Publisher's Grumbling Corner

[Wyvern]

new grumble:  arrogance.

I think it's important for authors to submit with an air of confidence and professionalism.  However, some people don't quite know how to pull that off and end up sending in works with a covering letter dripping in sarcasm, attitude, and arrogance.  Authors demanding what rights they should get for their submitted works before they are accepted is really not the best way to get into an editor's good books.

'I demand first rights for my work, thank you.' is not the best way to approach.  Not only does it tell the editor you are going to be difficult to work with, but it also demonstrates that he or she hasn't bothered to research your company well enough to know what sort of rights are offered.  Many polite authors ask what they customary rights are and that is just fine.

The few arrogant submissions I've read have usually been completely wrong for Wyvern Publications and the covering letter tends to be an 'open' one.  I like to call this the shotgun approach (and yes, I'm just as guilty of doing this with my own submissions).  The author has written a story and then looked for publishers and agents who might publish the genre.  It rarely works.  It's best to find your publisher and then write for them (I'd not advise this for novels, as that's a pretty big investment, but for short stories, flash fictin and features, it's the best way to go)


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[Wyvern]

Okay, I'm put off ever giving suggestions and advice to new writers.  Most of the time authors are happy with my advice - some they leave, some they take, but usually authors are grateful that they weren't just ignored.  But this time I think I've had enough.  Why do new authors always feel the need to justify how they don't ever need an edit and it's everyone else in the world that just doesn't 'get' their special style?  Yes, the market can be demeaning and take all individuality out of a book, but advising how to present to publishers surely doesn't demean one's creative inspiration...does it?

I mean, telling someone that having a word count is important when sending manuscripts to agents and editors is positive advice.  I would have thought.  I had thought.  Until today.  Apparantly, if I'd been intelligent enough to take into account that this person had written double spaced, I'd know that when it was single spaced, the length of the book would appear to change.  OOOHHH, really?  Wow - just like magic.  So, he doesn't need to tell agents the word length after all...they'd just 'figure it out'.

Secondly, why should he change anything to suit the market he is submitting to? It would lessen the impact of his work.  He wants to do it his way, but wants me to publish it.  No, sorry, it doesn't work that way. 

This is why publishers and agents just ignore submissions instead of sending out even the standard rejection.  Sigh.