(no subject)
I just read an article from the Guardian about how almost 20 publishers in the UK rejected the works of Jane Austen, minorly adapted, according to the article. The article indicated that only one publisher pointed out that the researcher was submitting proposals for works already published (by Jane Austen).
Um.
How to explain something so entwined in things you can't explain unless you really live it?
The article fails to site and really go into what's going on. This is why I despised journalism, because I always felt like I never really understood what was going on, really, when I was a journalist. Seriously, to get to the true, real story, you really have to walk in someone's shoes, to really live it and understand it.
In my opinion, it's considered rude to call a potential author's "work" or "book proposal" a direct rip-off of another author's work--whether alive or dead. As an editor, I see direct rip-offs all the time. I reject them because they've already been done. It's just something you expect; it's a cliche. Saying in a letter that someone's work is a direct rip-off of X, Y, or Z's work is considered rude. I don't know how to explain it. To just be honest, in the book world, if your proposal is not fresh or enticing in some way (even if you simply pick up most of the text in a certain book) to the contemporary book-buying, market-savvy consumer, you don't have a marketable book. You're not going to meet your bench-marks, and you're not going to reach the consumer. If you can't reach the consumer, your business is screwed.
Another qualm the article stated was that in the "Harry Potter age," classics such as written by Jane Austen would be rejected. Hell yeah they should be! She wrote in a different time, a different age, with different language and descriptors. Yes, her books are classics. Why do we need to find her an agent today? We don't! I've had many great mentors and professors, and they always say to learn from the classics, and make your own classics, cliches, quotations, etc. Simply re-submitting the same ideas and manuscripts are always going to get rejections. BECAUSE IT'S ALREADY BEEN DONE. HELLO. It's not Harry Potter impeding on art, in my opinion. We are not experiencing the downfall of creativity or art in the creative writing world.
As always, we are just emerging!
Um.
How to explain something so entwined in things you can't explain unless you really live it?
The article fails to site and really go into what's going on. This is why I despised journalism, because I always felt like I never really understood what was going on, really, when I was a journalist. Seriously, to get to the true, real story, you really have to walk in someone's shoes, to really live it and understand it.
In my opinion, it's considered rude to call a potential author's "work" or "book proposal" a direct rip-off of another author's work--whether alive or dead. As an editor, I see direct rip-offs all the time. I reject them because they've already been done. It's just something you expect; it's a cliche. Saying in a letter that someone's work is a direct rip-off of X, Y, or Z's work is considered rude. I don't know how to explain it. To just be honest, in the book world, if your proposal is not fresh or enticing in some way (even if you simply pick up most of the text in a certain book) to the contemporary book-buying, market-savvy consumer, you don't have a marketable book. You're not going to meet your bench-marks, and you're not going to reach the consumer. If you can't reach the consumer, your business is screwed.
Another qualm the article stated was that in the "Harry Potter age," classics such as written by Jane Austen would be rejected. Hell yeah they should be! She wrote in a different time, a different age, with different language and descriptors. Yes, her books are classics. Why do we need to find her an agent today? We don't! I've had many great mentors and professors, and they always say to learn from the classics, and make your own classics, cliches, quotations, etc. Simply re-submitting the same ideas and manuscripts are always going to get rejections. BECAUSE IT'S ALREADY BEEN DONE. HELLO. It's not Harry Potter impeding on art, in my opinion. We are not experiencing the downfall of creativity or art in the creative writing world.
As always, we are just emerging!