All art appreciation is subjective, but publishing, publishing is on a different level of subjective. It’s an industry that requires patience and thick skin for the amount of rejection you may receive. And most of the rejection that’s sent your way is not explained, you just receive a “This project is not what we’re looking at this time.” Or “This project isn’t suited for us.”
You have no idea if it’s the quality of the writing, the plot, the characters, or even if it’s you that they rejected. Are you too junior to be even considered for representation?
In a sea of unexplained rejection, how do you improve your craft?
On the rarest of occasions, you do receive a rejection letter WITH feedback (many aspiring authors cherish these moments because now they have a direction, something to work with), you might ask yourself: “Is this feedback helpful?” “Does my book really need this?”
This compounded with your own research on what it would take, shy of a sacrificial lamb, to land a literary agent or a publisher can make the process frustrating.
After getting nowhere, you become proactive and reach out to other writers, forums, groups, editors, and beta readers for advice, critiquing, and tips. You have to pool all this information together and apply the acquired knowledge and feedback to your manuscript.
Where do you start? What feedback do you use?
I’m not going to tell you how to write a book, because there isn’t one way, but also, this is for the writer who has a manuscript and the next steps for improvement are a blur. I’m here to clear that fog through the process of elimination of which writing advice you shouldn’t take from the following buckets:
The Classic Dos And Don’ts Advice
Paid Feedback
Beta Readers
Agent & Editor Revisions
The Classic Dos And Don’ts Advice
Every writer has come across posts listing the dos and don’ts of writing. I’ve read about their frustration when it comes to not knowing just how literal they should be taking this advice. We’ve all read them:
Active writing and not passive
The infamous Show, don’t tell
Write full sentences
Stimulate all senses
And you may be even more confused when you’re reading New York Times bestselling books and noticing how those authors do not follow those rules, sometimes at all.
You’ll see lines like:
"He was angry."
"He said, angrily."
"There was no reason for this chaos."
How can these authors tell and not show, use adverbs, and create no motivation or backstory for the villain but that they are simply evil with no further description?
I’ll tell you why.
New York Times Bestsellers.
Sadly the standards of regulations applied to debut authors are not the same as the seasoned bestsellers. And it's not to say that their story isn’t amazing, but they aren’t burdened with the minutiae of “correct” writing like you are.
As a writer, aspiring to be traditionally published, you’ll need to tow the lines a bit more than some of your writing idols. And if you pay attention to their work, their debut novel did the same.
So how do you choose between better safe than sorry versus fortune favours the bold?
There is no measure of how much you should apply these writing rules to your work – you simply need to find the right balance between respecting the rules and your style. Let’s use the show, don’t tell, and long sentences rule in this passage:
“Carl is here,” Janet said, leaning on the table for support. “And, he’s pissed.”
I spotted Carl. Janet was right. He was pissed. Red in the face pissed.
Okay so here, I broke two rules. I told the reader that Carl was upset until I showed it in red and I avoided long sentences. I could have also written the passage like so:
Carl stomped into the room with clenched fists, cracking his neck, ready for a fight.
One great action sentence that you can also hear.
But which is your style? Do you like to incorporate dialogue into your action scenes? Are your readers of a younger age, which means they rather multiple, shorter sentences?
The major difference is that you can feel the stress of the narrator and Janet in the first, whereas the second offers more of a tense setting. Again, this is your style. They both convey that Carl is upset.
And sometimes, you have a character who doesn’t display many emotions, so you can’t show it, you have to tell it to the reader because that’s the type of character that you’ve created.
When you break the rules, it has to make sense, and it also has to be consistent. If you write in short sentences, then don’t throw off your reader by writing long, descriptive sentences during a fight scene, starting in the middle of the book.
Paid Feedback
This was the type of feedback I struggled with the most at the start of my writing career. So many contests, mentorships, agents, and webinars offer feedback at a cost when you submit a sample of your work to them.
So you may not win first prize in the contest or land a mentor, but you could get great feedback on your story.
But what happens if you receive not-so-great feedback? Should you use it?
I wouldn’t exactly receive negative feedback; it would be more suggestions of what they would have liked to see in the submitted sample. And one rule I made based on these experiences is the following:
When submitting only a sample, take the critiquing with a grain of salt.
I got this feedback once for a contest that only accepted the first chapter in their submission: “It would have been nice to see more of the world-building.”
I shook my head and disregarded the advice (if you can even call it that). There is this constant pressure for writers to make everything happen in the first chapter. Hell, I’ve seen advice from mentors to put more action on the first page. It seems to be more about quantity than quality. Jam in as many action scenes, never mind if it makes sense or flows.
