From time to time the following comedic trope appears in movies or television: the totally out-of-control ego monster of a prominent author, who abuses everybody who gets within twenty feet of him, who must be tended by a full-time handler from the publisher, to make sure he gets his latest book done.
I have seen any number of writers, addressing this trope, snot that nothing like this has ever existed, in the entire history of publishing.
Not true.
I happen to know four or five cases where problematic grand eminences were treated exactly like that.
The fact that you can name grand eminences who don’t need it — Stephen King and JK. Rowling, for instance — doesn’t mean that there haven’t been some who did, and publishers who weren’t so desperate to receive pages from them that they indulged them in this manner.
I know of one great eminence who was so respected by the magazine that was running installments of his latest opus in composition that they gave him an office and dispatched one of their lesser young things to take dictation from him, all day long, to then type it up, and in between get him whatever he wanted, while taking his scorn and abuse.
This happened.
However, this guy was an eminence. He was indulged because he was an eminence. (And one of the “respected” sort rather than the bestselling sort.)
The lesser trope, of an author who simply produces popular work while being unpleasant to anybody who ever speaks to him, bears more resemblance to everyday reality. See Jack Nicholson in AS GOOD AS IT GETS. He’s mentally ill, his editor can’t stand him as a person, he reacts to a moment of admiration on the part of a receptionist by slamming her with his scorn, probably driving her to tears.
This exists in real life, but it needs to be noted: Nicholson’s character wrote successful books, one after another, enough to support him in comfort. He was established. The publisher got what it wanted out of him, and tolerated the rest. So, sure, he was an eminence, of a sort, too. Tolerating his awfulness was a business decision.
This happens with TV and movie stars, too; at a certain point, some do exercise their right to become monsters, and the stories of insane entitled behavior and outright abuse of co-workers can be appalling, but what you don’t hear is that many of these guys don’t get away with it in the long run. People stop wanting to work with them. After they destroy one or two movies, they lose their bankability, and find themselves begging for roles and wondering what happened. The guy I’m not making up who won one Oscar, told everybody around him that he was going to become an asshole now, and did, went back to small supporting roles shortly afterward, because he was not as indispensable as he imagined.
For the vast majority of artists, being an asshole to the people who give you money is not a good career move. You are not indispensable unless you’re an eminence of such towering fame that they are willing to bend heaven and Earth to keep you. And sometimes not even then. Fame is fleeting.
So one guy I’m thinking of, who has come out and described himself as one of the greatest writers of his generation, who says that his work is reeking with literary virtues that any number of others would give their left tits to be even shelved next to, who has been abusing his publisher in public and attacking his editors as people and in general making himself a horse pill – I think he’s in for a surprise, sooner or later, probably sooner. Writers who can sell the number of copies he sells, or more, are not exactly thin on the ground, and the vast majority of them will not be rallying their readers to send hate mail.
But this is not about him. This is about you, the struggling artist. And to you I have some strong advice.
Be a sweetheart.
Be the kind of artist who, when dropping by the publishing house, brings cookies. Or if not cookies, then at least a warm smile and a gracious manner.
Thank everybody for all their efforts on behalf of your book. When you have a problem, be courteous about bringing it up. Do not make it personal. Explain what the problem is and thank everybody who helps you with it.
Be the person they fall in love with.
Be the person who, when they are asked what you are really like, leads them to say, “Oh, he’s a dream; he’s great; we all love him, over here.”
Be that way not just because they’re also people doing their jobs, and you should, but because there will come a day when the numbers are borderline and your future is on a bubble and they will have long sad discussions in-house over whether they’re going to give you another chance, and it’s better to have them on your side than not; it’s better for them to believe in you, the person, than not.
Do not be the person who, when that decision has to be made, leads them to make the decision that was made about another writer I know of, the guy of whom they said, “Well, his books are still making money; not as much money as they used to, but money; but their earnings have dipped, he’s bad-mouthing us every chance he gets, and nobody wants to work with the son of a bitch, let’s jettison him.”
