The Gray Monk

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July 19, 2007

Pride and prejudice?

An interesting exercise conducted by David Lassman of the Jane Austen Festival has given rise to a bit of a flutter in the publishing trade. The Society sent in a range of very thinly disguised 'sample' chapters based entirely on well known works by Jane Austen. One, entitled "First Impressions" even included the famous opening line "it is a well known fact that a single man possessed of a large fortune, must be in want of a wife." Only one editor spotted the plagiarisms and the rest evidently never even read the samples, but simply sent in standard Rejection Slips.

While the revelation has caused a great scramble among the publishers to defend their process it has also revealed the great weakness in the system of selecting who to publish. I cannot escape the feeling that Miss Austen would not see the light of day as an author in today's publishing world. The reason, I suspect, is that almost all the publishers now employ as editors people who have come through university with a Literature degree and who select and defend only those works which meet the intellectual criteria they approve of. It certainly explains, for me, the reason I have found in recent years that the majority of best selling authors cannot hold my attention beyond around page three. Recent experience in my own writing with professional editors suggests to me that they are so wedded to certain formulae and forms that they would not accept works by the likes of W E Johns, C S Lewis or J R R Tolkien at all these days. Certainly any work which doesn't have a sex scene in every chapter, isn't brimming with aliens (in Sc-Fi - preferably seeking sex with everyone else) or in which the characters aren't using the "F" word perpetually as their only adjective seem to have no chance of publication.

So what are the publisher's looking at and for? Well, they all say they want a good story, but then you run into "what is the story?" or "this reads like a pale imitation of XXXXXX's novel ZZZZZ", which when you take the trouble to look it up, never having heard of XXXXX before, you find it bears no resemblance at all. They want a good dialogue, but then tell you that "more use of narative" would make the novel more readable. One agent summed it up recently, saying, "To get into the business today a new author can't be just good, he or she has to be outstanding because the industry isn't run by editors and publishers anymore, it is run by accountants who have reduced everything to a formula for sales."

Well, perhaps the latest little tongue in cheek "test" of the integrity of the Editors and selectors who dictate who and what we read these days will result in a review of what they are doing after this. That is the optimist in me - the pessimist says, it is unlikely. In the meantime, I will keep plugging away. My next book is out there doing the rounds and I have another to seel as well. Your prayers and support are appreciated!

Posted by The Gray Monk at July 19, 2007 12:56 PM

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Comments

Posted by: Ana at July 23, 2007 02:46 AM

Posted by: The Gray Monk at July 24, 2007 11:03 AM