Having written, published and distributed a free and more comprehensive writer's handbook than The Writer's Handbook ever was or ever will be or ever could be, I'll tell you why it's difficult for new writers to get published...agents want exclusively to make money and publishers deal exclusively with agents, that's why. Anything else you wanna know, just ask. Thanks. G.

Er... I am a publisher. I do not deal exclusively with agents. I deal with agents or direct with authors and the choice is that of the author, not mine. The authors I publish all receive exactly the same contract - a modest advance, which means that they start earning out quickly, monthly accounting and payments for the first year, and a swift rise to the 2nd tier of royalty percentage.
I have been publishing since 1997, and to date all my authors have made money - they include in no particular order, Roy Strong, Ronald Blythe, The Duchess of Devonshire, Dennis Stevens (musicologist),Quentin Crewe. They also include a first novelist, this year, whose book was published in May and who has earned out her advance and received 2 monthly cheques so far.
She now has an agent but that is her choice.
If authors have agents, I deal with then of course because I have to. I have an agent myself. In terms of achieving foreign contracts for my books, it is essential. I could not handle these myself any more than I could handle all the complex business for the play of The Woman in Black. If I tried I would make a muck of it, I would be eaten by a shark and I would never have time to write more books.
I would argue with Richard that THE WRITERS AND ARTISTS YEAR BOOK is the better of the two handbooks, but I won`t, or he won`t buy me the next lunch. (You see, it`s a conspiracy..)

Ah, would that my books could be published by as discriminating a publisher as Long Barn Books. Here's the AC Black page for PFD:

http://www.writersservices.com/agent/uk/pfd.htm

Here's my page for PFD:

http://everyonewhosanyone.com/aguk.html

It's a conspiracy in the sense that the French Academy conspired against Van Gogh. Who remembers the members of the French Academy? G.

Author Greg Bear doesn't have an agent. He sends everything "over the transom". He did start by getting stories published in ficton magazines (science fiction and fantasy of course) and gaining a reputation that way. So he wasn't an unknown quantity when he started sending manuscripts to publishers.

And Mr. Jones,

A man does better on a fishing trip when he doesn't scare the fish away.

In other words, stop with the damn hostility. You want people to read your stuff, show them your stuff is worth reading.

Oh, there are miniscule exceptions to the rule but no major publisher reads un-agented writers and no agent takes on a writer unless his or her work is similar to the mindless drivel that makes money these days. Read my stuff or not; I wrote it and got it published the way I wanted it published, that was what I wanted to do. What you do is up to you...ha! What you do is up to whoever got you brainwahsed into thinking what makes money is what's worth reading...or writing. Hostility is in the eye of the beholder, my beamish boy. G.

Oh Mr Jones,

Much as I've loved and appreciated the comments on our site and will still love them, one comment you express there makes me jump off the fence and adorn a banner.

"...What you do is up to whoever got you brainwahsed [sic] into thinking what makes money is what's worth reading...or writing..."

Brainwashing is not an easy thing to do and does not deserve such casual reference. I don't believe for one minute that publishers pursue such a marketing strategy. Neither do I imagine that publishing companies have invested in such skills for the objectives that you mention. Neither do I imagine that publishers' executives, were brainwashed into believing that money is all that counts and should be pursued to the bitter end, in terms of profit.

For God's sake, every book that enters the market carries a degree of risk. In it's purest form that risk is unquantifiable. A new and innovative book or novel carries more risk. A flattering copy of a best selling formula still carries risk. The new novel from a best selling author still carries risk. A bad cover can kill a new novel, regardless of perceived quality and mass market taste.

But when it comes to brainwashing, please, this may indeed be possible, but it takes more than a decent marketing campaign to make it work. And why should publishers endeavour to go down that route, just to sell a book?

If this was really possible and did indeed happen, every Booker winner would be a best seller and surpass the best of Richard & Judy's Reading Club. Every Booker winner would be as familiar to the reader as the items on their weekly shopping list.

