Success, Regress, and Back to Success

Karin Tabke Makes the Grade
Karin Tabke, who regaled us in the last blog post with her tale of trying to sell her work, has been offered a contract from Kensington! Congratulations, Karin! She will be in an anthology featuring a work titled Politically Incorrect, coming out January of 2006, and a single title, Internal Affairs, date to be announced.

Both of these are for Kensington's new erotica line, launch date Jan '06, and both titles are subject to change.

We look forward to Karin sharing more of her experiences as she makes her way from unpublished to published writer.

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Gender Book Bias
Women like a good book, and don't really show a bias as to whether the writer is male or female. The same does not hold true for men. This has been bandied about for years, but has now been verified in research carried out by academics Lisa Jardine and Annie Watkins of Queen Mary College, London, to mark the 10th year of the Orange Prize for Fiction, according to an article in the Guardian Unlimited.

But a gender gap remains in what people choose to read, at least among the cultural elite. Four out of five men said the last novel they read was by a man, whereas women were almost as likely to have read a book by a male author as a female. When asked what novel by a woman they had read most recently, a majority of men found it hard to recall or could not answer. Women, however, often gave several titles. The report said: 'Men who read fiction tend to read fiction by men, while women read fiction by both women and men.

'Consequently, fiction by women remains "special interest", while fiction by men still sets the standard for quality, narrative and style.'

In the survey, men were asked to name the 'most important' book by a woman written in the last two years. Brick Lane by Monica Ali and Carol Shields's Unless were frequently among the replies, but many men admitted defeat and confessed they had no idea. At least one who suggested Brick Lane admitted he had not read it.

You've come a long way, baby? We still have a long way to go.

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And now, for a book on getting published that promises to be something all the others are not: entertaining.

Seventy-eight Reasons Why Your Book May Never Be Published and Fourteen Reasons Why It Just Might by Pat Walsh

The Publisher's Weekly Review says:

"Walsh mercilessly presents the cold, hard facts about why authors don't get published: 'You think too highly of yourself,' 'You missed your first-chance glance' and 'You scare away agents,' along with 75 other dispiriting reasons. This tough-love approach aims to enlighten writers committed to their craft and discourage those who are all talk and no work. A founding editor of the literary publisher MacAdam/Cage, Walsh has spent a good deal of time reading lousy submissions, and he points out some common errors made by novices. His advice can sound more like an editor's exasperation (say, with writers who can't take criticism) than helpful tips. Walsh also describes the bottom-line world of publishing, which, he says, views books as products rather than cherished works of art. He provides basic information about agents, auctions and promotion. What saves this manual from being hectoring is the author's humor and clear-eyed awareness of the difficulties involved in getting even an outstanding book published. On a more positive note, he recommends that rejected authors cultivate patience and flexibility (i.e., learning from mistakes). Many readers may simply skip to book's end to get to the scant good news." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

This business is brutal. Sounds like Walsh is dishing out the realities, rather than the fairy tales.

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