- Joined
- Feb 11, 2005
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- 6,704
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- Location
- Far from the madding crowd
- Website
- www.victoriastrauss.com
I would never say that writers are stupid. I would say that many are inexperienced, ill-informed, and ignorant, and that many attempt to jump into publishing without doing a speck of research. This is why schemes, scams, and amateur agents/publishers are able to flourish, right alongside the many experienced and reputable agents, publishers, editors, contests, etc.
Just over the past couple of months, I've heard from two--that's right, two--writers who allowed their manuscripts to be published without publishing contracts, and are now embroiled in disputes with their "publishers". These aren't dumb people; in fact one is an accomplished business professional. They just didn't take the time to sufficiently educate themselves about publishing before starting to look for a publisher. They also seemed to have assumed that publishing somehow works differently from other business arrangements--a deeply mistaken view I often encounter among new writers, who too often believe that their really nice publisher won't screw them over despite a contract with gigantic holes in it, or that an agent who has no more professional publishing experience than they do can somehow get them where they can't go themselves. Sorry if that sounds jaundiced, but it drives me crazy sometimes that so many otherwise sensible people seem to put their smarts on hold when it comes to their writing.
I do understand how it can seem that the traditional publishing world is less-than-open to new writers--but this really isn't true. I'm not saying it isn't hard--it is. I'm just saying that being new is just one factor among many factors that agents and publishers evaluate, and by no means the first consideration when they decide to reject a submission. Just browsing the new books section in your local library should give you a sense of how many debut novels are being published.
- Victoria
Just over the past couple of months, I've heard from two--that's right, two--writers who allowed their manuscripts to be published without publishing contracts, and are now embroiled in disputes with their "publishers". These aren't dumb people; in fact one is an accomplished business professional. They just didn't take the time to sufficiently educate themselves about publishing before starting to look for a publisher. They also seemed to have assumed that publishing somehow works differently from other business arrangements--a deeply mistaken view I often encounter among new writers, who too often believe that their really nice publisher won't screw them over despite a contract with gigantic holes in it, or that an agent who has no more professional publishing experience than they do can somehow get them where they can't go themselves. Sorry if that sounds jaundiced, but it drives me crazy sometimes that so many otherwise sensible people seem to put their smarts on hold when it comes to their writing.
I do understand how it can seem that the traditional publishing world is less-than-open to new writers--but this really isn't true. I'm not saying it isn't hard--it is. I'm just saying that being new is just one factor among many factors that agents and publishers evaluate, and by no means the first consideration when they decide to reject a submission. Just browsing the new books section in your local library should give you a sense of how many debut novels are being published.
- Victoria