I work for a publisher. Ask me anything.

[isthatapugunicorn]

I’m a senior sales bod at a global publisher... involved in everything from proposal thru to promo.

Thekingintheeast - sure everyone wants to discover the next Sally Rooney but equally many people don’t think 20 somethings have a lot to say about life and aren’t interested in reading their takenon it! So, no, age isn’t a barrier when you’re a good writer. For you the most relevant thing is that you work with the age group that you’re writing for - that’s in itself is ‘marketable’ .

Thank you! I can teach a cracking lesson on show not tell etc but have less confidence when it comes to myself. It’s so silly.

What did you think of Sally Rooney’s Normal People? I really struggled with it and found it quite tedious. I thought that there were moments of genius (where Connell unpicks the motivations of people attending a literary lectures for example) but the rest of it irritated me hugely and I really didn’t care about the characters.

I think Sally Rooney may write brilliant novels later, but two identikit Cool Kidz at Trinity novels — while there are some excellent things about them — are not causing me to enthuse as some reviewers have.

I challenge you to distinguish between a paragraph of Conversations With Friends and Normal People with the character names redacted. Marianne/ and Frances/Bobbi are essentially the same person.

How does an author get more reviews??
I'm a moderately successful midlister and the first book in my series is selling consistently well - as far as I can tell from its Amazon ranking: not had last quarter's royalties yet but am confidently expecting they will be comfortable - but NO BGGER EVER REVIEWS IT"

I'm confident that they like it - the sales of my self-published series go through a corresponding uptick, so readers are evidently enjoying it sufficient to go and explore the previous series - but reading doesn't seem to correspond to reviewing :-( How can I encourage people to leave me reviews? It was on Netgalley, it did the blog tours, it sells happily enough, so it's getting out there.

I preferred Conversations to Normal People myself but NP is better written. See what I mean tho? NP is a brilliant book and an instant classic for lots of reasons but many, many people, and older 30+ will just find the characters self absorbed and irritating... so age, not a barrier. I wouldn't usually bother with a book about people 20 years younger than me and in a boy/girl relationship cos I'm done with those people/stories but NP is a stand out.

MrsRussell - ask! Ask your family and friends and other people you know to leave a review -send them copies. Ex teachers? Colleagues? people in your book grp... But ask the ones who you think will like it - you don't need someone slating it! That helps as others will add reviews one some go up... you just need a few 4/5* reviews to influence buyers.
Other than that your publisher should be sending out review copies to anyone and everyone they think might be interested in it. All of our books get comped out regardless of topic/size.

You can help promote your book in other ways, behind a blog eg. You don’t have to be on stage at a literary festival, and i’m Sure you can find an Editor who likes you for just exactly who you are

@isthatapugunicorn I would like to hug you for this post.

I am a published author whose books haven't done well and I feel responsible because I am not a natural self promoter and find being the centre of attention terrifying, but I am comfortable doing it from behind the safety of a screen. I got up this morning thinking I should just give it all up, but maybe I won't!

sadauthor - focus on what you do best and write! Blog or join a FB grp or two and send out some Tweets about stuff you’re interested in, comment, share, follow other writers, follow the publishing houses Twitter.
Tell people you are an author! I had one great non fiction author, expert in field, great book invited on to BBC news to be the topic expert and promo the book and he was so nervous he forgot to mention his book at all! The presenters did thank goodness but he swore he’d never do that again. Fair enough. And he stands up in front of lecture halls of students all the time. Everyone has their comfort levels.
I recommend starting a blog about the whole experience of being a writer and writing - i’d Read that. Lots of people would. Helps if you’re witty, but if you’re more serious in nature, that’s fine too...

Thanks so much isthatapugunicorn for starting this thread. It's fascinating!

I have some ideas for non-fiction but I've only written fiction (not published) and have never tried a book proposal. Is there anything that makes proposals particularly stand out/sparkle? Anything to be avoided?

In non-fiction it’s all about the topic and the author platform. Is it an interesting or topical subject? Is there a market for it? Does the author work within that area, or teach or lecture? Are they an authority? Will they buy copies themselves to use with clients or in training?
We often find authors for topics that we know we want a book on.

Agents just get in the way and don’t add much in my experience. And you still have to pay them.

That was my thought tbh, but you still think they're a better bet for getting fiction published?

The self promoting, blogging etc aspects interests me. I'm pretty good technically with websites and social media but don't know what to include.

What got me back into writing several years ago, and restarted me recently was fan fiction, but I'm not quite sure how that would fly if I wanted to be taken more seriously when it comes to my original work (which for the most part is quite different anyway). It does show a decent range though in that the various pieces are set in different times (mediaeval, Victorian, contemporary), countries and genres (bodice ripper, crime, drama and comedy).

I'd also want to publish (if im lucky enough) my original stuff under my own name whilst my fan fics are under pseudonyms because to be honest it feels a bit embarrassing to write fan fiction (and some of it's quite, ahem, adult) .

