One thing you learn fairly quickly as a writer is the number of rules that exist and things you can't or shouldn't do. Some of them seem quite arbitrary. Some seem like good rules, until I think about them and start finding exceptions. Many of these so-called rules are in place for a reason most of us never think about. I encountered a similar situation many years ago which I believe to be analogous.

I used to work in retail electronics in New York City. If you've not been involved in that industry, you probably wouldn't believe half of what I told you, and I wouldn't tell you another half of it, because it seems improbable.

I worked as a manager for a fairly large chain, which I don't think I'll name here. One, it's irrelevant, and two, another company now does business under the same name and I have an allergic reaction to lawsuits.

This company expanded very, very rapidly throughout the 80s. It seemed like a new location was opening every month. We had ten stores and then we had forty. Other electronic stores were doing the same thing...multiplying like rabbits.

When I first became a manager, it was toward the beginning of the growth spurt, and managers were given a certain amount of freedom. We were a highly skilled, highly competent lot, strong on company loyalty but not necessarily strong on morality. We followed orders without asking too many questions, at least publicly. We made a lot of money.

But as the company grew, it became more and more difficult to find competent managers. More and more of the staff had to be promoted faster and faster. As this happened, the upper management had to take steps to protect its investment. It did this by making more rules. The more rules we had to follow, the more control they had, but also, the less creative the better managers could be. Each rule that was imposed, cut off another avenue of exploration for the more professional, more creative manager, but the rules were necessary to keep the new guys up to standard. The problem was, you can't have one set of rules for the new guys and a different set for the previously existing managers, as that would cause morale problems. So each year I worked for the company, I found my hands tied tighter and tighter and became less and less effective. Still effective compared to most other managers, but less effective than I could have been.

Writing is very similar. The publishing industry has blossomed. It's become a bit like Hollywood. A few entertainment giants own most of the big, best-selling properties, and everyone else scrambles around trying to break into that market. The problem is, editors are besieged by so many manuscripts, they have to employ readers to weed through them to create a slush pile they can deal with. And those readers aren't editors, and so they need rules. Who made the rules?

The editors. They did the best they could to help the readers get through their piles of manuscripts. The more manuscripts the readers can reject, the less end up on the pile the editor needs to sort through. Remember, we're dealing with hundreds, if not thousands of manuscripts a month. Editors had to work faster than they ever had to before.

This is why so many of the great literary experiments occurred so long ago. The industry was smaller, people knew each other on a more personal level and publishing companies were run by editors rather than marketing departments. As publishing became more "big business" the emphasis drifted from quality to sales and Madison Avenue became Hollywood.

The experimentation now is handled by small press publishers, the better epublishers and a few talented self-published authors, who dare to be different. If you don't believe this is the case, let me relate a story to you that I've related elsewhere, but bears repeating.

When I lived in the States, I regularly attended conventions to push my books, and part of attending those conventions was participating in panels. One of the panels I was on was a panel to help new writers break into writing, and one of the other panelists was the head editor from a major publishing house (I won't name it, so don't ask).

One of the audience members asked, "What is the best way for a new author to get his work accepted?"

To this day, I can't believe the answer. "Find something that sells and write something just like it." This blew my mind. Wasn't writing art? When did this happen and where had I been?

I'm a rule breaker naturally. I love to break rules (and get away with it). Some of the rules really do seem odd.

Never start a book or story on dialogue. I don't know whose rule it is, but I've heard it more than once. Some of my favorite books start on dialogue, but that doesn't matter. Remember, we needed more rules as the number of manuscripts increased. Some of those rules are more arbitrary than others, and some vary from publishing house to publishing house.

Don't write in present tense.

I've even seen a publishing house that didn't want first person submissions. What is THAT about? Most of my best work is first person.

Don't kill off your protagonist. I guess the person who made this rule hadn't seen the Brave Heart. And if you want to point out, as my wife just did, that Brave Heart was based on a true story, I can quote other titles that contain dead protagonists, but chose Brave Heart to illustrate my point, because it's so well known.

All these rules and more...dozens more. Many writers know these rules and try to stay within them, not because we agree with them, but because it increases our chances of making a sale.

Yet a lot of time, books that have really taken off have done so because they have broken rules. Because someone had taken a chance. Where do I stand on all this?

I'd rather break a rule, take a chance and not sell a piece, than compromise my integrity. I was in retail for nineteen years, I've had plenty of chance to do so in the past. Now I just want to write what I want to write.

Which means, I guess that some first readers will reject my books without an editor ever seeing them. What can I do?

At least if something does make it through the publishing minefield, it will be something I can be proud to have my name on.