It ain't so. I'd be happy to wager my meagre future pension, if challenged, that there'd be more "bought on the strength of Booker winner" owners who have not read the book in question than those who have actually read it, award or not.

Please reserve brainwashing, in its true sense, for the scenarios in which it deserves to be acknowledged, Mr Jones. Publishing decisions don't even make passing acquaintance with that grade. To suggest it is to insult publishers, readers at large, the general public and those who have the ability to make to happen through skill and learned knowledge, detailed at that.

In my experience readers keep an open mind. It is also observed that, in Britain, we have a culture of "supporting the underdog". Thus, a small publisher will generate revenue based on a novel that looks good to the reading public. Word of mouth can also make a good book into a bestseller.

However, bitterness can be the sour grape that moves all at the table swiftly onto the next course.

Brainwahsing (sic-typo) is a tricky thing to define, but the guys who give out Bookers give 'em out based on what they've been brainwashed to believe is "good" writing, right? In a few years the consensus of opinion will be that Gunter Grass was a bad writer 'cause he did what he was brainwashed to do when he was a kid. What's right/wrong, good/bad, etc. flip-flops from one generation to the next. How does that happen? Brainwashing, that's how. Who does it? In the West it's the media and entertainment industries on behalf of the owners of businesses to ensure a steady flow of profit, that's who. If a book doesn't prommulgate the accepted notions of "how things are done," that book won't get published/promoted, etc. The Bookers don't consider anything that's not in line with acceptable norms 'cause no book that's outside the lines ever gets published...and being published is one of the criteria. That's how people get brainwashed. You don't have to burn books these days, you just ignore them. Are people in Middle East brainwashed, too? They must be, right? Isn't that what the Imams and the madrassas do? No sane person could believe that cockamamie hogwash about curly-headed houris in heaven, yadda, yadda. Could some Iranian be thinking the same thing about you or me? You bet. So who's brainwashed and who's not? Glad you "love and appreciate" my comments and you'll be happy to know that there's nothing whatsoever sour about my grapes. Thanks. G.

Perhaps aspiring authors should also check out Carole Blake's excellent book 'From Pitch to Publication' at http://www.panmacmillan.com/titles/displayPage.asp?PageTitle=Individual%20Title&BookID=377081 or an interview with her at http://www.panmacmillan.com/interviews/displayPage.asp?PageID=3357

My first book was accepted by a very good publisher immediately after I sent it to them. There was no agent and I know I was fantastically fortunate. They were very kind and published it very well. I had neither track record nor celebrity; so I think they just liked what they read and it suited their own purpose at that moment

I've got a second now, if anybody wants to have a look!

"Talent," Carole Blake says, makes a writer, "Talent and persistence...and storytelling ability." Talent has become that which appeals to the most people with the least effort...Dan Brown, who can't write his way out of a paper bag, for example. As for persistence, getting ignored and/or rejected 500,000 times by everyone of consequence in the media and entertainment industries is pretty persistent, right? And vis-a-vis storytelling ability, read this:

http://grumpyoldbookman.blogspot.com/2005/06/gerard-jones-ginny-good.html

I'm not gonna alter what people have been brainwashed to believe but that's not gonna stop me from trying. Plato's cave hasn't gone anywhere in the last twenty-five hundred years. Come out and play in the sunshine of truth and beauty and art and reality, boys and girls...or not, stay in your safe cave. Oh, and since we're tossing around urls, try this one. It's free. Like me. Hee hee. G.

http://everyonewhosanyone.com/press.html

Gerard, you don't want to be published, you just want to bitch. If you really wanted to get published you'd learn how to get along with people, how to talk them into giving you a try. Instead you complain and moan and carry on. Well, since that's the way you prefer to act, then don't be surprised when a publisher tells you to sod off.

Harlan Ellison knows how to get his work published, and he's a downright rotten bastard. What does Harlan know that you don't?

I am published, dork, and I've made the two greatest literary achievements of the 21st Century all on my own.

http://everyonewhosanyone.com/ggsyn.html

and

http://everyonewhosanyone.com

What have you done? Plus, I'm a pussycat. G.