The Game of Persistence!

Persistence: As writers, we all think that our storyline, sentence structure and grammar is the best and it is only when we come up against an editor or critic that we are told that what we have written is either an illiterate mess, or amateurish and not to give up your day job. So if you are convinced that this is not so then who has the right to decide that which we have spent hours researching and correcting is unfit to be published?


If I told you that my latest novel was brilliant piece of fiction and you have to buy it, would you? No, you wouldn't because you do not know me and as far as you are concerned I have no writing credibility. However, if a newspaper columnist or well-known book critic or even a famous presenter of a television program told you that a particular novel was a brilliant piece of fiction, would you buy it? The probable outcome is that you would, based on their recommendations, but what do they know about your taste in books? Very little, in fact not a thing. So what is the difference between the two?

How many of us have read books by a well known author on the recommendation of a friend, book club, critic or press release only to find that the book we are supposed to be excited about is, as far as you are concerned, a boring excuse for a novel.

Do well known writers survive because of their first success or because of publicity? You can compare it to the older entertainers who still keep appearing on our screens simple because of their past successes. If they had to start again, along with their aging skills, then many of them would be complete failures.

So what makes one book or story any better than the next? Is it the storyline, or prose or something else? Does a writers first book lay a solid foundation on which to build upon for the next? How often have you read a story or novel and you enjoy the read only to learn later on that the book is viewed as a secondary work of art and will never be a best seller.

Why does one person have the right to veto the work of another person when they are expressing only their own opinion. The power of the written word has many users and non-more so than newspaper editors who can skillfully blend and bend a story to have a totally different meaning.


So are there many award winning novels dwelling in a forgotten folder, on some ones computer or a long forgotten manuscript stuffed carelessly in a drawer? The answer is yes there are, so how do you get them noticed and into print? Knowing the right people may help, submitting the manuscript to hundreds of publishers might help. If you are determined to be successful then you have to employ the good old standby called persistence. Use it to get your book out there and do not give up, without persistence you will not even have a chance of survival or success as a novelist.

To quote Mark Twain: The miracle, or the power, that elevates the few is to be found in their industry, application, and perseverance under the prompting of a brave, determined spirit.

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Ian Nicholson is a writer who has published his first young persons adventure book 'Amber And The Demons of Syrin' available on Amazon.com as a paperback and Kindle Books as an e-book.