Publishing Dunces

Anonymous Patron writes “From MediaChannel.org Most casual readers would probably be astounded by the fact that even with the rows upon rows of books available there are thousands of writers whose books just don’t make it to not only those shelves, but to print. C. I. Chatelle says tragically, publishing has become another industry that has gone the way of media concentration, owned and managed by the almighty dollar.”

March 31, 2005 by Uncategorized 1

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1 Response

  1. Lis says:
    March 31, 2005 at 11:57 pm

    C. I. Chatelle has obviously never read slush
    Most of what gets submitted to publishers is, quite literally, unreadable. I don’t mean not interesting; I mean, you cannot figure out what the writer thought they were saying. Having a recognizable sentence structure and a tenuous grasp of what punctuation is for will put a manuscript miles ahead of most of what comes in unsolicited.

    Editors love nothing better than finding something publishable in the slushpile, even if it does turn out to be something that doesn’t meet their current needs. (I.e., if they’ve already got a truckload of vampire detective romances filling their list for the next twelve months, they may not be able to buy another even if it’s really good, and you’ll be better off trying another publisher.) Every editor dreams of finding the next The Name of the Rose, or Harry Potter and the Philospher’s Stone. Because of that, persistence will eventually pay off for the unknown who has something good. And nobody wants to be known as the editor who rejected the next major combo runaway bestseller/classic.

    Do publishers focus on the bottom line? Of course they do; they’re businesses. But they make money by finding books people want to read. And the individual decision-makers, the editors, assistant editors, and first readers, are all people who love books; publishing doesn’t pay enough to attract workers who are only in it for the money.

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