Over at Galley Cat, there’s been an ongoing series of anonymous revelations about the hateration between agents, editors, publishing folks, and man, is it dishy and depressing.
First, on October 31 there’s the “sobering industry evaluation” that working in publishing blows, the system is way broken, and Galley Cat is way to freaking nice and rosy about everything.
But wait, there’s more: “Publishing is one of the few businesses that I know that does not promote the majority of its products,” an anonymous editor writes in, adding more to the pot du malaise in the industry.
Then the flail stick moves on to agents, who get a share of hateration on behalf of anonymous contributors who tell the backside of agent-editor relations, which continues with with more of the behind-the-scenes drama.
Dude. You could write a book about this stuff. Srsly.
You COULD write a book about this stuff, and the choices oh the choices…
Contemp: Hard-core agent gets prime book rejected by editor simply because last book he sold the editor stank. But was it his fault the last book failed, and was it her fault the publisher wouldn’t buy the next one? Her wit is too witty to ignore, and his chest is so manly… Can they overcome their differences?
Erotic Contemp: See above and add sex on photo copy machine and in lobby after hours. Helps if one or both partner gets sloshed.
Suspence: See above. Agent gets axed. But he’d sold so many stinkers to so many houses… Who did it? Helps if agent slept with editor’s assistant.
Paranormal: See above, but she can read minds and he’s really a vampire. Who gets stuck with what before dawn? Helps if she slept with agent’s assistant and is excellent at some arcane marshal art.
Re: the last behind-the-scenes anonymous. Oh, right. Agent Agnes sells a stinkeroo. Six months later, Agent Agnes shows up with Hot Spy Has Sex On White House Lawn AND Teaches You How To Lose Weight!
Publishing house passes, because they want to teach Agent Agnes a lesson. I don’t think so.
“Dude. You could write a book about this stuff. Srsly.”
Martha Grimes did, in Foul Matter. Fantastically hilarious in the way it skewers the publishing industry.
Ditto Olivia Goldsmith, in THE BESTSELLER. Editors, authors, and agents are often in bed together (sometimes literally!). Great, great book.
Oooh, Olivia Goldsmith. That was the one book of hers I hadn’t read. Thanks for the reminder.
“Oh, right… I don’t think so.”
Ultimately, GalleyCat readers had a hard time buying that one, too. The petty resentment sounded authentic enough, but the timelines involved in carrying a grudge over a book bought two years ago seemed too implausible.
I thought it was interesting that the hateration was largely directed at (all) agents by (a handful of disgruntled) editors; in the reverse direction, the agents who bothered to contact me understood that some editors might be incompetent, but they didn’t resent every editor they met as a result.
“Publishing is one of the few businesses that I know that does not promote the majority of its products.”
I wonder how true this is?
Within Romanceland, the general perception (as a reader at least) seems to be that unless they’re a proven sales success, or they look like super-models, the houses aren’t too interested in promoting their authors, which I think maybe why so many of them complain about the dollars they have to shell out promoting themselves.
As for the griping and bitching, it’s no different from anything that happens within other industries.
How do these supermodel authors get published? Do they send in pictures of themselves with their query letters? Enclosed: three chapters, synopsis, SAE, headshot and lingerie shoot. Or is it a standard question when signing with a big house? Are you phenomenally hot? Great! Have a contract. Are you just ordinary looking? Sorry, great book, but you’re too ugly for us. Next!
A lot of promotion is done behind the scenes, so to speak. Co-ops, real estate in bookstores. A lot of stage center promo is or needs to be done by the individual author, until that author has a track record. A lot of this self-promotion can get publisher support—posters, cover flats, whatever—if the author asks.
No editor/publisher wants a book to fail. That would be pretty stupid. But neither does the basic business allow for budgeting promotion for every book.
An agent being blackballed because a book tanked? Not buying that one.
I think it’s all just damned freakin’ depressing.
I’ve made note of the infamous “blackballing” legend once or twice before. I have to say… the only publisher I have ever heard make a statement that blatantly stupid was a new e-publisher, and she has managed to bury her own reputation in less than a year. Anyone who spews that nonsense looks like what they are—a complete moron who has an over-inflated sense of importance.
And let’s face it: any publisher STUPID enough to waste time on that kind of crap isn’t a very good one.
Publishing is a business. Period. Anyone blowing time and energy in a business endeavor on playground tantrum tactics won’t be in business long.