agents http://www.writinghood.com/tags/agents New posts about agents Publish and be Damned http://www.writinghood.com/Online-Writing/Publish-and-be-Damned.336219 What follows is a true story, those very words are one of the most often used lies in the world of fiction (kind of obvious when you think about it). Another is the idea that authors are overnight success stories and rolling in money. This story then recounts my experience of shunning traditional publishing and using the internet instead. It taught me a lot about the industry, things I already knew but chose to ignore, but where I am at now is a better place.

At the present time there is something of a dilemma - getting discovered as a novelist seems to be becoming harder than any number of similes an aspiring author could care to construct (and if finding a needle in a haystack is the best they can do, another career may better suit). Still, with two hundred thousand new books published each year they could argue that it has never been easier. And that is especially true with the new wave of self-publishing. 

Often known as vanity publishing, self-publishing used to be seen as the sole preserve of the very rich or very docile. Perhaps that is still true, but one thing has changed: you no longer need to spend a large amount of money to get a book on sale. Before I explain I want to point out that many aspiring authors will have flirted with the idea at some point in their career, even if not deliberately. Numerous adverts can be found requesting manuscripts to be sent to a new “publishing house” occasionally even on these pages (hint one: publishing is a buyers market - reputable companies have no need to advertise for submissions; they get more than enough without soliciting), in some cases anything you send the company will accept and then look for ways to screw you out of money, for instance by claiming you have to pay for an editor to fix some grammatical problems in the book, or to pay for advance typesetting design. Real publishers would never do this. 

Unscrupulous agents, again in inverted commas, will do the same thing – proclaiming how wonderful your work is and how they will easily publish it for millions after you pay their yearly members fees (hint two: much like real publishers, real agents will never ask you for money, only they will take a cut of any earnings you make, many authors believe this is worth it for the knowledge of the publishing market an agent brings). Of course there always used to be a number of legit vanity publishers, who would make no issue that this was what they were doing, arguing that many people simply wanted to create a book to share with themselves or friends, or even attempt to sell it themselves having grown tired of the frustrations of the Sisyphean nightmare that is the traditional submission/rejection cycle. 

The internet self-publishing revolution is the same thing, except that there is no need to pay upfront for copies of books that no one will ever read. The key phrase is “print on demand” (pod), with print on demand you can publish the book exactly as you would like for no charge, everything is held in computer storage, and then the only payment is made for each copy of the book that is printed. The print on demand company take a slice of this fee, but with so many facets of traditional book selling removed (no publishers, agents, stores, or van drivers to pay) they claim that the royalty you get from each sale is far higher than the usual sub-10% scrape of pie. There is nothing to stop you purchasing an ISBN number and list the work on Amazon or the like. 

One of the big players in this new industry is Lulu.com, and on the surface it seems a noble set up; however, it doesn't take a genius to work out that almost all users publishing a book will at least buy one copy of it. The upshot is that the dream of being published is now as real as death. But be forewarned here, publishing my first novel, and by first I mean third, but let's not dwell on semantics, writers seldom do, was one of the singularly most underwhelming moments of my life. I know now I was looking for the wrong things. But more of that later.

So what went wrong? Perhaps it was the one man band nature of it all. For my novel, Animals Are Automata, I played the role of writer, typesetter, editor (on weekends), publisher, cover artist, and promo writer. I use the word played deliberately. I even took a turn wearing red braces and setting the cover price, naturally over-egging my cut. Total sales so far one and peaking. Suddenly the image is of an alcoholic tramp in a soiled dinner suit, with a cymbal glued to each knee, metal arms holding out a harmonica, and bass drum bashing along in time to each pathetic step. The print on demand revolution was supposed to change the face of publishing, so what has happened to my sales?

Part of the problem is that it is now too easy to rub shoulders with the literati: you can have as many novels as Dan Brown published in no time, quicker than you can say “religious conspiracy”, no matter what the quality. Hell, I even considered publishing a book with blank pages called Snow blind for the art vote. It's just that everyone is doing it, like teenage rabbits. The process itself is surprisingly easy – a standard Word document is all you need, with behind the scenes wizardry taking care of the conversion process. And then the book is ready to preview and play 'spot the mistakes' with. A few tries at this and you have a ready to go best-seller in the making. Typical novice mistakes to look for include any of the following: leaving the page size set to A4, not starting a chapter on odd pages, font too big or small, and forgetting the copyright notice and the line “all characters are fictional”, though I am not sure if this is needed, it just seems most people on these sites include it, so why not? After all, no one is buying the this is a true story nonsense. 

