“There are writers’ cliques in horror, and if you
don’t belong to one, you can’t get published. And not only don’t they support
new writers, they actively work to keep us out!”
I’ll be fifty-eight soon. I started writing and submitting
fiction to publishers when I was eighteen, which means I’m coming up on my
fortieth anniversary as a writer. I can’t tell you how many times during my
career I’ve heard statements like the one above, and not just regarding horror
but other genres too. The people making these statements believe there’s a
nebulous group of professional writers who are friends and who won’t allow
anyone into their closed circle. They exclusively publish each other’s stories
in magazines and anthologies, and they sing the praises of each other’s work
and no one else’s. Somehow, they act as gatekeepers for their entire genre,
making sure that no new writers can rise to their level in publishing and
become a threat to their power and prestige.
Are there writers’ cliques? I suppose it depends on
what you consider a clique. There are groups of writers who’ve become friends
over the years, maybe because they all started writing at the same time and
have a shared history in the publishing industry. Or maybe they’re friends because
they met each other and hung out at various conventions over the years. Or
maybe they’re fans of each other’s work and became connected that way. Often,
it’s a combination of all these things. And yes, if any of the writers edit a
magazine or anthology, they’re more likely to invite their friends to submit
because they know the quality of their writing and that they’ll be easy to work
with. But do these groups really act as genre gatekeepers, repelling any new
writers who dare to challenge their supremacy?
Not that I’ve seen in the last four decades.
“Sure you’d say that, Tim,” you might be thinking. “You’ve
been writing and publishing for a long time now. You are one of the cool
kids.”
Allow me to laugh my ass off for a few minutes before
I go on.
. . .
Okay, I’m back <wipes away tears of hilarity>.
I’ve never felt like an insider of any kind during my
life, and while I’m friends with a lot of writers, these friendships in and of
themselves haven’t furthered my career. I’ve gotten encouragement, advice, and
support from these friendships – I mean, isn’t that what friends do for each
other? – and sure, there’s a certain amount of networking that goes on, but
it’s not as if any of us know The Big Secret to having insanely massive success
as a writer. If we did, we’d take advantage of this secret ourselves and be
swimming in cash like Unca Scrooge in his money bin. Whatever success I’ve
achieved in my career has come two ways: 1) Writing regularly and constantly
striving to become better at my craft and 2) Persisting in the face of
rejections, self-doubt, poor reviews, and career setbacks. So when I get
invited to submit to an anthology or when a friend tells me about a writing
opportunity that’s not common knowledge, it’s because I’m a skilled writer with
a long track record of publication. I’ve taught college writing classes for
almost as long as I’ve been writing, and I’ve liked the vast majority of
students that I’ve had over the years. But the ones I’ve recommended for
various writing opportunities have been the ones with the most skill, not the
ones I liked the most.
In my experience, there’s no such thing as
all-powerful cabals of writers who work to keep newer writers from rising to
their exalted level. So why do newer writers continue to believe in such
cabals, and why do rumors about their existence pop up again and again
throughout the years? I don’t know for certain, but you likely won’t be
surprised to learn I have a few theories.
1) A
need for control. So much of a writer’s career when it comes
to publishing is beyond our control. It’s difficult to believe that luck plays
a gigantic role in which writers go on to big careers. We can’t control luck
(although we can prepare ourselves to take advantage of whatever luck comes our
way). And we sure don’t want to believe that our writing, while (hopefully)
good, isn’t good enough for us to climb the ladder of success much farther than
where we’re at currently. It’s far easier to blame someone, anyone, for our
lack of major success. Blaming people gives us something specific to focus on
rather than something abstract, like luck, and if some cabal of writers is out
to get us, it’s because we must be a threat to them, which means we must be as
good a writer as they are, if not better. Not only is the fantasy of the
sinister writing cabal more emotionally satisfying, it allows us to control the
narrative of our career, giving us a villain to counter the hero we so
desperately want to see ourselves as.
2) Envy.
We often admire those writers we see in our imaginary cabal, and we wish we
could be part of their circle. We want them to recognize us as an equal and anoint
us a True Writer, worthy of being one of the cool kids. If we believe there’s
an inside, it hurts to think we’re on the outside and may always be.
3) Social
media. We see writers post successes on social media all the
time, and often these successes demonstrate that these writers are leveling up
in their careers. Major book contracts. Critical acclaim. Award wins. Film
adaptations. It’s only natural for us to wonder when we’ll get these things,
and we fear that we may never get them. It can begin to seem that every writer
aside from us is having fantastic success all the time, but this is an
illusion. We pay more attention to these announcements than when someone posts
that they managed to write 500 words today. Writers with major success are few
and far between compared to all the writers chugging away, writing and hoping,
day after day.
