出版与作家生涯2018theoutline.com编辑精选
事实上，并非每个人心中都有一本书
Everyone does not, in fact, have a book in them
导读
这篇文章唱反调：并非人人心里都有一本书，准确说是"未必有一本能畅销的书"。作者本人是出版代理人，从行业视角谈写作动机与期待管理，值得写作者读——它逼你想清楚：你到底为什么写，以及写完初稿之后还有多长的路。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
区分"写出书"和"出版畅销书"：前者靠毅力，后者靠行业筛选，不要用一个标准衡量自己的写作。
- 02
把初稿和成品分开看，第一稿粗糙是常态，真正耗时的是之后的反复修改。
- 03
写作的回报可以先落在自己身上：理清思绪、学到东西、完成一个长久的心愿，而不只是销量和他人认可。
- 04
动笔前先问自己写作的目的，是表达、是完成心愿还是商业成功，目的不同，投入和期待也该不同。
HN 评论精选
写作的价值可以落在过程和自我收获上，而不必用商业成败来衡量。
我花两年写了一本科幻小说，讲一个人造黑洞计算机去模拟另一个宇宙，18个月下载不到150次，算是失败了。但我收获很大：把心里的垃圾倒空了，学到很多，四年里还读了400本书和漫画。这个过程很值得，我推荐任何人去试。你不需要金钱回报或别人认可，才能从写书中获益——每个人心里确实都有一本书。
byteface查看英文原文
A negative article. I spent 2 years writing a sci-fi about a guy who builds a blackhole powered computer to simulate another universe. It got less than 150 downloads in 18months. I did it because I was doing nothing else with my life. Ultimately it failed to be succesful. But I gained a lot. It really helped me get a lot of crap off my mind. I learned a lot. I also read 400 books and graphic novels over 4 years. It was a rewarding proccess and would recommend it to anyone. So in that respect I disagree with this article. You don't need financial reward or peoples approval to gain from the experience of writing a book. Everyone does have a book in them.
编辑远比写作艰难，初稿与成品差距巨大，代理人否定他人写作显得不妥。
文章原标题其实是"不，你大概没有一本书"，作者想说的更接近"你大概没有一本畅销书"。我去年写了一本儿童科幻小说的初稿，但离能出版还差大量编辑。我卡在修改阶段好几个月，发现改比写难多了——有位作家说，写作像开派对，编辑像第二天收拾残局。出版界的朋友说，要改好几稿才够格交给代理或编辑。作者本人就是代理人，明明清楚初稿和成品天差地别，却写这样的文章，还暗示别人的故事不值得讲，这有点打击人。
jeffwass查看英文原文
The article title is actually “No, you probably don’t have a book in you”. But the intended meaning of the article is more like “no, you probably don’t have a bestselling book in you.” Disclaimer - I’ve written a kids sci-fi novel in the past year. Something I’ve been meaning to do for awhile now, and finally got around to actually putting down the words on the page to make it happen. Now it’s one thing to say “I wrote a novel.” But to be fair I wrote the draft of a novel that still needs substantial editing before it’s ready to publish. I’ve been picking at it for awhile, and still it’s not ready to send out to other editors (or agents). I’ve been stuck in edit mode for months now, I’ve been finding editing much harder than writing. A common feeling. One writer told me that writing is like a party, editing is cleaning up the next day. Some of my published friends and colleagues tell me it takes a few drafts of editing before it’s even good enough to send to an agent or editor. So I’ve got a lot of hard work ahead of me. But this article is a bit strange because the author is an agent herself, who knows full well that there’s a ton of editing and a night-vs-day difference between someone’s first cruddy draft and a finished product, for which agents and editors worth their salt will have honed and worked their magic on. Also a bit discouraging to hear this from an agent, suggesting people’s stories may not be worthy enough to be told. if anything I’d want them to encourage more people to write that story they’ve been thinking about on the train. Can you imagine if JK Rowling heard this and just thought, “she’s right, my story probably sucks, better to just focus on my day job.” Though the author does clear things up a little at the end of the article to say write a book because you want to write it, not because someone told you to write it. But in any case, the title is still misleading because people do have books in them. Even if they’re not profitable. Even if the ultimate reading audience is in the single digits. It’s still a book that means something to the author and that small but critical audience of readers.
很多人写作是为了完成心愿和讲述自己的故事，而非追求成功。
这位作者有个误解，以为人写作只为了成功，而有些人只是为自己而写。我有个亲戚写了本关于自己一生的书，说实话写得不好，基本只卖给或送给了家人。但她为这本花了多年心血的书无比自豪，也应该自豪：它没有商业成功，却完成了她长久以来的目标，把她的故事讲给了原本无从知道的人。
Johnny555查看英文原文
I think this author has the misconception that people only write to be successful, others, like you, write for their own reasons. I had a relative who once wrote a book about her life, honestly the book was not very good (both the writing style and content), and largely "sold" (or was given away to) only to family (despite her paying for a book run out of her own pocket and shopping it around to bookstores on her own) Yet she was immensely proud of her book, which she spent years of her life on. As well she should be, while the book didn't meet any commercial success, it had been a longtime goal for her and she told her story to people who otherwise wouldn't have know about it.
能不能写和能不能出版是两件事，别把两者混为一谈。
我这样说吧：我从一岁起就在跑步，快四十年了，却怎么也跑不了马拉松，虽然能连着跑几英里。对方回：不，你能，只是你告诉自己不能。同样，你也能写出一本书，至于能不能出版是另一回事。我不理解一个本职工作就是寻找下一本畅销小说的人，为什么要写这样的文章。
syndacks查看英文原文
>I put it like this: I have been running since I was about a year old. Almost 40 years! But I cannot for the life of me run a marathon. I am not physically capable of it, even though I can run a few miles in a row. Yes, you are. You just tell yourself that you are not. And yes, you can write a book. Whether it gets published or not is another story. I don't understand why someone whose job it is to find the next best selling novel would write a post like this. It reeks of something a literary-agent/failed writer in Brooklyn would say...
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