Exploitation or Service?
Peter Cox – founder of the Redhammer literary agency and author-support resource, has a blistering article in this week’s Bookseller, accusing publishers and others of creating a ‘slushpile industry’. I’ve quoted him in italics.
‘Our industry appears to have declared open season on the naïve, sometimes gullible hopes of aspiring writers. It’s the Wild West out there, and someone has to say that much of what is happening now is simply not right.’
He compares the conferences, services and critiques available, to publishing taking on the worst aspects of vanity publishing. They are (in his opinion) providing false hope, and giving out information available for free elsewhere for vastly inflated prices.
‘Agents who charge to review submissions have traditionally been rightly viewed as shysters. Why is this kind of behaviour acceptable now?’
I can’t help feeling he has somewhat missed the point. I should declare myself here, I am indeed one of these evil prospectors – out there, mining in the slushpile and trampling on dreams for profit. I might put it a little differently though.
Authors contact me because they have sent their submissions in and got a fairly straightforward rejection. It gives them no idea of where their writing is on the scale from horrendous to near-miss, and it’s this information that is lacking in the traditional industry.
At Redhammer, Peter Cox offers a free look at an author’s proposed contract, but he is careful to specify he can only offer this service to those being signed up the big publishers. He runs Litopia to fill a ‘social need’ but does charge $30 a year subscription to cover costs.
Is he seriously suggesting that agencies take the time to send personalised rejections and advice to every slushpile submission? Editorial consultancies, conferences and personalised sessions with agents exist to fulfill a very real and valid need for detailed information to help an author.
“You too can be a bestselling author!” is the implied pitch (which is a barefaced lie).
Like all parts of the industry, there are good and bad elements to it. I make a point of telling any prospective clients that any consultancy that promises trade publication is lying, as do all the reputable agencies.
Peter Cox may not have noticed though, but the world of publishing is changing. Anyone can become a published author – and many do. You could argue that specific personal editorial advice has never been more needed, particularly for the growing self-published market.
If us ‘slush-pile cowboys’ are able to get unpublished authors out there to consider their work more professionally, to approach agencies and publishers with the right submission packages, to view writing as a skill that can be improved, and to realistically assess their own chances, that must surely be good for the industry as a whole.
What are your thoughts?
May 14, 2012
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