I wouldn't be shocked if it were some small-time bottomfeeder, but this is Macmillan UK. This bit particularly bothered me:According to Michael Barnard, Macmillan executive director, it is a way of giving "a voice to talented new authors".
"I find it strange that established authors don't want new books to be published," he said. "I find that position very hard to defend."
That's just slimy. He's implying that established authors are opposed to this scheme because they don't want new books to get published -- that is, because they don't want the competition. That's not why people are objecting. The real problem is that Macmillan UK is abnegating its responsibility to choose its projects, taking the risks in return for potential profits. It's also creating an underclass of writers who have to assume additional risk, and who don't enjoy a full editorial relationship with their house.
This article is full of BS.
Macmillan will copy edit books, but if manuscripts need more detailed work, it will suggest that writers employ freelance editors. According to notes sent to authors, such editors "will charge realistic fees and this will not in itself guarantee publication".
How do they know the editors will charge realistic fees? Macmillan ought not have anything to do with referrals to outside editors. And if this edit doesn't guarantee publication, does that mean it happens before or after they go to contract? If there's a contract, there should be publication.
"This is about Macmillan finding new authors," Barnard said. "Like a lot of mainstream publishers we haven't in recent years been accepting unsolicited manuscripts, but only ones sent through agents. And we are not discovering as many authors as we need."
Rude noise here. HapiSofi is not impressed. They can't be bothered to read slush? They only take submissions through agents? Well, gosh gee whiz. No wonder they haven't been finding as many authors as they need to stay healthy. What they should do is hire some additional editors.
"There are literally tens of thousands of writers out there - and we have a responsibility to help them.
The hell they do. They have a responsibility to find, buy, package, and publish good books. The existence of thousands of unpublished writers is neither their problem nor their responsibility.
Macmillan's an established house. Why are they talking like scammers?
We can't do that by paying a half million advance to every author.
That's a startlingly disingenuous thing for them to say. Small-time newbie authors don't normally have £500,000 pricetags. They cost a few thousand apiece -- and the real cost is in the editing, packaging, production, and distribution of their books. Apparently Macmillan's going to short authors there, too.
"I feel reluctant to pass judgment from on high," said Deborah Rogers, director of the literary agency Rogers Coleridge and White. "But what worries me is where are these books going to land in a bookshop? To make any book work you've got to support it."
I very strongly suspect that Deborah Rogers feels reluctant because she's an agent who has to deal with Macmillan, not because she she's in any doubt about the worth of the program. If all the book gets is a copyedit, it doesn't have an in-house editor -- and the editor is traditionally a book's diehard supporter and most enthusiastic advocate. That's why a book whose acquiring editor has left the house is referred to as having been orphaned. There'll be no one to speak for these books. And if you don't have an editor there to explain the book to the rest of the house, the art and marketing and publicity departments won't know what to do with it.
According to Barnard: "We won't be spending as much on marketing and promotion as on novels that have had big advances; but we believe we can find new ways of promoting and selling these books."
If there were cheaper but still effective ways to promote books, publishers would already be using them. Sounds to me like these underclass titles are going to get gruel, with no seconds.
He said the books would appear in the main Pan Macmillan catalogue and would be "very posh books" with ribbon markers, sold at £15. He expected them to become "collectors' items".
GMFB. Ribbons? That's a few cents' worth of nothing. Fifteen pounds is roughly $30, for books with scant editing and less promotion. I can well believe that some of them will wind up being collectors' items; with the kind of sales they can expect, actual copies are going to be rare.
A name change perhaps?... Macmillan Pimpin.
