A Sunday on subjectivity
When you’re a writer you know better than anyone else that things are subjective. And while we’re forced to accept that and encouraged to understand it, it’s not always easy to remember. We read about best-selling authors being rejected a gazillion times before selling the same block-buster they pitched the day before. While we believe it, we don’t like it.
We’ll never like it.
In a way the incongruity of the publishing industry leaves room for the breadth of books and authors out there. I read books and pass them on to both accolades for my keen sense of picking a winner or snares and snarls for not. Our appetite for books vary – and none is wrong. But it is reassuring to see that professional editors have made mistakes – that they’ve turned away books they wish they had not.
On Betsy Lerner’s blog today she gives current examples of this. And while she might be referencing books that did sell and do well, it’s still a testament to the subjective nature of the publishing business.
That’s a reminder I never tire of. Truly.
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