I sympathize with your plight. Your husband got a fairly standard rejection letter. They’re phrased to be polite. It’s a tough, tough business (as is Hollywood), and finding an agent who connects with your work takes a lot of time and effort. All I can say is that you keep knocking on doors and listening to constructive feedback.

What’s wrong for Agent A might be perfect for Agent Z.

It is about who you know, sure, but all business is about who you know. Writers make contacts by attending conferences, joining writer organizations, writing for publications, and contacting agents until you find the right one. As much as we as writers like to think we’re alone out there, agencies get queried all the time and have to be selective. Or, if you’d rather, they have to connect with a writer to represent him or her.

Publishing is changing — all entertainment media is changing — but good writing tends to find a home. However, it’s hard work. Believe me, I’ve been there.

“Thank you for your query to our agency. Due to
the current status of the publishing industry…and the selectivity that the market now demands, we regret that we cannot consider your material at this time.”

….so….with that read –”state of the publishing industry…” made me google “current state of the publishing industry” and I found this blog. After reading all this stuff (very compelling) –I still think it’s about who you know and of course how good you are as a writer. But do you have any additional perspective on my perspective? Do you think I’m just a dolt or that I’m correct? My husband is a published writer with recommendations by mainstream people in Hollywood and his book (fiction) is about Hollywood. I know that sounds really general, but I would really like to learn about your world as writers and try and help my husband. Thanks.
Oh and sir from Britain – don’t put America down. We may have picture menus, but we also have INDIANA JONES, STAR WARS, and a zillion talented up and coming writers here.

Good article but, in my view, the subject is rather difficult from a human perspective. We live in a rapidly changing world whose parts, including the publishing business, are constantly being affected.

Publishing houses that don’t sell books have to close down. Success is measured in mass appeal. Publishers must push what people want… which is_______________________________ or even convince readers of what they desire.

Writers who want to be published must do the same.

Perhaps this didn’t sound very good.

“Effective fictional blogging requires building and maintaining character from blog to Second Life. It requires Facebook, MySpace (unless you’re clever enough to avoid it), Flickr, Twitter, and a dozen or more social networks”?

This is a side effect of creating character. While some blogs are clearly acts of writing a novel using a blogging tool, there are also stories that are meant to blur lines between reality and fiction. In the case of Sophie (Alison Norrington’s character), “she” was writing a first-person blog as if she were a real person. To be a real person in this day and age, you naturally leave an online trail. You participate in social media. It makes sense that a person her age would participate in these venues.

It’s probably not wholly clear to participants in these social networking sites that Sophie is a fictional character, but once they get back to the blog, they will likely understand what’s happening. Of course, there are examples of deeper fiction where the reality/fictional divide is not made as clear (nor is it intended to be). This gets somewhat into ARGS (Alternate Reality Games) where the goal is to be more immersive.

As for the impact on the actual literary work, that gets back to the author’s goals and the story.

I do believe that publishers are very good at distribution and marketing. I am less enthused these days about the editorial side, but mostly because I have seen a decline in quality control. Of course, I am picky, picky, picky. However, getting back to the distribution and marketing — if you consider that publishers do get the product to their customers (distributors, retailers, etc) and they do very well when it comes to selling to those same customers. The mere act of getting physical (and virtual) product to customers is remarkably effort-intensive.

Do I think it can be better and more effective? Absolutely. This gets back to the paradigm shift. I also think it gets to today’s ramble (you’re not the only who thinks while typing!) about reading and social activities.

This leaves to one side editorial (in its brand form as well as actual, physical form) – key to the brands and identities of publishers/imprints and particularly so in the ‘literary’ subset of the market. Actually, marketing and distribution are two things that a lot of publishers do badly, which is the clear subtext of your post anyway…

In addition, publishers do not simply sell to distributors (at least not in the UK). They sell to chains, bookshops, wholesalers, distributors and others, most of whom employ key buyers, all of whom spend serious amounts of time (well spent or not is another matter) trying to figure out what ‘their’ (ha) book buyer will lift from ‘their’ shelves or the shelves of their customers (independent book shops, for example, all of whom use wholesalers as well as regular distributors).

Just thinking while typing. Sorry it’s a bit random. Love the blog.

First, I thought your post was very insightful over the future of the publishing business related to the online novel. The Internet has certainly made it easier for people to ‘showcase’ their work, although if this work is actually seen by a wider net is another issue. And to be quite honest, having only recently become acquainted with the blogosphere and its domains, I was quite surprised to see that such things as ‘online novels’ existed. I have to fully agree with you when you say that “today’s youth really do read” – and not only Harry Potter. I for one am part of this youth and the amount of time that I spend on the internet, reading short stories, articles and now blogs, is an “inordinate amount of time”.
However, since I am new to all this, I was wondering why is it that “Effective fictional blogging requires building and maintaining character from blog to Second Life. It requires Facebook, MySpace (unless you’re clever enough to avoid it), Flickr, Twitter, and a dozen or more social networks”? Is this an aesthetic characteristic of online fiction or a way to raise its value of art? To me, this ‘requirement’ seems to be a tool of promotion and marketing of the work and if that is the case, it is definitely a creative way to do it. But what deeper impact does it have on the actual literary work? Once again, I really enjoyed reading your post, as it enlightened me in several topics I know feel compelled to explore further into!