Internet Authors don’t need advice
Most writers in England waste a lot of their time posting off extracts of their exciting new manuscripts to publishers. Most of the time these would-be authors see their work come winging back, unwanted. That’s annoying enough in itself, but in some cases there is an even more unwelcome addition – advice. ‘Try a larger publishing house’ says the note. That’s meant to be helpful? Which publisher do they have in mind? What makes them think the other guys would want something that people here have decided is unpublishable? In most cases, unfortunately, unwitting authors take these snippets at face value and assume the creator knows some secret information that they are not privy to. They take the advice, they take the action, and are disappointed again when it leads nowhere. After all, an employee of a publisher might know what their own firm requires, (if they take the time to listen to their colleagues), but they are as much in the dark as the rest of us when it comes to discerning what the company down the street wants. Read more »