Ah, the euphoria of holding one’s own book. Nothing compares, does it? In that moment, the months (or years) of writing, revising, editing, polishing, and finally publishing are in the rear view mirror. All we know is the joy of seeing our hard work compressed into pages and fitted with a stunning cover.
We dream of happy readers, bestseller lists, and maybe even awards. And we can have these things…if we haven’t broken the cardinal rule of publishing.
As someone who studies storytelling from all angles, I can spot quickly when the cardinal rule has been broken, and every time, it guts me. Each book starts with untapped potential, ripe with the imagination of its creator, ready to bring something new and fresh to readers. But this one rule, when it’s broken, limits a book’s potential, keeping it from being all it can be.
So, what is this cardinal rule that stands above all others?
Don’t Rush
Stories take time to write, and even longer to refine, especially as we’re all developing writers. We each have strengths and weaknesses and are building our skills as we go. Sometimes we don’t know what we don’t know, and so may not be the best judge as to whether a story is ready to move forward.
And yet, I see writers rush toward publication, skipping some of the necessary steps to ensure their book is as strong as it can be. And unfortunately, it ends the same way – a book that wasn’t ready, and the author feeling disappointment and disillusionment when their novel fails to gain traction with readers.
Rushing Burns Bridges
With more books than people on the planet, readers have endless choices. So, the very best thing we can do is give them an amazing experience when they pick up our book, because when we do, they’ll be back for more. But if we rush and the quality isn’t there, readers notice. Not only is it unlikely they’ll stick with us as an author, but they may also leave poor reviews that dissuade others from taking a chance on our book, too.
Rushing also hurts if we’re on the hunt for an agent or publisher. If we submit something that’s clearly not ready, that’s the end of the road with that agent or editor. And what if they remember us and our rushed manuscript if we submit to them down the road…will they be less inclined to ask for sample pages?
Rushing Can Be Expensive
When we rush, we seek out editing before a story is ready for it, meaning costs go up as there’s more to fix. A reputable editor should let the writer know if the project is not ready before they get in too deep, but this is an ethical line that you can’t count on everyone to follow. And if a writer doesn’t carefully vet their editor, they might end up with someone who isn’t skilled enough to offer the level of help needed yet is happy to keep billing round after editing round.
Most of us must budget carefully when it comes to our writing, and editing costs that balloon can fill us with frustration and guilt and may cause us to question our choice of pursuing this path.
Rushing Can Open Us to Scams
All careers require time, effort, and training to become great at them. But unfortunately, we can forget this when it comes to writing. Maybe we think having an abundance of imagination and our creativity will carry us through, or a past career where we wrote a lot on the job makes us believe we can zip through the learning curve. Here’s the thing – imagination requires craft to apply it well, and writing and storytelling are two different skill sets. Believing there’s an easy route to publishing opens us to scams.
There are plenty of vanity publishers and other “assisted publishing” businesses that make big promises to do all the work the writer doesn’t want to do. Because their business model is to make money from writers, not the sale of books, they don’t care about the product. Writers end up shelling out huge dollars for something subpar and are often locked into contracts where they are required to also purchase a large quantity of their books themselves.
Rushing Can Damage Self-Esteem
When we query or self-publish before we’re ready, the results won’t be what we hoped for, and this can cause us to feel inadequate. When our self-belief plummets, it can steal our energy and make it harder for us to pivot or rebound from mistakes and failures. And even when we write great books, mistakes and failures come with the territory, so we need to learn how to process these moments and learn from them.
If we’re always beating ourselves up for every misstep, we’ll eventually decide we aren’t cut out for this career. And we are! Each of us is capable of learning what we need to know to write amazing stories and steer ourselves toward a fulfilling career.
Bottom line: there is no easy button when it comes to a quality book and successful career. Prepare to work hard and open yourself to learning all you can.
Pressure to rush is something we all understand
but must resist.
When other writers are pounding out stories and getting them out into the world, we think we need to be doing the same, forgetting that we’re all in different stages of development, and each journey to publication will be unique.
When we give ourselves the space and time to write the strongest story we can, it may take longer, but our chances of pleasing readers will go way up. And we grow through the process, gaining new knowledge and refining our abilities, which will help us become masterful storytellers.
So, embrace the learning curve and enjoy the journey! It’s there to help, not stand in your way.
Help for Anti-Rushers:
How to Write a Book From Start to Finish in 13 Steps
Self-Editing Your Own Writing
Story Feedback: Free and Paid Options
Critique Etiquette: The Ultimate Guide for Giving and Receiving Feedback
When Am I Ready for Professional Editing?
