Okay, so I went to the Salt Lake City stop on the Breathless Tour. It was amazing. First, I was innocently tweeting in the elevator on the way down to the parking garage to drop off my jacket.
The doors opened, and this big group of people were standing there. I go, "I'm totally going to make you wait for me to get off," and stepped right through them. I'm pretty much still checking my phone to see if my tweet went through.
Someone goes, "Elana Johnson?"
And I look up and she goes, "I'm Beth Revis."
*cue the screaming and jumping up and down and hugging and other things I'm really glad no one with a video camera was around to capture*
So I met Beth in this dingy parking garage! It was, in a word, frawesome.
And Andrea Cremer was with her, and I hugged her too. And Kirsten Miller was there, but we didn't hug. And Brenna Yovanoff was there too, and again, no huggage. I think they were both mildly terrified because of all the above screaming and whatnot. They went up; I went to drop off my coat.
Amazing. The event was fabulous times ten. My favorite part was when someone asked if it was hard to get a book published. Beth laughed. Kirsten talked about living in New York and luck, Andrea said you have to get the right book to the right person at the right time, and Brenna said it has to be your best work every time.
But Ally Condie said my favorite thing (which apparently other people have said too. She's just the smartest person I know *wink*). She said that yes, you have to have luck and a good product, but you have to be standing out in the rain so that when the lightning strikes, you'll be there.
Lightning = luck, opportunity, whatever.
And I loved that, because it's so true. You really do have to be out there, getting soaking wet, before the lightning will strike.
What do you think? Are you out in the rain?
And here's some blurry pics I took with my phone.
Oh, and I'm under a strict deadline, and will only be blogging on M/W/F this week. xoxoxoxox until then.
Okay, so it's winter. Maybe that's why I've got my snark on. Or maybe it's because I've been writing in my super-sarcastic voice again. Or maybe...
Maybe it's because there are things in the publishing industry that aren't fair.
Maybe it's because luck plays a huge part in the journey from unagented to agented to acquired to published.
Maybe it's because luck is one of those things that we can't control. And so we flail and hope and cross our fingers and pray that we'll be on the right side of luck.
I don't want to discount the principle of hard work. I'm blogging about that later this week. But I firmly believe that luck is an important ingredient in the birth of a book. Let's examine.
You have to A) write a book someone wants. But you don't know what they want.
That takes luck.
You have to B) get that book you've worked really hard on in front of said person in A) at the right time. But you don't know what time that is.
That takes luck.
You have to C) get that polished MS in front of said person in A) before someone else out there subs a book that is similar. But you don't know when/if the others are subbing.
That takes luck.
So let's say you get lucky, and get an agent. (You've worked hard too. That's another post--so chillax.) Now comes the real luck-needing.
You now have to trust that your agent can get your book in front of someone who wants it at the right time (which you don't know and can't control) before another agent subs something (again, you don't know and can't control) similar.
Holy luck, Lucky Luck Man.
But that's not enough in publishing. Even if the editor loves it, they usually have to get a whole team of people behind the project too. Marketing people. Sales people. Publisher-type people. Higher-up editor people. And if you thought getting one person to say yes took luck, think how much it takes to get like, 10 to say yes.
Luck, luck, luck, luck, luck.
You needz it.
And just because you don't have an agent or a book deal doesn't mean you won't get one. You just have to keep at it until the luck gravitates to your side. It will. If you keep on keepin' on, if you work hard, it will.
It will. Trust me, it will.
What say you? How important is luck in publishing?
Oh, and if you're feeling lucky (or even if you're not), go check out Pam's blog! She's giving away POSSESSION!!