There are so many books on an average site like Lulu that it is staggering. And it is hard to know exactly who is looking at these encyclopaedias of banality thinking, “hmm a book of poems about frogs, I must buy that for my aunt”. There is absolutely no guarantee of quality, in fact you may be excused in thinking it is quite the opposite – a guarantee of no quality – and I include my own work here, as I am sure it would be so much more polished with the input of a good editor and doubtless still contains mistakes somewhere (they will just make the first edition that much more valuable in the future). Also while sales of certain non-fiction books seem high, it's a struggle to find any high selling works of fiction. 

In other words, internet print on demand publishing does not appear to be the route to success: given the hit rate to number of books ratio, using a traditional publisher would probably be more likely to produce a positive result (even with the sobering Sunday Times experiment of submitting two old Booker prize winner manuscripts that were rejected in every case). If the modern industry is struggling to recognise true talent then taking that talent online does not seem to be the answer. Then again many now famous authors self-published and it did them no harm (Beatrix Potter being a topical example). I discovered that the lacking ingredient in getting anywhere in self-publishing is that another role needs adding to the long list of career types – marketing and public relations. Put simply if you don't tell anyone about your book then they aren't going to rush to buy it. Or read it online, or whatever. 

So it becomes very much the job of the individual. Lulu is no X-factor for novelists, which is an intriguing prospect – imagine standing before the judges reading some writing that isn't your own. OK wait, that wouldn't quite work. It's a difficult analogy. You couldn't go out live on a Saturday night and read out some Shakespeare with some choice additions made at the suggestion of Louis Walsh. The X-factor only works in that it is a showcase of style over substance. You can sing or you can't. Writing doesn't work the same because writing requires effort on both the reader and the writer. Lulu offers some help, but it is not revolutionary. You can pay for marketing packs, which offer things like postcards and business cards you design; alternatively, the site gives links to outside agencies who promote your book in the small press (useful perhaps for non-fiction). The final option is to use the Lulu community pages, which is a kind of Myspace for adults and lets you join groups and make friends by typing in interests. Many groups have a store front, where you can view selected titles from members of the group (e.g. UK authors). There is a vetting process for new work too, so this perhaps hints at some guarantee of quality. But just how well judged the moderators are is anyone's guess. Again the vast number of titles, even on smaller sized groups, detracts, coupled to the fear that very few members of lulu are there to buy rather than sell. 

It takes a bemusing number of skills to succeed in pod publishing, but I suppose the question is does it have any advantages over the traditional synopsis and sample chapter approach hell already discussed? One obvious upside is that you do get to see the finished product; you get to cradle your baby, albeit an uglier baby than you suspect it could have been (after all, you designed and produced it) – as if you got desperate and had children with the nearest anybody, rather than holding out for the supermodel genes you always believed you could breed with. Another benefit of publishing online could soon appear if buying trends of the general public ever change in the near future.  What the internet can offer is ever improving search technology, and maybe some time soon people will start to move away from the idea that the best way to choose a book is to walk into a retailer and pick up one of the titles near the door that has been suggested by a company exec. 

The new “Reader” by Sony is too said to revolutionise the book market, doing for it what mp3 players did for music. The strange thing is that print on demand takes writing most probably suited for penny downloads in a digitally dispensable format and lets it cross over to a more traditional format. I can't imagine something similar being available for wannabe music makers. It's probably because success in writing seems much easier than in music because you don't need musical ability, a good voice, lyrical talent, and / or good looks. Writing is unlike other art forms because it requires the least resources. If politics is show business for ugly people, then what of writing? Busking for the intellectual? I am of course only joking; it's far worse than that – guitar cases hold much more spare change than mortarboards.  

The problem is that I get the suspicion that most blog writers and print on demand self-publishers still have that dream that they will be discovered; I'll be honest, I used to too. I've now realised they, we, are all no different from the string of beautiful people who each year move to Hollywood in the hope that someone will spot them in the street and give them a role in their next film. It happens occasionally, very rarely, but the way society works these lucky ones are the ones we aspire to emulate and believe we can, because it happened to them. But what of the thousands of other equally talented individuals who ended up with nothing? Do we harbour these irrational beliefs in other areas of life? Do we leave the house each morning believing that today is the day we will be killed in a motor crash? Of course not. And if, by some fluke, an editor were to discover my book and offer me some kind of deal, so what? The way the industry works today it would be given a small advance, not supported with much marketing, sink like a stone (unless I were very very lucky), and after a few books that would be that.

