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Grauniad article about new novelists

59 replies

UnquietDad · 10/04/2008 17:01

here

Interesting, although hardly news. Also couldn't shake the idea that Jean-Hannah is bigging up her novelist friends.

The commenter who makes the point about review space has part of the story, and the one who brings up career sustainability has the other.

The same Sam Leith article which is quoted is also the one in which he says that if first novels are no good then he (in the Telegraph) just doesn't review them rather than giving them a bad review. Far more damaging!

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nkf · 17/04/2008 16:51

I think The Road Home is a fine book. Well written yes but not "social issues." It's a fairytale. A young man comes to London to make his fortune. I think it's very inventive and clever of Tremain to create something so charming and unlikely out of social issue material.

Shells · 16/04/2008 23:39

Well, you carry on. Its obviously a strategy thats working really well .

Fauve · 16/04/2008 23:29

I'm a bit depressed that Rose Tremain's The Road Home is shortlisted for the Orange. I'm halfway through it, and although it's well-written, its main worth seems to be that its hero is an immigrant who comes to London. 'Social issues' again.

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UnquietDad · 16/04/2008 22:46

Not petty, just realistic. My books aren't getting the promotion they deserve. So it's up to me to do that little bit extra.

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Nighbynight · 16/04/2008 21:25

if you spot him at it, you could just leave a little note next to the books next time, saying "UQD, just leave these books where we put them please!"

As a book-buying reader, I dont care whose books are to the front, I have to say. I dont think much of the official selections most of the time.

does anyone know how to find interesting or obscure stuff on amazon, btw? (my patience with figuring out websites is gnat-sized, so would be grateful for tips)

Shells · 16/04/2008 20:01

My point stands UQD. The staff will hate you for it - and not promote your books. ANd why are your books more important than those by other authors? Should theirs be put to the back just because you have been in the shop?
Sorry, but you sound extemely petty.

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UnquietDad · 16/04/2008 16:52

They aren't all strange, but CW classes do seem to be a magnet for oddballs. I suspect people who teach, say, welding or hairdressing don't get the same weirdo count.

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EffiePerine · 16/04/2008 16:46

Are all CW students strange? Friends who have been on CW courses have reported some extremely odd stuff. I half suspect them of making it up...

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UnquietDad · 16/04/2008 16:41

shells - I went back in this week and they were still there on the table! Moved up too - so someone had obviously seen them, even touched them, and not clocked that they weren't "supposed" to be there. Heh, heh, heh.

Look, everyone else is doing it. We wouldn't have to if bookshops gave us decent exposure to begin with.

It was easier when I wrote for a series and all I had to do was move mine to the front of all the books in that particular series. That was never spotted.

I consider it my duty to do that as well as establishing relationships with booksellers. Relationships between authors and booksellers seem like "relationships" between whores and clients (and no, I'm not saying which is which!!).

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nkf · 16/04/2008 10:53

I've just read the Guardian feature and think it was outrageously silly. It did sound like "please read my friends".

winebeforepearls · 16/04/2008 10:39

God, am editing first novel for big literary publisher atm and it is dire

But too untalented lazy to write anything better myself

nkf · 16/04/2008 10:32

The big booksellers have huge influence and publishers do have a tendency to be sheeplike. And many people argue that too many books are published.

Shells · 16/04/2008 10:26

Sorry to tell you this Unquiet Dad, but I worked in bookshops for years and we were forever getting authors putting their own books at front/on top of piles etc. You learn how to spot them pretty quick. Its hugely annoying. And backfires too as you then deliberately don't display those books well in the future. Much more productive to make yourself known to the staff I'd say and try and forge a positive relationship with them.
I know booksellers aren't what they used to be with the corporatisation of Waterstone's etc. but there are still a lot of empassioned ones out there, getting paid badly, but doing it because they love books.

Original poster
UnquietDad · 14/04/2008 22:26

Probably. I imagine CW classes at university are full of flighty flirty lissom young things with well-turned ankles. I just get retired teachers and weirdos.

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poodlepusher · 14/04/2008 19:17

didn't Andrew Motion ALLEGEDLY get hauled over hot coals for sending inappropriately flirty / suggestive emails to one of his CW students?

midnightexpress · 14/04/2008 16:03

Don't you believe it UQD! I used to work teaching overseas students in HE and the number of odd Chinese and Japanese students who get packed off to UK universities by their parents is pretty impressive.

I imagine as a young would-be author though, one must have a certain degree of existential angst to cultivate.

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UnquietDad · 14/04/2008 14:21

By the way, the other thing about teaching writing is that the weirdo count seems higher than in other areas of FE/HE. I've had ongoing email abuse from mine, and it's got to the point now where I've reported him to his IP. (See my thread in Geeks!)

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UnquietDad · 14/04/2008 12:27

Two lower-case consonants, Kathy... And the young person had a novel out about 8-9 years ago which had a teenage protagonist.

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Kathyis6incheshigh · 14/04/2008 12:23

I must be ill-informed - I can't work out who the person with the double consonant is or the young writer with 2 bs in her name

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UnquietDad · 14/04/2008 10:31

WHS still has an extensive book section and in many towns it's the only high-street place to buy books! Waterstones and Borders are only in the bigger towns and cities.

I once did an event with a VERY well-known novelist - let's just say, double consonant at the start of their name

We both went into a bookshop to sign some stock first, and I was relieved/aghast (in equal measure) to see that this writer, too, with all the well-known books under their belt, still had to spell their name and explain who they were!

(I never said anything about over-50s, by the way!)

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winebeforepearls · 14/04/2008 10:11

UQD, I'm a freelance editor and can vouch for the rewritten books! Plenty of them, but usually they're still cr*p. Can't make a silk purse, etc.

And I know a very successful author who still spends happy hours repositioning her books in her local Waterstone's. I don't blame her, but I like to counter it by putting my favourite but unknown writers on the tops of piles or face-out on the shelves.

midnightexpress · 14/04/2008 09:46

That's interesting UQD. I'm amazed that WHS still have such an influence. The stores always seem deserted these days when I - rarely - venture in. I just wouldn't think of going there to buy a book any more (strange - I remember hot-footing it there with my pocket money when I was a nipper).

As for the young writers thing - perhaps we're just getting old .

poodlepusher · 14/04/2008 08:26

I can't help think its a great shame that you won't consider reading writers younger than 50...

Though I do know that Beryl Bainbridge only reads novels up to 1950 and nothing beyond that. And while I've only read a few of hers, I do think they are well written and hark back to a time when there was a lot more craft involved in putting a novel together.

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UnquietDad · 13/04/2008 23:38

If people knew what was the secret of a great novel (and one that sold well) they'd bottle it and sell it. The novels which agents and publishers are looking for, so they tell us all the time, are those which have great stories AND great writing. Of course, we can always find exceptions! And there are famous instances of "marketable" novels rewritten top-to-toe by editors. A very young lady with two Bs in her first name springs to mind.

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Swedes · 13/04/2008 22:32

I have been wondering this for a while. What is more important in a novel - the story or the writing? It's a puzzle because some very good writers can spew out some total rubbish and sometimes one can read something which is an unputdownable story but is far from brilliantly crafted.

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