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Original poster

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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Original poster
UnquietDad · 11/04/2008 12:03

Publishers are oddly reactive rather than proactive. They are less and less willing to plough their own furrow and more and more ready to follow a trend.

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Eliza2 · 11/04/2008 11:58

Sometimes I think they need reminding who actually reads books. They seem to miss the point that most of the reading public is aged 30 plus and female. This demographic doesn't want Colleen Mc. Really, it doesn't.

Kathyis6incheshigh · 11/04/2008 11:52

Vomit @ "I?m really looking for burning social issues stuff, to be honest"

Original poster
UnquietDad · 11/04/2008 11:49

Not long ago I had a Ready To Kill day on the professional front. A proposal of mine got a "you must be joking" from a young editor at S&S, phrased as "just not commercial enough. Didn?t he used (sic) to write XXXX? I?m sure I remember that name from years back when I worked in YYYY. Nothing ?wrong? with it but it?s a bit too ?cosy? for me, I?m afraid?. I?m really looking for burning social issues stuff, to be honest. ?.But really, it?s the usual story: without a TV/household-name profile, I see it struggling."

I mean, what a thoroughly depressing thing to say. You feel like picking them up and giving them a good smacking, don't you?? Why the feck do they just accept that this is the way things are, and that the reading public is so dim they won't buy it unless it's "written" by Colleen McChav? I suspect it's more to do with publishers' laziness - slebs promote themselves, everyone else needs some actual work.

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Original poster
UnquietDad · 11/04/2008 10:41

Writing isn't a race, though.

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poodlepusher · 11/04/2008 10:36

I think that's just her playing to the perceived publishing "inner circle" or genuine ignorance.

Though to be fair, that combination of literary style and commercial success is what the publishers and writers are all after, isn't it...

There always have to be the winners of any race and the horses (or writers or whatever) who come in 2nd and 3rd.

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UnquietDad · 11/04/2008 10:03

I think she also over-estimates the importance of the "iron quadrangle" of Ishiguro, Amis, Barnes and McEwan.

They are simply four respected writers who pretty much every reader has heard of, that's all - and who have managed to combine "literary" style with "commercial" sales.

There are plenty more. What gets in the way of newish and mid-career writers is not these "big four" at all - it's the over-hyping of stupid celeb biogs and misery memoirs, plus over-enthusiastic advances for new writers who are then forced to sink or swim, don't earn out and don't get offered a second book.

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poodlepusher · 10/04/2008 18:36

Its interesting to read about new talent. But you can practically see the erased quotation marks around the researched elements of her article.

Original poster
UnquietDad · 10/04/2008 17:02

Also very annoyed at "smaller authors who shun the London-centric ideal will never thrive". This of course has nothing to do with how bloody expensive it is to live in London?!

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