"The Failure Studies of an Entertainment Novelist: The Harsh Path of 'Sell or Perish'" by Mizuho Hirayama

As I wrote in my previous article, I am currently interested in writing novels, so this book naturally caught my attention.
I picked it up because a novelist YouTuber I follow recommended it.

It was interesting!
I have three personal keywords for the content of this book.

• The loneliness of a creator

• Luck

• Empathy

I understand that creation itself is a lonely task, but the sense of loneliness when a work you have poured your heart and soul into is rejected by editors or readers is beyond imagination. If you are told by an editor that it's no good, you have to rewrite it, and the humiliation and frustration of that are immeasurable.

Also, not limited to the publishing world, "luck" influences every field to varying degrees. If things only went well based on talent, the definition of "success" would probably be much clearer.

What I found most interesting in this book (though it might be rude to say so) was the discussion about empathy.
When the author wrote a novel based on himself, he projected his own personality exactly as it was onto the protagonist, and as a result, many readers commented that they "could not empathize" or "could not relate" to the character.

It seems that for novels and manga, whether they sell or not depends on how much empathy they can elicit from readers, such as them thinking, "I get it!"

However, the author did not place much importance on "empathy" when creating stories in the first place, so he was devastated by the constant reader reactions of "cannot empathize" meaning "boring."

The author calls himself an "unsuccessful, failed novelist," but looking at the number of books he has written, I don't think that's the case at all.
But it doesn't seem like he's being overly humble either, so this world must be much harsher than it looks from the outside.

This book frankly discusses the author's past failures as a novelist.
And I think he published this book while anticipating the possibility that he might be criticized for being blame-shifting (especially toward editors).
But I didn't find it unpleasant at all, and as expected of a novelist, the writing style and development were so engaging that I finished reading it in no time, chuckling occasionally.

Such feelings of regret and looking back on bitter experiences are not limited to novelists; they can be applied to any other job or life itself.
In that sense, it gave me a good opportunity to apply it to myself and look back, and of course, I think there are many things that would be useful for those aiming to become novelists to know.

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