Getting Published
Writing a book is a wonderfully satisfying experience. The last full stop is the culmination of dreams, work, sustained aspiration and a great deal of emotional investment. Getting published, however, is a soul destroying experience. Publishers are not interested in new authors, they insist on using an agent, literary agents are people of smug arrogance and the combined effect is a closed door.
Last year, Dame Stella Rimmington at the Booker awards likened the publishing industry to The Kremlin at the height of the Cold War; impossible to penetrate.
My experience has been worse than that. I spent a year trying to find an agent to represent me. Most appeared to dismiss me and my work without having considered it. Agencies seem to fall into two categories: young Oxbridge graduates who seem to delight in dismissing people out of hand or middle aged, middle class buffoons who wear red trousers.
So when I met an agent who showed interest in my book I was easily swayed by promises of help in publishing and promoting my work. He ineptly tried to place my book with mainstream houses which were never going to publish a book about sexual adventure and military misadventure. Then he recommended an expensive publishing option which was, in retrospect, never going to be cost effective. it's easy to say this after the event but I trusted my agent! The only reason I can think of that he would suggest this course of action is because he benefits financially from it; the publisher must pay him to recommend them. I have not confirmed this yet but will do so. I have spoken to lawyers who share my suspicion.
The moral of my story is be careful whom you trust and never, ever trust a man called Darin Jewell. Quite apart from his morally bankrupt business model, his approach seems close to fraud and is, in any case, very weak. I had to rewrite the press release that he drafted. To be fair, he did immediately waive his commission rights when I challenged him but he had already taken £300 off me in upfront fees and whatever he received from the publisher. I am not sure of this yet but will confirm.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trouble-Girls...
Last year, Dame Stella Rimmington at the Booker awards likened the publishing industry to The Kremlin at the height of the Cold War; impossible to penetrate.
My experience has been worse than that. I spent a year trying to find an agent to represent me. Most appeared to dismiss me and my work without having considered it. Agencies seem to fall into two categories: young Oxbridge graduates who seem to delight in dismissing people out of hand or middle aged, middle class buffoons who wear red trousers.
So when I met an agent who showed interest in my book I was easily swayed by promises of help in publishing and promoting my work. He ineptly tried to place my book with mainstream houses which were never going to publish a book about sexual adventure and military misadventure. Then he recommended an expensive publishing option which was, in retrospect, never going to be cost effective. it's easy to say this after the event but I trusted my agent! The only reason I can think of that he would suggest this course of action is because he benefits financially from it; the publisher must pay him to recommend them. I have not confirmed this yet but will do so. I have spoken to lawyers who share my suspicion.
The moral of my story is be careful whom you trust and never, ever trust a man called Darin Jewell. Quite apart from his morally bankrupt business model, his approach seems close to fraud and is, in any case, very weak. I had to rewrite the press release that he drafted. To be fair, he did immediately waive his commission rights when I challenged him but he had already taken £300 off me in upfront fees and whatever he received from the publisher. I am not sure of this yet but will confirm.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trouble-Girls...
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