Quote:
Originally Posted by
icerose
You came on with wild accusations that ZERO new authors are being signed
I haven't said ZERO, I've said few--which is more.
Actually, your thread title is "No new books from first time writers." "No new" does equate to zero, which is where people are drawing the reference from.
Books should be published based on their content, not on the name on the cover. I'm tired of picking up books of authors I liked and feeling like I've wasted my money.
If the quality of the authors you liked slips, then I submit that you're beating the wrong dead horse.
Once signed, most authors suddenly find themselves on deadlines that they didn't face before publication. Deadlines put a lot of stress on the newly published, stress they've never had to deal with before. From those I've watched go through it the most common response is "Suddenly, it's all so real--so important. I just don't feel like I have the time I used to have."
Another challenge is that when a newly published author says/agrees that "I can write a book in a year" which is what sets the deadline, they don't take into consideration all the time they're going to have to deal with editors, rewrites, galleys and other necessities of getting the first book through production. These can easily cut a month or two out of the year you have for the next book.
And Heavens forbid that the author or a loved one becomes seriously ill, has a death in the family, gets laid off from the money-job or any of the other normal life-changing things that can happen to a person/family. Your book is on a schedule and if that original deadline gets missed, it could be another 3, 6, 12 months before the book could be worked back in. When starting a new career, that's not a good way to impress the new boss you've worked so hard, for so long to acquire.
More stress plus less time can equal not-quite-as-good-a-book. Sometimes not on the second book, sometimes not at all, but it can.
These are all things that the reader will have no understanding of, which is reasonable. The end-user of a mass-produced product will--and should--never know all the ins-and-outs that goes into getting that thing into their hands. All they know is whether or not they're happy with the end product--which is also reasonable.
But the problem for this doesn't lie with the agents. It's shared between a publishing company that wants things as fast as possible and a newly published author who doesn't realize all the ins-and-outs of the business they've just been hired into and is going to make mistakes.
Over the last 30 years, I've seen knowledge about publishing shift from something that was regarded with awe and fear and a strong "don't tell, it's privledged" attitude to the "secret workings" becoming more and more public knowledge. The information is out there--but not all writers have soaked it up yet. (It probably never will happen because you never get 100% of people doing anything, even if it's for their own good.) But when the majority of the unpublished have less of a rose-colored view of what happens after they sign the contract, when they focus their energies less on "pleasing the editor" and be more true to what they need to create quality fiction, then there should be less disappointment, IMO.
Now, that's a solution you've asked of me
ublish only materials worthy of publishing regardless of who's the author. i'm sure the market will be hesitant in the beginning but it will adjust and maybe people will start buying books again and be pleased with them, and not feel like they have been tricked by the cover.
We fundamentally disagree on this point. The vast majority of books bought are bought
because of the author's name on the cover. The average reader is happy with "same but different" and if the quality of writing isn't as high as it used to be, honestly, it has to drop to a serious level of unreadable before they'll notice. When that happens, then they stop buying the books. When sales slack off, then the author gets the shake-up where they either improve or get dropped by the publisher.
And, frankly, one reader's "lack of quality" is sure to be the one thing another reader picks up the author for.
Any individual will have a point at which the quality of writing isn't as high as it used to be, but until the amount of individuals hit that point, it won't be a blip on anyone's radar, even the author's. Sad, lamentable, but a fact of life. Apparently you have a lot higher definition of quality than the majority of the book-buying public. That's unfortunate, since you will always be among the first to be disappointed. I'm afraid that's a personal challenge you're going to have to deal with and overcome. Ranting here, or anywhere, isn't going to change the way the business runs.
That was the first reason why I started the thread. The second...
On Craigslist (NY) I see every week ads from literary agency looking for interns.
<snip>
Between 5 and 10 manuscripts a week? For an intern? Plus the queries? The writers' queries and manuscripts are read by unpaid interns? That's not what some of you said. What does the agent do? He saves her/himself for the best? And who tells her/him which is the best? The intern?
Answers: Only 5-10 ms a week--that's a light load from my limited experience (my daughter was an intern at the rate of 800 in 3 months)
Yes
Yes
Yes
The agent is the salesperson, the contract negotiator, the career advisor, the watchdog of the markets, the one with the connections into the industry, the author's eyes, ears and voice on the publishing world--which allows the author to focus on writing their books. Without the agent, the author would have to figure out how to do all this by themselves.
He/She decides what is the best. The interns go through the slush piles and sort out the 90% that are incomprehensible, not written in the proper language, not submitted in a legible manner, and other basic criteria. IF the submission passes those measures, then the agent will get a small blurb about what the intern was able to actually read of the story, which will help the decide what to read further on, what to request and, ultimately, what to represent.
Apparently you're unaware of the magnitude of submissions an agent or editor is faced with.
A small agency will get hundreds of submissions a month. A large agency will get thousands a month.
And you're expecting a single agent to go through all of those AND have time to shop around accepted books, discuss possible rewrites and career goals and options, to go over contracts, to coordinate and hold bidding wars, not to mention to sleep, eat, and have a semblence of a personal life.
Personally, I think you're being a little unrealistic with your objection to agents/editors using the traditional help of unpaid interns, as they have been doing for--well--pretty much since there was a publishing business.
Have to say I think it must be rare for a new author to get in the kids section of the bookstore at least, just because every time I look all I see are series and movie or tv spin offs. 
