Internet Authors Value the Truth

The reason that lying is so common is that most people aren't very good at communication in the first place, which means they then have to run to keep up with the misinformation they gave out originally. One reason is that it's so easy to misconstrue what people say they mean, especially when they don't bother to explain and they're too lazy to correct you. A good example from my youth is the time that I went to visit a particular young lady that I was keen on. It was a Sunday afternoon, she had nothing much to do and we went for a walk. Going back to her house, I was introduced to her Dad. He started to ask me who I was, who I was related to and what my own Dad did for a living. It turned out that this man was a teacher and had actually taught my sister in one year at the school they both attended. About that time in the conversation, although he hadn't said anything negative, I was getting the feeling he wasn't impressed with me. Still, he didn't say anything. The next thing that happened was that the girl's mother looked in the room and said that tea would be ready soon. The man, the fierce father, looked hard at me and reiterated the words. 'Tea will be ready soon', he said. Great, I thought: I'm feeling a bit peckish. He said it again, and I nodded happily. It wasn't until he said it the third time that he plucked up the courage to say to me, 'I think you'd better go'. Ah, I suddenly realised. He was saying that he didn't want me around for the meal. He wanted to spend time with his family, and he wanted me to scoot. Why hadn't he said so before? Embarrassment? Maybe he thought it would sound too hostile to simply tell me to leave. Well, it was, and it did, when he eventually lost patience with my ability to read between the lines and so he was forced to come right out with it. Hell, I was a teenager: I knew no better. He was the adult: he should have said what he meant. He should have told the truth, right at the beginning.

In the world of Traditional Publishers, there is the same problem. Many hopeful authors post off their latest offering to a publishing house and are confused by the response. One good example is when a publisher says, 'This work needs the services of a good Editor'. When someone wrote that to me in a letter, I thought, 'Great. You're the publisher, you edit it and then it will be good enough to publish'. After all, most publishers employ people called Editors and it's those people's job to tinker with submissions, smarten them up and make them ready for publication. What they don't tell you, face to face, is that this part of their repertoire is like the Rolls Royce silver service; it's reserved for the bestsellers and potential big names. They're not offering it out to just about anyone who comes to them with a book. So what does the phrase mean? Someone says, 'You need an Editor' and that translates as, 'Go away'. No more, no less. Because, after all, if it was true, then all you would need to make your story sellable is the input of a person with Editorial experience. That gives you two possibilities: one is that the publisher sits you down and introduces you to their staff member, as above, but - as above - they aren't going to do that. The second choice is that you, the author, go out and hire a freelance person who can do the job. Well, there's plenty of them about. But here's the strange thing: if you suggest that to the publisher, they look aghast and change the subject. You see, they didn't meant it. Yes, I know, the words they spoke was, 'Use an Editor', but the curious fact is that they didn't mean it. If they did, then their staffer or your freelance would tackle the task and, at the end of the process, turn in a publishable work. No, they don't want that. What do they want? To put you off, turn you away, turn you down, make you leave and otherwise stop bothering them. The fact that they said anything about 'an Editor' was a mere ploy. They didn't mean it. It wasn't true. Even if it was true, they didn't mean you to act on it. If you did, then miscommunication results and things just get worse. Either way, you get turned down. The book gets rejected. Believe me, that's the bottom line.

Why don't they say? Why can't they be honest from the first? Well, it's not the way, is it? We're brought up to believe in the 'little white lie', the story that isn't true, not at all, but is told in a spirit of goodwill, in order to prevent hurt on the other side. Problem is, most times it just makes things worse. If a publisher said 'Go away', at least there is a chance you would get the message, but the fact they lie simply makes your live, and theirs, so much more complicated and messy. Internet Authors know that, which is why they are turning away from Traditional Publishers, in increasing numbers, and going to the kind of website that provides a 'print on demand' service. They want a book printed, they get it, with no lies, no innuendo, or misinformation. It's a win-win situation and avoids all the wasted months and years of waiting for a Traditional Publisher to get back to you and explain why they didn't like your book. Why wait for that letter? It won't tell you anything true, anyway. It will be full of lies.