Alternative Agents / Publishers? - Writers Forum

Anidazen · 06-23-2005, 08:41 AM

Hi there.

A few of you have read my stuff here, and those who are familiar with it will know what I'm talking about. I write light-hearted material, and as a whole (not just mine), this seems to be either 'love it' or 'hate it' material.

Personally: My own following on my website etc is growing by the day from word-of-mouth reccomendation (up to 200 unique daily readers sometimes now), and certain people seem increasingly impressed with my humour extracts, but I think I'm right in saying that, even if I was good enough, which I am not saying I am, I would have even more trouble than average in getting published.

Does anyone know any publishers or agents who are likely to deal with something like this? It's certainly some distance away from the classic literary love novel adored by 40 year old women and which generally agents and publishers are used to dealing with.

Or does anyone have any experience dealing with abstract areas of the industry? Certainly, the few good writers in the style have become commercially successful - but I personally don't even know an agency that would look at the sub-genre AT ALL, regardless of quality.

(Once again, I'm not saying my stuff personally could be published anyway, even if I did have a complete manuscript. I'm just commenting on the industry generically.)

strangedaze · 06-23-2005, 10:31 AM

If your stuff is excessively weird, blasphemous, surreal, irreal, bizarre, absurd, dark, edgy, avant garde, punk, etc etc etc, then you might want to check out this trio of small press publishers:

Afterbirth Books: http://www.afterbirthbooks.com

Eraserhead Press: http://www.eraserheadpress.com

Raw Dog Screaming Press: http://www.rawdogscreaming.com

You mentioned that it's distanced from mainstream type stuff, so you might want to look at these, just in case they seem to fit. For a sampling of the type of things they work with, check out their ezine, The Dream People (google it, I'm too lazy to link

).

Andrew

Anidazen · 06-23-2005, 03:47 PM

Those are certainly interesting houses, quite far from my sort of thing though.

My stuff personally is fairly mainstream, in the fact that similar stuff is amongst the best-selling stuff (Pratchett, Adams etc), but I don't know of many agents etc that would actually look at something like that.

But this isn't about my stuff specifically so much as unusual stuff that doesn't fit into the typical novel category, so that's definately a good trio of links.

Saponification · 06-24-2005, 08:00 AM

Plenty of authors write "questionable" stuff and get published by mainstream publishers. Just because they're not household names like Dan Brown doesn't mean they don't get published. You'd be surprised what publishers will release. Some like Pan Macmillan are pretty conservative, but others are more liberal. Penguin and it's various offshoots are a good example of this.

mammamaia · 06-24-2005, 08:50 AM

ani...
the sad news is, if you don't have book mss to offer, you won't find a legit agent who'll rep you... there's not enough money in repping articles, stories, humor pieces, et al., which is why they only rep full works by new writers, such as books and screenplays...

if a person is famous in some other sphere, then an agent might take on other types of work, hoping to make it worth their while with peripheral marketing sales... but, unknown, unpublished writers with smaller works to sell, have no recourse but to approach publishers directly...

good news is, it's easy to find those your work will fit... just pick up a copy of writer's market, or spend 3 bucks on a one month subscription to the online version...

hope this helps... hugs, maia

Anidazen · 06-24-2005, 09:51 AM

I'm thinking forwards to when I have a complete and polished MS (some time from now!)

I'm just worried about how dramatically different reactions are to it. For example, my humour stuff just really isn't your cup of tea, and to quite a few people it just flat out sucks. A lot of people just don't like that whole type of thing. Others really do...

I was just thinking that such a dramatic difference in opinion could be a problem.

mammamaia · 06-24-2005, 09:59 AM

it definitely will be a problem, if publishers don't see enough of a market for it, to make it worth their while... the bottom line is, still, the almighty buck... and if enough people won't think what you write is worth paying good money for, it won't sell to publishers...

that said, there are fringe indies out there for just about any out-of-the-ordinary writing you can imagine... that's the good news... the bad is that they don't pay much, if anything... but at least it holds out hope for you getting your work in print, even if it won't cover your paper, ink, and postage costs...

so, don't give up yet, ok?... hugs, m

Ilan Bouchard · 06-24-2005, 11:45 AM

There are tons of comedians out there. There's always a group that likes their work, and others that hate it.
Thus, you may get rejected by quite a few editors, but you only need to find one that will like your work and publish you. And from there, the sift between those that like your stuff and those that don't will be dictated by book sales.