Best Practices for Working with a Professional Editor
How to Navigate Editorial Feedback and Revise Your WIP
Angela is a writing coach, international speaker, and bestselling author who loves to travel, teach, empower writers, and pay-it-forward. She also is a founder of One Stop For Writers, a portal to powerful, innovative tools to help writers elevate their storytelling.
You are right. A cardinal rule that I have ignored often. I no longer will.
I think we all feel pressure to keep up with those around us, but it’s important to remember we’re all in different places in the journey, and that’s okay. 🙂 Taking our time to research risks and rewards and build our knowledge, understand what we’re trying to accomplish, and most of all, be patient with our own development is key to success in the long run.
Loved this post, since I am following the rule of ‘Don’t Rush” right now. In fact I am being downright lazy – do some other writing while waiting for the editing urge to hit me again!
I think we can feel lazy sometimes, but I do believe we need a break from a story at times. This is why that ‘drawer time’ is so important – we need to gain perspective on our work and can only do it by walking away from it for a little while. Too, it can be healthy to take mental breaks from the work of writing and do what interests us and inspires us. Shifting from working on revisions to reading a good book can help our brain absorb writing technique and fill us with ideas. Or shifting from revision to diving into a topic we need to strengthen our skills in is a good way to keep the ball rolling forward in a different way when we need it.
So sometimes, we’re procrastinating or being lazy, lol, but sometimes it’s our awareness that we need to do something different for a bit while our brains work the story in the background. 🙂
What Ms. Ackerman is saying here is actually well-supported by science. I’ve been a big neuroscience aficionado for over twenty years, and one of the most consequential facts about how the human brain works is that it’s a massive energy hog. 25% of all the calories we eat go straight to our heads. Brains need breaks, and the consequences of overworking them can be quite severe.
Thanks so much for this post. I thought I could see the tape at the finish line and I’m back in the trenches trying to listen to my subconscious and to what the reader needs as an anchor. After just a handful of pages, my almost-perfect ms is so much better. Cf the “pole pole” comment: the Egyptians have a similar saying “shweya shweya “. Literally “little little. ” My mantra for everything. Keeps me sane-ish.
It’s so neat how different cultures have the same saying — shows how we all have a universal drive in us to rush, and need to be reminded that steady progress applied with skill is always better. 🙂
Festina Lente – that’s brilliant! On the other hand, sometimes people have the opposite problem. With my stuff I always feel like I could have done it better, but I don’t know how. I want to try to get a story published, but every few days I think of something to add, something to hack out, or some better way to describe or put something. I just finished drafting a trilogy I started in December of 1999.
It is true, we can massage things to death sometimes, but I think this is where it is so important to have qualified readers giving us their feedback. Having other writers, especially those who are strong in craft have a read and critique it to help us know how to make it better (and see when it’s fine as-is) is an important step that helps us move forward. When I was writing fiction I would go through 3 rounds of feedback at least – two as I was fixing it to get it to 90% and then once when I felt it was a s good as I could make it to see if others felt it was strong enough to submit. So grateful for all the feedback I was given, and giving feedback to others via critiquing helped me grow into a stronger writer, too. Win-win!
Do you have any suggestions on how to find skilled beta readers? I’ve found a couple through Fiverr that I like, and they have good reviews, but since all my understanding of the craft comes from reading books like yours (that and the fact that I have a big memory problem related to a malfunctioning pineal gland), I really can’t tell if the feedback they give me is optimal. Do you have a recommendation for how many? James Scott Bell says 3-6, but others I have read say up to 20, and a writer I know says he only uses one.
Angela, This is such an important message. I believe every time I’ve rushed through something, things have gone awry. I have this quote written on the whiteboard in my office:: “Festina Lente.” It means “Make haste slowly.”
I love that, Kay. When I hikes to the basecamp on Mt Kilimanjaro many years ago, I was at the back of the group — the altitude was killing me. My guide kept telling me, “Pole, Pole” (Slowly, Slowly). It’s become my mantra. It’s not a race. 🙂
Climbing Kilimanjaro sounds like an epic adventure! And a great lesson about endurance. Good for you!
Thank you for this important message. All other rules can be broken when needed and if it suits the story, but to rush through just to get the book published is a huge mistake. The readers would much rather have the story a little later than expected and enjoy the tale in its fullness.
I’m a reader besides being an author. I know whereof I speak. Take the time to do it right, writers.
It really is. Whenever people ask me to help with marketing because they can’t get traction, I circle back to this. 95% of the time, the problem is that their book was rushed. You can’t market a book with fatal flaws. And while I know there are a handful of ‘big’ books that were not perfect but rose to success, it is the tiniest percentage. They only did so because they contained a key element so well done that readers were emotionally hooked and could forgive the weaker parts of the story. The chances of this happening are one in a million.