When good books go bad

By Joe Moore

How often have you heard a writer ask, "I don’t understand why my book is being rejected while so many bad books are published?" Or, "I keep reading books that are nowhere near as good as mine. Yet they wind up getting published while mine don’t. I don’t get it!"

Sound familiar?anger2 Here’s my spin on the answer to this never-ending source of frustration: there’s no such thing as a bad book. The reason I feel that way is I believe that all books are considered good or even great by someone.

No publisher will intentionally release a "bad" book. Doing so would be a doomed business plan, especially in today’s economy. Their goal is to find the best written manuscript, give it the most professional editing possible, promote it within budget limitations, and work closely with the author to raise the awareness of the book in the marketplace.

Here’s the problem: No publisher has a plan that is immune to failure. Not all books appeal to enough readers to make back the original investment. The dumpster is full of great books that did not make it into the hands of enough readers. And we have all come across books that we didn’t like or thought were "bad". (To be honest, I couldn’t make it through the first 50 pages of a huge best selling novel that won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Does that mean it was a "bad" book?)

Not liking a book is individual preference. Someone else may love it, which is usually the case. If a book is truly written poorly–spelling errors, typos, incorrect punctuation, etc.–that’s the failure of the line editor. And if it’s built on weak or sloppy writing (massive plot holes, 2-dimensional characters, stilted dialog, pacing issues, redundancy, cliche, etc.), that’s the fault of the acquisition editor. In both cases, the book should not have been published.

I have never met an author who said, "Today I’m going to write a mediocre book." I’ve never dealt with an agent who was seeking writers with minimal talent. There are no publishers out there willing to risk their money on a sure-fire loser. All books are considered great by someone. That’s why they were written, represented, and published. Did enough readers agree? Better yet, did enough readers even get the chance to agree. And if they didn’t, where does the fault lie? Marketing? Distribution? Promotion? Bad luck?

But even if we write a great book, there’s no guarantee that it will ever be published, much less sell enough copies to earn back the advance (many books fall short of that task). Don’t get me wrong, we all have to write the best book we can. But there are more great books that fail than succeed.

I think all books are great to someone. What do you think? Why does it seem that so many "bad" ones still get published while great books fail or never see the light of day?

8 thoughts on “When good books go bad

  1. I think you missed the point of your original premise, which I read withgreat anticipation, being in that boat myself.

    You raised the question yourself: if it’s built on weak or sloppy writing (massive plot holes, 2-dimensional characters, stilted dialog, pacing issues, redundancy, cliche, etc.), that’s the fault of the acquisition editor.

    We all know how many layers of approval a book must pass to get published. What frustrates writers is, “How does what you mentioned above happen as often as it does?”

  2. I’m struggling with this right now. I have a great book. In the early phases an editor with a major house graciously gave me some great critique (for free, I might add) and I faithfully incorporated what she suggested. It definitely made the work better.

    So, after that I’ve been told by people in the business whom I respect: “Great scenes”, “Great dialogue”. I even had a very successful TV producer say “Extraordinary!” But then…

    After several rejections, which I always handle with the greatest of professionalism by refraining from throwing anything breakable or heavy, I got some other “helpful hints” from agents-unsolicited. These led to more tweaks and rewrites

    I wound up doing somethng that pilots call ‘chasing the needle.’ That is, drifting off course, correcting to the point of overcorrecting, doing that again and again until the plane leaves zig-zag contrails across the sky.

    So when I read Joe’s post today I resolved: My book is good just as it is. I haven’t gotten it in front of the right agent yet and I haven’t had the right editor read it yet. That doesn’t mean it’s not good nor that it needs more rewriting. Thank you, Joe!! I now have time to start my next one.

  3. I think sometimes people fail to judge their own writing according to the standard of publication. I’m not even talking about greatness, or lack thereof. I’m just talking about what it takes for a manuscript to be of publishable quality. Sometimes people are way off the mark about their own writing, but they don’t realize it. I’ve participated in a number of writing groups. The group will point out the issues with a section, and then the writer brings back the revision the next week–and it includes the exact same problems, just worded differently. Aargh!

  4. Thanks for your comments, Bill. Chasing the needle can be almost as dangerous in writing as flying. At some point, you no longer have any idea where you are and the story starts to strain and crash. Many times, soaring compliments accompanying a rejection could mean something as simple as the publisher’s catalog is full in your genre. No matter how much they love your work, sales and marketing won’t let them take it.

    Unless an editor points out a glaring flaw in your manuscript that would threaten rejection by everyone, stand by what you believe in and keep trying to find a home for your book. Many times, publication is more timing and luck than anything else—finding the right editor in the right frame of mind at just the right phase of the moon. Good luck.

  5. Hey Kathryn. I agree. Writing groups can be so good for an author and at the same time, frustrating. In one respect, I believe the reason I’ve been published is I spent 10 years in a weekly critique group developing my skills. But at the same time, I’ve also seen fellow members wrestle with the same demons repeatedly, never finding peace or success.

  6. What frustrates me most is books that publish with rampant typos, grammatical errors, duplicated paragraphs, etc. Stuff that SHOULD have been caught by the author, the editor, the copy editor, someone of the many eyes which look at the dang thing before it prints. Plot and characterwise I can accept someone out there may love what I hate, but when there are overwhelming technical errors I define a book as ‘bad’ because it’s hard to get through to find out if I would have liked the rest of it.

    ~J

  7. Thanks for commenting, Dana. In reality, poorly written books clutter the shelves of every bookstore. I have a couple of shelves full of books that I gave up on after a few chapters. They do make it into the marketplace. But the way I look at it, no one sets out to write, represent, publish, or buy a “bad” book. It’s the same with movies, TV shows, and so many other forms of entertainment. Somebody liked it enough to purchase, nurture, and fund the property. So, in that sense, my point was that there are no bad books.

  8. I share in your frustration, JSB. Especially dealing with the stuff that should be caught along the way such as typos. As far as I’m concerned, that’s just a lack of skill on the copy editor’s part or for that matter, laziness.

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