Changing Market Forces

Yesterday a dear friend of mine went through absolute hell. Why? Her book was up before the board at Hodder so they could give make the final decision as to whether it was published or not. Sadly they decided against publication. As you can imagine, she was gutted.

But this was no ordinary rejection. In early 2007 she wrote a factual book in three months. This was the first writing she’d ever done. She sent it out, unsolicited, several publishers sent it back but Hodder kept it. Slowly her book made its way through the different editors; each one loved it and sent it on the next, until finally yesterday the ultimate decision was made.

What an amazing achievement.

So why was it rejected? Simply because Hodder felt that they couldn’t sell it successfully because of changing market forces.

So what is being accepted for publication today? Sadly not what is on the shelves at the moment. Publishers are looking to accepting manuscripts that will be in saleable in 2011, yes they work two years ahead. So if you have a manuscript ready to go, perhaps you might like to have a look at the kind of work publishers are looking for.

Andrew Lownie is a literary agent who asked ten publishers what they’d be looking for, in 2009 read what they said and good luck.
http://www.andrewlownie.co.uk/articles/archives/2009/01/books-of-2009.shtml