The truth as I realised looking at all those never ending shelves of books in shops is that writing success, like success in other arts, is largely due to chance and being in the right place at the right time. I guess it all depends what you are looking for. Over the course of trying to sell a couple of novels and other forms of writing with limited success,  I have come to learn that the pleasurable part is in the creation, in the writing itself. And this is the hobby for me. In the same way as people spend ages watching birds, or building scale models, always for the love and never expecting to get paid. Self-publishing and self promotion offers the writer the freedom to write about whatever they choose free of constraints. Sure, immeasurable wealth would be nice, but in writing there is no way to assure that no matter how hard one works. It's an irrational career choice.

So I will continue to have intimate conversations with myself, and write them down. I do not need to have my work validated any more. It is there on its own merits, it exists, and if it sells, it sells. There is no magic formula. The most wonderful thing about print on demand is that it lets you hold a piece of your art, and display it for anyone to see. Surely no-one can begrudge that of a struggling artist. Just don't see it as a route to fame and fortune. Writing is full of alchemist's traps. There are an avalanche of people willing to take your money: self-help books, self-publishers, competitions, and critiques, all peddling the dream. If anything the internet has made this worse. The truth is you have to give and give of your time in order to have a slim chance of moderate success, and like the candle that goes out if given too much of the air it needs, this constant push to be famous can kill any pleasure you once had.

]]> Sun, 09 Nov 2008 10:39:47 PST WHAT is a Synopsis? and HOW DO I WRITE One? http://www.writinghood.com/Style/How-To/WHAT-is-a-Synopsis-and-HOW-DO-I-WRITE-One.334511 How to write a synopsis is one of the most discussed subjects at writers groups. So many people find it hard, and make it more difficult than they need to.

A synopsis is just a summary. It simply tells the editor/agent/publisher exactly what your book is all about.   The problem with summarising your own work is that it’s hard to know which bits to include and which to leave out.

My advice is simple. Practice on somebody else’s book first. For example, if I chose Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens,  I might write down the basic plot like this.

Set in Victorian times, this book tells the story of Pip. As a boy, he meets a convict and steals food for him. Years later, Pip is sent to play with Estella who is the ward of Miss Haversham, a wealthy, but strange woman who was jilted on her wedding day, and still wears her wedding gown years later. Pip falls in love with Estella, but she refuses him. Later Pip comes into money. He thinks Miss Haversham is his benefactor, but it turns out to be the convict he helped when he was a boy. In the end, Pip and Estella get together and it all ends happily.

As you can see, this really is the bare bones of the plot, but it does tell you what happens, including the ending.

Now try doing this with your own book. You will be end up with the kind of short, sharp synopsis that agents and publishers so often ask for. You will even have room left over for brief descriptions of the main characters.

Remember, publisher want to know is what kind of book you are offering them, and whether they find the subject or plot sufficiently interesting.

]]> Sat, 08 Nov 2008 10:19:51 PST Valuable Websites for Writers http://www.writinghood.com/Writing/Valuable-Websites-for-Writers.224683 Whether you're writing a fiction or nonfiction book, if it's your first one, you probably feel at a loss of what to do to get your material out there. When I completed my first serious novel several years ago, I felt at a loss of what I needed to do next. I found that the publishing industry had certain rules of how, who and what you should submit your material to.

I've listed some valuable sites below that have a wealth of information for the aspiring writer. These sites will take the mystery out of whom to submit to, what you need to submit, how to submit it, and who you should look out for. I hate to say it, but yes there are plenty of people out there waiting to take advantage of the uninformed writer. Other than postage and supplies, submitting your work shouldn't cost you any money.

Absolute Write

This is a writer's forum that has a wealth of information! Personally, I'd be lost without this place. Here you are able to ask questions to writers that are trying to do the same thing as you……get published. You can search out others experiences with certain agents or publishers, get your work critiqued, learn how to write a query letter, freelancing information, and learn basic writing techniques so you won't make the dreaded first timers mistakes. This sight has so many attributes it's hard to list them all.

If you want to join in on the conversations, it's easy. Here you will always find someone with experience who is more than willing to help. If you prefer to be quiet, you can surf this forum unnoticed. This is a must sight to help the unpublished or published author find any information they need concerning publishing or writing.

