Frustration with the publishing process

It’s not easy to get a book published if you want to go the traditional route.

1. First you have to write a book.
2. Then you have to throw it away and write a different, better book.
3. Then you have to get that book ripped apart, critiqued, and properly edited.
4. Then you have to find a literary agent.
5. Then you have to get it published.

I’m currently on step 4, and have been working on a good query letter for some time, ready heavily through a site called QueryShark. It’s run by a literary agent who has gotten fed up with how bad query letters can be, especially compared to how good the books can be.

Writing, I think for a lot of people, starts out as something for the ego. It feels good to write. I suspect this because the process of publishing is designed largely to separate the good books from those that are written purely for the sake of the author. Each of the above steps, aside from the first one, cause a lot of anguish and frustration. Who wants to throw away their first book, after all the time they put into it? Who wants to listen to a bunch of people who just don’t get your story? Why can’t the agent and publishing company just read the book, and know that it is as good as you believe it to be?

But, you suck it up, you throw away that book, you remove some of your proudest writing because it takes away from the story for the reader, you do your homework, you deal with rejection, and acknowledge that there is a very real probability that no publisher will greenlight your book.

And then, one day, while walking through the DVD section at Target, you’ll spot this.

Assuming that getting a movie made and into distribution is at least as hard as getting a book published, you’ll think to yourself, “I’ve gotta be doing something wrong.”

For those who can’t be bothered to click the link. The movie is about a bunch of people trapped in a flooded grocery store with a great white shark. No, I’m not making that up.