Over at Editorial Anonymous: a brilliant deduction of how poorly written (and edited) books by fairly well known writers still end up on the shelves. You know it happens. You can name five books on one hand that should have gotten the boot at the publisher door. Yet still they make it when your own brilliant, genius writing can't find a decent agent.
This is what Ed Anon says:
The editor who looks at the newest manuscript from this person wants to send it back and say, "I love your writing, but there's no character development or plot arc in this. You can do better." But the editor knows that (a) if the manuscript was published as-is, people would still buy it. A lot of people. And (b) if the editor says no to this, there's a fair chance the author would just turn around and sell it to some other publisher. Then that other publisher would have the mediocre book and the pile of money, and the original editor's Sales and Marketing people would be Highly Displeased that those sales were not theirs. Highly. Displeased.
Who has the guts to say no to money? The truth is, not a lot of people, especially in a business that's low-profit for pretty much everybody involved. And, more's the pity, those of us who want to Just Say No are under some serious pressure to say yes. You can get kicked out of school for not taking these drugs.
No deduction why us readers continue to buy these books.
Brilliant! I thought about this the other day. I was with my mother and she was going to buy a book - I was looking over the crap on the shelves and thought, "I know so many writers who aren't published and write better than this rubbish."
ReplyDeleteAh well, that is life. This explanation is perfect and explains it. Thanks.