Monday, September 10, 2007

Off With Their Heads

The estimable Steerforth has, as far as I know, no writer's axe to grind, and his unsentimental bookseller's arguments for the need for marketability in fiction are always admirably reasoned. So I think we can take seriously his comment on my post below:
These days I'm often told that unless X's third novel works, they're going to be dropped. It can sometimes be shocking how many well-known names fall into that category.

5 comments:

Pants said...

Hi FB

Who decides 'what works' in fiction? Is there some kind of evaluation like you have for government projects? Highly paid consultants? Lessons learned? Examples of good practice rolled out across the sector?

xxx

Pants

Elizabeth Baines said...

Hi Pants,

Guess it's just the balance sheet.

xx

Steerforth said...

Yes, it's all down to sales.

Debi said...

Yep - they may be our babies that we have sweated and cried over for months if not years, but the reality is that they are considered a commodity like any other.

Pants indeed!

Anonymous said...

Over here in the States, when I made my last attempts to get an agent for instance, I was told by one agent that not only were they not taking on anyone new, but were cutting authors loose. Publishers here are ruthlessly cutting their midlist authors loose in favor of money makers - whether hot new faces or the famous/infamous, or the perennial bestselling authors. No wonder the internet is becoming a place of last resort for so many writers.