Heinlein’s Rules Series, 3
In Today's Journal
* Quote of the Day
* What If My Story Stinks? Heinlein’s Rules Series, 3
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
"It isn't up to the painter to define the symbols. The public who look at the picture must interpret the symbols as they understand them." Pablo Picasso
What If My Story Stinks? Heinlein’s Rules Series, 3
Today the topic is mostly about Rule 4: You must put it on the market.
Q: I want to dive right in to some of my questions about the rules, starting with #4: You must put it on market. I can see how this worked prior to self-publishing becoming so common because if your book stunk, you could send it to publishers but it wouldn’t go anywhere. So no harm done.
But we all have seen writers who self-publish before their stories are ready. And this hurts them because it turns readers off of future books by those authors. So how is it a good idea to publish all of our stories—especially the early ones—in today’s publish-with-the-click-of-a-button world?
Harvey: Well, first, “put it on the market” means “submit it to readers.” Back in 1948, the only readers a writer sent work to were publishers, primarily of magazines. Today, that means all readers. “Put it on the market” means “make it available” to publishers or everyday readers.
Second, re “if your book stunk,” Stunk in whose opinion? There have been at least dozens and probably hundreds of manuscripts (including Harry Potter) that were turned down by multiple publishers before achieving incredible success.
So the thing to remember is that every opinion of a story or novel is just one opinion. That includes the author, the agent, the acquisitions editor, the publisher, and every other reader (because all of those are readers with only one opinion) who ever reads the novel.
What one person doesn’t like, another will love. And of course, the reverse is true also. (More on this later.)
Third, re “No harm done,” I constantly hear writers worried that if they turn out a “bad” work or one that “isn’t ready,” it will ruin their career. When those writers seem serious, open-minded, and likely to eventually overcome that fear, I take the time to ask them, “What career?” When they don’t, I just smile and nod or say something like, “Yeah, it’s rough out there,” and go on my way.
Stephen King’s wife Tabitha famously fished the manuscript for Carrie (if I remember right) out of the trash can into which he’d dropped it. If she hadn’t, he might still be teaching high school English and working a second job as a janitor.
Closer to home, I wrote a short story titled “Old Suits.” Frankly, I thought (my opinion) it was pretty much a piece of crap. But I’d written it so I published it anyway (Heinlein’s Rule 4).
Maybe a month later, I received an email from a woman who compared it to Hemingway’s works and said it was one of the best short stories she’d ever read. I still don’t see what she saw in it, but it goes to the point: Most readers will enjoy your work if you haven’t polished your original voice off it. That said, some few will hate it, and some few will love it.
The point is, writers shouldn’t pre-judge their work (as King learned with Carrie) and simply (and egotistically) decide nobody will like it. Our job as writers is to write. The readers' job (each individual reader) is to judge whether they like or don’t like what they’ve just read.
But nobody will read your work at all if you don’t 1) put it on the market by mailing or emailing it to a magazine, or 2) put it on the market by publishing it yourself.
Re “we all have seen writers who self-publish before their stories are ready,” again, I say according to whom? According to whose opinion? I’ve never personally seen a writer self-publish before a story is ready, which basically means finished and proofed for typos.
I have, on the other hand, seen a lot of stories in which I knew well in advance how the story will end. That is most often a result of ignoring HR3 (refrain from rewriting).
In most cases, lifeless stories, those in which the writer “figures out” what will happen next, are the result of outlining, rewriting and polishing. If the writer can figure out what’s going to happen next, so can the reader. To paraphrase Ray Bradbury, “No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader.”
And finally, to your big question: “So how is it a good idea to publish all of our stories—especially the early ones—in today’s publish-with-the-click-of-a-button world?”
I’m not saying you have to self-publish every story. But you should either submit or publish every story. Don’t prejudge the editor’s taste at Asimov’s or Ellery Queen or wherever. You wrote the story. Send it to the editors and let them judge for themselves. You won’t ruin your chances for future success even with that one editor.
Magazine editors receive hundreds or thousands of submissions each month. They often don’t remember the names of the authors from whom they buy manuscripts, much less the names of those in the Reject pile.
Editors usually read a story only until they believe they know how it will end. At that point, they set it on the Reject pile and go to the next story.
So your first goal is to make an editor read to the end of your story. (The best way to do that is not polish your original voice off of it.) Your second goal is to have your story be just enough better (in the editors' opinion) to beat out another story they read all the way to the end.
And the only way to achieve those two goals is to write a story, send it off (or publish it) and write the next story. Instead of hovering over one story rewriting and polishing, write it to the best of your ability the first time through, then submit or publish it and move on to the next story.
I also recommend having one technique in mind—for example, pacing or dialogue or depth of description, etc.—in mind as you begin each story. That’s how you improve: practice and learning, learning and practice.
All of that being said, the rule I have the most trouble with is Rule 4. I fall off that one regularly because I’d rather be writing than designing covers and jumping through the hoops to put the stories and novels up.
As a side note, I personally believe Rule 4 was to help writers overcome the fear of failure that keeps them from publishing their work and causes so many manuscripts to be tucked away into drawers (or dropped into Stephen King’s trash can).
Of course, if you don’t publish it, nobody can read and reject it. But especially beginning writers never seem to understand if you don’t publish it, nobody can read and enjoy it either.
Running a little long, so enough for today. Tomorrow, a little housekeeping. Stay tuned.
Of Interest
6 Types of Submission Comments BookBub Editors Love to See
Which is Better. MailerLite vs. Kit A video from Dave Chesson, the Kindlepreneur.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 1220
Writing of Blackwell Ops 46: Sam Granger | Still on the Ghost Trail
Day 1…… 1814 words. To date…… 1814
Day 2…… 2645 words. To date…… 4459
Day 3…… 1507 words. To date…… 5966
Day 4…… 1664 words. To date…… 7630
Day 5…… 1283 words. To date…… 8913
Day 6…… 3126 words. To date…… 12039
Day 7…… 3454 words. To date…… 15493
Day 8…… 3973 words. To date…… 19466
Day 9…… 2837 words. To date…… 22303
Day 10…. 3565 words. To date…… 25868
Fiction for June………………………. 49904
Fiction for 2025………………………. 513356
Nonfiction for June………………....... 22700
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 148850
2025 consumable words…………….. 655696
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 12
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 30
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..... 116
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 300
Short story collections……………………. 29
If you are able, please support TNDJ with a paid subscription. Thank you!
If you’re new to TNDJ, you might want to check out these links:
Oh, and here’s My Bio. It’s always a good idea to vet the expertise of people who are giving you advice.
Questions are always welcome at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. But please limit yourself to the topics of writing and publishing.
Great post. I do publish all the longer work that I write. The shorter work - well, some of it has piled up a bit. I’m working on a plan to put the stories into collections though, and should have that done by end of summer. I don’t worry about whether anything is “ready.”
If it’s done, that means I’ve cycled through it, I’ve done the best job I can, and it’s time to let go and move on to the next thing. Publishing is part of letting go.
I write under pen names, so worst case I start a new one if I have to. Usually that's because I wanted to try a different genre, but could work if one was super concerned about publishing their beginner and intermediate level work and having it out there. Maybe by the time you level up you won't want to switch names, but good we have options. It won't go towards building your (eventual) brand if you switch but you still get paid from those pies you baked so it's still helping keep the lights on in your bakery (or more!) while you are getting the practice to write your masterpieces someday.