ColGray
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2023
- Messages
- 451
I went to an event last week where three members of a local writing group were all talking about their debuts-- all of them memoirs, all of them very different in topic and structure and focus. Overall, it was really cool and interesting. The panel progressed from each discussing and reading a bit from their book, to how they met and formed their group to the publishing process and that's when my bias kicked in. Hard.
One author was agented and published through an imprint of a large publisher. One published through an independent literary press related to the subject matter of her memoir. The third hybrid published where she fronted a significant 5-figure sum--after being rejected by 130+ agents and editors without a single full manuscript request.
That was the red flag for me and where I noticed my bias taking over. I found that I was thinking of the panel as two published authors and someone who was pretending they had a ready manuscript and a well written, interesting story. But I know that isn't fair. I know that isn't fair -- aside from it being memoir, it was a medical memoir from a non-famous person, focused on an uncomfortable topic. It's the opposite of a commercially viable manuscript and publishing is a business, so, yeah, I get why everyone passed on it. I know all of that, and yet my stupid lizard brain is going, FRAUD. FAKE.
Have others run into that-- either at panels or with their own work? How have you gotten over it?
One author was agented and published through an imprint of a large publisher. One published through an independent literary press related to the subject matter of her memoir. The third hybrid published where she fronted a significant 5-figure sum--after being rejected by 130+ agents and editors without a single full manuscript request.
That was the red flag for me and where I noticed my bias taking over. I found that I was thinking of the panel as two published authors and someone who was pretending they had a ready manuscript and a well written, interesting story. But I know that isn't fair. I know that isn't fair -- aside from it being memoir, it was a medical memoir from a non-famous person, focused on an uncomfortable topic. It's the opposite of a commercially viable manuscript and publishing is a business, so, yeah, I get why everyone passed on it. I know all of that, and yet my stupid lizard brain is going, FRAUD. FAKE.
Have others run into that-- either at panels or with their own work? How have you gotten over it?