4) Belief
that relationships in the writing community should be transactional. We
supported a writer when they were starting out, engaged with them on social
media, commented on their posts, retweeted announcements about their book
releases . . . and when they start to have success, they don’t reach down and
lift us up to their level. We can become angry, even bitter. We say they’ve
forgotten where they came from, that they’ve turned their back on the people
who helped them when they were coming up.
5) Career
expectations warped by society’s view of success. American
culture says you’re not a true success unless you become mega famous and mega
rich (and it doesn’t hurt to be mega beautiful, either). If society has been
ramming this definition of success down your throat all your life, you end up
believing it, even if you don’t realize it. So whatever success we do
achieve is like cold, bitter ashes in our mouth. Because it’s not – and can
never be – enough.
6) We
overestimate our writing ability. A lot of us fear that
we’re not good enough writers, but many of us believe we are fucking AWESOME!
Not only that, but our writing is so much better than the shit more
successful writers crap out. How can they be such big hits when we’re not? We
come to believe that something is seriously wrong with publishing when such a
profound injustice can occur. The only way someone as talented as us isn’t
successful yet has to be because someone is purposefully keeping us down.
So if there aren’t any sinister cabals preventing your
success, and belonging to a clique won’t help your career in any appreciable
way, how can you, all by your lonesome, do the things that these mythical
cabals are said to do?
1) Continue
improving as a writer. Whatever success we get in the
publishing world comes from the quality of our work. Sometimes that means
literary excellence, sometimes it means
our work is entertaining, sometimes it means our work fits the needs of the
current market, and sometimes it’s all three. But the quality of our work is
the only thing that we can really control, and while we may not all have the
capability of becoming Pulitzer Prize winners, we can all improve.
2) Find
a niche that works for you. One of the reasons
writers achieve success is that they’re recognized as producing a certain kind
of work: literary horror, humorous romance, fast-paced thrillers . . . If you
can find a specialty that works for you – one you enjoy and that readers
respond to – you’re more likely to find some measure of success, even if you
never become a bestseller. And don’t just write typical genre fare. Write the
stories only you can tell. Look at the most successful authors in your field.
None of them are the same. They have their own voices, visions, and themes. You
should too.
3) Try
writing something different. On
the other hand, maybe you already have a specialty and your career isn’t going
anywhere. Maybe you should experiment a bit, try writing some other stuff, and
see if maybe a different genre/niche might work better for you career-wise. For
example, John Jakes started out writing science fiction before becoming a
bestseller writing historical fiction. Lawrence Block wrote soft-core erotica
as a young author before turning to mystery fiction. Maybe you just need a
change.
4) Make
connections with people for the right reasons. When
I first started going to conventions, I read articles and books on networking
and tried to employ the techniques I learned. I felt awkward, and more
importantly, I felt like I was trying to cynically use people to further my own
career. I said fuck it, I’m just going to be myself and if I make connections
with people, it’ll be because I like them and they like me, not because I read
some goddamn business book filled with networking techniques. I don’t try to
force connections, and I don’t expect those connections to lead to anything
other than my getting to know some great people. If those connections end up
benefitting my career, it's a nice bonus.
5) Support
others without expecting any support in return. I
regularly like, comment, and share other authors’ social media posts, but I
don’t expect them to do anything for me in return. If they do, I appreciate it,
but my support doesn’t come with a price. If writers email me asking for
advice, I give it without considering how they’ll repay me. Expecting
one-to-one reciprocity for your support and not getting it will only lead to
anger and resentment on your part. Understand this: No one owes you anything
for your support. Your support should be freely given without any expectation
of reward. If it isn’t, it’s not truly support. It’s merely you trying to use
others for career advancement.
6) Understand
that other writers can’t work miracles for you. Sometimes
when I hear a new writer wonder why more successful writers don’t help them, I
think, “What the hell do you think we can do for you?” We can’t work magic and
transform you into a wildly successful author. We can recommend you to agents
and editors, but we can’t make them take you on. I’ve recommended a number of
writers over the years – some of them well-published professionals – and very
few of those recommendations have paid off for them. I’ve taught probably
thousands of students over the years, and only a small percentage of them have
gone on to any kind of writing career. Plus, we can’t help everyone who wants
our help. If we tried, we’d never have time to write anything of our own. I
help newer writers by teaching classes and workshops, as well as mentoring
writers through the Horror Writers Association’s mentoring program. I also
write this blog, put publishing and writing tips in my newsletter, and record
videos about writing and publishing for my YouTube channel. And I’ve written
two books on writing horror: Writing in the Dark and The Writing in
the Dark Workbook (which is forthcoming). Sure, these things promote my
work, but they also allow me to give advice to many writers at once. I do what
I can, where I can, how I can, and I choose how much or how little of it to do
at any given time for my health and my sanity.
