15 Random Things That Will Probably Help Your Publishing Career Much More Than an MFA Ever Could (or Writers’ Conferences, or AWP)
There are lots of compelling reasons to go to AWP or get an MFA, but "improved likelihood of commercial publishing success" is not one. Here are some things that can *actually* help you there.
Before I get into it:
The point of this newsletter isn’t to rag on MFAs, writers’ conferences, or AWP.
Rather, it’s to help you see that in book publishing—to quote Emily Dickinson, my skittish queen—success in circuit lies.1
As I’ve written before, success in book publishing functions like a gut microbiome: contributive factors are uncountably numerous; the overall journey is tortuous AF. The curves resemble other people’s only here and there; the aggregates are like fingerprints, unique among billions.
It is impossible—literally impossible—to replicate another author’s success by doing all the same things they did. There’s just too much to the story that’s beyond any one person’s control. Which means there’s also a real limit on the value of aiming for success via the beaten path: AWP attendance, an MFA, a writer’s conference or two, etc.
MFAs and conferences and AWP have value! Lots!
It just doesn’t include the specific thing we’re talking about here: a sure shot at commercial success as an author in book publishing.
MFAs, for example, offer the value of the academy: time, support, and shelter to take your work seriously without worrying about money (that is, if you’re not paying for the degree, which you should never, ever go into debt to do). They also give you a teaching credential that might make it easier to pay your bills while navigating book publishing and its highly (HIGHLY) volatile finances.
What MFA’s don’t do, however, is guarantee you a commercial book deal. Most don’t even improve your odds of that.2
Ditto conferences. Of my many current clients, just one is someone I met through a conference years ago—LOVE YOU, LAURA J-H. But I didn’t sign her because I met her at a conference; I would have signed her from my slush pile just as fast if she had happened to introduce herself that way.
Good fits are good fits (and vice versa); my bandwidth is what it is; and Laura and I both love a good aviation metaphor.
As for AWP? It’s good for making and hanging out with writer friends who might or might not constitute part of your support network down the line. It’s good for literary journals trying to sell copies and promote their brand. It’s also good for niche, low-stakes community drama fomented by narcissisms of small difference. AWP is not good for getting an agent at all, though, let alone a traditional book deal.
So what IS helpful for getting that splashy book deal and those bestselling sales numbers?
Put another way: If success is like a gut microbiome, what are the probiotics? What maximizes one’s chances for a big advance, good reviews, and gigundo sales, although—reminder—none of these things is entirely within any individual’s control?
The answer to this depends in large part on the book. It includes a combination of platform (primarily for nonfiction), artistic skill (primarily for fiction), and emotional literacy/empathy/maturity (both). It also really helps to have a kind of personal and artistic sprezzatura—one that is specifically recognizable to readers in your target audience. (Incidentally, this is just one reason it’s a good idea for big houses and agencies to bring in the as wide a variety of gatekeeping professionals as possible; sprezzatura varies by community and can be hard to recognize if you aren’t a community member yourself.)
There’s also a lot of hugely helpful stuff that ostensibly has nothing to do with writing, let alone books.
These are the things to which I really wish more aspiring authors paid attention instead of jostling three-stooges style for the more obvious professional development opportunities.
I shit you not: each of the following things could easily be much, much more helpful to your getting a great book deal than an MFA or anything like it.