Wednesday, April 8, 2015

N is for Ninety-five percent...

Paula looks at the ninety-five percent – and the other five percent.
 
I read recently that out of 100 people who want to run a marathon, only 5% will actually do it. The other 95% will offer all kinds of reasons (or excuses?) why they can’t – not enough time to train because of day job, too many other commitments, injured knee/leg/foot, decided it was too far or that they ran too slowly, weather was too bad to train every day, house needed decorating, mother-in-law had a fall… etc etc etc.
 
The same applies to writers. How many people have you heard saying they would love to write a book? Some may openly admit they could never do it, but others will offer the reasons (or excuses?) why they can’t – not enough time, too many other commitments –even ‘I can’t spell’ or ‘I was never any good at English grammar’ or ‘It would take me far too long to write a whole book.’
 
So, once we exclude the 95% who, for whatever reason, never actually start writing, we’re left with 5% who do start. How many of those actually finish a first draft? Probably 95% of them have a half-written manuscript (or even several) stuffed at the back of a drawer, or, in this day and age, languishing in some never-looked at folder on their computers.
 
What of the 5% who do finish a first draft? How many of them work hard revising/editing/polishing their story? I’m reminded of someone who declared on FB that she had finished her first draft, and would spend the next day editing and formatting it before self-publishing it on the following day. I must admit I winced at thought of only one day editing, but I fear there are many others who don’t have critique partners/groups and/or beta readers, let alone submit their manuscript for professional editing.
 
Others, when finishing the first draft, may react in the opposite way. Instead of rushing to publish it, they receive a few negative critiques, decide the whole thing is a train wreck, and throw it away, never to write anything again. Or they submit it to a publisher and it’s rejected, and they assume no one will want it.
 
Let’s assume another 95% never see their manuscript published, which leaves us with the 5% who receive an acceptance and then work with their editor to improve the story, and with a cover artist, until eventually release day comes, with a fanfare of trumpets - or whatever!
 
Maybe that’s as far as most of us will get. The very talented or very lucky (or very hyped) 5% may reach the dizzy heights of Amazon’s or New York Times' Top Ten, and probably less than 5% of those may get a Hollywood film offer, or actually become zillionaires.
 
Meantime, what of the remaining 95%? We do our best to promote our books, we continue to write, hopefully improving with every book, and gradually build up a small band of faithful readers.
 
Sometimes we can become demoralised by our small sales, or our low rankings on Amazon – but what we always need to remember is that we are part of the 5% who have actually written a book (or several), unlike the 95% who only say they’d love to write a book but never get around to it, or the 95% who start but fall by the wayside. So take pride in being part of the 5%!

10 comments:

  1. I'm striving to be in the 5% that are published. I'm in the 5% who have finished learning drafts and am in the 5% doing revisions that will be the final draft. That makes me 15%. Right?

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    1. Ana, you're in the 5% that have completed a story ready for editing - and I'm sure you'll soon be published!

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  2. Well said, Paula. I love your figures. I think self-publishing has done a lot to destroy the quality of books. Don't get me wrong, there are some very-good self-published ones, but there are also some very bad ones. Peerhaps we should comfort ourselves by the fact that the people who have purchased the very bad ones will not purchase that author again.

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    1. Must admit I gave up working out what 95% of 95 was - but take the figures as an 'guesstimation'! And I agree with you about the quality of some self-published books, Margaret!

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  3. This is a great motivation/inspiration piece, Paula. Whenever I get discouraged, I'm going to remember it.

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    1. I have to remind myself when I get discouraged too, Jen.

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  4. Being in an elite 5% sounds good to me! I like that!!

    Self-publishing is definitely an interesting part of the industry now. The publishing world is definitely not a 'one-size-fits-all' endeavor now.

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    1. Of course, there are always elites within the elite, Debra, but we won't think about that.
      My beef about self-publishing is that some (so-called) writers think it is okay to throw anything onto Amazon with the result that Amazon is becoming choked with badly written, ungrammatical stories that should have stayed at the bottom of someone's drawer! Believe me, I have read quite a few of them!

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    2. Coincidentally enough, I read tonight that a large proportion of self-published work is erotica. 50 Shades has a lot to answer for!
      Also seen on FB recently, someone who had submitted a romance story (non-erotic) to 9 different publishers and been rejected, and said, "So I'm going to self-publish.' My immediate reaction was, 'Shouldn't you be asking yourself first just why your story has been rejected?'
      As Margaret said, there are some very good self-published novels, but unfortunately it seems the bad ones outweigh the good ones, and have given self-publishing a bad name.

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    3. Here you go with another priceless quote on FB tonight, "I told the publisher, and I quote, "I sought the Lord about the possibility of you publishing my work and feel that I am to continue to self-publish." When he responded with relief, I knew I'd done the right thing for both of us."
      Note that the publisher responded with relief!

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