Whilst ploughing through the Literary Agents section of the 2012 edition I was struck by the fact that most agents can take up to eight weeks to respond to a submission - if at all. Yet some of them want the submission to be exclusive. What world do they live in? If a manuscript has to wait for a rejection before being offered to someone else it could take a year to approach just six agents.
Does anyone have the answer?
Journalism should prepare you for dealing with the publicity aspect of book publishing. But a journalist friend who has had 27 books published, all about sport, tells me he spends most of his life chasing up publishers, radio stations, newspaper editors and the like to encourage them to give his books more publicity. He finds that publishers are not very good at publicity. Just his opinion, though.
Thank you, Louise. Your view may well be closer to the truth than mine. In fiction I'm a comparative novice. With more experience I hope I come closer to your faith in the system. As a journalist I've noticed over the years that people generally are reading less and expect everything they do read to be digestible and comprehensible in short takes. That's why I'm baffled there's not more demand by publishers for short fiction.
I agree the world sped up around agents and publishers and they didn't keep up particularly well. I also think that's the best thing about publishing as an industry. I mean, hands up who wants to be represented by the industry equivalent to Ryanair!