In publishing, everyone knows you're a dog

Yesterday I received a preliminary verdict from my agent about the book I finished writing in June: she's not too crazy about it. The success of Steve Martin's novel "Shopgirl" notwithstanding, I wonder if there's a problem with a middle-aged man writing a book about a woman half his age.

Then I saw this article in the Boston Phoenix (courtesy Publisher's Marketplace) about how publishing is no different than anything else: it sure doesn't hurt to be young and pretty. Sample quote:

"It's easier in life to be attractive. That's reductive but true," says HarperCollins editor Gail Winston. "On the other hand, a brilliant book by an author who is not young and not attractive isn't going to fail. It's just, I think that those other books -- for those reasons, those authors maybe get a little bit of an advantage."

Oh, good! At least "a brilliant book is not going to fail." A ringing endorsement.

Frankly, my book is probably not brilliant. It probably does need tightenting -- as does my abdomen, come to think of it.

technorati: publishing