Reality Check

by Leah Davidson

Book Review:
78 Reasons Why Your Book May Never Be Published And 14 Reasons Why It Just Might, by Pat Walsh. Penguin Books, 2005.

December 31, 2004, eleven-o-something PM. After one last read-through of my first email query for my first completed novel, I hit the "send" button. It took nine months of late nights writing, time snatched proof-reading and note-making on every lunch hour, but I'd done it. I'd actually written a novel. I'd read the first chapters of the latest Writer's Digest Guide to Literary Agents (so of course I knew how to write a query letter) and picked a dozen agents I was sure would be thrilled to read my manuscript. Now I was ready to barrage the publishing industry with brilliant queries.

NOT.

It wasn't until I'd received a half-dozen rejections and been completely ignored by the other half-dozen unappreciative recipients of my attentions that I discovered Pat Walsh's 78 Reasons Why Your Book May Never Be Published and 14 Reasons Why It Just Might. If I'd found it sooner I would have saved myself some money on stationary and postage, and considerable private embarrassment. When I began leafing through its pages I immediately recognized the wit and wisdom of the author; I already had some first-hand experience of the absurd misapprehensions the first-time novelist is prey to. What Mr. Walsh did for me at once was reassure me: I wasn't alone in my naïveté and ignorance, but there was hope, and remedy for my sorry condition.

This book is not a guide to how to write a novel. It contains no step-by-step recipes for the perfect query letter. My first clue that this was a different kind of advice-to-writers book was the title of the first (and only) chapter of Part One (Talk is Cheap), which goes directly for the aspiring author's weakest point: 1. The Number One Reason Your Book Will Never Be Published is Because You Have Not Written It

Well, I was past that hurdle, but surely it was the logical place to start, in terms of Walsh's reasons and life-as-we-know-it as writers. Eager for more, I proceeded.

Part Two: A Cold Hard Look includes these chapter titles: Your Book Is Not Good Enough. You Do Not Revise Your Book or You Will Not Revise It Again. You Think You Are a Natural. You Do Not Know What You Are Talking About. You Cannot Tell a Story. You Do Not Have Style. You Have Too Much Style. Etc.

Cold and hard indeed, but filled with examples both horrifying and humorous culled from Walsh's long experience as an editor, with a fair dose of practical writing advice thrown in for the good measure. The next six parts of the book, about the various vagaries that plague the publishing industry, whether perpetrated by agents, editors, accountants, or the hapless authors themselves, ring equally with the voice of experience.

So much for the 78 negative reasons. All is not lost: hope remains in Pandora's box, the slender hope of 14 reasons you or I may see our books in print. Part Nine: The Good News, includes: You Wrote a Good Book. You Are Honest with Yourself. You Have High Hopes and Reasonable Expectations. You Learn from Rejection. You are Flexible. And my favorite, You Have Fun.

Pat Walsh's book is a reassuring and valuable resource for the novelist seeking publication. It provides a reality check for any writer ready to confront his craft with honesty and integrity. Walsh calls on authors to understand the industry we're trying to break into, to work hard and be thorough, to take ourselves seriously and make our own luck, because "even luck is a byproduct of preparation…. Luck's nice, but it's not really a mandatory ingredient in success. What's really lucky is enjoying the act of writing."
________
(Pat Walsh is the founding editor of MacAdam/Cage.)

Reviewer's Bio:
After three abortive attempts at grad school in three different fields, a two-year stint as a teacher of freshman composition, grammar, and literature, eight years substitute teaching in public schools, and eight more years as a bookseller for a major big box retailer which shall remain nameless, Leah Davidson has completed two novels in her adult fantasy series, The Alliance Chronicles, OF TWO MINDS and TRUE MINDS, both currently under revision, and is working on a third, as yet untitled. Leah reluctantly "moderates" a modestly popular online critique and discussion group for writers of speculative fiction when her schedule of writing, working for wages, and caring for her family permits.