7) Forget
society’s definition of success. If
you buy into the American myth that mega success is the only real success,
you’ll always believe yourself to be a failure, no matter how much writing
success you have.
8) Have
realistic expectations about a writing career. Recently,
Laird Barron posted on Twitter that “Every day, art Twitter expresses shock and
amazement that most artists live and die in obscurity.” This is the painful
truth of living a life in the arts, and you need to make your peace with it.
Very few people on Earth read for pleasure, and many of them probably don’t
enjoy the kind of fiction you prefer to write. Even the biggest flop of a movie
has millions of more viewers than your fiction will have readers (maybe in your
entire career). Learn that it’s okay to have a small audience that gets your
stuff and enjoys it. Learn to appreciate the experiences you gain from a life
in writing. Realize that writers you consider masters today will be forgotten
soon after they die – just as most of us likely will. Try not to let this get
you down. Appreciate the moments as you live them, write for today, enjoy your
life and career, and let tomorrow take care of itself.
9) Make
peace with not having much control. You can rage about not
having control or you can accept it, but you will never get control over every
aspect of your writing career. If you accept this, your life will be a hell of
a lot easier and more enjoyable.
10) Understand
it’s all a crapshoot in the end. There is nothing you can
purposefully do to ensure that you have mega success as a writer. NOTHING. No
one is trying to keep you from succeeding. The odds of any big success in the
arts are so slim as to be almost nonexistent. That doesn’t mean your shouldn’t
try to take your career as far as you can in the time you have – you should!
But your primariy concern should be producing good work and sharing it with
the world (even if it’s an extremely small percentage of the world). Your life
won’t be worth more if you’re one of the few lucky ones and achieve mega
success, and it won’t be worth less if your success is minimal. Be ready to
take advantage if and when luck comes your way, but in the meantime, just keep
writing. And for fuck’s sake, try to enjoy the journey.
DEPARTMENT OF SHAMELESS
SELF-PROMOTION
Planet Havoc: A Zombicide
Novel
Advance reviews of Planet
Havoc have been good, and Jonathan Maberry was kind enough to read an
advanced copy and provide a blurb!
“PLANET HAVOC is the best
of all worlds –space adventure, military SF, snarky humor, and zombies! Tim
Waggoner brings the pain and all the jolts in this rollicking action horror
thriller!” – Jonathan Maberry, NY Times bestselling author of the Joe Ledger
thrillers and KAGEN THE DAMNED
Planet Havoc
is due out in April and is available for preorder.
Scoundrels and soldiers
band together to survive the onslaught of alien-zombies spreading across the
galaxy in this riotous adventure from the bestselling game, Zombicide: Invader
A deserted R&D
facility tempts the hungry new Guild, Leviathan, into sending a team to plunder
its valuable research. The base was abandoned after a neighboring planet was devastated
by an outbreak of Xenos – alien zombies – but that was a whole planet away...
When the Guild ship is attacked by a quarantine patrol, both ships crash onto
the deserted world. Only it isn’t as deserted as they hope: a murderous new
Xeno threat awakens, desperate to escape the planet. Can the crews cooperate to
destroy this new foe? Or will they be forced to sacrifice their ships and lives
to protect the galaxy?
Amazon Paperback
Kindle
Barnes & Noble
Paperback
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/planet-havoc-tim-waggoner/1140135739?ean=9781839081248
NOOK Book
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/planet-havoc-tim-waggoner/1140135739?ean=9781839081255
We Will Rise
My next horror novel is
due out this July from Flame Tree Press!
In Echo Hill, Ohio, the
dead begin to reappear, manifesting in various forms, from classic ghosts and
poltergeists, to physical undead and bizarre apparitions for which there is no
name. These malign spirits attack the living, tormenting and ultimately killing
them in order to add more recruits to their spectral ranks.
A group of survivors come
together after the initial attack, all plagued by different ghostly apparitions
of their own. Can they make it out of Echo Hill alive? And if so, will they
still be sane? Or will they die and join the ranks of the vengeful dead?
You can preorder the book
here:
Flame Tree Press: https://www.flametreepublishing.com/we-will-rise-isbn-9781787585249.html
Amazon Paperback
Kindle
Amazon Hardcover
Barnes & Noble
Paperback
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/we-will-rise-tim-waggoner/1140376625?ean=9781787585225
NOOK Book
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/we-will-rise-tim-waggoner/1140376625?ean=9781787585263
Barnes & Noble
Hardcover
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/we-will-rise-tim-waggoner/1140376625?ean=9781787585249
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