This is a very brave thing to say. I’m totally there with you. It’s not that I don’t believe in “creative differences,” but I prefer to think of my own struggles with rejection as “learning experiences.” An opportunity to grow.

I think the real struggle for authors, in many ways, is that we ARE held accountable for our sales even though, realistically, there is not a lot we can do to affect them. Publishers have far more control over the sales of our books than we do, because they’re the ones who market the books to booksellers and make the deals for co-op space and all the other nifty stuff that makes your book visible to consumers. An author can have an effect on the margins, but I think that margin is statistically pretty small.

The only thing the author can really be held accountable for, IMO, is writing her best book. After that, it’s kind of out of her hands.

That said, the fact that I haven’t sold another book yet isn’t, IMO, due to factors beyond my control. I just don’t think I’ve written a good enough book yet. That’s down to me, and not to the fact that sell-through on a debut book with a $14 cover price is probably NOT gonna be great in a recession.

I do believe the Field of Dreams adage: If you build it, they will come. I just haven’t built it yet.

And I’ll tell you what, you’re totally my new role model. Talk about taking lemons and making lemonade. You’ve taken it to a whole new level, m’dear .

But not when it comes to the stuff that IS beyond the author’s control–ie the covers and missing pages I mentioned. And I hate seeing authors getting reamed for stuff that IS beyond their control.

One of my favorite apologies ever: http://sandrabrown.net/blog/2009/02/04/mea-culpa/

And yeah, sometimes wording on the interwebz can be tricky.

Delilah congrats on the new sale!!!!!

Also, I apologize if my wording above is a little insensitive. I didn’t mean to imply that there is anything wrong with rallying readers to buy. : )

Jill,
I agree to a point about accountability (everyone should be holding themselves accountable for things) however, I feel as if too much of that accountability is being placed upon an author. A recession isn’t something an author should be held accountable for. There should be factors brought to the table the enable an author to better understand what they really should be held accountable for.

One thing that seems to strike a wrong note with readers is a lack of accountability on the author’s part. I don’t know what others have experienced, but I feel as though my failings are my own. If I don’t succeed, I will take the blame.

Delilah I commend you. You have balls of steel. I could NEVER do it. That said, K didn’t pick up my option book but I’ve already moved on to write other things that my agent is shopping. *shrugs*

Much as I LOVE that option book and hope it sells to another house, I KNOW My career is not in erotica.

I missed the whole discussion about Justine’s cover so I really can’t comment but I will say that I think educating readers about how LITTLE control authors have over our work and how it’s sold/presented is a good thing. Writers should NOT be held accountable (by readers) for every little mechanical (covers, missing pages etc) issue that crops up where a book is concerned. The writer writes the book; the writer promos the book. The writer does their best to edit the book; the writer does not make the cover, and, for lack of a better word, nobody writers have NO control over the cover. The writer doesn’t bind the book–a factory somewhere does.

As to Ms. Holt….I’m sad that her email was posted in a public forum like that because to be frank, it went far beyond what I would EVER say to a reader. It was definitely TMI in my book. That said, there are two sides to every story and then there is the truth.