Janet Reid
Behavioral scientists found a way to make even the sanest of their lab rats go nuts pretty quickly: random shocks. Rats could deal with regular shocks. We can too: every day at noon the fire siren goes off, and even if you live next door, you get used to it. Go to elementary school, and bells ring all the time, but they ring at scheduled times.
If you randomize the noise, the fire alarm at dawn one day, midnight the next; or you start changing when the school bell rings, stress levels go up, and the subjects go nuts. Nuts being the clinical term for slightly/totally crazy.
I mention this because publishing is now undergoing a period of random shocks. Today came news of layoffs at the venerable FSG. Sure we knew more layoffs were in the works somewhere but not knowing where or when makes getting the news a random shock.
So, don't be surprised if we all go slightly crazy for a while.
As I started to think about this topic I realized that people writing query letters are subjected to random shocks and unreliable information pretty much constantly. It's a wonder none of them have gone postal.
Rejection letters come intermittently. They all say different things. Agents and editors blogs and conference panels provide contradictory information. The only way to stop the stress is to quit querying, and for most writers that means an end to their dream of being published. They'd rather endure the shock, and be a little crazy than give up.
I admire that tenacity. I wish I could alleviate some if it, but so far I've been unable to convince everyone in publishing to do things my way, to have my submission guidelines etched in stone. It's a terrible disservice to writers, so clearly it's my public duty to persevere in my evil plan for world domination. (Hang on for a second, I need to put up a lightning rod, I see a bolt or two headed straight at my head...)
Ok, I'm back.
In the articles I read about the crazy rats, it was clear that the usual stress relievers worked for rats too. They included 1. companionship, particularly with a rat who wasn't getting shocked; 2. exercise; 3. eating; 4. drinking; and the most important 5. getting a way to feel in control. Rats who could push a lever to reduce the shock got used to the shocks pretty quickly.
What this means for writers is first recognizing that querying is stressful. Eat, drink, exercise and make time to be with friends is as important now as ever. And set up a way to feel some control over the process. I'm not sure what that would be but my guess is the writers who read this blog will have some ideas.
And perhaps remembering too, that no matter what craziness goes on in publishing, the one person who will always have a job, ALWAYS, is the story teller. All the rest of us depend on your work. We add value to it, we help you, sure. But you're the one, the point upon which the entire \/ of publishing rests.
Since we're all going to be a little crazy for awhile, during this Chinese Year of the Rat, maybe we can all help each other out a little bit too.
I'm not exactly sure how but maybe you all have some ideas about things agents could do to make you slightly less crazy.
