Saturday, September 12, 2009
The inside story and why you don't know it. And why the digital sky is not falling.
People always like to think they know the inside story. Whether it's what's really going on in Brad and Angelina's relationship or what that agent really meant when she said "I didn't love your book enough to offer representation".
Generally, though, not being mindreaders, unless we're personally involved with the gossip du jour, we don't know the inside story. We like to think we do, but we just don't. And yes, that does include you. Unless, of course, you're Brad, Angelina, or that particular agent (in which case, Hi! Call me!).
The epublishing world this week has been alive with the news of Quartet Press's demise. And there are rumours and theories and speculations all over the place, some a hell of a lot more far-fetched than others, and many dragging in such tangentially related topics as Dear Author and Samhain Publishing. And most of them coming from people who, as far as I know, have absolutely no inside knowledge of Quartet, Dear Author, or Samhain, who are not personal friends with any of the main people involved, and who are as well qualified to talk about any of these issues as I am qualified to talk about Brad and Angelina.
I find it a little weird. But for the people who do know the inside story, it must be not only weird but deeply irritating.
A few months ago, I came across an aspiring author's blog. She was talking about how frustrating it is to read books that you don't believe deserve to be published. So far, so non-controversial. But then, as examples, she chose two books about which I just couldn't agree. Mostly because, well, they'd been contracted and edited by me.
Aspiring Author, to do her justice, didn't mention these books by name, but she talked enough about them that it was easy for me to spot which ones she meant.
She didn't like them, for various perfectly well articulated reasons. Which is absolutely fair enough. There are plenty of very successful authors and books that I don't like. Where I got irritated, however, was when she moved into speculating about how these books had ever got published, because that was when she started speculating about me.
One book, in particular, had received some very good reviews. I'm going to change the details here, so please note this is an entirely made-up comparision. In one five-starred review the reviewer had described the book as "Gone With the Wind meets Star Wars". "Wow," said Aspiring Author, "that sounds great." So she bought the book.
And hated it. Despised the heroine, hated the hero, just didn't like the whole thing. So she was speculating about why an editor had ever contracted it.
And what she decided was that the editor was obviously won over by the high-concept pitch ("Gone With the Wind meets Star Wars"), so much so that the editor ignored the book's flaws and published it anyway.
She was entirely, comprehensively wrong. The description the reviewer used was his/her own description; the book was never pitched to me as Gone With the Wind meets Star Wars, and I would never have described it that way myself. I contracted it because the writing was very good, because I'd worked with the author before and knew she was extremely professional, hard working and career-minded, and because I knew that Samhain had a big market for this kind of book. I knew that the hero wouldn't be to everyone's taste, but he was the sort of hero that many readers adore.
Basically, although it might have made Aspiring Author feel better to think that an "unworthy" book had got published just because the author had had the luck to hit on a high-concept pitch that hooked an editor, this wasn't the case. The author had done the much less gimmicky work of paying attention to her craft, doing her background and market research, editing and re-editing her manuscript, working hard during the edits for her first book with me, being pleasant and non-argumentative during the editing process. In short, she'd done what all authors should be doing. That was the inside story.
Of course, the real inside story was less dramatic and with less potential for gossip ("publisher contracts trash!") than the imagined inside story. Knowing that authors who work hard get contracts is, after all, not terribly worth commenting on.
Not having the inside story on Quartet Press, I obviously don't know whether that's the case with them as well. I do think, however, that Quartet Press's closure is less drama-worthy than some of the commentary would indicate.
A lot of start-up businesses fold early on. A lot of epublishers fold - or, possibly worse, simply sink without trace - before they've been open a year. We're currently in a global recession, a notoriously bad time for any new business to start up. In the UK, Woolworths, a huge chain of stores that's been going for about a century, recently closed, leaving their shop buildings empty in nearly every town centre (and Gloworm sad cos she liked their cheap toys). Black Lace, the sixteen-year-old erotica line, is closing. It's a recession. These things happen.
One company closing means no more and no less than it's always done. Woolworths' closure doesn't mean the sky is falling for shops everywhere. Black Lace's doesn't mean a catastrophic end to erotic fiction. Quartet's doesn't mean the future of digital publishing is under a dark cloud of doom.
Samhain is four years old in November. I see the submissions inbox, and we're continuing to attract successful, award-winning authors. We also have bunches of successful NY-published authors who continue to sell books to Samhain. We have a fantastic art department, we have an amazing blurb writer, we have a team of highly motivated, hard-working content editors and a bunch of OCD (in a good way) final line editors. We also have a fresh new shiny PR director, executive editor (yay, I get to be someone's assistant again!) and managing editor. The sky of digital publishing is not falling.
I don't want to be glib. I was looking forward to Quartet opening. I was looking forward to the books they were going to offer, and I was going to consider them for future manuscripts of my own. I was shocked when they announced they were closing, and I was shocked and sad for Angie James, who deserved to move up the corporate ladder, not find herself suddenly unemployed. But, just as this is certainly not the end of Angie's career (I know I'm not the only one watching with huge interest to see what she does next!), it's not the beginning of the end for digital publishing.
Gone With the Wind meets Star Wars sounds pretty good, by the way. Would anyone like to write it...?
9 comments. Please post yours!
Well said, Imogen.
And I'd immediately buy Gone with the Wind meets Star Wars because, honestly, that just sounds awesome. And I'm easy like that.
Best of luck with Heart of the Volcano! Your excerpts were great.
Hear hear! Well said in all respects!
Thank you! :-)
And thanks re. Heart of the Volcano, Keith.
Immi
x
I kinda think Firefly is a bit GWTW meets Star Wars. Works for me.
OK, now I'm paranoid about Aspiring Author :)
I've thought some of the dramatic sagas of the end of Quartet are nearly book-worthy. Maybe if they added storm troopers?
Brilliant post. 'Nuff said ;D
TJ
Very well stated, Miss Immi.
No, hon,that I wouln't buy. GWTW is anathema to me, but I do adore Star Wars.
Thanks for the comments!
Oh Jenna, Aspiring Author wasn't you! Or anyone I know or have heard of otherwise. I can't even remember how I came across her blog.
I don't actually mind people speculating--goodness,I do it plenty, and it is fascinating to try to work out why a book you hate ended up so successful--but it struck me as interesting how silly you sound if you do it in front of someone who *does* have the inside story. And if you claim something to be true, and it's subsequently roundly disproven, you look even sillier.
And ooh, Firefly is a bit GWTW meets Star Wars. Love Firefly.
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