Preditors & Editors

This is another must site for the writer. Preditors & Editors is a guide to publishers and writing services for writers. It is not only a list of agents, attorneys and publishers, but gives warnings about scammers who are out there. If something raises a red light about a particular agent or publishers, here is the place to find it. Remember, money flows toward the writer. You never should have to pay to get your work published! There are a bunch of unscrupulous people out there who are looking to take advantage of the unpublished writer, this sight outs them.

AgentQuery

This is a terrific place to find agents or publishers, their current contact information and what they are looking for. Here you will find a massive searchable database of literary agents and publishers and believe it or not….it's free! There are no strings attached to this sight.

You will also find descriptions of the various genres and are able to search by genre only. You will also find great information on such things as how to write a query letter, how to mail it and how long a synopsis should be, plus much more. This is another must sight for the writer.

QueryTracker.net

Here you can search for agents in a particular genre. This site is a great resource because you can track your queries and responses. There is also a list of success stories of Query Trackers users, stating the agent who offered them a contract, genre and the word length of the accepted manuscript. You will be able to see the trends of a particular agent/agency and know what's selling.

The best things you can do for you as a writer, is become informed and never give up! Rejection is normal and one must grow really thick skin. Remember, you aren't the only one who got rejected. Hopefully these sites will make your writing journey a bit easier. Good luck!

]]> Sun, 24 Aug 2008 04:31:21 PST Rejection's Perception http://www.writinghood.com/Writing/Rejections-Perception.110095 Rejection hurts. There’s no getting around it. But before you call it quits, another rejection letter waiting for you in the mailbox, remember this: they weren’t right for you, not the other way around.

If the agent didn’t love your work, then he or she was not the person to champion your novel. Always remember a bad agent is much worse than no agent. Move forward until you find the right one.

And quit looking for meaning in those form rejections. There is none.

]]> Wed, 16 Apr 2008 03:28:01 PST Getting Published http://www.writinghood.com/Writing-Business/Getting-Published.83686
  • Study the publications at a newsstand or your library. Check the acknowledgments pages of books like yours for the names of publishing house editors.
  • Always address your submission to a specific editor so it doesn't get lost or buried.
  • Don't ignore small or online publishers, since they are often most likely to welcome newcomers
  • You will find detailed instructions in the publications or online about how to submit work. Follow these instructions to the letter.
  • Don't be shy about asking to be introduced to anyone who might be able to help, and go to workshops, readings, and mix with fellow writers.
  • You may not need an agent for poetry or magazine writing but it helps in book publishing, without an agent your work is liable to end up in the dreaded slush pile-an agent can help you leap frog to the right editor.
  • Never- ever pay an agent to read your work; you want them to make money by selling your work, not reading it.
  • Ask writers and teachers to give you names of possible agents, and check these resources.

    • Keep sending out your writing so that you always have a finger in the pie. If you aren't getting rejections, you aren't sending your work out, and if you aren't sending your work out, you aren't going to be published.

    ]]>     Thu, 14 Feb 2008 03:22:08 PST     Writing Tips: Writing Science Fiction Stories http://www.writinghood.com/Style/How-To/Writing-Tips-Writing-Science-Fiction-Stories.78945 Science Fiction writers are as varied as Science Fiction itself, but they all have a common goal; to write good thought-provoking material, and to get paid for it. If you have enormous talent, you will succeed despite yourself, but for the rest of us, success requires hard work, discipline, and constant honing of our craft. Whatever our level of experience, preferences, and abilities, we can all benefit from guidelines and tips from other writers, inside and outside the genre. Below are some tips and guidelines for the writing of science fiction.

    First, let's get some general guidelines out of the way. I'm assuming you have a workspace, a word-processor, or, much better, a computer with manuscript tracking software. If not, go to your local library. You can get everything you need there, and it's mostly free. Set aside a realistic amount of time. Read, and write, and research, and write. A realistic 5 hours per week is better than 30 or 40 hours that you can't manage.

    Choose your Science Fiction Flavor

    In the second-century BC, Lucian of Samasota described voyages to the sun and the moon, and in the early 1960s, science fiction was still talking seriously about little green men from Mars. Now, we're all living in a Science Fiction age, and the boundaries of the genre have exploded outwards. You will probably settle into one or two of the sub-genres of Science Fiction writing. If you are not sure what direction to take, read as many different types of SF as possible.

