I went to a lot of conferences last month and talked to a lot of writers. Unfortunately, some of them were going through some tough times on their road to publication–things hadn’t worked out the way they wanted. Invariably, when I asked them where things went wrong, they said they had taken some advice from a friend, critique group, or the internet. There are a lot of people out there who will cheerfully tell you what to do, and the trick is knowing who to listen to and who to ignore.
As a result, I’ve been asking some people what the worst writing or publishing advice they ever received was, and have come up with a couple categories that I feel bad advice falls into.
1. Opinions presented as facts. Writing is very subjective. I may read a book and think it doesn’t work at all, but someone else can read it and think it’s perfect. Sometimes well-meaning people will tell you how to “fix” a book in such a way as to completely ruin it. It’s difficult to ignore these people, especially if they are someone you know and respect. But consider: do they read and enjoy the genre you are writing in? Are they helping you produce the book you want to write or are they trying to turn the book into something it is not?
2. Just send it/upload it and see what happens! Sometimes I have heard people say they were told to publish online or send manuscripts to agents/publishers before they were ready. This is often presented as a good idea because you will gain “helpful feedback”. But since you only get one chance to make a first impression, I would be wary of giving a manuscript to a wider audience before you have done everything you can to polish the manuscript yourself. (As an agent, I must beg you to be particularly wary of sending to publishers who will only consider things once. Do not waste your only opportunity with manuscript you know isn’t ready.)
3. It’ll be easy! Writing a book is a long and difficult process. Both independent and traditional publishing have many hurdles and challenges. Anyone who says, “do it this way and it’ll be easy” either doesn’t know what he or she is talking about or is trying to sell you something.
4. Absolutes. A lot of writing teachers or workshops will tell you to “never do [this]” or “always do [that].” Sometimes these maxims are good rules of thumb, but they don’t always apply to every situation, or every book. You need to learn the rules and conventions of writing. Then you should decide if it’s okay to break them.
5. You should lie. This one seems obvious, but you should never lie to someone to get published. Publishing is a business and you want to start good business relationship with publishers, agents and readers. Anyone who tells you to break one of the Commandments just to get your manuscript read a little faster, does not have your best interest at heart.
Those are some bad tips I’ve seen. What is the worst publishing advice you ever received? (Bonus points if presented in the form of bad advice cat?)
