I’ve worked with publishers
who edit
all the wonderful,
all the unique
out of a story.
It isn’t done
all at once
and making it boring
isn’t their intention.
Their intention
is to reduce risk.
They usually claim
it is due to the ‘market’
but that’s bullsh*t.
The market adores the f*ck
out of books that are different.
It is due to risk,
risk that they can’t easily
find the prospects
for the different product,
risk that they can’t easily
sell the product
to these prospects,
risk that they will be blamed
for a failure
because they made a decision
that was based
on something other than
‘everyone else was doing it.’
One of my projects,
for example,
started with
an adorably quirky,
plus-sized,
black female engineer
as the heroine.
The quirky was the first
to go.
The publisher claimed
she was too ‘strange’,
too unrelatable.
She became
a ‘normal’
plus-sized,
black female engineer
“Making her black
limits the market,”
the publisher next said.
So she become
a ‘normal’
plus-sized
white female engineer.
Then they said
plus-sized was
‘too risky.’
She became
a ‘normal’
thin
white female engineer.
Then, you guessed it,
she would be more ‘relatable’
if she was a teacher.
She became
a ‘normal’
thin
white female teacher
heroine,
of which there are gazillions
in publishing.
That project sold terribly,
the worst in my history.
My first story
with a small press publisher
sold more
than the entire year-long project
with a big New York publisher.
After my contract
was completed,
I went Indie
and published
the stories I wanted.
I took on the risk
and some of those stories
bombed.
They didn’t sell as poorly
as the ‘risk-free’
big publisher project
but they didn’t cover costs.
But some of those stories
sold VERY well
and continue selling
VERY well.
And all of them
broke new ground
in their niches.
The opposite of risky
is boring.
Don’t ‘edit’ all the special
out of your product/service.