    • Alternate history. - Read some of the works of Harry Turtledove
    • Blend - SF/Fantasy, SF/Romance, SF/Mystery, SF/Western (as in the Brisco County TV series)
    • Cyberpunk - think Matrix, or William Gibson
    • End-of-the-World
    • Hard SF
    • Humorous SF
    • Space Opera
    • Near Future
    • Alternate Universe
    • Sociological - read Ayn Rand for a conservative point of view
    • Something sublime. Try Ray Bradbury
    • Weird stuff. Read J. G. Ballard.

    Read as much as possible, then settle into what you do best. Good Space-Opera is better than preachy apocalyptic stories, or implausible "hard" science-fiction. And currently, if you can write hypertext fiction, you have a whole new world of writing at your feet. The point is, do what you're comfortable with. (However, take heed when an editor offers you a suggestion. He is the person who will publish your masterpiece.)

    Conjuring up different worlds - some pointers

    Here are a few ideas to play with. They should help you to come up with at least an outline for a story, or a novel.

    • A science fiction story has to be about people, even if the "person" is an alien, a robot, a computer program, or a sentient cloud of roving, intergalactic gas. Take a look at any episode of any of the "Star Trek" series and you'll see what I mean.
    • Try to visualize (depending on your age), what you would have imagined the year 2004 to be 10, 20, 50 years ago. Would you have imagined a world without the USSR, robots on Mars, faster than light travel, cloning, nanobiology, a world of computers. They all exist today. - Faster than light travel?? Take a look at some of the latest research into quantum mechanics.
    • Now try to remember how you thought then, and how you think now
    • Do you have any idea what your grandfather thought, how he saw the world? Your world is as different from his as yours will be to the cyberpunk kids of 2025. Of course, the same applies to women, only more so.

    Here are a few more things to consider: -

    • Don't try to force a message or a plot, unless your editor suggests it, and even then, think carefully about it
    • Do listen to the advice of your editors
    • Don't worry about criticism
    • Do consider it. Constructive criticism is important
    • Draw on the world around you
    • Keep your mind in a "what if" mode
    • Watch people, and tuck away weird facts
    • Write, write, read, and write

    Practicalities

    Everyone writes differently, but you can still learn from other writers. A classic "how to" book is Orson Scott Card's "How to write Science Fiction and Fantasy" It's comprehensive, examining "speculative fiction" from several perspectives. It talks about creating worlds with logic and internal consistency. It looks at story and character construction, viewpoint, and language. Finally, it focuses on markets, agents, classes, and finances.

    Markets, Agents, Classes, and Finances.

    Connecting these is the very important subject of research. Please, if you have a computer, or have access to one - use it.

    Research the markets for likely online and hard copy publishers. Go to a search engine such as Google, type in "Writers Guidelines", and you will get 112,000 entries (as of today). Search within results for "Science Fiction" and you will get 4,650 results. How on earth can you handle this avalanche of information? Think about your own areas of expertise. Say you're a history buff, hardly a subject for science fiction, you might think. Search for "history" within the 4,650 results, and you'll get close to 1000. It's tough to have a world of information at your fingertips. Let's say you find the perfect market(s). Now you can look up the American Civil War, Quantum Mechanics, and all the different ways a gunshot wound of knife bleed.. You can also join an email discussion group or a newsgroup.

    Agents are listed in the Writers and Artists Yearbook, and Google will dig them up for you by the hundreds. Then you can narrow your search. There are also specialty search engines that on the areas you require. Where do you find these? Do a search on "Specialty Search Engines." You'll get about 11,600 hits.

    If you want to take writing classes, look them up on the Internet, and compare prices. Or, go to your trusty newsgroups or discussion lists. Another option is to visit writing websites, many of which have writers' forums. One of the best I've found is a website designed by Francis Coppola, which has forums for all kinds of writing, including SF.

    As you can see, research will also be very helpful in controlling your finances. With a vast amount of information on the web, you can choose between deluxe and free classes, research forums, manuscript and writing software, and anything else your science-fiction heart desires. Free content is often as good, or better than, an expensive product.

    Over the Top

    As in trenches. It's a big effort to launch yourself into the unknown, face the minefields of rejection and writers block. You must keep running, despite all obstacles. Eventually, you will make your first sale, and all the effort will be justified. Then you will make your next sale, and your fiftieth, and with each sale, all the effort will be justified again.

