Thousands of hopeful writers
Here is a depressing story - or one of hope, depending on whether you’re a glass-half-full or half-empty kind of a person.
According to Stephen Dowling writing in the BBC Magazine, every year in the UK thousands of people start writing a novel.
He describes a seminar at the London Book Fair where hundreds of wannabe writers hope to learn the secret of success - he writes, “Many are here because of that most potent of writer’s fantasies - walking into a bookshop and seeing their name on an upright spine.”
He also reports that one literary agent “sees as many as 6,000 manuscripts a year - most of them novels - and he is just one of hundreds of literary agents in the country”. In addition to the thousands cited by Dowling scribbling away in the UK, there are of course thousands more in most Commonwealth countries, all hoping to achieve the Holy Grail of being published in the UK. In the meantime, the major publishing houses publish only around 12 novels a year.
It’s depressing because of how the odds are stacked against writers. Do the math.
But if you are of a more positive disposition, I guess it’s cheering to think of all those people with such hope in their hearts.
I blogged about JK Rowling becoming the first person to earn billions from writing books last week. She is the glaring exception to the grim reality of the thousands toiling away at the coalface of creativity.
My advice is: write because you love it and if you get published, it’s a fabulous bonus. But don’t write BECAUSE you want to get published - that way madness lies.
- Posted on
Wed, May 16th, 2007 - Author
Yang-May Ooi - Category
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May 16th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
*Of Books and the Internet, J K Rowling
NOT EASY to get one to part with hard-earned cash nowadays to spend on something that he/she can do perfectly WITHOUT. IF merely a good or interesting read is all that is required, there is always the net and plenty of it and all for free. [Some though may only be accessible on a charging basis but it should cost nowhere as much - I imagine - if available for purchase from a bookshop or the net.]
Someone I know, a writer, has sent me an email that says
” …. as soon as I’m free preparing the eBooks I’m posting on the net.”
An author of a potentially controversial book - a non-fiction work - recently published in Malaysia has said in response to a question put to him
” In the age of the internet, what does banning a book mean? I can put it on the web and the authorities can’t do anything about it”
So it seems, the electronic medium is the way forward, to circumvent censorship problems, cost or environmental considerations OR indeed problems with finding a print publisher.
Apropos, J K Rowling, author of Harry Potter books, is domiciled in England and Wales or otherwise UK-resident for tax purposes, is NOT a billionaire as having assets worth or valued at GBP £1000 million or more by all accounts, unless established by credible evidence to the contrary. Immensely rich or fabulously wealthy that she undeniably is but a billionaire in UK she is not according to accepted definition of billionaire in UK. I think a certain chartered institute may have given a somewhat similar if more detailed definition of billionaire, in money or money’s worth, somewhere in their publications.
May 16th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Someone once commented to me that most children’s books come out of England. Since then, every time I buy one I look at the publisher and there they are in the UK.
Why is that? Just wondering why the UK seems to be the epicenter of book publishing. Any thoughts you might have on the history of that would be much appreciated. Also, does that mean that many of the authors are British and if you are not, it’s even more difficult to get published?
Lastly, in addition to Yeeton’s comments, it is now easily possible and relatively cheap to self publish.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
e-publishing is definitely the way to go, especially for one who writes to share rather than to live. Also, if one is unduly worried about IPR (Intellectual Property Rights).
Here is one, mixing novel and popular science (and what do you know, it’s British as well):
http://www.hep.phys.soton.ac.uk/~evans/NL/
May 17th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
SOMERSET Maugham, A J Cronin, Arthur Conan Doyle.
Han Suyin aka Elizabeth Comber, Richard Gordon,
Walter Scott, Gerald Sparrow, John Mortimer to name
just a few, were pretty good at it.
HAD heard of redundant steelworkers and dockers enrolling at writing school to try to make their mark in the literary world subsequent thereto. Wonder how they got on?
May 18th, 2007 at 5:51 am
I started writing as a hobby. I still write as a hobby but I’m lucky to say that my hobby today is my work. It’s wonderful to see my name in print, but nothing beats the actual process of writing when words flow and like magic the pieces fit together.
May 24th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
Good point about censorship being difficult on the net, yeeton. That’s why a lot of un-liberal governments are very anxious about the web eg all the tension over bloggers in China.
Kathryn, perhaps there’s a long history of book reading and writing in the UK - in particular, novels took off in a big way in the Victorian era. The UK also has the Commonwealth market, an advantage over other countries with book publishing industries. I don’t think it is more difficult necessarily to get published if one is non-UK - one just gets pigeon-holed into being an ethnic / Commonwealth writer which can be a blessing or a curse.
Thanks for the link to the Isaac Newton murder mystery novel, Say Lee - clever concept for a book. My problem with e-books is that while it’s fine to read something short like a blog post online, I don’t have the patience to read longer pieces online (not to mention that my eyes get horribly strained!) and I don’t fancy printing off a huge wadge of loose A4 paper to lug around with me. I’m looking forward to the Sony Reader and the like (portable electronic book readers) being more affordable and easier on the eye.
June 3rd, 2007 at 1:43 pm
ECHOING much that has been said, I received from someone I know, if a modest guy, an email that says
“The print market in English is saturated, and it’s a closed-circuit literary-agent dominated world. The days when one sent manuscripts to publishers are over. The phrase “slush pile”, if I’m not mistaken, has been coined specially to apply to the situation. I’m no great shakes as a writer even if I have four print volumes in my own name, and three others I edited or co-edited, but if I tried to hook a literary agent with a new manuscript, I seriously doubt I’ll find one in my lifetime, so the eBook outlet is the only solution. One reputable agent wrote to me saying he couldn’t take any new writer on for the simple reason he wouldn’t be able to give those under his care all the attention they deserve. “Tight market”, he said. Another philosophised:”…for every novel published, at least a thousand stay in the authors’ drawers.” (my words, his content)
Moral: Why write then? The Internet itself is over-stuffed.
Those who visit my web site (I checked) might possibly be students who are looking for material to pilfer for their course work.
Looks like I woke up too late. I should have learned to play the guitar, and with an upturned hat in the street, sang my words to the unwilling public.”
June 3rd, 2007 at 6:03 pm
What a depressing story about your writer friend, yeeton. The quotes he mentions from the agents are fairly common. Another writer, John Howard, sent in a washing machine manual and got standard reply letters back - see http://www.netribution.co.uk/2/content/view/564/267/