Good Enough
By M.J. Rose | April 16, 2013 |
photo by ganesha.isis
If we allow ourselves to remain at the mercy of our desire for perfection, not only will the perfect elude us, so will the good.” – Alex Lickerman, M.D. in Happiness in this World
I’m at a very strange crossroads in my career.
On May 7, 2013 my 13th book will be released. SEDUCTION was the most difficult book I ever tackled. (For one thing I wrote it in longhand in antique journals with an old fountain pen and green ink.) As a result of how difficult it was, it’s become the most fulfilling book I’ve ever written.
But I’m facing the most un-perfect book launch I’ve ever had. Due to an ongoing negotiation between my publisher and B&N, my book won’t be on display in the largest retailer in the U.S. It won’t even be available in most B&Ns. And no one can buy a book if they don’t see it or know it. There’s more I won’t bore you with.
This un-perfectness is having an effect on me. All that is good about this book suddenly isn’t good enough.
And there is so much good.
When I discovered the little-know fact that starting in 1853 Victor Hugo conducted over 100 séances, and I decided to write about it for my 2013 book, no one knew that the movie Les Miserables would be made into a new film, no less come out within 6 months of my pub date. It’s not good – it’s great that the movie was such a hit, as the attention for Hugo is at an all-time high.
Plus I have a gorgeous cover, SEDUCTION is a May Indie Next List pick, the trade reviews have been wonderful, and there’s more I won’t bore you with. But I can’t see any of it. I’m obsessed with what is going wrong.
Last week I was moaning about all this to my wonderfully wise agent, Dan Conaway. He agreed that it sucked. Then he quoted Aristotle or Confucius or Flaubert or Voltaire (it’s attributed to all of them).
Perfect is the enemy of the good.
Wow. Zing. The words went right through me and resonated as if I was Esmeralda right up there while Notre Dame’s bells pealed.
If you are a published writer, I bet they resonate for you too. Nothing can hurt your love of writing more than getting published. Not because the biz isn’t filled with wonderful people trying to do their best (it is and they are) but because writing is an art and publishing is a business. No business is ever perfect, but ours feels especially broken right now.
Setting your sights on, striving for, hoping for, praying for a perfect publishing experience is natural… I don’t think you can survive as an author if you aren’t an optimist. But that same optimism that you’re going to have a perfect publishing experience can turn on you and ruin the experience you are going to have.
What’s your idea of perfect?
Getting a six-figure deal? What happens when you get $75K? To someone getting $25K, getting $75K would be amazing. But to you – eh –you can’t see how good it is.
Perfect is a marketing campaign that includes an 18-city tour and ads in New Yorker, The New York Times, and USA Today, and getting only a 4-city tour and ads in Goodreads and Shelf-Awareness and Bookmovement – eh –you can’t see how good it is.
You get the idea. We all know what a perfect publishing storm is. But the truth is most of us will never get it. It’s also the truth that life isn’t fair and the best books aren’t always the ones that win the lottery.
The oft quoted poet Mary Oliver wrote: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do/with your one wild and precious life?”
It’s the perfect question right now for me – and perhaps for you.
My answer?
I’m going to unfocus on perfect and try, so very hard, to see the good. Care to join me?
M.J. Rose is the international and NYT’s bestselling author of several novels and two non-fiction books on marketing. In 2005 she founded the first marketing company for authors, AuthorBuzz, and is the co-founder of BookTrib and Peroozal. She’s a founding member of ITW.
My husband often says the same thing (i.e. that Perfect is the enemy of the Good). It deeply resonated with me when I started publishing, because you’re right; writing is an art and publishing, a business. It is often difficult to manage the two sides of the author job–especially when you’re an indie author and you’ve got so much responsibility on both sides of the fence. I still fervently feel that it is well worth all the hard work, toil, and heartache. Congratulations on your new book!!
Such a good post, M.J., and so applicable to every stage of the writing life (and all of life, really). As a self-professed perfectionist, I can honestly say my happiest and most fulfilling moments are when I can let go of that fleeting dream of the Perfect and just delight in all the Good. But it’s such a struggle, isn’t it? Wishing you good luck and success with your book launch!
