Happily, even when I'm too ill to get to my computer and count how many queries are adding up (I'm still afraid, but I know it's in the triple digits, easy), and can barely leave my room, I can still get real mail.
And there's an excellent interview with Emma Donoghue, author (most recently) of Room, in this issue of Writer's Digest.
My favorite quote:
Some journalists even slightly scold me, like, "Now you've learned how to be commercial. Will you do it again next time?" And I say, "No, it doesn't work that way." There would be no surer way to write a complete failure of a book than to try and in any way recapture Room. Bestsellers are completely unpredictable, and you certainly don't manage to be original by looking over your shoulder at your possible readership and trying to guess what they will like. The only way to succeed as a writer--in literary fiction, anyway--is to follow your personal obsessions. And once in awhile, your obsessions will happen to overlap with the obsessive interests of a lot of readers.
I've said this before, of course. But if it takes a bestselling author saying the same thing for you to believe it--not only believe it, but internalize it--then I am happy to type up all of the quotes like this I see over the next year.
When I'm feeling better, of course.
Hope this finds you well.
12 comments:
Get well soon.
bethfred.com
Oh no! Feel better, GK!!
Take care of yourself! WebMD told me I had a brain tumor once. Luckily, it was slightly off base.
LOL, so journalists actually think that she figured out that the secret to a commercial success is to write an adult novel told solely from the pov of a 5 yr old boy and that's why she wrote the book?
Or are they saying she'd be selling out by writing a sequel?
Personally, I'd be thrilled to read what happens to Jack next as he integrates into a "normal" life.
Jennifer,
I know, right?
I make a lot of fun of journalists and what they write about the publishing industry. I kind of feel like I'm allowed to--one of my good friends is THE police liaison for one of the major NY papers, and thus gets all of the scary news, and reports on it, and somehow stays sane (the thing is, you'd never know--she's cute and dainty), so I can't help but respect that.
Then again, when I hear stuff like this, I'm like, Seriously? SERIOUSLY?!
Mindy,
They told my friend she had a brain tumor, too. Nope: "just" a migraine.
I love Room. And I also love that she said that about her book.
LOVE Emma's quote. It strikes hard and true. Might take me a while to really believe it, but it's working its way there.
Have a wonderfully restful recovery time!
Aww! Get better soon, GK!
Hope you get to feeling better. I'll send you some of my Mama's chicken soup. That stuff'll cure anything from the common cold to scurvy.
Hang in there. :)
GW, GK!
GK, love the quote from Emma Donoghue. I know I've struggled when writing with the thought, "What am I doing? This will never sell."
But what really helped me was reading an essay by Harlan Ellison where he admitted he'd often thought the same thing when writing some of his short stories. The amusing part was, all the ones he mentioned later sold.
So I hold to those ideas, and to the stories of writers that took forever to find the right time, or the right publisher for their works to finally make it. And I try to keep on writing whatever feels right.
Like writing YA without vampires or any other supernatural elements. :)
Oh, and this might be a bit late already, but hope your feeling better now.
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