Fort Minor Leads Us All to Publishing Gold

Alright, I fully admit that I'm cheating tonight---but I'm exhausted on account of mosquitoes, early waking, and a long drive, so I feel fairly justified in posting a link to Nathan Bransford's blog.

Nathan talks, in part, about how difficult it is to discern what makes a book good and what doesn't. This past week on vacation I got asked by a lot of people, when they learned that I'm working in publishing and looking to write professionally as well, what it is that makes a good book, and quickly learned that what they meant was "What makes a successful book?"

And I told them more or less what I think Nathan is saying: "Nobody knows."

Now don't get me wrong, I have a massive, gargantuan list of what makes a BAD book, and I know a good book has few to none of those things, but I still don't know what really makes a great book, or a successful book. And neither does anybody else, or someone would have cornered the publishing industry.

If I were to try to break it down, however, I'd say that what makes a successful book is best described by a Fort Minor song: "10% luck, 15% skill, 20% concentrated power of will, 5% pleasure, 50% pain, and 100% reason to remember the name".

So let's go through those various things in order of what an author or publisher has control of.

1.) 20% concentrated power of will
-Obvious. It takes a lot of work on the part of both an author and a publisher to make a book successful. Without that work it just won't happen. The key word here may be "concentrated"--for both author and publisher, the more focus and attention the book gets, the more likely it is to succeed.

2.) 50% pain
-Also obvious, and ties neatly in with #1. There will be painful moments. For the author it may be rewrites after they realize their first, second, third, or "final" draft sucked. For the publisher it may be convincing the marketing team that yes, the book is publishable and yes, it is worth the budget they're asking for, and yes, yes, yes, into infinity. Publishing is a group effort, and getting other people onboard isn't always painless.

3.) 15% skill
-I put this one down at #3 because it's only partially controllable. Obviously skill matters, in both author and publisher, and skill can be honed, developed, controlled. But some people are just born with skills that others aren't, and that can't be controlled. So while specifically honing your skills is still very important, it's not as important (imho) as working on #1 and #2 (which, incidentally, will lead to you honing your skills ;-p)

4.) 5% pleasure
-Mike Shinoda may have been hyperbolizing a little when he said producing his song was only 5% pleasure...I sure hope so. I personally find my writing to be more like 10 or 15% pleasure, at least. But then again maybe that's my problem. At any rate, it's important to take pleasure in your work. After all, if you don't enjoy it, you won't be able to focus, get through the pain, or hone your skills for very long. Not to mention you won't enjoy life while you're at it.

5.) 10% luck
-Obviously the least controllable. But NOT the least important. In terms of being a runaway success, I'd actually say it's the MOST important. Sometimes a book hits at just the right time. Sometimes it hits at just the wrong time. The production period for a book is long enough that what may have been positioned perfectly at the time it was written might be old hat by the time it's published. There's just no way of accurately predicting these things. Trying to predict markets in general is what keeps stock analysts working 80 hour weeks and up late into the night (trust me, I'm rooming with one). And publishing is not immune to that unpredictability.

6.) 100% reason to remember the name
-This one really comes AFTER you're successful, and you can't control it at all. For a lot of authors it comes after their deaths. I had another discussion this week about art and whether 'tis nobler to create art that you think will reach people now or create art that may reach people after you die, and I'll talk about that later (maybe tomorrow, maybe next week). But either way--whether people will remember your name or your book's name is completely out of your control (despite being maddeningly important to long-term success), so try not to worry about it.

So what does all this mean? Work hard, I guess, but realize your limitations. There are plenty of things beyond your control that will effect how successful your writing is. Everyone has their own reasons for writing, and I'm not going to knock yours if it's reaching the bestseller list...but you need to realize that you can do everything right and still not get there and be okay with that before you go in, or else you may wind up very unhappy.