THE CAREER NOVELIST
- What you need even more than an aggressive agent (or whatev-
er) is a smart agent. Strategy beats brute force every time. - Publishers do select certain books for best-seller treatment, but
those decisions are based on certain criteria. Top among these is
whether a given book really has the potential to sell widely to all
categories of readers. That automatically eliminates most genre
novels, first novels, and mainstream novels that have any kind of
limiting subject matter, or unsympathetic protagonists. - Sure, you can have an auction, advertising, hardcover publica-
tion, mainstream status ... in fact, you can have whatever you
want. But is this the right moment and is this the best novel for
the strategy that you want to pursue? Let's think about it. - Yes, this business sucks sometimes... but it sure beats manag-
ing a Wal-Mart.
If you actually feel that managing a Wal-Mart would be better
than sticking with a writing career, then it might not be a bad idea
to consider a change of occupations. Indeed, your health might
improve.
If, however, you can get yourself over your envy, you may find that
there are sensible ways out of your situation.
REHABILITATION
Suppose that in spite of all your caution, forethought, planning, and
hard work, things nevertheless go drastically wrong. Can anything
be done to help writers who are about to perish?
Some authors who felt they were treated unfairly have attacked
the perish problem with a traditional American solution: they have
sued their publishers for failing to advertise and promote.
A few have even won.
Indeed, the U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, has ruled that
a publishing contract "implies an obligation upon [the publisher to
make] a good-faith effort to promote the book, including a first
printing and advertising budget to give the book a reasonable
chance of achieving market success in light of the subject matter
and likely audience." Sounds good, doesn't it?