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From where does pragmatism proceed? From bending the will to prevailing trends or norms. My point was more that those fashions do not arise naturally but are the self fullfiling prophecies of publishers, presented as imutable fact.
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Of course you are right; nobody is sidputing that. But I kind of felt that, because I defended that guy's methods, I was supporting the publishing industry's self-fulfilling prophecies and bad, trend writing just for the sake of getting published. Nothing could be further from the truth. I believe this trend is the end of good literature and good writing.
MY point is that this attitude, though wrong, is the reality. As writers do we sit here lamenting that reality or do we try to stil get published, somehow, make an effort to get around it, while staying true to our writing? To get around it we have to get our submissions read by people in the industry, and to get them read we have to employ at least some of the tricks of the trade. There are floods of submissions going into their offices each week. To stand out as different you have to use imagination. This guy, as far as I can see, did use imagination. He sent in a query that was different, original. That says nothing at all about the quality of his writing or his attitude to the industry.
I see no harm at all in employing methods of sub,ission that get our manuscipts read in the first place. What I am against is having to bend those manuscipts to suit the publishers. That I refuse to do.
Have you read Simon Trewin's articles? If so please do. They tell it like it is.
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I would agree whole heartedly while obviously lamenting the commodification of literature along with everything else.
Personaly, my main interest is to get my volumes printed somehow, I don't delude myself that any amount of dressing up is going to interest some wallet brained agent to represent a series of strange 18C tinged novels of fantastical eccentricity. I console myself with the idea that all of my work is patently unfilmable.
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Bloody hell, I never realised Will Self had joined the site!!!
Colin M
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Sanguimane,
Excuse my ignorance but are "strange 18C tinged novels"? And of fantastical eccentricity! It sounds most intriguing - and most ominous!
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I fail to see how with al the best wil in the world you could fail to be ignorant of them! There are only two published and they in America! LOL
If you are morbidly curious there is alegedly an exert posted around here somewhere, but I admit I can't for the moment find it myself! My influences are DeQuincy, Sterne, Hardy (Thos.) and Melvile, so be braced for the worst!
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Apparently the excerpt is at;
http://www.writewords.org.uk/archive/9713.asp
It comes from the middle of the novel and takes place in a place called 'Terminus', a kind of victorian railway station as imagined by Lewis Carrol...
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Julie,
I only wish we were 'allowed' to 'sell' our mss to an agent! It seems like a huge taboo. After 7 years as a commercial director of a small business, pitching, writing sales letters and making a sale don't worry me. But everything I've read about how an author must conduct him/herself rules out such skills, it would seem.
So, I had to rewrite my first draft at a covering letter to an agent when I realised that it was a sales letter, setting out saleable features of the mss etc. I went with sober, factual and zero-hype, as advised. Argh but it hurt. A pitch without a pitch?
I don't think writers should worry about 'lacking office skills'. So long as you can follow the submission process, surely its more a matter of hitting the right agent at the right time with the right story?
How hard could it be? ;-)
Maria
<Added>
Mind you, having read the article about JA Konrath, I'm tempted to try his method. I'd love to create a little marketing package to try to sell myself as an author. What fun! But I can't see it working in the UK. I've had such somber advice about not deviating from the standard procedure.
Anyone think Konrath's method would work in the UK?
This 38 message thread spans 3 pages: < < 1 2 3 > >
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