I couldn’t really get the idea past people here. Most people simply thought it was too obscure and too small of a market for a book like this.Actually, that's partially encouraging: he liked my book and went to bat for it with the editorial board. So it doesn't just suck. That's the good news.
The bad news is that I wrote a book about an "obscure" subject, one not enough people are interested in reading a novel about -- not enough for a mainstream publishing house, anyway.
I also lack any kind of a "platform," which is a publishing industry term for "some reasons unrelated to the writing itself which might cause people to be interested in the book." If, for example, I had somehow worked in Hollywood with some of the people mentioned in the book, or even if my uncle had -- that might allow a publicist to say "Hey, the nephew of Nelson Riddle wrote a book about Sinatra and the Rat Pack." See, that would make it more interesting. Unfortunately, I am not the nephew of Nelson Riddle or anyone in Hollywood and I have no such "platform."
So it will be on to the small presses, somehow -- though I fear that my book might strike them as "too commercial"!
In the meantime, I am still working on a novel about Americans in Bangalore, and on short stories about superheroes.
1 comment:
You got a long way to go until you equal Katia's number of rejections, so...don't slouch! Hit those small presses! ;)
I think you're probably right on the "platform" thing, though. This is why I hate capitalism. It's Social Darwinism formalized into policy.
And speaking as someone who's right at the place where a major piece of work has just been launched into the world and is trying to MOVE ON, I'm really glad you're deep into the new work. That's all that matters: the work that is now.
P.S. That book IS going to be published someday! :)
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