hi again, i wonder if anyone can give me advice about this. during my research on the net im reading more and more that it is a good idea to try and get a first novel accepted by a publisher and thenapproach the agent youre interested in for possible acceptance in order that they broker the deal. has anyone got any thoughts about this? i was previously under the impression that publishers werent interested in reading manuscripts from unagented, previously unpublished authors, so this seems very like a catch 22 situation.

there is a mine of great information and advice for writers here btw, im sure youve all heard of the site already, but in case you havent, its the author hollie lisle's site at http://www.hollylisle.com/fm/

As far as I can tell, most major publishers these days say they don't accept unsolicited fiction manuscripts, so there's no obvious way of getting them to look at your work. The websites will tell you which do and which don't. Plus, some editors would anyway rather have an agent as a buffer between you and them, than deal with you direct. With non-fiction you might have a rather better chance. Most agents still do, though they vary in how hard they sift their slushpile.

Emma

It helps if you have some kind of contact to an editor. I had two contacts, one at Hodder; one at Headline. The Hodder one was an editor I met at Harpercollins and had moved; he asked for my full ms but eventually rejected it as it was not up his street. A Headline editor was recommended to me by a writer friend. I contacted her and she read my partial, and asked for the full. I later asked her to hold it as I was revising it; she is still interested and I may just send it to her next, if the agent presently considering my ms passes.

Just this weekend I got a brilliant rejection from Bloomsbury, who had also requested my full ms. The editor had some really nice things to say about my book, and "regretfully" rejected it because she felt it was better suited to a more commercial imprint than for the "tough" Bloomsbury list.

My experence with these three editors was very positive, and if more publishers accepted unagented mss I would certainly continue along that route.

This quote is from the Holly Lisle site referred to above and I thought it was worth pointing out in the light of all the negativity around about writers, slush piles etc.

Completing a novel is hard. Really hard. As hard as running a marathon. You're impressed with the people you know who have completed marathons, whether or not their times were any good? You should have the same admiration for the folks you know who have completed novels, whether or not those books have sold. Even crappy novels require a faith and a dedication and a commitment that says good things about the folks who wrote them.

That's a good quote. I like it. Plus you learn so much from writing a novel, even if it doesn't quite come off the way you hoped it would.

On the subject of selling to a publisher without an agent, in general I would have thought that was very hard, unless you're talking about small presses. I once sent a novel direct to Flambard Press and got a very good response from them (they declined but invited further submissions). The problem is they took soooooooo long to get back to me. I mean years not months. They are so overworked I suppose. Anybody have any other experience/views of UK small presses?

Hi,

I have been trying to interest agents and publishers in my crime thriller for the past few months, and my experience is that the publisher path is virtually closed off. Most will not even consider unsolicited ms, and those who do sometimes have strict criteria on length, genre etc. It seems to me publishers are extremely risk-averse these days, and would like agents to do the sifting out of aspiring writers for them. I'm sure this puts extra stress on the agents, who must invest much time and effort in the financially unrewarding task of checking all their submissions for the odd nugget of gold. On the plus side though agents do seem to work quickly and I am seldom having to wait more than three weeks for my ms to come back. There also seem to be plenty of them, unlike publishers who have all bought eachother out over the past few years, thus further reducing our opportunities.
As Dr Johnson said: "Any fool can write; it takes a hungry fool to write for money."