Quality over Quantity

I’ve just finished reading the RWR (Romance Writers Report) which is a monthly publication provided to members of Romance Writers of America. It contains articles written by authors, for authors, about writing, marketing and other aspects of the publishing industry. Though the magazine contained so much political discussion this year that I found myself skimming through a lot of it, I continue to read the articles I feel will benefit me as a writer. In my experience, learned advice is worth hearing again and again, especially when it comes to the complex challenge that is writing. My creative energy is recharged when I read the advice of others in the business and I’m often left with some interesting food for thought. This month, that thought is quality over quantity.

We live in a fast-paced world. Readers have high demands and a short attention span and we as writers work diligently to meet that demand. The trouble comes when the quality of our work is sacrificed in the process. Publishers set deadlines to meet readers expectations and maximize sales potential. We fight to keep up, risk and sometimes incur burnout or worse, the quality of our writing is sacrificed altogether. It’s disappointing to read a story by a well-known bestselling author only to discover the book isn’t nearly as good as her others. When I come across one such book, I think, “Pressure to meet a deadline, perhaps?” While a reader who’s never walked on the other side of the fence probably just thinks, “This book sucks!”

As authors, and humans, not every one of our stories is going to be as “good” as the last. One premise may be less suspenseful than another, the hero of one story is an alpha and another, the funny guy. Perhaps our book simply didn’t resonate with a particular reader because it didn’t meet the expectation of their specific taste. But, there’s a difference between an imperfect story and one that is truly not our best work. As dedicated authors, we know when our stories are our personal best work and when they’re not. When the latter occurs, it’s up to us to put the breaks on things until we can deliver a story that’s of the same quality as the other works we’re proud of.

As newbie authors, the above advice is every bit as important, maybe more so. When searching for an agent or publishing house, we need to bring our very best work to the table. Agents, if they’re taking on new clients at all, generally take on very few at any given point in time and the same goes for publishing houses–the window of opportunities is very small. If you’re self-publishing, you’ll be bypassing the audition process so to speak, making it even more important to evaluate your own work with a critical eye. Yes, an editor can help you identify flawed plot points and grammatical errors but, as the author, it’s up to YOU to ensure your work is ready for the public eye. If readers are disappointed by the quality of your story, they may opt not to read your books again in the future.

When I was published with a small press, I discovered several typos in my final, published work. Though the work had been reviewed several times by both myself and two professional editors, mistakes were missed and some of them were glaring. I longed for the opportunity to fix the mistakes and when I had the rights to my titles reversed, I gained that opportunity. It was tempting to change even more–for authors, the desire to change and correct and polish never goes away. And while I did make a few minor additional changes, for the most part, I left my stories alone. As a personal practice, I never passed anything along to my editor or determined it was ready to go through the publishing process until the changes I was making no longer made the story better, just different. Though I’ve only published one book a year to date, I believe with confidence that each was a reflection of my personal best. I stand by that belief.

I was fortunate in that, being published with a small press, “deadlines” were only put into place after one of my stories had already been completed. There was no calendar of books scheduled to be released the following year because my digital publisher didn’t work that way. Once a story was completed (on my timetable) I submitted it for publication. Naturally, when I became a self-published author, these “deadlines” only became looser.

God bless authors who can write on a tight deadline. If you are able to write quickly under pressure and still deliver your best, a world of opportunity awaits you in a fast-paced world with very high demands. Never having been in such a position in my own writing career, I honestly can’t say whether I’d work well under such circumstances. But, I know this much. Not by any means would I ever wish to sacrifice the quality of my writing just to turn out another notch on my author belt. If that means it takes me a little longer than desired to turn out my next masterpiece, I’m more than ok with that.