Has anyone published a book?

[grannyinapram]

Not writing one, or even planning to, however I am interested in the process after finding out harry potter was refused 11 times before it was published. How can this even happen?
Yes, I could Google but I prefer mumsnet and reading little anecdotes.
Also posting on Reddit for full, thorough-ity

inspired by the terrible books thread

Not a published author but have worked work for a large publisher. The process is that you get a literary agent who essentially acts as a broker between you and publishers and tries to sell your book.

And the publisher acquiring the book depends on a number of factors - their strategy for that quarter/year, what sort of books they are interested in, whether or not it’s like other books they have acquired recently (e.g. they might want to capitalise on a trend if your book is like others, but won’t want to publish too much of the same thing), if it’s something new and exciting, if it’s likely to win awards etc. It’s a real talent for commissioning editors to spot something special and try and predict if it’ll do well or to take a risk if it’s something a bit out there. Obviously they don’t want dull, generic books - but then some of those are very popular and exactly what people want. And then maybe it’s something very different which could create a lot buzz - but if it’s too out there it might not be worth the risk.

It really depends on the publisher and what they’re looking for, normally they’ll have their own brand and want books as an extension of that - so that’s where the agent’s knowledge of each publisher and what they like is very valuable.

If the manuscript is really exciting you might get a bidding war between publishing houses which obviously helps negotiate your contract.

The agent will broker your deal and you’ll often get an advance and a percentage of sales depending on loads of factors. But normally it’s the big names or those with a lot of hype who get the big advances. In a way you don’t want too big an an advance as there’s a lot of pressure to make up the cost in your sales, and if you’re sales don’t reflect your advance it might mean you’re in a harder position to negotiate your next book if you get another published.

That’s the gist of the acquisition but obv overall it’s worth quite long winded with lots of steps for marketing, editing, sales, royalties etc!

I've published - not fiction or commercial - and even in that pretty niche context, the editor for the series told me that they get loads of completely bizarre submissions. People who haven't read their very simple 'guidelines for submissions'. People who don't realise they don't publish fiction (!). People who don't understand what genre their own writing is.

But in all of those cases, someone could perfectly well have a very decent book - it's just not what that publisher is looking to publish.

I know Philip Pullman has commented on the way his books are categorised as children's fiction although they're really not, because they have a child protagonist. (And the second series doesn't even have that, and I've still seen it in the children's fiction section!). I know he was published despite that, but there must be masses of people who don't submit their books in the category the publisher expects, and so the publisher doesn't want them.