Lost Monday: Submitphobia

Still feeling icky, so still in the mood to rant on other industry blog posts.

For instance, observe this gem gleaned from the entertaining Miss Snark’s email inbox:

Dear Miss Snark I’m hesitant about submitting my new novel for publication because I do not want to see it remaindered. There are so many great works of literature in my local bookstore, all at knock down prices (my God, you can even get The Bible for a couple of bucks) and I don’t want the same to happen to my
magnum opus. I have a large opus. My question is, how can I be assured that my
genius will run and run?

Miss Snark rightly asks, “Is this a joke?” I suspect it must be, and the individual was curious to know how snarky the agent in question might get with her response. “I don’t want my book published because I’m afraid of it being remaindered.” That must be an attempt at humor. Talk about putting the cart before the horse. Before it was remaindered (i.e., sold at vastly reduced discounts after the publisher has decided that it’s made all the money it can off the title), it was bought by a publisher who paid you an advance, published, released, and did sit on the shelves where it was hopefully bought and enjoyed by a certain number of readers. Books go out of print. It happens.

However, it touches on an actual issue, one that I have decided to call Submitphobia. There are many authors out there who are actively afraid to submit their projects. Some fear rejection. Others fear what their family and friends will think of them should they get published. Many fear the stings of critics and bad Amazon reviews. And of course, there’s the fear of success, which is really the same thing as the fear of failure. (It really is the same thing. What you fear when you fear success is that the success will stop and you will fail again. It’s much worse to fall from a higher place than from the ground floor.)

This kind of thing often PARALYZES writers, sometimes for years. They refuse to submit their books, they tinker endlessly until the industry and the world changes around them and their work is no longer viable on the market, or (and this is a new one) they eschew finding the best market for their book and instead self-publish or submit only to the “easy As” houses that will give them the quickest and most easily-attainable “yes,” even if that means sacrificing career, money, and chances that readers will actually get their hands on the work. (Nothing against
these houses, mind you. This is a problem with writerly motivation, not with the existence or operations of these publishers. Everyone has got their own path to publication. Some people want to self-publish or be with start-up presses for issues of creative control, or anti-establishment, or support the small business, or what have you, or they are writing something that for whatever reason is not palatable to large houses at this moment. Fine. I’m all for that. Yay, those people! But I also know some people who are afraid to submit anywhere where they might get a “no.” That’s the part that concerns me. End disclaimer.)

Taken to the extreme, this is “I don’t want my book published because I’m afraid to see it remaindered.” And here’s the part where Sailor Boy laughs, because he knows I’m the biggest pessimist ever. You have to take that chance. You have to send that book out and risk it being rejected and/or ignored. You have to steel yourself for the terrible things that are going to be said about it. If you want to be published, you can’t fear the remainder bin, or the “big envelope” full of your rejected manuscript. You can’t fear the Amazon review.

Actually, you can. You can fear all of those things, but do it anyway. It’s part of the rules of the game.