    ]]>     Thu, 31 Jan 2008 09:01:50 PST     Rip-off Schemes: Agents, Publishers and Advice for Writers http://www.writinghood.com/Writing-Business/Rip-off-Schemes-Agents-Publishers-and-Advice-for-Writers.78871 When on MySpace, I do occasionally check the targeted adverts that appear at the top of the page. Most of mine are for publishers and agents. Or, more specifically, people wanting writers to pay them to either read over their manuscript, or to publish their work. Some of these companies are more up-front about the fact they want a (sometimes substantial) up-front payment for converting a writer's word file to a .PDF and sticking it in a cover than others. Some promise to "sell" your book through all of the major booksellers, and through Amazon. But what they really mean is that for your money, you'll get an ISBN that will be registered on various databases.

    The book will (probably) appear on Amazon, and will be available through most major book stores, but they won't be stocking the title in physical form. Fine, but it's possible to get the same services for free, pay just a small fee for an ISBN and, well, there you go. Because most of these companies are simply printers using print on demand technology. Now, I like PoD, but have no illusion about how my work that's available through PoD channels is being marketed - i.e. it isn't. Unless I market it myself. Which I do. Not being a professional or even particularly business-minded, I'm not very good at it it's ok, because I've not paid a few hundred quid for no promotion.

    At present, PoD and self-publishing are essentially synonymous, and self-publishing is largely considered inferior by "the establishment:" no quality control, just "writers" who can't write putting stuff out that no publisher would touch in a million years. This seems to be rather a double standard: in music, bands who release their own records are hailed as exponents of the punk ethic. Or they're Radiohead.

    And there is, of course, a counter-argument that most publishers are only interested in the Next Big Thing, so unless you're the next Stephen King, Dan Brown or J.K. Rowling, you can fuck right off. And as the more discerning readers will know, Stephen King, Dan Brown and J.K. Rowling produce accessible, mainstream texts at a steady rate, and while they shift units, they don't exactly challenge anything, particularly the social order or the perception of the masses. This is perhaps another point for another time: suffice it to say here that, thankfully, there are a lot of writers out there who don't write for the masses. But how do these writers get their work to the market?

    Obviously, this is easier if you've got an agent working on your behalf. (For the record, I haven't.) But getting an agent to take you on is as hard - and, I've oft heard it said, harder - as being accepted by a publisher.

    Ah, but thankfully, help is at hand, thanks to companies who advertise on MySpace. Of course, they want paying for their input, but they'll read your manuscript and give advice on how to improve it, and even provide detailed directions for making a successful pitch for an agent. By sending them your manuscript and some wedge, they'll provide a detailed report, which includes the following:

    Writing skills - including how to use these to strengthen atmosphere, pace and tension throughout

    Dialogue - convincing and sustained dialogue and suitability to characters

    Characters - believability, natural actions, emotions and themes

    Plot - are there enough twists and turns to capture the reader's attention? Is there a strong opening and conclusion, with no holes throughout?

    Marketability - a view on whether your novel will stand up in today's market and whether it is aimed concisely enough at its target reader

    Now, this is all well and good, but much of this kind of information can be found elsewhere, and again, for free. I've often wondered about the need for creative writing classes. Perhaps I'm being blinkered, myopic, even autistic and snobbish, but can there really be a substitute for life experience, practice and spending time reading? To write, one must first read, even if only to avoid the risk of thinking you've created a unique and truly genius plot-line, only to discover that Shakespeare or Nick Hornby got there first. How many well-known writers were taught how to write (and I'm not meaning how to hold a pen)? What's more, the advice that will appear in this personalised report, that runs from 9 to 15 pages can only be so personalised anyway, surely?

    But what really gets me is the fact that the idea of focusing on dialogue, plot, character is simply perpetuating the established norms that lead to the last point, marketability. Isn't writing with a view to marketability simply writing by numbers? It's a pity that writing has become increasingly about numbers - sales figures - than about "art." I'm presenting an idealist perspective when I say that less mainstream works - works that fall into the category of "it doesn"t fit into our present publishing programme' should be given a chance to find their market, rather than being rejected because they're not in alignment with the current market trend. There are many readers out there who are frustrated because of the lack of choice, who can't find one, let alone three titles they want in the Waterstone's 3 for 2 offer selection because it's all so safe and uninspiring.

    Right now, there are a lot of writers - good writers - struggling to get published, and who are clearly desperate enough to fund the scumbags who promise the earth in terms of finding an agent, or providing agent services, or putting your book to a global market - for a fee. I have no idea what the future holds for the publishing industry. But I do think radical changes are afoot. I certainly hope so, and I say "bring it on!"

    ]]>     Thu, 31 Jan 2008 07:44:16 PST