Validation

[Jude Hardin]

Most professions require a rigorous course of study, and then some sort of Big Test to acquire licensure or accreditation. If you’re a lawyer, you had to pass the bar in your state at some point. Doctor or nurse? Board exams. Engineer, teacher, astronaut...

You name it. Practically every vocational pursuit requires validation from an outside source.

Why, then, should writing be any different?

But there’s no Big Test to be a writer, you might say. Anyone with basic communication skills can put pen to paper and in a few months have The Great American Novel in front of them. Writers are artists. Writers don’t need outside sources to validate their competence.

Well, yes and no. If you write primarily for yourself, as a hobby, with mostly friends and family in mind as readers, then no outside source is required. You can send your manuscript to a POD press and in no time be holding a real live book with your very own name on it. Or, you can format it and try to hawk it on Amazon’s Kindle site or something. You might even make some money.

If, however, you want to be a professional writer, what the industry typically recognizes as a published author, then you’re going to need the green light from a traditional house, one recognized by the industry as legitimate.

That’s right. Publication is our Big Test.

Some writers don’t feel as though they need an outside source to tell them they’re good enough, and that’s fine. Good for them. Sometimes I wish I felt that way.

But I need it. I need the sort of validation only a traditional publishing contract can provide, and I’m going to keep working toward that goal until I achieve it.

How about you?

[Jack Getze]

I'm starting to wonder about this validation thing. I'm pubbed with a tiny POD press. I didn't pay to be published. I actually got a small advance. But my pub is in such disarray, I am often treated as self-pubbed, banned from certain conventions, snubbed by a few bigger authors even. I've been wanting the validation of a big NY house to pick up my series (my agent's still trying), and yet in my two and half years of traveling, meeting other authors, every single one of them seems to want more -- a bigger publisher, bigger sales, more co-op money, a series that lasts. Makes me think NOBODY'S really happy or validated. Even Stephen King wants the critics to like his work better than they do, and Pynchon wants more readers, bigger sales for his literary efforts.
Maybe the grass always looks greener?

[I. J. Parker]

The grass IS greener. The validation system is not altogether fair. Neither are readers.

[Jude Hardin]

There's nothing wrong with striving for bigger and better, Jack. We should all remember to enjoy the journey, though.

[Dan Coleman]

No writer(s) is ever going to be satisfied until rich and famous. Then they start eating and drinking to excess, and that's all they write about, even inserting the minutia into the stories, like recipes, etc. Reminds me of Pat Conroy, one of my favorites. That's because the fictional character is always half fiction, half the author, from which one cannot escape. As the author changes, so does the story and protagonist.

The hunger for validation is really the need for acceptance and safe harbor with the tribe, to escape the insecurities and threats of failure and anonymity.(And to make some bucks). Recognition in the way of awards, sales/money, etc. are like the fraternity pin you wear around signaling one's importance. Nobody wants to be the runt, the outsider. But if one thinks this acceptance can be granted only by a publishing contract with an established and known house, then one is limited in his or her own requirements and expectations, because so often publishers, their editors, and writers' agents, or would-be agents, are dead-ass wrong and miscalculating in assessment of one's work. How do you explain the writer who writes for decades only to be "discovered" by some reader, or editor, or agent, who then is referred to as the genius for "finding" this diamond in the rough?
("Hey, moron, I've been outside your office for thirty years. What took you so long? And you didn't discover me, I discovered you).

So if a writer is going to compare himself with an artist, say, a painter, then he should do whatever painters do when nobody knows him: get his ass out there on the streets and sell his strokes to anyone passing by who'll buy them. For the writer that's P.O.D. right now. Whatever it takes, and screw the "authorities" of acceptance. The whole thing is a crap shoot anyway.

[Jude Hardin]

I suppose a comparable validation for a painter would be being invited to show at a gallery. And, since it's all just a crap shoot, I guess there's no reason for any of us to work on improving our craft. Right.

[John McFetridge]

I don't know, Jude, I think sales are the validation. I've been published by one of the biggest publishers (Harcourt) and it was good to get that, but sales were dismal and that erased any validation. There are people who have self-pblished and sold tons more books than I have - that's validation, that's getting people to put down their money for your product.

Publishing confuses me. More and more I'm asked to do all the marketing and promotion myself, often more than a self-published author does. Publishers seem to be bringing less and less to the table and relying on this attitude that they're the only legitimate source for "real books."

I have to admit, St. Martins have been better, but my first book with them won't be out till February, so we'll see then.

[John Dishon]

Yeah, I think if you're going to compare writing to another profession, retail is more apt than a doctor or a lawyer.

[Andrew Kent]

Using some of your examples shows how false the premise of certification can be. I know lawyers who graduated from fine schools but hated lawyering, were ineffective, or both. Certified physicians can be sued for malpractice; they can run unethical businesses or studies. Etcetera. Certification is actually a pretty poor filter for quality. It's the floor, not the ceiling, and that seems to be the theme here. Getting published by a big publisher sets a seemingly solid floor for you, up a few flights from your counterparts, but that floor might also be the down elevator while a self-published author starting on a seemingly lower floor might actually be on the up elevator.

How far up can an author go? As comments here note, the best ones reach for the sky, so they're never satisfied. But I agree with John -- sales are what really matter, both immediately and over time. That's the validation that really moves you upward, no matter which floor you started on.

[Dan Coleman]

No, Jude, I'm saying we should move ahead, no matter who might or might not recognize us for our efforts and work. If one/we aren't recognized for our work by the establishment, then it's up to us to create our own supporters, which can lead to acceptance by a larger audience and the more established publishers, etc. There are many European writers, for example, who're highly regarded by their cultures but don't make much money because their book sales are low. Prize money is their primary monetary reward. It's the difference in the cultures. In the USA, it's the numbers that count, the bottom line, because the bean counters own the publishing companies and we buy what gives us immediate personal pleasure. We don't buy it, they don't print it. And that's because we're still a young country and there's still an anti-intellectualism here, why a lousy writer can achieve great success, while a maybe great writer can fail.

This whole idea about a gate keeper system or concept determining who is or isn't worthy or being regarded as a "professional" is unnecessary. But I understand what you mean, and if one is getting paid at all for writing, then one can be considered a professional, in the current definition of the term, which, by the way, is over-used. Professionals actually profess something, have a depth of knowledge in a particular field.

[Eric Christopherson]

I am validated in my eyes. It's the big NY publishers who could use the added validation of discovering me.

[Jack Getze]

Atta boy. As artists, I think that's how we should feel. Personally, I fall short. I feel like I'm in the minor leagues and want to move up to The Show. Maybe Dan's on to something with that "tribe" comment.

[Dan Coleman]

There you go. Hah!