Oh, Well...

I’ve gone on in several previous posts about the priorities of the publishing industry and the problem with being a non commercially-minded writer. The experience continues.

I’ve had lots of dealings with publishers – mainstream ones as a photographer and small press ones as a writer – but I’ve never had any experience of literary agents before. I doubt I ever shall.

You know I’ve written a novel, right? And although I consider the writing itself to be the pinnacle of success for a writer, it would be nice to have it published. It takes quite a while to write a novel, and almost as long again to edit it several times until it’s how you want it. Having done that, it isn’t unnatural to want to communicate the whole thing to other people. Furthermore, there doesn’t seem a lot of point in placing it with the small press, where it will sit quietly in the corner of a website somewhere like a shy little puppy in an animal sanctuary. It wants to be on view, on a bookshelf, in a shop. But that means getting the mainstream publishers interested, and mainstream publishers don’t deal with first novels any more. They rely on agents to do that for them. The agents are the gatekeepers; and if you want to get published, the gatekeeper has to unlock the gate. And that’s where the problem lies.

I’ve spent ages this last two or three weeks trawling through the Literary Agents section of Preditors and Editors. They seem to be entirely consumed with the notion of literature as a commodity, rather than a creative resource. They tell you that when you start to plot a book, you need to very sure of the market at which it is aimed. I’ve never plotted anything in my life, and I’ve never aimed anything I’ve written at a market. I’m not that way inclined – never have been and never shall be. I write what wants to be written, and I write it as well as I can. That doesn’t count; it isn’t professional. Or, to put it another way, it isn’t the system by which commodities are produced. And they go on to tell you that you must be prepared to work with them to make the book ‘more marketable.’ Not more accomplished, you understand – more ‘marketable.’ That’s the name of the game. I quote: ‘Writing a book is the easy bit, it’s the selling of it to a publisher that’s difficult.’ In other words, it’s the literary agent who tolls the knell that summons thee to heaven or to hell. Oh, I forgot one. They also tell you how committed they are to advancing your career as an author. But suppose I don’t want to be a career author, which I don’t. Suppose I just have a book that I happen to think highly of and want published. Sorry. That’s not how we make our money.

So I have a problem. I don’t see how I could ever get on with a literary agent. We come from different planets; we speak different languages; we have a totally different understanding of life, to the extent that we are maybe even in diametrical opposition. But without them, my story about a journey will have to remain only my journey.

I just had another lettuce sandwich to cheer myself up.