Be that way even if you wind up as an eminence of such towering genius they offer you a minder.
Be that way about the minder. Because that minder might write her own book someday, and you really don’t want to leave any ammunition lying around.
Really, folks. It’s not rocket science. You’re not going to help yourself, long-term, by being an ass. You’re honestly not.
Comment By: Stacy Spangler
September 21st, 2015 at 11:18 am
Generally, I think that being an asshole to anyone is not a good career move. Look at the various people who have been dicks to someone on their way to interviews, only to discover that the person they abused is the one interviewing them. As an artist, I try to be kind to everyone, regardless of what they can do for my career. Because how you treat anyone is how you treat everyone.
Comment By: Adam-Troy Castro
September 21st, 2015 at 11:18 am
I can’t say that my track record is sterling in this regard, but I am aware of the principle.
Comment By: David Vineyard
September 21st, 2015 at 11:18 am
Standing up for yourself and being an ass are different things. Unless your publisher is abusing you or cheating you keeping on their good side is an advantage for Most of us.
Comment By: Laura Resnick
September 21st, 2015 at 4:18 pm
Back when I was a new writer and Nora Roberts was a very popular genre writer but not yet a mega-seller, she and I had the same editor for a year or two. Her reputation in-house back then is the same that I’ve always heard about her ever since, which was that she was easy to work with, very reliable, and extremely professional.
Comment By: Pixel Scroll 9/21 For the Scroll is Hollow and I have touched the Pixel | File 770
September 21st, 2015 at 9:50 pm
[…] (8) And by strange coincidence, Adam-Troy Castro has written some good advice in a new blog posts titled “Writers: The Long-Term Benefits of Not Being An Ass”. […]
Comment By: CPaca
September 21st, 2015 at 10:11 pm
So one guy I’m thinking of, who has come out and described himself as one of the greatest writers of his generation, who says that his work is reeking with literary virtues that any number of others would give their left tits to be even shelved next to, who has been abusing his publisher in public and attacking his editors as people and in general making himself a horse pill – I think he’s in for a surprise, sooner or later, probably sooner.
Well, judging by the begging letter his wife put up recently so they could make their mortgage, I’d say “sooner” was already here. I have no figures, but it’s my impression he’s selling nowhere near as many units as he did before he got religion and turned into Shouty Uncle Loon.
Never mind – perhaps his exciting new business contact can turn his fortunes around (and won’t ever rip him off by, say, sending him off to a con where he was likely to get cold shouldered)…
Comment By: John Seavey
September 22nd, 2015 at 11:07 am
Another reason not to be an asshole, which I’m sure Mr. Troy-Castro thought went without saying but which I think always bears another repetition, is because you just shouldn’t be an asshole to people. The folks who work at your publishing house are real human beings with feelings that can be hurt or soothed, and you can make their day better or worse with a single word. Being nice to fans is rewarded with loyalty, yes, but it’s also rewarded with the knowledge that you just made a person happier than they’ve felt in ages.
Being nice, in short, should be its own reward. It also has ancillary benefits as described above, but hopefully that’s not the only reason you’re doing it.
Comment By: Bob Mayer
September 22nd, 2015 at 2:48 pm
Very valid. Way too much negativity among authors. It’s a tough business; we shouldn’t make it harder on the people we work with.
Comment By: Nicola Cameron
September 22nd, 2015 at 2:51 pm
Assholes can be interesting to watch in a train wreck sort of way, but that gets old really fast when you actually have to work with them. The bulk of the successful authors I know are kind, generous, and utterly professional, and that reaps benefits both monetary and karmic for them. Seems like a sound practice to me.
Comment By: John Barnes
September 22nd, 2015 at 3:48 pm
Adam-Troy’s comment nicely sums up the comment I was going to make.
