Egads

And having just sent off my first query to an agent, in what may be a long attempt to get my novel published, I come across this article from New York magazine, about how new authors with first novels are treated nowadays. Strangely, it's actually easier to get a big advance for your first novel -- but if it doesn't come close to making back the advance, you can be finished in publishing, just like that. No one else will touch you, because you'll never be a "first novelist" again.

No pressure there, eh? I foresee a lot of people getting name changes or resorting to pseudonyms. "Sure, it's my first novel! Mary Jo Schultz has never had a publishing contract before, no sir!"

There's more at the Book Babes column on poynter.org, focussing on the part journalists play in the book publicity machine. It doesn't give me much confidence when the columnist writes:

Schaper asks a simple question that cuts to the heart of all the idealistic blather about books as a vehicle for ideas. "If nobody knows your book is out there, where is its value?"

Man, talk about a cutthroat attitude. "The idealistic blather about books as a vehicle for ideas." If she were in charge, I guess she'd kill the New York Times Book Review and just cover books in the business section once a week along with the rest of the "Information Industry."

Update: and here's something on the same theme from the newspaper The Scotsman: First Impressions Count In Publishing, reacting to and extending the New York article. The anecdote about an author's mother fishing his manuscript out of a garbage can and sending it to an agent is quite touching.