There was nothing that could be adjusted based on this suggestion. The main character in my story is inept and adjusting to his new magic. He doesn’t know where the secret magical world is because he is lost. I wanted him to be relatable. So no, he’s not all-knowing, so that’s why the second world isn’t introduced in the first chapter. But I didn’t expect the judges who sent me the feedback to know that BECAUSE THEY ONLY READ THE FIRST CHAPTER.
If you’re only submitting the first chapter for feedback, then the critique should be based on the requirements that a first chapter should have to get a reader hooked. And as an avid fantasy reader, I can say with the utmost certainty that many stories do not introduce the world in the first chapter.
The first chapter should have a good first sentence, a unique protagonist, and a disruption. Many worlds are too elaborate to fit into the first chapter. It would drown and exhaust the reader to put all that information at the start.
When receiving feedback, it needs to be specialized to what has been submitted and it needs to be constructive. Telling me you wish to understand more of the magic system in the first 5 pages (yes, I got this too) does not help me. Sure I can slip in an example of how the magic works on page 4, but it still wouldn’t be fully understood until the book is read in its entirety. Also, I didn’t know what they meant by “understand”. It’s magic. They do things with their mind. I couldn’t elaborate on that because the feedback wasn't elaborate.
So if you ever receive feedback and go: “What do I do with this?”
Then you probably got some unhelpful feedback.
I believe all paid feedback should be properly explained, reflect the portion submitted, and reference other stories for justification. If somebody, anybody, is telling you to alter your story, they better do their research. Publishing is subjective, but I still believe that revisions still need to be justified, and not just be a whim of opinions, especially if you’re paying for it.
Beta Readers
I am a little more lenient with this type of feedback. Beta readers are the initial readers you pay to read your story and will give their overall opinion on your story. They are professional readers. So of course, I do not expect the same caliber of feedback that one would get from mentors, agents, and contest judges.
What’s great about beta readers is that you can ask them what areas you’d like them to focus on when reading. For me, I had trouble with pacing. I had difficulty keeping the tension throughout the book while releasing bits of information. And one beta told me that the pacing was evenly slow throughout. I was crushed because I really wasn’t going for that. But, he also said that it worked for this type of story and that he liked it. So nothing to do there. He did suggest that one of the characters be the angry type instead of being sad to allow the creative options to either villainize the character or include a redemption arc.
What a genius idea, I made the change. But only because I liked it, and it still respected the plot. If the beta reader would have suggested making the character blond (yes, I got this one once) because they liked blonds, I would have ignored it.
When taking these types of suggestions, it’s because you like it. This is one opinion against another, and you, being the creator, have full authority.
Agent & Editor Revisions
This feedback can significantly shift your writing career depending on how receptive you are to it. This does not mean that you should make all their desired changes blindly to land a deal with an agent. But if you have to be open-minded, this is the place to be it.
I once received a request to add more visual conflict in the first three pages. I did it. No questions asked because that’s just good writing. I added that the protagonist pulled on a towel when angry. But not all writers are willing to do this. One writer reached out to me to review her work and I told her that her story was missing a plot.
You read that right. Her story had no plot.
She knew and didn't want to change it. She stated that the book was about the main character's journey in life and not necessarily about conflict.
I was floored by how much of the story she wouldn't change. To her, it was perfect, and I couldn't argue it. I wished her well and hoped she wouldn't shut down an agent or publisher since her dream was to be traditionally published.
The beauty of working with an agent, especially one considering signing you, is that it’s a give-and-take relationship, and this includes the revision process. The best way to tackle the large edits, like removing a character you love or that is important for the series from the story, is to compromise. Suggest to the agent that you diminish the character’s role by 50% or give them more responsibility in the story to justify their current presence.
I do this all the time in my job in marketing. If I am told to increase the font size on a design by 20% but I believe it will cheapen the look, I will increase the font by 10% and center the font to fool the eye. Compromise FTW.
And this goes for the edits an agent sends you. But if you receive edits that destroy the integrity of the story and plot, then stand your ground. An agent is supposed to champion your story so if one is asking you to change the race or religion of your cast because that is what publishers are looking for then this isn't the agent for you. If your story takes place in a certain country and the new, revised race and religion of the cast don't align, then don’t feel bad, because the agent did not understand your book.
I once received the suggestion that there wasn't enough sexuality in my book since the lead character is an 18-year-old guy. Yes, that would make sense, if my main character wasn't evading death every day. I peppered in some saucy passages throughout the book when it felt natural (IE, when he wasn't on the brink of death), but I thought to myself that if I was living in fear, alone, adjusting to magic, maybe I wouldn't feel like my sexiest.
When receiving edits from agents, ask yourself if the agent or editor truly understood your story. Not liked, but understood.
Compromise wherever you can and say no if you believe the edits aren't keeping true to your story.