too big, don’t accomplish them, and then feel like failures and quit the project entirely. Don’t do that! If your goal is to write 10 pages a day, that’s huge. Write one page a day. Or write one page every other day. Just set something small, achieve it, and then set a bigger goal. It’s like weightlifting. You don’t bench press 500 pounds your first day at the gym. You bench press the bar and it’s hard! But eventually, if you go to the gym three times a week, you’ll get to that goal.
I’m going to be scarce for the next two weeks as I’ll be attending Eckert College’s writer’s conference, Writers In Paradise. I’m very excited and will report on what I learn!
WRITE. I know this sounds obvious – writers write; non-writers don’t write – but it’s surprising how many people call themselves writers and then fail to write anything. Professional writers write every day. Professional writers usually have three projects going on – one in the planning stage, one in the writing stage, and one in the editing stage – and that doesn’t even count the ones that have been published and are in the marketing stage. Write something. If you can’t write every day, write once a week. But for goodness’ sake, write!
READ. Again with the obvious. But let’s face it, there’s a lot of good TV and movies out there. But writers need to read books. A lot of books. Mostly in their genre. They need to keep track of what’s hot and what isn’t. And just for chuckles, they also need to read books outside their genre. I generally read two-three books a week, although most of these are either manuscripts for the agency I read for, or books I’m reviewing for Chick Lit Central. I read on the treadmill, so I knock out exercise and reading at the same time. GO ME.
HELP ANOTHER WRITER. This isn’t just to be noble and helpful, although those are good things too. Reading other people’s raw manuscripts will help you become a better writer. It’s easier to see mistakes in others’ writing than in your own, and once you do, you’ll keep an eye out for them in your own projects.
GO SOMEWHERE. Go to a writer’s conference, join a writer’s group, go on a writer’s retreat, just GO. These events force you to take yourself seriously as a writer. (Unless your writers’ group is filled with people who don’t take themselves seriously, in which case find another group.) They stress deadlines, editing, networking, education. GO YOU.
SET SMALL GOALS. This may seem counterintuitive, especially for a New Year’s resolution post, but the main reason people fail at achieving the goals they set is they set them too big, don’t accomplish them, and then feel like failures and quit the project entirely. Don’t do that! If your goal is to write 10 pages a day, that’s huge. Write one page a day. Or write one page every other day. Just set something small, achieve it, and then set a bigger goal. It’s like weightlifting. You don’t bench press 500 pounds your first day at the gym. You bench press the bar and it’s hard! But eventually, if you go to the gym three times a week, you’ll get to that goal.
I’m going to be scarce for the next two weeks as I’ll be attending Eckert College’s writer’s conference, Writers In Paradise. I’m very excited and will report on what I learn!
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Get Piqued! Congratulations, Tracie Banister, on Your New Release!
This week, a spotlight on a new chick lit release: Tracie Banister's Twin Piques!
How she can read the hearts and minds of animals has always been a mystery to Willa, and her rotten luck with men is equally baffling. Although she’s been looking for “The One” for what feels like forever (A teenage marriage to a French mime and dating a guy named Spider seemed like good ideas at the time!), optimistic Willa refuses to give up on love. When she meets Brody, the handsome rose expert hired to save her grandmother’s garden, she’s instantly smitten, but why does he keep sending her mixed signals? Does he return her feelings, or is their attraction all in her fanciful head?
Unlike her twin, Sloane has zero interest in romance. Her passion is her job, where she uses her gift for numbers to take down slimy embezzlers and asset-hiding spouses. When she’s assigned two high profile cases, Sloane feels confident the promotion she’s been angling for is within her grasp. But will her plan to climb the corporate ladder be thwarted by difficult clients, her co-worker-with-benefits, or – most surprisingly of all – her own sister? And how’s she supposed to stay focused on the drama at work when her childhood friend, Gav, moves in next door and the spark between them becomes impossible to ignore?
To get what they both want, can Willa and Sloane band together and rely on each other’s strengths? Or will their differences drive them apart once and for all?
Author Bio
Tracie’s dreams of authorial success were put on the backburner when she reached adulthood and discovered that she needed a "real" job in order to pay her bills. Her career as personal assistant to a local entrepreneur lasted for 12 years. When it ended, she decided to follow her bliss and dedicate herself to writing full-time. Twin Piques is her third Chick Lit release. The pet psychic character in this novel was inspired by Tracie’s rascally rescue dogs. She’d love to know what goes on in their heads!
