Publishers are a simple group? I don't think so. Editors at trade publishing houses and other places have high standards. You can't just say, "Okay, I'm willing to compromise," and expect that's the answer to getting a contract. It is much harder to please an editor than a reader. They are the ones making a judgement call based on what they know about the market and what readers tend to like. That doesn't mean you have to follow any sort of formula. And I would not venture into trying to publish thinking that's the case. I also think it is a huge mistake and insult to say people in publishing are simple.
As others have mentioned, it is all to easy to get hung up on rules. When I first began writing I devoured every writing resource I could find, and applied all the "rules" without hesitation, ignoring the fact that many best selling authors didn't. That said, I think there is a market for books that follow a well trodden path. As someone once said, "Give me more of the same, only different."
Relative to the collective I categorised as 'readers' which is complex in so far as it is a group made up of anyone and everyone, the collective I categorize as 'Publishers' is not as complex. Publishers are always after something specific. They have advertised specialities and preferences making it easier to cater to them. Maybe I should have used the terms 'broad' and 'narrow'. And exactly. It is harder to please an editor than a reader. That's why I asked @Catrin Lewis if the problem was less about catering to readers than catering to a hypothetical publisher. I never said people in publishing ARE simple (if I did I'd only be insulting myself). Also 'simple' does not inherently or even necessarily refer to intelligence. You can have a complex drawing, or a simple drawing. It's not immediately and angrily presumed to be an intelligent drawing or a stupid drawing just because one makes use of shading and dimension and colour, and the other exclusively uses black lines. But I can see how my post didn't make that overly clear. By the way Catrin I'm glad you decided on a strategy to move forward with your rewrite. It helps getting some reassurance. Writing is such a solitary activity and we never know if something is working as we intend until we involve other people. Whether that's through the workshop, getting feedback, or simply raising the issue and brainstorming with someone.
Which means I should do the decent thing and answer your question (if I didn't before). No, I wasn't really thinking about catering to a hypothetical publisher, since for various reasons I'm planning to self-publish. Perhaps if I intended to pursue trad publishing for this novel I wouldn't have these questions, as the publisher's editor would tell me where I'm off-base. But as it is, it's up to me to make the book as good as I can, with whatever help I can get. I'd rather work out the doubts now, than be plagued with them after it's out there in the world. @jannert, as long as I'm on the subject, I went back and reread the lead-up to the part I was having trouble with, and yes, the connection between my MCs is definitely there , even if it's not yet a romantic one. That being the case, this wasn't the time to have the FMC going all "I'm in it alone," since the next chapter's when he starts manifesting more than a professional interest in the FMC. So the line has been modified to fit the reality of the story, and on we go to the next revision problem I need to solve. But that would be a separate thread.
