HarryG

RDG

Your wasting an agent's time increases the likelihood of some other writer getting a form letter, a cursory once-over or no response at all. Thanks loads from all of us who wish those wasted minutes could have been spent reviewing our submissions.

cbrmale

I got a number of rejection letters from agents in Australia that I submitted my MS to, one was positive (we like your flowing style). Did they give it a cursory once-over glance? No, not really, I suspect they start with the synopsis and maybe once they saw references to Russia, Moscow, corrupt police, corrupt FSB it got them interested. How do I know they didn't give it a once-over? Well two of seven made pencil notes on the three-chapter MS before sending it back, although the first three chapters are quite polished (when I wrote that Tanya felt the fence around the yard was closing in on her, crushing her, squeezing her space away - it didn't need correcting to 'squeezing her breath away'). In any case agent eight liked it even more, so it goes to show that a new author can get to first base.

I don't think submitting hack work like Grisham is what agents want. Publishers don't want works out on a limb, but they may want new authors to have a new and fresh voice. Grisham was the eighties, and still sells, but we are 2006 and the next Grisham won't write about lawyers solving crime but maybe he writes about a Westerner and his Russian girlfriend in deep trouble with the Russian mafia.

Stewart

Simply because he doesn't interest me and I have loads of books I'd rather read. I have a few books from Scottish authors (William McIlvanney, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as some up and comers in Anne Donovan and Colette Paul.)

I don't place much emphasis on an author's location so don't feel that because Ian Rankin is Scottish that I should read his books. By that logic I would feel inclined to read the historical romance of Marion Chesney.



Not at all. I was reading some Sir Arthur Conan Doyle earlier. The Welshes (Irvine and Louise) don't interest me either, from Edinburgh and Glasgow respecively.

Harry, I don't like the bestsellers route you are going down here. Books don't always get published because the publisher wants it on the bestseller list. Some may be more interested in the prestige that can be garnered from a quality piece of literature. The author they take on now may not sell well in the market but a few books down the line they may garner a Booker Prize as a gloss for their imprints. Canongate, as I recall, was over the moon at being the only publisher to get two books into the shortlist this year: Kate Grenville's The Secret River and MJ Hyland's Carry Me Down. That sort of acclaim you can't buy; unlike the publishers that buy their way into the bestsellers list by buying into the ever extortionate space at the front of books shops, which brings exposure.

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Mike C

Making the best-seller list isn't the sole mark of success. You don't have to be a literary giant to make the list, you have to satisfy certain commercial criteria. There are many new writers getting successful out there.

But new writers who have made best-seller lists - Sharon Maas (first 3 books made best-seller lists across Europe, working on her 4th), Sara Gruen's second book, Water for Elephants, last time I looked was number 9 on the NYT best seller list (her first just fell short of making the list, if I remember rightly). That's off the cuff, people I actually know. If I could be bothered to trawl the lists I could find more.

Also I heard yesterday that Tasha Alexander's debut novel, 'And Only to Deceive', is on it's fifth reprint. Not a NYT best-seller, necessarily, but seems to be doing quite nicely for itself.

I will make one prediction - Jon Clinch's first novel, Finn, will be published early 2007. It's a beautifully written book (from the excerpts I have read from it) and it will be a best-seller. How do I know? I know him, I know the book, NY's top agent nearly ripped his arm off for the MS, Random house are making it their flagship book for the new season and film rights are sold prior to publication. Not bad for a newbie.

I'm sorry if you thought I was being personal. It was supposed to be a generalisation - unsuccessful novelists are the ones who bleat loudest about 'the state of the industry' without actually giving it much thought. It's more comfortable to believe that the industry is conspiring against one than to accept that maybe one's book isn't up to scratch.

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cbrmale

There are a couple of issues new authors have to deal with. First up, a book does have to be up to scratch as you say, and just how almost-perfect surprised me when I asked some friends who have been published to look at what I thought was a good work. Literally every full-stop and comma in the right place, every one of those 69,986 words spot-on. But that is detail, the work is about characters and story, and how and where the characters and story take the reader is the real key to a good work. A good well-written story is the starting point.

Secondly, anyone can write a book, there is so much being produced today relative to decades ago. Anyone with an idea, some free time and a word processor is churning out good work or drivel. There are only so many works of fiction that can be published and we are swamping a finite market!

Thirdly, there is an element of luck in getting published, although knowing the market and writing well, particularly a good synopsis (the sales pitch) shortens the odds. Nonetheless, people write very good works that are quite marketable, and still miss out. In this latter case it is not a conspiracy, because other new authors submit good marketable works, and luck plays a part and someones interest is fired and it happens.

Mike C

They are issues, but they're different to those the OP was raising, and they aren't issues that established writers don't have to deal with (unless you're one of the elite few who could get your laundry list published). I know of a couple of writers whose books sold well, but after the 3 book deal expired, the publisher didn't think the 4th was up to the mark and declined. Worse, their agent agreed, and basically said write another book or find another agent.

You have to be submitting a quality product - a good story, well written - whether you're a newbie or an old hand, or you're sunk.

There is an element of luck in any venture, but the guys who succeed are the guys who put the work in. If you write a marketable book, yes, it may get rejected. It may even get rejected several times. But if it's good enough, and the writer puts their faith in hard work rather than luck, it will be published.

If it was easy, what would be the point of doing it?

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