I haven’t dealt with this personal battle around publishing, but I’m familiar with the paradigm. I have that Voltaire quote on my desk, as a matter of fact. But the quote which makes me laugh and pulls me out of “eh” everytime is this one of Byron Katie’s:
“When you argue with reality you lose, but only 100% of the time.”
Enjoy your wild and precious release, MJ.
I think it’s very wise to focus on the good, however how small, and try to move past the imperfect. Some things are simply beyond our control and having an attitude of “it’s not fair” only hurts ourselves in the end. It can be tough to carry out, though. :)
Excellent post. I get more joy when my writing “clicks” over any monetary compensation.
[…] just so happens that Writer Unboxed has post today titled Good Enough by M.J. Rose about conquering […]
I think this is one of the major lessons of my life–it applies to all areas not just writing and publishing. I definitely join you! Congrats on lucky #13!
Gorgeous cover! I gave up on perfect a long time ago. I surf the good enough wave.
Great post! I needed this dose of reality as I agonize over endless drafts of a novel. And you’ve got a lovely cover too. :)
Congrats on your upcoming book M.J.! Although I am not a published writer yet, I can understand how worrying about things being perfect, such as writing the perfect book or getting the perfect publishing deal can affect the good–in this case, your book. Your article helps bring into focus what the writer should really care about–the art of their writing, which is what led them to be a writer in the first place.
I rarely comment on anything but this is too odd. I just wrote about abandoning my perfectionist mentality and behaviors which are useless to me. Then, I go and scan blog posts and find this. I don’t believe in magical things but this has to be one of the oddest coincidences. I love what you have wrote here and I will continue to read it when I’m lost and need to go back to what is good.
What a great reminder. Perspective is such a huge part of how we see the world. And our writing.
“Perfection is the enemy of the good.” I need to tape this to my computer as I revise my historical YA.
Congratulations on your newest book! But I’ve learned that not being picked up by B&N is not the be all, end all. Enjoy all the goodness!
MJ, thanks for the timely reminder. As my own launch approaches, I’ve been occasionally anxious, thinking “what if nothing I do works? What if a book falls in the forest and no one’s there to hear it?” But I’m a believer in the Law of Attraction, which says everything we do raises our vibration or presence in the world, whether we see the direct impact or not.
And I saw your new book in our local indie, so you are out on the shelves!
Thanks all – this is so gratifying!!!!!!
perfection, imo is an illusion.
Oh, how I love this post . . . this line in particular: “because writing is an art and publishing is a business.”
I can’t tell you how much that low-key sentence means to me. Thank you, M.J!
I have been reading (off and on) this book about gratitude. It’s Christian-y because that’s how I roll, but I think the nugget is brilliant and helpful to all of us humans. This author, Ann Voskamp, says that “gratitude always precedes a miracle.”
To your point, if we are too busy striving for the unattainable, undefinable concept of Perfect, we forget to be grateful for the good. And then it’s all too easy to miss the miracles, big and small, that happen along the way.
Hang in there!
Love this: Nothing can hurt your love of writing more than getting published
I would say “than dealing with the business.” It’s great when it’s going well, when a book gets the right support, when the reviews are great, when you have what you need.
But as you say, who knows if you’ll ever get that? And our readers still need for us to write our books.
Congrats to the release of your 13th book! Looking forward to reading it.
Congratulations, M.J.!
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do/with your one wild and precious life?”
Well, Mary Oliver…
I appreciate that “perfect” is subjective. And that my “perfect” is just as valid as someone else’s “perfect”.
First of all, congratulations on the books’s publication. May it have much success, and you great satisfaction.
I used to write with a fountain pen and green ink. Then I realized I couldn’t read what I’d written 30 seconds later.
I’ve heard that expression, “perfect is the enemy of the good.” I don’t like it. Perfect can just as easily be the inspiration for the good.
But I get the point. And the post is refreshing. Thanks.
[…] her post, Good Enough, at Writer Unboxed, author M.J. Rose assesses the gulf that can lie between a writer’s […]