Blogger: Michelle Ule
Location: Santa Rosa, where the grape vines are starting to dry out.
Have you ever gotten so fed up with a book that you’ve thrown it across the room and demanded to know why anyone bothered to publish it?
Have you ever shook your head over best-sellers and wondered just who was buying them since no one you knew would be interested?
Ever sigh over why Jane Austen is still making a killing on the lists while you can’t get anyone to even read your proposal?
Welcome to the publishing business.
Many years ago, I attended a conference where a bookstore owner from Moscow, Idaho, held up a fat volume and said, “Publishers are in the paper business. The more paper they can sell, the better.”
A purist at the time, I was horrified at his mercantile attitude. But now that I’ve been “in the business” for awhile, I can see how right he was.
Our agency would love to represent the break-out book that will solve all your problems. (Wait, isn’t the Bible in the public domain?) We love agenting projects that are beautifully written, filled with eternal themes and sweeping life-changing applications. Everyone likes to present projects that make a difference in people’s lives.
But sometimes we read proposals for manuscripts that cause us to shiver in our boots at the wisdom, only to realize they won’t sell. How unfair is that?
After teaching a Bible study several years ago, I thought I had mastered a particular Old Testament book. We had spent 18 weeks exploring themes, history, and spiritual wisdom. I’d read lots of outside materials. I knew all about that book.
A month later, we received a proposal at the office from a couple without a famous name, who worked in the ministry trenches of an obscure community. Their manuscript explored the same Bible book I had just taught, but with a significant difference. They had found an ingredient I, in my log-in-the-eye-blindness, had overlooked—and it was major in my life.
Unfortunately, they already had offered their manuscript to the publishers we thought would be interested. All turned down the project because the couple didn’t have a platform.
I was incredulous. Their concept was profound. I wanted to read the rest of the manuscript—if only for my own soul-growth.
Our answer to them had to be “no,” with great reluctance. Not because we didn’t want to represent their work, but because we couldn’t offer the book where others already had rejected it.
As far as I know, the manuscript has never been published. But I took the three chapters I read on a retreat to meditate on my own life. Thanks to that couple for touching my life.
I’m sorry we couldn’t do business.
Kinda sad, isn’t it? Make me wish we could all help that couple build a tribe.
It’s so very sad that the twits and dimwits get all of the attention for doing absolutely nothing while the people who really want to change the world can’t because they don’t have a platform. Teenagers idolize people who are famous for nothing and 75% of high schoolers can’t name the first President of the United States. What in the world is going on here?
I guess this is a good sell to make sure you: a) build an internet presence, and b) find an agent FIRST. Thank you for this insight. I didn’t know you could not offer a manuscript to a publisher that had all ready rejected it. Although, it does make sense! Wow. I know a good aspiring author and his book is riveting, but he doesn’t have an internet presence. I’m trying to encourage him to get on the networking bandwagon.
Why couldn’t we all help that couple? If we had a name and everyone could work together to help them. Sigh.
I want to say something about the Providence of God here, but I won’t.
Thank you for taking the time to further explain the nuances of publishing and just how things work.
What a difficult lesson to learn the hard way. Perhaps the Lord will show them just where they ARE able to get it published now.
He knows what He’s doing, though there are days I don’t understand it. (But I have faith that He’s in control and loves us!!!)
I’ve spent the better part of today on a number of phone calls with my web designer, laboring over all sorts of things that have little to do with my writing. But I know it must be done. And this posting is a little further confirmation. Thanks!
And now that we are finished for the evening (and he’s returning to nurture his teenaged daughter with a virus and 101 temp), I’m back to the re-re-re-re-re-re-REwrite of Chapter 12.
Guess that’s what the midnight oil is for. 🙂
Such a glamorous life isn’t it?! HA!
Thanks for everyone’s comments.
We can all be praying for the couple and may the Lord direct their path!!!
Shows that a few years in the trenches working on one’s platform makes a difference between a Yes or No. Message taken!
I don’t recall the names of the couple; this happened five years ago. Unfortunately, I still struggle with the insight they provided me–so yes, it was the providence of God, but I could use another helping. 🙂
We all know manuscripts which have made the rounds several times, but they’re only fresh once and so they need to be presented and offered to publishers judiciously. The old adage is true–you only have one chance to make a first impression, so you need to give it your best shot the first time. That’s why we tell queriers to take their time and let us see a polished piece, rather than throw half-baked ideas our way.
Fashions change, too, and ideas and projects that didn’t work several years ago, are being sold today. Enthusiasm for historicals, for example, waxes and wanes. They’re hot now, but by the time you wrote one to catch the market, they may very well be cold again. That’s why I tell people at the start of their writing career to write the story God puts on their heart–making it a labor of love, rather than a calculated slog.