Creativity, Sensitivity, Laziness and Courage

/ Kassandra Lamb

(Reblogging here with Marcia’s permission)

In which I make the point that it is horribly hard to send our “babies” out to agents and publishers, something I think is overlooked in the ongoing debate re: indie vs. traditional publishing… Would love to hear you all’s thoughts on the topic.

by Kassandra Lamb

Please note that this is not a post about the pros and cons of indie vs. traditional publishing per se (I will cover those in a later post). Rather this post is about the “between a rock and a hard place” spot where new writers often find themselves as they explore how to get their words in front of readers’ eyes.

The indie vs. traditional publishing controversy was resurrected in December, 2016, by a Huffington Post article with the rather obnoxious title, Self-Publishing: An Insult To The Written Word? by Laurie Gough.

Quite a few indie authors immediately responded with some eloquent replies. And then the Alliance of Independent Authors published their New Year’s post: Successful Indie Authors 2016: Part One.

These two posts, along with the responding comments, represent the two sides of this controversy, but I noted that one thing was missing from the discussion. Indeed, I have never heard this point made during debates about the issue.

Creatives are, by definition, sensitive souls.

Van Gogh

One of Van Gogh’s self portraits, this one with a bandage where his ear once was. Creatives’ sensitivity sometimes leads to madness. (public domain)

It’s a cliché really—the tortured artistic poet/painter/musician/actor/author who drinks too much, uses drugs, suffers for their art with an angst-filled life, etc.

But like all clichés, this one has a kernel of truth at its core.

So why would we require that these sensitive souls endure months or years of rejection before they are allowed to show their work to the world?

The author of the Huff Post article calls literary agents and traditional publishers the “gatekeepers” of the written word. Indeed, that term is bandied about a lot in the world of trad publishing. The implication is that they are saving the unwashed masses of readers from bad literature by carefully vetting new works of fiction.

In addition to the implied insult to readers, the reality is that all too often these days agents and publishers are not always as concerned about the quality of a story as they are about whether or not they think it will sell.

That’s not just my perspective; I’ve heard agents say this at conferences. With regret in their voices, because they know good stories are being rejected and good writers are being discouraged by those rejections.

No one deals well with rejection. And the more important an achievement or some aspect of ourselves is to us, the greater the blow to our spirits if it is rejected… READ MORE

22 thoughts on “Creativity, Sensitivity, Laziness and Courage”

  1. Pingback: Creativity, Sensitivity, Laziness and Courage — The Write Stuff | Matthews' Blog

  3. Many poorly written, trad-published books have celebrated success over the years. I’ve wondered if some had ever crossed an editor’s desk! We should always do our best work, regardless of the path we take to publishing. We should also remind ourselves that no book is perfect. Then, we must write fearlessly and venture into the “brave, new world.”

    Best of luck to you and the other authors at Misterio Press. Pinned & shared your post. 🙂

    Liked by 4 people

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    • Thanks so much, Linda, for the well wishes and the share! In the interest of being balanced I resisted the urge to point out in the post about poorly edited trad-pubbed books. I’ve run into some doozies in recent years.

      And yes, absolutely, first and foremost, we must write excellent books, and then get them out there by whatever path works.

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