I would add only the proviso that you should ideally have clear in your own mind why you want to publish your work at all, and exactly what you want your work to say and be, and hold out to find a publisher who will share or at least respect your views on this. If the main thing you want your book to say is, “Buy this book and the next one after it,” you will find many publishers you agree with. If you have something you’d like to say to a niche audience, or in the hopes of causing some subset of a large audience to change their minds and agree with you, you will have to look longer and harder for a publisher, but that is what you should look for. In either case, not being an ass will help.
Should you find yourself at cross purposes, it is probably too late to worry about being an ass; cross purposes can be escaped from, but rarely gracefully. In those circumstances, better a live ass than a pleasant puppet.
Comment By: --E
September 22nd, 2015 at 10:20 pm
Speaking as someone with more than two decades in book publishing, 14 years of it with a Big 5 House:
If you are an asshole, the professionals at the publisher will by and large continue to be professionals. They will do the job they are paid to do.
When that comes to your book, they will do the minimum necessary to be able to say, “Hey, I fulfilled my job requirements.”
If you are known as being no particular trouble, even if not particularly demonstrative, they will do a lot more. Neutral is not bad; people will do their jobs well in order to get a bigger raise or promotion.
If you are known as a sweetheart who thanks everyone from your editor to the mailroom in your Acks, who sends chocolate or cookies or popcorn or home-baked brownies or whatever at Festivus (relative to your earnings at the company; bestsellers should be generous), then people will move heaven and earth to make your book awesome, promote it well, and indulge the requests you oh-so-politely make.
Seriously. You can buy an entire publishing staff’s loyalty for a couple pounds of Godiva. We don’t get paid much.
——
In my career I have personally seen three decent selling authors fail to have their next books bought simply because they were a PITA to work with.
At my current place of employ, whenever a book comes in from someone who has published three previous books, each with a different publisher, I know that author will be a nightmare. There’s a reason everyone only published one book from them, and it isn’t because the author left in a huff.
Comment By: Do the Hugo Awards have a short fiction problem? | Futures Less Travelled
September 23rd, 2015 at 8:56 am
[…] [UPDATE: 23/09/2015. I’ve sent Aliette a friendly (hopefully) email to let her know, out of politeness, that I blogged about her story as I wrote so much about it… It’s how I try to walk the fine line between making sincere, passionate, but sometimes negative, comments, and being an asshat]. […]
Comment By: ATC
September 23rd, 2015 at 1:10 pm
E,
I happen to know someone who had three books come out from three publishers, without any asinine behavior on his part.
Hell, I have. Different books, different markets.
Comment By: Pixel Scroll 9/28 One Scroll To Live | File 770
September 28th, 2015 at 10:03 pm
[…] something that many authors fail to grasp – and not just new ones. I recently read a diatribe by Adam Troy Castro – who missed this completely (He was attacking John Wright, who seems to be engaging his […]
Comment By: Jordan S. Bassior
September 28th, 2015 at 10:13 pm
The problem with your example is that Tor editors publicly abused the author in question first, and in response he urged Tor to fire those editors. Why is it okay for the editors to talk down one of their company’s own authors, but not okay for the author to respond by talking down those editors? Methinks that you have something of a double standard here, and you’re coming down on the side of the publisher — which is interesting, as you’re an author. You’re just one hissy-fit away from the Toad of Tor and her friends talking you down as well.
Comment By: Curtis
September 29th, 2015 at 4:28 pm
Who knew you have to bribe the people who edit your book to actually do their job professionally? I learn something new about the Big 5 every single day.
Comment By: Gregg Chamberlain
June 7th, 2016 at 3:18 pm
that was a good article
Comment By: David Gerrold
June 7th, 2016 at 3:18 pm
Sure, now you tell me….
Comment By: Paul Crawford
June 8th, 2016 at 5:18 am
Too late.
Comment By: Lurker
June 29th, 2021 at 7:46 am
I strife to be kind to everyone, but I am sincerely so intensely shy that I don’t look people in the eye and can’t greet them. How can I show even the people I meet only once that I’m not, like, ignoring them or anything?