There are so many metaphors we can use to describe what goes on in book publishing. Baseball, medicine, astronomy, physics, factory assembly lines, beavers gnawing on trees, hamsters on treadmills and many more each contain appropriate examples of various aspects of writing and publishing a book.
I believe one of the strongest metaphors is that of target shooting.
Ready. Aim. Fire.
Three simple words that can be used to explain everything from what an author does to how a publishing company operates.
Get Ready. Now Aim. Fire.
Take them out of order and you will not be an effective target shooter, or author, publisher, agent or anything. Each of the three parts require some attention or else the next step is wasted.
Ready – education, training, practice, practice and more practice. Maintain your equipment. Feed your intuition with knowledge. Important to keep learning and growing.
Aim – If you don’t aim or have nothing to aim at, you definitely won’t hit a target, at least on purpose. You also cannot aim at two things at once. Speeding bullets do not ricochet in a controlled manner. It hits where it is aimed. Knowing what you want to accomplish focuses the training and practice. Knowing your author message platform, what you want to say or do is critical. Knowing your audience is paramount.
Fire – A lot of emphasis on this today. “Just do it.” “Ship it.” Send it. Let someone see it. Ask forgiveness rather than permission. Make the decision and live with it. Minimum Viable Product.
Maybe you can hit a bulls-eye by shooting at random targets with a dirty gun, but you will waste a lot of bullets and probably hurt someone.
Okay, now I am going to push this metaphor to its breaking point.
There are two kinds of writers and publishers of books. The marksman and the gunslinger.
Authors and smaller publishers primarily need to be marksmen because their resources are more limited.
Authors…it is just you. Each year has 365 days (or 366 every four years if you want to be a stickler) each with 24 hours. Time is limited.
Being a gunslinger is a lot more fun. Creatively, you write this and that, over here and then over there, try this and then that. This is just fine if you want to satisfy your creative desires and enjoy yourself by writing whatever you want.
Oh, you want to be a successful author?
Then you need to become a marksman. And an author-marksman prepares, practices and aims before they shoot. Not as spectacular as the wild west rodeo show with spinning six-guns, but focus usually wins over fanfare in publishing.
Smaller publishers need to be marksmen, with a clear purpose and goal (targets) simply because they need to be good stewards of limited resources.
Larger publishers still can’t be reckless, but they can be a little more like gunslingers than smaller publishers. Trying something new and different has a little more potential for the bigger publisher.
Publishing books is not a science, rather a mix of art and science, so this entire marksman vs. gunslinger comparison doesn’t mean that clear targets are discovered through some sort of computer program or scientific analysis of the word combinations in a manuscript.
But for authors, work needs to be a healthy combination of preparation, focus and a deadline (either self or publisher-imposed) so you know when it is time to fire.
Or hit “send”, which seems a lot less violent.
Good morning Dan! I always enjoy stopping by on Tuesdays to see what you have to share with us.
We hear so much conflicting information as we begin the journey to publication. For now, I’m going to focus on ‘AIM.’ I knew to focus on one genre, but you’ve helped me see beyond that.
You are also the person who helped me narrow the focus on my blog. Thanks!
Slightly (hopefully not too) off on a tangent…did you know that the Hebrew word for “sin” means “missing the mark” as in literally, aiming, but not hitting the target goal.
Cool…which means if people don’t follow my advice, it is a sin! (A different blog post entirely)
Shulamit, thanks for the Hebrew lesson; that is great to know!
Dan,
Really great metaphor. I’ve hit the target in two specific kinds of writing that required practice, expertise, and target pistols, but am seeking to move into premier shotgun status and have more hits on a bigger target. (I’ve learned a few things about firearms since marrying into a family of generations of hunters!) Marksmen may specialize, but if they’re good, they enjoy owning and using and getting better at shooting a wide range of guns, and talking about them, and shooting in more gunslinger-ly way sometimes–like shooting bottles off fence posts at greater and greater distances, than when they’re hunting or competing. They take up paintball and compete in teams. They complete in online paintball teams. They shoot for fun, and collect guns, and post pics of them, and send pictures of them to each other, and go to shows…you get the idea. So I’m going to have to adapt the metaphor on your Aim point a little bit. It’s fun and easy to write like that, but if I’m going to be a target shooter, I need to practice with a small target and an even smaller bulls eye. 🙂 You always make me think!
Your line about focus over fanfare spoke to me. We need to focus on the mark, not shooting buckshot all over the place.
The idea of being a marksman rather than a gunslinger also makes sense. And, as a marksman, we have to make sure we actually fire (press Send) at some point too, rather than holding onto our stories forever out of fear . . . 🙂
Great post…and I think it can be taken one step further.
For a sniper, marksmanship is a tool, and a relatively minor one. The chief weapons the sniper carries are powers of observation, and a profound situational awareness.
Observation, because reconnaissance is his primary task. He’s expected to be able to put eyes on a target or objective, and come back with timely and accurate information.
Situation awareness is critical; he has to have a good feel for what’s happening in the battlespace, and not become target-focused. On a kill mission, he has to have exfil planned, for primary, secondary, and tertiary routes. Snipers are not kamikaze; they’re a valuable and expensively-trained resource.
In writing and publishing, it seems to me that these are exercised in determining trends and nuance; knowing what the audience wants ‘now’ is related to what they will want a couple of years down the road, when a book is finished…and another year or so to the time it’s released.
Beverly Lewis may be a good example. When the film ‘Witness’ came out in 1985, few people would have guessed that the depiction of the Amish (in a way that was both positive and negative) would open a desire among many readers to become a vicarious part of that world.
Lewis was able to tease out what readers would want, in terms of a yearning for the strong faith and values that are such a hallmark of Amish culture. Society was going through many transitions in the 80s and 90s, and she picked up on what would draw readers’ yearning for simplicity without insularity.