Buy Twin Piques:
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Monday, December 29, 2014
Best Books of the Year! (not)
It’s that time of year again …. The time where every newspaper and magazine that covers pop culture comes out with their best books of the year. I’ve seen lists in magazines like Salon, Atlantic, Entertainment Weekly … and even in these diverse periodicals, the books are pretty much the same. And I’ve read half of one of them.
What does it take for a book to be named one of the best of the year, or to get a glowing review from a major publication? From my admittedly jaded viewpoint, these books are either poetic-sounding historical literary fiction with titles like “Breath Forms Clouds of Sunlight,” or a non-fiction tome that could double as a dictionary, usually a biography about some nineteenth century general or cabinet member.
These books may be heavy and important, but they’re usually not fun. And I like fun. I read for fun.
It makes me wonder whether these lists are helpful in getting more people to read, or if the majority react the way I do – that reading these books is a task, something you have to do, like exercise or flossing or getting a colonoscopy.
I fell in love with reading at a very early age. Some of my earliest memories are of my favorite picture books, like “Harold and the Purple Crayon.” In early elementary school, I was addicted to the “Little House” books. A year or so later, my mother introduced me to some of Beverly Cleary’s books about teenagers. Even when I went away to sleep away camp in the mountains, I could usually be found in the library.
In middle school and high school, though, reading became a chore. It’s almost as if reading and English teachers deliberately assign the most obtuse, plodding work available. Rather than getting lost in intriguing stories and characters I could identify with, I was totally lost looking for symbolism and foreshadowing and trying to decipher strange vocabulary.
This is also the period where I got hooked on certain serial TV shows. Coincidence? I think not. It wasn’t until I’d graduated college, got my first fulltime job and needed something to do during those metro commutes that I discovered reading for pleasure again.
My son underwent a similar journey. I read to him from the time he could understand words, and together we went from Curious George to Harry Potter, with Animorphs and private investigators in between. And then the public school system struck. When he brought “Sarah Plain and Tall” home from the first grade, I knew it was all over. And while as a college student he’s become a voracious reader, unfortunately it’s all non-fiction. (although with some of those political books he likes, calling them non-fiction could be a stretch.)
I love women’s fiction. Early Stephen King-style horror. Mysteries with female protagonists, especially if they’re PIs. In other words, nothing you’d see reviewed on the front page of the New York Times book section.
Jennifer Weiner is well-known for speaking out about how female authors who write in her genre aren’t reviewed the way male authors are. Recently Jodi Picoult gave an interview with a similar complaint. Sadly, Jennifer is viewed as “Jennifer Whiner,” as some – including other authors – see her complaints as personally motivated. I don’t doubt her personal situation figures into her feelings somewhat, but the issue is bigger than that, and bigger than one or two authors. When Liane Moriarty can take over the New York Times bestseller list but be ignored for reviews in that same newspaper, it isn’t just about her, or Jennifer, or Jodi. It’s about you and me and every reader (and all these authors have owned the Times’ lists) who enjoys books in this genre. (And don’t get me started on the romance genre. I’m not a reader, but it’s the most popular genre in publishing.) These publications are saying our tastes don’t matter. We don’t matter. If we’re not reading “Blue Butterfly, Black Clouds” then we don’t deserve to have books in our genre evaluated. If it’s good, bad, whatever … we’re on our own.
And it’s also frustrating to me as a writer, because even though the conventional advice is “write what you know/write what you want to read,” when I do that, I hear back that that’s not what publishers think they can sell. Is this related to the review dilemma? I don’t know. I do know that while a positive New York Times review pretty much guarantees bestseller status, there are plenty of bestsellers that don’t get reviewed by any well-known magazines. I’ve even seen a few self-published books on that list. So I think I’m writing what people (at least women like me) want to read, but unfortunately that opinion is not shared by those in charge.
I’m currently about halfway into one of the books that’s been on many of the end-of-year lists. It’s good, but for the life of me I can’t figure out what makes it so special. If this had come to me as one of the manuscripts in the slush pile for the literary agent I work for, I might have told her to pass on it.
But what do I know, anyway? I’m just another average Weiner/Picoult/Moriarty fan, someone who loves Emily Giffin and Sophie Kinsella and her job reviewing books for Chick Lit Central.
