We have many secrets, those of us who sell stories (specifically the printed variety) for a living. I will share one (only one this time) with you, but if I disappear tomorrow you’ll know “they” found me and I had to assume a new identity and move to Cleveland.
So here it is:
Many aspiring authors elevate agents, managers, and publishers to oracle status, but the truth is we’re all guessing. It’s true. The emperor has no clothes. The ivory tower of publishing is constructed entirely of legos–the classic kind not the fancy themed ones you see nowadays.
That’s the truth. It’s out there now.
We don’t really know how any of this works–not really anyway. Marketing plans are an educated guess, human beings are fickle and unpredictable, and we fail ten times for every success that we have. Don’t let marketers and publishers fool you (especially marketers). We miss the boat…a lot. We just play up our successes so no one is any the wiser.
And bestsellers…some books are bestsellers because they somehow manage to sell well. It might actually be truer to call them bettersellers. A good many people pretend to know why one book sells a kajillion copies while another is forgotten altogether. We call those people liars…or publicists. The truth is that no one knows why some books work and others don’t any more than they know what an appendix is for. So don’t waste your money on those “engineer a bestseller” kits.
No, we’re all just trying to do our best to be in the right place at the right time when the right thing comes along. Chances are we won’t recognize it until it’s too late, but maybe we will unless it ended up in the slush pile. We take risks, we win some, we lose a lot. We’re like the venture capitalists of literature, but that’s a post for another day.
Until then, I’ll think about what secrets to divulge next. That is, if I’m still around.

