May 10, 2006
Yesterday, Eric Mayer wished me luck, but commented that I didn't need it, right?

I'm sure Eric had a gleam in his eyes and a tongue firmly in his cheek when he wrote that.

As the subject title alludes to: It's better to be lucky than good.

It is, of course, better to be both.

Anybody who's spent any time trying to break into fiction writing understands pretty damn quick how important luck is in this business. Yes, editors and agents are looking for quality commercial and/or literarararararary fiction. The problem comes down, in many ways, to that word, "quality."

University professors, graduate students and anybody who's done a lot of writing and reading can probably identify "quality" writing when they see it.

Quality writing does not necessarily translate to commercial, salable fiction. Quality commercial, salable fiction does not necessarily--or automatically--get published and become successful in the marketplace.

Finding an agent who responds positively to your work is largely having the right writing to the right person at the right time. That's even more the case with getting it into the hands of the right editor. Who knows? The editor that receives your manuscript might normally love it and grab it up, but they had a fight with their spouse last night, stalked off to their local watering hole and knocked back a few too many martinis, slept on the couch, missed the train into the office, got chewed out by their boss, and picked up your manuscript and read one page, popped some Tylenol and stuck a pre-written rejection letter on it. Bad luck? Yeah. It happens.

I'm a firm believer in luck, and that we influence it by being persistent and doing our best work. I believe that quality will wiin out in the end, but a little luck won't hurt.

So the thing to do is:

Write your best work and make it even better.

Be persistent. Never give up. Joe Konrath regularly says there's a word to describe writers who don't give up: published. I think that's true. Talent is a dreadfully common commodity. There are only so many publishing slots to be filled--it's a relatively finite number--and there's a lot of scrabbling for attention once the books do get published. Many sink or swim without anything to do with the talent of the writer, the efforts of the publisher or the writer to promote.

So you've got to be out there. You've got to go through the motions of submissions, publicity. Woody Allen commented that something like 9/10ths of success was just showing up. That's right. Lady Lucky comes around, but if you're not paying attention and ready, you'll miss out.

So tell me, punk. Do you fell lucky?

Best,
Mark Terry