This is an update to the open invitation to submit work to Elspeth Cochrane Personal Management.

As you will see on the original thread, I have been forced to narrow the range of work I'm considering due to the volume of submissions I've received.

From now on, until further notice, I am NOT accepting the following:
Children's fiction
Memoirs/autobiographies/biographies
Science Fiction
Historical fiction/Sagas
Romance/Erotica
Thrillers/Crime

I AM interested in the following:
General Fiction
Literary Fiction
Non-Fiction (Limited, must be a strong idea, preferably backed up with experience/research/ or some sort of personal connection)

Sorry to be harsh on this one, but I've got to be practical. Many thanks to those of you who have submitted work and I hope many more of you will continue to do so.

Katie

Literary fiction?

I've been trying to find out what Literary Fiction means on the web...not easy. But from what I gather from the published books that are under the genre of Literary Fiction is that it tells either a religious, philospical, spiritual, moralistic tale??? Am I wrong? I'd love to know what Literary Fiction means!

Oh dear, no, I didn't mean anything religious etc. Some book websites or bookshops use the category in the way I mean, other people call it contemporary fiction.
I mean the type of books that get nominated for the Booker, and talked about on Newsnight. It's a broad range, but not commercial or popular.
Examples, if it helps, John Grisham, Tom Clancy and any of the chick-lit brigade are popular.
Martin Amis, Peter Carey and Margaret Atwood are literary. Make sense?
But don't worry about these details too much, as I'm open to fiction in general.

Here's an interesting quote I've come across from an author of 'Literary Fiction':

I, of course, am not trying to be snobby or pretentious when I talk about literary fiction. It is simply an easy way to categorize fiction that is written for the sake of good writing, and not to please a certain crowd of readers, or even to tell an interesting, page-turning story.

Well, I apologise for the forthcoming defiance of the non-pretentious, non-elitist definition here, but surely the fact that such a genre can even be defined, and that people will attempt to write within it for personal and financial gain means that authors of such material are indeed aiming to please a certain crowd of readers?

I mean, if no given crowd can appreciate it, then surely it will be highly unlikely to be printed in the first place?

From other definitions I have picked up during my Google searches, 'literary fiction' sounds like the written equivalent of a David Lynch movie. Which is to say, aimless, plotless, deliberately confusing and ultimately unsatisfying.

Of course, David Lynch movies have a certain cult following. You know the sort; people who claim to be fans of something obscure because it makes them at least feel like some sort of connoisseur that can peer down at people who watch 'ordinary' movies like they're somehow second class citizens for not 'appreciating' the arty stuff.

Hopefully you can smell the contempt I have for such people.

okay IB, you're scaring me now!

You have no idea how much pleasure I take from seeing you write that.

Seriously though, I do love to rant. Anyone who' been to my diary or my website will tell you that.

am currently sitting in the corner rocking listening to white noise! TB would you leave me alone if I said i loved you?

I know what you mean though. I think there are some decent 'literary' sci fi novels out there (Handmaids Tale, Neuromancer, THe Player of Games). But that's just me.

As a former bookseller though, I am on Katie's side. Believe me it is easier for book selling to work AND GOOD NOVELS GET PUBLISHED with this, okay, maybe rather arbitrary division.

Some novels are published just to make money (Shopaholic books for instance!) But some are actually published out of love of the art form; a publisher wants to be able to say that is publishes good books as well as successful books. Also, if there wasn't this division many books probably would have been published, no matter how good. The division almost creates the market for them. May not be terribly useful for the more learned reader, but it keeps the business going and may be responsible for your novel getting published!

The cream doesn't aways rise. In fact, in something as thin as water, is does actually sink!

Maybe religious wasn't a good word...I didn't mean it in that sense - I took it to mean literary fiction was books that set the mind contemplating. Stories of self-realisation, finding your path through life, finding meaning to life and 'stuff' like that through writing about life experiences through fiction...oh dear..I guess I was wrong.

But a lot of the books that were nominated for the Booker prize were about the above - weren't they??

The Player of Games? I thought that was a powerful book. I wouldn't regard it as literary, myself. Just a good book.

Which, by the way, is another definition of 'literary'. A good book.

As I believe I've said before, the wide variety of definitions for this 'genre' make it almost a completely useless distinction to make.

And no James, you will have to pay good money for me to leave you alone.

Literary is Cold Mountain...yawn.

How about 'Women's Fiction' what on earth does it mean?

Dawn,

Ok, my brain's starting to hurt now. I didn't come up with these definitions IB, I'm just trying to work with the terms that get used in the industry.

As I said, I'm interested in fiction in general so I'm not trying to put everyone in a little box.

okay, would it help if I told you I love you Katie?

DAMN IT, I love everyone

I excel at giving people headaches.

And I'm not having a go at you, the classification of 'literary fiction' is a problem I have with the entire entertainment industry and society as a whole, so don't feel too victimised.

Katie,

I appreciate all the expert info and comments you give on WW it’s helped me a lot.

Dawn,

p.s. James - I love everyone too.