Last week, I focused on the Humble Offerer—the writer who approaches submission as if she or he were a pathetic wretch making an offering to the Gods of Publication. This writer is often insecure about his work and reacts to rejection with depression and even shame. True Humble Offerers get discouraged easily—and many give up after a few rejections. Most of us have at least a little bit of the Humble Offerer inside, but successful writers keep it from taking over.
Today, I’m going to write about the second type of submitter: the Great Benefactor.
The Great Benefactor is the opposite of the Humble Offerer. These writers see their work as glorious gifts to the literary world. They are convinced their work is brilliant, will be snapped up immediately, and is likely to soar to best-seller status.
If you think this writer is rare, that is because you haven’t talked to enough writers. I have had conversations with writers who have told me their greatest barrier to submission is the loss of privacy they’re going to experience when their work is published and the press comes pounding on their door. I’ve known writers who unabashedly compared their own work to that of literary giants. Given the number of writers who admit they think these things, I can only imagine how many more are out there thinking it but not saying it.
In many ways, life is easier for Great Benefactors than it is for Humble Offerers. They send their work out feeling excited and optimistic. They are immune to worry. And when they get rejections, they often blame the editor for being too obtuse or the publishing world for being too political.
But life is not all good for these writers. Being a Great Benefactor can present three serious barriers to success.
First, Great Benefactors tend to rush their work out. They’re so convinced their writing is great that they don’t take the time to comb through it, searching for weaknesses, determined to hone, polish, and improve—something that is absolutely necessary if your writing is going to grow.
Second, Great Benefactors often dismiss criticism. They are the kind of writers who hire editors and then get irritated when the editor suggests they change something.
Third, Great Benefactors quickly go to self-publication—because they believe the only reason they’re not getting published is that publishers are idiots. And, while self publishing might be an acceptable route in some cases, for the large majority of writers, it is the off-ramp to obscurity. Most writers would be much better off figuring out what they can do to sharpen their writing and make it more marketable, then to publish it themselves. In other words, Great Benefactors often undermine their careers precisely because they think too highly of their own work to improve it.
Again, most of us have a Great Benefactor hidden deep inside. We’ve all written things that made our little writerly hearts thrum with the thought, this is destined for glory. And maybe that’s fine—as long as we don’t let it take over. The second we let our inner Great Benefactor dominate, we run into serious difficulty.
Next Tuesday, I’ll write about the third type of writer: The Contributor. Then we’ll talk about how to put all three together in a healthy, balanced way that enables us to handle the ups and downs of the submission process successfully.