Oh, and I’m someone who bought 83 books for her Kindle last year. Eighty three. And 2014 isn’t over yet.
And not one of them was called “The Peculiar Insurrections.”
What does it take for a book to be named one of the best of the year, or to get a glowing review from a major publication? From my admittedly jaded viewpoint, these books are either poetic-sounding historical literary fiction with titles like “Breath Forms Clouds of Sunlight,” or a non-fiction tome that could double as a dictionary, usually a biography about some nineteenth century general or cabinet member.
These books may be heavy and important, but they’re usually not fun. And I like fun. I read for fun.
It makes me wonder whether these lists are helpful in getting more people to read, or if the majority react the way I do – that reading these books is a task, something you have to do, like exercise or flossing or getting a colonoscopy.
I fell in love with reading at a very early age. Some of my earliest memories are of my favorite picture books, like “Harold and the Purple Crayon.” In early elementary school, I was addicted to the “Little House” books. A year or so later, my mother introduced me to some of Beverly Cleary’s books about teenagers. Even when I went away to sleep away camp in the mountains, I could usually be found in the library.
In middle school and high school, though, reading became a chore. It’s almost as if reading and English teachers deliberately assign the most obtuse, plodding work available. Rather than getting lost in intriguing stories and characters I could identify with, I was totally lost looking for symbolism and foreshadowing and trying to decipher strange vocabulary.
This is also the period where I got hooked on certain serial TV shows. Coincidence? I think not. It wasn’t until I’d graduated college, got my first fulltime job and needed something to do during those metro commutes that I discovered reading for pleasure again.
My son underwent a similar journey. I read to him from the time he could understand words, and together we went from Curious George to Harry Potter, with Animorphs and private investigators in between. And then the public school system struck. When he brought “Sarah Plain and Tall” home from the first grade, I knew it was all over. And while as a college student he’s become a voracious reader, unfortunately it’s all non-fiction. (although with some of those political books he likes, calling them non-fiction could be a stretch.)
I love women’s fiction. Early Stephen King-style horror. Mysteries with female protagonists, especially if they’re PIs. In other words, nothing you’d see reviewed on the front page of the New York Times book section.
Jennifer Weiner is well-known for speaking out about how female authors who write in her genre aren’t reviewed the way male authors are. Recently Jodi Picoult gave an interview with a similar complaint. Sadly, Jennifer is viewed as “Jennifer Whiner,” as some – including other authors – see her complaints as personally motivated. I don’t doubt her personal situation figures into her feelings somewhat, but the issue is bigger than that, and bigger than one or two authors. When Liane Moriarty can take over the New York Times bestseller list but be ignored for reviews in that same newspaper, it isn’t just about her, or Jennifer, or Jodi. It’s about you and me and every reader (and all these authors have owned the Times’ lists) who enjoys books in this genre. (And don’t get me started on the romance genre. I’m not a reader, but it’s the most popular genre in publishing.) These publications are saying our tastes don’t matter. We don’t matter. If we’re not reading “Blue Butterfly, Black Clouds” then we don’t deserve to have books in our genre evaluated. If it’s good, bad, whatever … we’re on our own.
And it’s also frustrating to me as a writer, because even though the conventional advice is “write what you know/write what you want to read,” when I do that, I hear back that that’s not what publishers think they can sell. Is this related to the review dilemma? I don’t know. I do know that while a positive New York Times review pretty much guarantees bestseller status, there are plenty of bestsellers that don’t get reviewed by any well-known magazines. I’ve even seen a few self-published books on that list. So I think I’m writing what people (at least women like me) want to read, but unfortunately that opinion is not shared by those in charge.
I’m currently about halfway into one of the books that’s been on many of the end-of-year lists. It’s good, but for the life of me I can’t figure out what makes it so special. If this had come to me as one of the manuscripts in the slush pile for the literary agent I work for, I might have told her to pass on it.
But what do I know, anyway? I’m just another average Weiner/Picoult/Moriarty fan, someone who loves Emily Giffin and Sophie Kinsella and her job reviewing books for Chick Lit Central.
Oh, and I’m someone who bought 83 books for her Kindle last year. Eighty three. And 2014 isn’t over yet.
And not one of them was called “The Peculiar Insurrections.”
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