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OK, time for a review
Monday, April 20th, 2009 11:07 amI know you guys have this stuff cold; feel free to skip the following post. I'm just going to be recapping briefly, to relieve my own feelings.
1. Agents are not the enemy of writers. No, really, they're not. Also, you can too sell a book without an agent's assistance. We've done it both ways. I can and will say that it's easier and somewhat likelier to produce a contract more advantageous to the writer if you have the assistance of an agent.
1a. Agents are not the folks who decided that (certain) publishers would only accept agented submissions, thus setting themselves up as the "gatekeepers" of publishing. Publishing houses decided that receiving "pre-screened" submissions would be less work for them.
2. Publishers exist to make money. It can be argued that they chose an odd way to go about doing that, but money's at the base of the industry. Publishing houses don't care if their current best seller is Tripe or True Literature; they care about how much money it's making for the house.
3. Neither publishing houses, nor editors, nor agents, nor God Herself can take your art away from you. You can repudiate your art; allow it to founder in ugliness, ignorance, and spite; throw it away, or try to warp it into something it's not, but no outside agency can wrest it from you.
3a. Writing a book is art. Publishing a book is business. The two are different.
4. Just because you've written a book does not mean you are a Special, Elevated Being who is entitled to...anything. Lots of people write books. Heck, lots of people write lots of books. If you've written a book, that's nice. It shows you have focus.
5. Nobody in the book industry -- that's the business part -- has anything to gain and money to lose by "suppressing" wonderful books that millions are slavering to read.
5a. If you've written a book that millions are not slavering to read -- as most of us have, and do, depressingly often -- then it might be that your book will never get published.
5b. It's OK to feel sad about this.
5c. It doesn't mean that there's a Nefarious Plot Against New Writers or that the World is Out to Get You. Or at least, it doesn't mean that the World is Out to Get You any more than it's out to get the grad student, say, who lives next door, or the secretary who lives upstairs.
6. Yelling on the internet about how Publishing is Unfair? Is more likely to get you mockery than sympathy.
1. Agents are not the enemy of writers. No, really, they're not. Also, you can too sell a book without an agent's assistance. We've done it both ways. I can and will say that it's easier and somewhat likelier to produce a contract more advantageous to the writer if you have the assistance of an agent.
1a. Agents are not the folks who decided that (certain) publishers would only accept agented submissions, thus setting themselves up as the "gatekeepers" of publishing. Publishing houses decided that receiving "pre-screened" submissions would be less work for them.
2. Publishers exist to make money. It can be argued that they chose an odd way to go about doing that, but money's at the base of the industry. Publishing houses don't care if their current best seller is Tripe or True Literature; they care about how much money it's making for the house.
3. Neither publishing houses, nor editors, nor agents, nor God Herself can take your art away from you. You can repudiate your art; allow it to founder in ugliness, ignorance, and spite; throw it away, or try to warp it into something it's not, but no outside agency can wrest it from you.
3a. Writing a book is art. Publishing a book is business. The two are different.
4. Just because you've written a book does not mean you are a Special, Elevated Being who is entitled to...anything. Lots of people write books. Heck, lots of people write lots of books. If you've written a book, that's nice. It shows you have focus.
5. Nobody in the book industry -- that's the business part -- has anything to gain and money to lose by "suppressing" wonderful books that millions are slavering to read.
5a. If you've written a book that millions are not slavering to read -- as most of us have, and do, depressingly often -- then it might be that your book will never get published.
5b. It's OK to feel sad about this.
5c. It doesn't mean that there's a Nefarious Plot Against New Writers or that the World is Out to Get You. Or at least, it doesn't mean that the World is Out to Get You any more than it's out to get the grad student, say, who lives next door, or the secretary who lives upstairs.
6. Yelling on the internet about how Publishing is Unfair? Is more likely to get you mockery than sympathy.
