KearneyHub’s Interview With Stephen Lawhead
_story.jpg "Stephen Lawhead")
Stephen Lawhead happens to be touring the U.S. right now, and last night he read from his book, Hood, at the public library in Kearney, Nebraska, which is where he grew up.
So Kearney’s news site has published a short interview with him covering how he began writing.
One of the interesting quotes is about how Lawhead thinks publishing has changed since he began in 1982:
[Publishers used to] find writers and nurture their careers.
“…Now it would be very, very difficult. It’s all best-selling oriented. You have one shot, and if that doesn’t work, that’s it.”
Too bad he’s not coming through the St. Louis area! I would love to meet him!
You can read the entire interview over at KearneyHub.com.
His quote about everything being best-seller oriented is a little intimidating for us aspiring writers. I guess that’s why I’m so timid myself to get my novel to market. I want to make sure it’s absolutely perfect before submitting it. Of course, I tend to be a perfectionist about most things, so I’d likely take the same approach even if the economy was better and the publishing industry operated the same as it did in the 1980s.
Steven,
I think what Lawhead says about publishing is also true about literary agents, at least on a book level.
If they pass on your book, they never want to see it again, no matter how much you’ve improved it.
Now if they give it a full reading and suggest changes, you’re in business to resubmit, but other than that, you get one shot.
This means that if you are writing a series like me, it’s one shot for the entire series, not just one book.
It’s a tough world. Thankfully there are other options now-days that don’t involve high-$$ vanity presses.
Thanks for stopping by! All the best with your book!
-Robert