One of the most useful analogies I’ve come up with over the course of my career is something that arose out of an epiphany I had approximately 20 years ago, which is the idea of “Author points.”

It has the makings of a pretty good publishing scam, I think, if I were the sort of person that did that.

Tired? Out of sorts? Aggravated with pursuing publication and marketing your work? Get AUTHOR POINTS! (tm) NOW!

Ahem. Anyway, the idea is this: that when you are telling a story to a reader, whether that reader is an editor or an agent or somebody looking for a little entertainment on their morning commute, you have a certain amount of credit from that person. That credit amounts to time to engage them with the narrative, and it varies from person to person based on their temperament. It is also based on their prior experiences with your work, with other people discussing your work, and with their first contact with the story.