Your Career's Not Over Until You Say It's Over
Monday, January 16 By Andrew Shaffer
However, Random House wasn't interested in her second book, a novel. Her agent shopped it to other publishers, who all turned it down. "These days, if your first book doesn't earn out, that's probably the end of your career," Robinson writes. She decided to self-publish her novel. I'm not sure who told her that her career was over after her first book failed to "earn out" its advance. Random House? Her agent? Other writers? The idea that a writer's career is "over" after a single unprofitable book is far-fetched, and I would caution writers against accepting such proclamations as gospel.
I didn't get a huge advance, but a reasonable one. Apparently, though, the publishing house paid me too much. I still haven't earned back a penny on that advance, despite selling more books than I ever dreamed possible. That was okay, though. I figured I could build my platform from there and do better with the next book.
There are many reasons a publisher may not pick up a second book after their first book doesn't earn back the writer's advance. In Robinson's case, for instance, the troubles she ran into may have had less to do with her first book's performance and more to do with the fact she's jumping from one genre to another. The markets for memoirs and novels are very different, and what worked in one genre might not work in another. Readers may not follow a writer from one genre to another. It's almost like starting again from square one. The "platform" that Robinson talks about building must be rebuilt, to a degree. If Robinson's second book had been another memoir or work of nonfiction, would publishers have shown more interest?
Every writer's career takes twists and turns, but no two take the exact same path. I signed a contract for my second book (due out spring 2013 from Harper Perennial) before my first earned out; I personally know several writers who have signed contracts for second (and third) books before their first has even hit the shelves. Even if one reason Robinson couldn't find a publisher for her second book was that she didn't earn out the advance on her memoir, it doesn't prove that her experience is universally true for all writers.
I'm glad Robinson didn't accept defeat and has continued writing. The only time when your career is truly "over" is when you are sleeping in a pine box six feet underground. Even then, your career doesn't have to end: Look at the continued success of Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, et al., hundreds of years past their own exit from the land of the living.
Reader Comments (3)
Nowadays, with the increasing prominence of e-books and the ease of self-publishing for the Kindle and other formats (signing up for a self-pubbing account is as easy as getting a LiveJournal), it's just silly to count yourself out just because one book doesn't sell as well as you'd like or a publisher rejects your latest offering.
There are all sorts of reasons that might happen, and traditional publishing houses are NOT quality filters (more on that here: http://onthebird.blogspot.com/2011/11/traditional-publishing-house-as-quality.html). They make decisions based on what they think will sell, and they're not even always right about that. (You know how many publishers turned down Harry Potter 1?)
Even negative critical reviews (even a slew of them!) don't signal the end of a writing career. Check out some of the hot-selling books -- many if not most have lots of 1-and-2-star ratings along with all the 5-stars.
In the writing business, you're only dead when you give up.
I always give the example of Vincent Zandri to everyone who thinks that their career is sinking. Guy's been dropped by Random House (a lot of those discouraged authors are running into problems with Random House in particular) and has revived his career on the indie market and now he signed a lucrative deal with Thomas & Mercer.
I'm thinking about writing an essay about Amazon's marketing strategy. No other publishing house seems to pick up on the fact that they're thinking three moves ahead of the competition. Everybody's sleeping on the job while they're picking up amazing writers like others are picking up daisies or their own noses.
@ Benoit - Amazon has the money to bankroll projects that will likely lose them money, such as the Kindle Lending Library and Nancy Pearl's reprints of out-of-print books. They sink money into these projects to take market share away from other ebook platforms and from bookstores who traffic only in print. I would argue that the Big Six aren't asleep on the job – rather, they just don't have the extra cash to throw into some of the more groundbreaking work that we see Amazon doing. I bet there's an editor at every Big Six house who would have loved to partner with Nancy Pearl. But, even by Pearl's agent's estimation, the project isn't likely to make anyone much money. Most everyone at Thomas and Mercer at the editorial and acquisitions levels comes from within the publishing industry, from what I understand, so I don't buy too heavily into their "outsider" status.