Consumer Behaviour

Last time I promised I would explain more about Francis and so I will (although a little later than I’d planned because of a very pleasant summer holiday in France).

Having finished my book and received some truly excellent advice on how to approach publishers from the course I took with Kevin Hogan, I still found myself with something of a problem

The publishing world is large.  It’s more than large.  It’s massive.  And it’s not just a matter of there being companies that publish books, there are also literary agents to consider.

Do I need a literary agent?  Good question (and one I’ll answer further next time). 

I have discovered that many publishers won’t accept an unsolicited manuscript.  This, it seems, is their way of telling you not to bother.  They presumably work on the basis that if your book was any good then a literary agent would want to represent you and they prefer to deal with them. 

This is understandable, I suppose. With all the books that are published representing just a tiny fraction of those that are written, publishers need to find some way of stemming the tide of manuscripts dropping through their letter boxes.

On the subject of the number of books written I discovered something that surprised me.  Apparently – and I should point out this is from Wikipedia so, you know… – the United Kingdom tops the list for the most numbers of books publisher (over 200,000 in 2005).   The US is in second or third… China were ahead in 1996 but no statistics have been produced more recently.

Even though the population is only one fifth of America’s the UK publish more books!  So if you’re an aspiring writer in the US perhaps you should consider moving to the UK to improve your chances.

Of course, this also means that I’m living in the country that, when population is taken into consideration, gives me the best chance of getting published, which is good news.  But if I fail it will have been at the lowest hurdle (gulp)!

Be grateful you’re not trying to become a writer in Oman.  Admittedly they only have a population of three million people, but according to the Wikipedia article (which sites UNESCO as its source) they managed to publish just seven books in 1996.  Blimey!

All of which brings me, in a round about kind of a way, to Francis.

You see as I sat there with my manuscript, an envelope and a handful of stamps I didn’t have the foggiest idea where to start.  Who should I send my book to first?  A publisher or an agent?  Which publisher or agent?  Should I carpet bomb the publishing world with my book?

In a moment of what I’m immodestly prepared to acknowledge was complete genius I decided I would ask people I know if they knew anyone who could help point me in the right direction.

A couple of potentially promising leads eventually led nowhere but then my mother-in-law, who it has to be said seems to know someone in every walk of life, mentioned an acquaintance of hers called Francis.  He was, she told me, a writer and thoroughly nice man, and provided me with his phone number.

She was wrong about him.  Not the ‘thoroughly nice man part’ that was, if anything, an understatement, but about the writer part. 

Francis isn’t just a writer.

He is a publisher author, who used to own a publishing firm, and who was managing director of a company that developed the book reference system that is used throughout the publishing world to provide details on available books.  He is also a respected industry figure who chairs literary panels and advises university writing courses.  I’ve probably not covered everything that he is or has been involved in of a literary nature, but you get the idea.

And when I called Francis and explained about my book and what I wanted to do he said he would be delighted to help me.

Things are looking up.

Philip Graves

Philip Graves Getting a Book Published writing

As readers of my previous blogs will know, I’m condensing the first part of my journey in trying to get my book published because some stages have taken weeks, during which all I’ve been doing is waiting for replies.

This raises a really important point: how do you find the energy to keep plugging away when things get tough, either when writing or when attempting to get published?

My solution is to keep half an eye out for inspiration all the time.   I received a signed photograph of my favourite guitar player (Eric Clapton) for Christmas and, remarkably, a Fender Custom Shop Masterbuilt Clapton Stratocaster from my family and friends for my 40th birthday.

The presence of both of these in my office inspire me.

Clapton is a genius in my mind, but that genius was achieved by him playing guitar for hours because it was something he was passionate about.  These symbols of him are reminders about what can be achieved through passion and perseverance.

On Sunday I found another source of inspiration; the documentary ‘Man on Wire’.

It’s the astounding, moving and poignant story of Philippe Petit’s attempt to put a tightrope between the twin towers of the World Trade Center and walk across.

The documentary has no footage of his incredible walk; instead (and I think the documentary is enhanced by this) we have the photographs taken by Jean Louis Blondeau, a photographer and friend of Philippe who did a whole lot more than simply take photographs (but I’ll let the documentary tell you that story).

After a mistake by Philippe, Jean Louis spent seven hours hauling the very heavy cable up into position on the second tower – a task one of the others in the group had given up on because he thought it was impossible.  When it came to taking the photographs he was exhausted and barely able to operate the camera from his exertions with the cable and yet he still managed to document this incredible feat.

I can’t begin to relate to what Philippe did – the thought terrifies me beyond words.  Nor can I appreciate what drove Jean Louis Blondeau to bear what he did to make the tightrope walk possible and document it afterwards.  But I can be inspired by the passion and perseverance that drove these men to do what they did.

If you have a moment, take a look at some of the images of the Man on Wire walking between the Twin Towers at Jean’s site here.  Who knows, perhaps it will inspire you too.

Philip Graves
P.S.  I know I said I would tell you about Francis next time I posted; sorry I got swept along by this post.  I promise I’ll tell you about him next time!

Philip Graves Getting a Book Published Jean Louis Blondeau, Man on Wire, Philippe Petit, photographs, World Trade Center

So, having decided that I wanted to try and get my book published by a ‘proper/established/traditional’ publisher how do you decide who to send it to?

I had undertaken a course (run by Kevin Hogan) that helped enormously with the development of the book and how  I should approach getting it published, and which included some very good suggestions about what to say when you contacted a publisher, but that still leaves a very big world of publishing and me without much of a road map about where to start.

One of the things I discovered quite quickly is that publishers and literary agents ‘prefer’ to have the chance to consider your submission on their own; in other words they aren’t keen on the idea of me carpet-bombing the industry with my book.  It’s easy to see why this solus approach is in the interests of the publishers and agents and perhaps the risk of ignoring their preference is small, but it only takes someone interested in your book to speak to someone else that you’ve sent it to, and you’ve put that relationship at risk.

Perhaps naively I’ve opted for a ‘one at a time’ approach; I suppose I’ll never know if that’s right or not!

Another question to consider is, should I go straight to a publisher or should I get an agent?

It seems likely that an agent would have more chance of being heard by a publisher than an unknown author, and a good one should provide expertise on marketing and promotion too: along with the publisher it’s another person on the team supporting your work.

Of course, that comes at a price.  A percentage of your percentage would have to go to pay their commission.  At this (optimistic) stage I’m inclined to think that this would be a virtuous addition so I’m happy to pursue that route.

But that still leaves an awful lot of literary agents, so how do you know which of them to approach?

Received wisdom is that you should look for books like your own and see who represents those authors.

There is an alternative.  But it requires networking and the most extraordinary good luck. 

Next time I’ll tell you about Francis; every aspiring author should do their level best to find a Francis (although I fear they are extremely rare).

Philip Graves

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