It’s more that the vast majority of reputable publishers won’t accept unagented MS, surely, so if you want to be traditionally published at all, by all but a tiny minority of publishers, you simply need an agent to get you through the gate in the first place? Regardless of what work they might then also do to promote the book, arrange foreign rights etc.

I've heard that too Lobster.

Tbh I'd rather not go via an agent when the time comes, but admittedly that's because I'm not entirely clear on what an agent could do that I couldn't, other than open doors by virtue of who they are (which obviously would be very helpful).

I think I will finish my manuscript, decide which publishers I want to approach and see what their criteria are and go from there. I'm a looong way off that at the moment anyway!

What fascinating thread!

So I have a few questions pertaining to foreign authors/markets:

1. who decides whether a book is worthy of being translated into English/from English into a foreign language? Do you have talent scouts?

2. do you use in-house translators?

Tbh I'd rather not go via an agent when the time comes, but admittedly that's because I'm not entirely clear on what an agent could do that I couldn't, other than open doors by virtue of who they are

I think I will finish my manuscript, decide which publishers I want to approach and see what their criteria are and go from there.

@MintyCedric, unless you are prepared to restrict yourself to the tiny number of small indie publishers who will accept unagented submissions, you can't just approach publishers that's the point Lobster is making. Publishers don't have criteria for submissions because they deal only with agents who have taken on an MS and worked on it with an author and put together a pitch agents are a filter. They will also have specific editors in mind with whom they have a pre-existing relationship and who they think will like your book, they will know editors who have just lost an author to another publisher and may have a gap for the kind of thing you do, they will negotiate foreign rights, and TV and film rights once the book is signed, deal with editorial, publicity, sales teams at the publishers etc etc.

In short, they do an awful lot you can't do yourself. (I'm talking about adult fiction. I know less about non-fiction, children's books etc).

Non-fiction == agents add very little on less you're a household name. Our commissioning Editors WILL look at unsolicited proposals. They spend so much time trying to find new authors it's a relief when someone comes to them with a. good idea!
fiction - if you're good enough, get an agent. If you only want to be published by PRH yes get an agent. But they still do some open sub stuff, BAME writers etc.
but there are MANY, MANY good publishers that you can get to without an agent, incl. approaching individual editors. AND there a lot to be said about going with a Canongate who have an amazing reputation in the industry, over a top 3 publisher where your work might get lost in the noise.
So if I was writing non-fiction, I wouldn't bother with an agent probably. If I was writing fiction ideally, I'd get a big name agent and a deal ( 3 book !) and become the Adele of the book world!

Most of the books we publish - and we are a £££ billion publisher - are agent-less... yet somehow people still get published.

1. who decides whether a book is worthy of being translated into English/from English into a foreign language? Do you have talent scouts?

2. do you use in-house translators?

We have a Rights and Licensing team who look at selling translation rights for anything we think will travel but that we don't want to publish ourselves. Often we, therefore the author, can make more £ selling the translation rights to a publisher who have the clout in that country/market to make the book a hit.
For certain markets we publish locally in that language ourselves - whre we have the infrastructure to make the book work - a rep team, editors, etc.
we don't keep translators on staff, but we have a pool that we use according to the subject.

there are MANY, MANY good publishers that you can get to without an agent, incl. approaching individual editors. AND there a lot to be said about going with a Canongate who have an amazing reputation in the industry, over a top 3 publisher where your work might get lost in the noise.

But Canongate doesn't accept unagented submissions...?

Hi isthatapug :) I have a question for you... I may have an offer coming next week from a small press to publish my novel. It's been out on submission for a few weeks, to the big players and smaller presses, and this is the first response we have. The press is respected, and has had some big prize winners over the last few years, but has a strong emphasis towards a genre different from my own. They have published work similar to mine in the past, but they're more known for the different genre. We're hoping that an offer from them will speed up answers from elsewhere, but if I only end up with this offer... Should I take it? My hope is that I publish, sell an acceptable amount, and then submit widely again with book number two (which is underway). I'm so nervous about it all!

How did you get your job in publishing? What qualifications did you need and is it really a job that you need to be based in a city for? Sorry if you've already answered these I haven't read the full thread x

If I was writing fiction ideally, I'd get a big name agent and a deal ( 3 book !) and become the Adele of the book world!

That's the plan !

I write fiction and my agent is worth every penny. There is no way I could have got the deals I have without her. Also she used to be a commissioning editor so she edits my books before submission. She's the middle man so if I disagree with something my editor has said, she'll step in and deal with it.

A young relative of mine would love to work in publishing but the money is not good and not being from London (and having a family home to live in until she establishes herself) she has decided upon a different career. One in which she can support herself. The likelihood of the industry changing in order to become more representative is getting less likely because agents are mainly white, brought up in the SE. Most are privately educated and have done similar degrees at a small, select group of universities. I have met a few agents and they all fit this demographic. They know very, very little of the world beyond their own. I genuinely find this depressing because these people dictate our national reading habits.

Hollow that's useful to know, as are the other posts clarifying what agents do.

Definitely sounds very worth considering.