Great (or Not So Great) Expectations

Several years ago at a big Utah writing event, I was sitting beside an author who had published several novels nationally. As I mentioned that, along with my Farworld novels, I had published several novels with LDS publishers, she looked surprised. “But those writers aren’t very good are they?” she asked, referring to authors writing for LDS publishers.

Now I’m not going to post about whether LDS fiction is good or not. That topic has been hammered to death a million times over. And the truth is that whether LDS fiction is good and getting better all the time, or cliché-filled drivel where everyone does the right thing and joins the Church, is purely in the eyes of the beholder. What I do want to discuss is how big of a role expectations play in how we judge what we read.

Let’s take Ally Condie for example. She published multiple novels before her breakout YA, Matched. Those novels were published by Deseret Book, an LDS publisher. That would place her—in the eyes of many readers—in the “not very good” category. And yet her book that came out this fall with a national publisher has received rave reviews by many of the very same people who look down on novels from LDS publishers.

Admittedly, Matched is very different from her other novels. The story is different, the voice is different. But what isn’t different is the author. An aberration? How about James Dashner, whose first six novels were published by Cedar Fort and Shadow Mountain, an imprint of DB? Or our very own Rob Wells who published with Covenant before selling a national three book deal? Janette Rallison? Also published with LDS publisher under the pen name of Sierra St. James. Instead of an aberration, it sounds more like a trend to me.

An argument could be made that as these authors became better writers they transitioned to the national market. An argument could also be made that bigger publishers have higher paid editors with more time to work on each project. So perhaps the quality is better. And to some extent both of those statements are true. Any author who values their craft usually improves their writing over time. But this is true of both national and regional (which is what most LDS publishers are) authors. Rob’s second book was absolutely better than his first book. James’ 13th Reality was written better than his Jimmy Fincher series. They didn’t magically leap tall buildings when they signed with a national publisher.

As far as editors, in general, editors from bigger publishers do more thorough edits. They don’t have nearly as many projects to work on at the same time as LDS editors who are seriously overburdened, even by today’s tightened publishing standards. But I can say for a fact that I would gladly have any of my national projects edited by Kirk Shaw or Lisa Mangum, who edit me at Covenant and Deseret Book. And I specifically asked Lisa, who read Ally’s book before it was even submitted nationally, if it had been significantly changed by the national editor who worked on it. Her answer was no.

So if these are the same writers, and if the edits are more detailed, but not enough to make a huge difference, what explains the different ways their stories are viewed? My theory is expectations. To a large extent, you read what you expect to read. If you expect to read a story filled with clichés and poorly developed plots, your mindset going into that book makes you jump on the flaws and miss many of the great parts.

In a recent e-mail exchange with another author, the author recalled how back in high school she was working on a student poetry anthology. To teach the students a lesson, the teacher allowed several lesser known poems by famous authors to be slipped into the submissions. Did the students recognize the greatness of what they were reading? Or did they let their preconceived notions influence them? Considering that I’m using this as an example, you can probably guess. They ripped the masters just like they did their fellow students. Because they expected to read crap, they got crap.

Clearly there are exceptions to this rule. I’ve read submissions to an unpublished author contest that blew me away. And I’ve read books by some of my favorite authors that I hated. Ever have a friend tell you’ll love a book, only to find yourself bored to tears? High expectations don’t guarantee we will love something and low expectations don’t guarantee failure. But you can’t deny that they seriously color your view.

I think the same applies to Julie’s recent post about DB banning The Maze Runner. As Mormons, we tend to look at books by our own differently. Would so many members of the church really have made such a fuss about Twilight if it hadn’t been written by a fellow Mormon? “She’s LDS and she put a boy and a girl in bed together.” While at the same time, non-Mormons were complaining the make out scenes were too tame because “the author is Mormon.”

I am 100 percent fine with Deseret Book putting Maze Runner on Special Order status. I suspect that if Demon Spawn is published they will probably do the same thing with that. It doesn’t have any fake swear words or even real swearwords used as expletives. But it is a story about humans who have been damned to Hell and the Demons who guard them. By its very nature there are some pretty dark parts. Human heads on spikes, games played with humans as live grails. There is violence. And although they are used in the context of place, damn, hell, and damned are sprinkled liberally throughout. Is it gratuitous violence? I don’t think so. But it will probably not be placed on DB shelves, and like I said, I am totally okay with that.

But here’s the kicker. I know of many, many books carried right now on DB shelves that have either worse language than Maze Runner, more sex than Twilight, or are darker than Demon Spawn. Why haven’t readers complained about those? I believe it is for the exact same reason that many readers look down on LDS fiction. Expectations. They don’t expect non-LDS authors to have the same morals (although many of them do) so they overlook a swear word or a racy scene. They don’t expect a novel by an author who is Mormon to have a cuss in it. So when it does, they are shocked and complain to store employees.

I said at the top of this post that I’m not trying to convince the unbelievers that many, many LDS authors are every bit as good or better than national authors. James Dashner, Ally Condie and the rest are great authors. And they were before Entertainment Weekly started mentioning their names. There are some LDS authors who I think are still perfecting their craft. There are some publishers who could spend more time on editing what they publish. But I know for a fact of more authors than I could count on both hands who are every bit as good as the authors that publish nationally.

And I am absolutely not trying to convince anyone to change their standards on what they think is and isn’t appropriate in the books they read. But next time you are offended by something you read in a book by an LDS author, go back and think about the last few books you read by national authors. Were they less offensive? Or we were wearing a different shade of lenses to view them through.

What I am suggesting is that some people might want to reevaluate their measuring sticks.

Let me finish by clarifying that I am not suggesting LDS authors shouldn’t have high standards. With what we know about who were are and why we are here, we absolutely have a lot to live up to. And with national exposure comes even greater opportunities to let our lights so shine. Mt greatest dream is to succeed nationally and to use that success to place even more focus on the LDS novels I will continue to write. I like to imagine what Stephanie Meyer could do if she wrote an awesome LDS series. How many lives could she influence?

But there’s another part of me that worries that many people would judge her unworthy to write to or give firesides to the LDS market. I worry that if Demon Spawn sells, people might wonder if someone who writes about demons and Hell, should be writing church history time traveling novels for Deseret Book. I can’t speak for any other authors, but I can tell you that I will never write anything that I would be ashamed to have a General Authority read. Would they like all of my books? Probably not. You know how poorly edited those LDS novels are. (Just kidding!) I am doing my best to create exciting, uplifting, well-crafted novels. And I think most of my peers are doing the exact same thing.

I am thrilled to death that Whitney nominees this year cover everything from serial killers to corny LDS romances. I am proud to be affiliated with the kind of writers who have the talent to break into the national market, whether they ever choose to or not. And the next time that someone asks me if LDS authors are any good, I’ll tell them, “That all depends on what you are looking for.”