Mr. Grumpy Pants Offers Sage Advice

[Mad Swede]

They can run a business and still gate-keep. I agree that publishers are out there to make money, and publishing is expensive. So they're only going to take on books they love and they think will make them money. And they have a lot to choose from.

However, that doesn't mean they aren't gatekeepers. If you want to traditionally publish, then there is only a handful of people who can make that dream come true. That is the very definition of gatekeeping. And while there is no nefarious pact where the conspire against some authors or people, the fact is that people have certain preferences and we are all ruled by our own (subconcious) biases. Even if you go in with the best intentions, you will like what you like, and overwhelmingly that will be similar to yourself.

That doesn't mean that they conciously discriminate, but it does mean that they tend to gravitate towards the same types of stories, just because that is there preference. That's just human nature at work.

I wonder if you and pmmg haven't missed my point.

I wrote that publishing is a form of venture capitalism. And it is. My books are an example. My publisher had never published anything like them, and there was nothing similar being written by any Nordic author or even available in one of the Nordic languages. The comissioning editor concerned didn't (and doesn't) read fantasy or science fiction, doesn't really like those genres. But he was still open minded enough to realise that my book might have something. In my case they decided to take a chance and it then took five years and three books before their gamble paid off and sales took off. It wasn't about following trends or commissioning more of the same (they already had authors on contract for that...), it was about publishing something new.

As the MD at my publisher puts it, good commissioning editors must be open minded as that is the only way to find interesting new books. It's all about being open to new ideas and new writing. That's how they find the next big seller.

And as John Hartness put it in that most recent video A. E. Lowan linked to, as an author you should be yourself and write the story you want to tell. That's how we write something new and original, we put our own spin on things. That's then what we offer the publishers and agents, a new and original way of seeing things and writing about them.

 

[pmmg]

I am sure Mr. Hartness has many opinions I would agree with. But he has also put out a video saying, dont share my values, dont watch my videos. I'm supposed to think he will not take that to his selection process as well?

Mr Hartness would certainly advise me to write the story I want to tell. He would just never publish it.

Gatekeepers abound. If you write in demographics that match up well, you may not encounter them (well, you might, but you won't trip their wires).

All that exists in a nebulous realm of plausible deniability. Why was a book rejected? Well, there are so many reasons one can hide behind, that it would be impossible to know. But you send up a book putting a marginalized group in a bad light, and you are going no where fast.

That is not to say, all gate keeping is bad. Sometimes its just a business model. If I want to publish female only fiction, or black only fiction or whatever, then its kind of in the title. Be one of those or don't bother.

The industry is hard, but lets not be naive about it.


Course, money does talk. Show up with the rights to LOTR and even the female only publisher will consider her devotion to her model.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

It's fair to say the industry is gatekeepered, but not through elitism - usually - or caprice. To be honest, with the advent of AI slop flooding the market to the tune of doubling the number of books being published this year alone, my thoughts on gatekeeping are evolving. It's going to get worse. That is inevitable, now. And in my mind, we need gatekeepers now more than ever and I just keep edging toward a more draconian interpretation of how to deal with it.

I can't get this bloody site to let me post pictures, but in the Writer's Market - this is required reading for anyone thinking of going trad - under the listings for agents and publishers, there will be parts labeled Needs or Tips and sometimes a paragraph at the end with more information. The main reason manuscripts don't advance past the slush pile is wrong genre or nothing at all like what they requested.

 

[Mad Swede]

If you want to call the process by which publisers find a new author and/or book to publish gatekeeping then do so. But in my view that is not gatekeeping, it's a commercial and in the case of literary fiction an artistic decision. If you want to be "traditionally" published you have to play by their rules.

Too many writers don't do their research before submitting books to agents and publishers. You have to read the submission guidelines, you have to look at their other clients and books, you have to research what deals they've done and with whom. If their guidelines say they're looking for writers from a given group or stories of a certain genre and you're not in that group or haven't written that sort of story then don't bother submitting, they'll turn you down.

If you want to write a book which puts certain groups in a bad light then feel free to do so. If you want it published by a "traditional" publisher then you have to find a publisher who will take it. That means doing your research before submission, in addition to writing a good book. And if you then get published you also have to accept the criticism you will get - you own what you write and you own the consequences of what you write.

The publishing industry is open to new authors, new books and new ideas. It always has been, as John Wiswell showed with Someone You Can Build a Nest In, William Gibson showed with Neuromancer and as Tolkien showed with The Lord of the Rings. There's also space for more typical yet well written genre liitterature, as David Gemmell showed with all his books. But you need to write well and you need to submit to the right publisher.