The Lady Or The Tiger (Part 1)

You’ve all heard the phrase “the lady or the tiger,” meaning a problem with two equally unpalatable solutions. It’s a great example of something most authors aspire to — writing a story or phrase so popular and well-received that it passes into English as a saying or byword.

In 1882, an author named Frank Stockton wrote a short story entitled, “The Lady, Or The Tiger?” which was published in The Century magazine (since then it’s been frequently reprinted and anthologized; these days it’s available online). In this story a king had an unusual punishment for criminals. He put them in an arena with two doors leading out of it. Behind one door was a hungry tiger. Behind the other was a beautiful woman picked by the king. The criminal had to choose one door. If the door he chose concealed the tiger, he was judged guilty (and, of course, slaughtered by Tigger). If the door he chose hid the woman, he was judged innocent, but was forced to marry the woman regardless of his wishes or previous marital status.

(As a bachelor, I can’t help but note the aptness of the equivalency of perils.)

In the story, the king discovers that his beloved daughter has a lover from a lower social class, which is intolerable. So he throws the young man into the arena. Behind the second door he places a woman the princess hates, and with whom she suspects her lover has been flirting. The lover looks to the princess for some hint of which door to pick, creating a dilemma for her:  either she sends him to the tiger and death; or to marry a woman she loathes. She finally indicates one door, which her lover opens... and the story ends without telling us which door it was.

As I contemplate the best route to take regarding my fiction, I find myself faced with something of a lady and the tiger conundrum.

These days there are two “doors” available to someone who wants to get his fiction published. First there’s the “traditional” route, in which you solicit your manuscript to a publishing house or firm of some sort (possibly through an agent, possibly on your own). If it’s accepted the publisher (in theory) arranges for editing and promotion, gets cover art, and actually produces a book that can show up on bookstore shelves. The second is the burgeoning route of self-publishing, in which anyone with a story, some gumption, and some basic computer skills can produce an e-book you can read on your Kindle, Nook, tablet computer, smartphone, desktop, or crystal ball. (And of course there are various options for also getting hardcopies of your book printed up, such as Lulu or Createspace.) The two aren’t mutually exclusive, necessarily, but picking one door can make it harder to go through the other as well.

There are lots of authors, publishers, and other folks out there on the Web these days, talking about the virtues and pitfalls of either or both doors. Both methods have their ardent champions and their virulent detractors... and naturally plenty of people inhabit the middle of the spectrum, too. There’s valuable information to be gleaned from that flood of opinion, I’m sure, and in fact I think I’ve learned a thing or two from the reading I’ve done.

But if there’s one crucial fact I like to think I’ve absorbed in my nearly 20 years of professional involvement with writing and publishing, it’s this:  all advice about writing, and the writing business, is to a greater or lesser degree crap. It’s all so subjective, and so riddled with exceptions, exclusions, and counter-examples, that much of it borders on useless. It’s not difficult at all to find a highly experienced author espousing one opinion — and a similar, equally-experienced author holding the exact opposite point of view.

So it seems to me that when making a decision about how to try to sell my fiction, the only thing I can do is this:  gather what facts I can, analyze them according to my own situation, and try to reach a decision I can be reasonably confident of in light of my assets as a writer and my goals and ambitions for writing.

What I Bring To The Table

I think I have several assets as a writer. First, I believe I write well. For gaming supplements at least, I pretty much have a track record of jobs, sales, and awards that tells me so. For fiction it’s harder to guess, since like most authors I tend to be one of my own harshest critics. But I’m reasonably sure that, while I’m no Grand Master of Fantasy (yet! :) ), the fiction I’ve written is at least as good as a lot of recently-published stories I’ve read.

Second, I write quickly. Assuming I can develop an audience (through whatever method), I can keep that audience supplied with a pretty steady stream of new fiction once they’ve read my existing opus. (And can also, hopefully, keep this website equally well-supplied with new material.)

Third, as a result of my lengthy career as an RPG writer, I think I come with at least a small audience of people who (a) know my name, and (b) like my written work to some degree. Therefore, they’d be willing to give my fiction a chance. In fact, some have told me so outright. It may not be the leg-up equivalent of having an uncle who owns a publishing house, but it’s a positive thing nevertheless.

What Do I Want?

Then there’s the issue of what my goals and ambitions as a potential fiction writer are. I think analyzing that in full is probably worth saving for another blog post somewhere down the road, but I ought to summarize them briefly here so you’ll understand the analysis in Parts 2 and 3.

At the most basic level, I want to make enough money as a writer to support myself. I don’t have to get rich (though that’d sure be nice...). But I want to cover my standard living and business expenses, then have enough coming in beyond that to save some to tide me through tough times. As a single guy with no dependents my cost of living isn’t extreme, but it’s not nonexistent either.

But there’s more to being a creator than just making money — I suspect that almost anyone who gets into writing (or game design) with the primary goal of “making money” is wasting his time. If you’re going to be an artist of some sort, you have to love your art. You have to do it regardless of whether someone’s paying you for it because you enjoy it so much just for its own sake. So I don’t want to focus just on the bottom line.

And fortunately, I don’t. Like many writers, I want something beyond money, something intangible:  I want to entertain people, lots of people. I want them to read my stories and become captivated, enthralled, and inspired the same way that Tolkien, Vance, Kurtz, and many other Fantasy writers affect me. I want people to come up to me and tell me how much they enjoyed my writing, how it appealed to them. I get that sometimes at gaming conventions for my RPG design work, and let me tell you — it’s worth more than money. You can’t keep the body alive on it, but it does a lot of good for the soul.

Third, I’d like to become well-known for how good my writing is. I don’t have to be Tom Clancy or Stephen King famous, but I’d like there to be a reasonable chance that people — or, hell, just Fantasy fans — recognize my name when they hear it, and know of my work.

So in light of that I have to decide which door is best for me as I attempt to become a published fiction writer.

In tomorrow’s second installment, I’ll look at the first door:  traditional publishing. Stay tuned!