Posted by Peter H on July 09, 2002 at 21:05:55 from 213.122.117.184 user Peter_H.
In Reply to: Re: Books - publishers posted by Eric Abraham on July 09, 2002 at 13:23:49:
'the reading public only gets what publishers decide'
First of all, can I state the obvious and say that no publisher will turn down a children’s story which shows every promise of being popular. Publishers want to sell books. However, the criteria which are applied to stories for children are nowadays extremely technical. An editor in children’s book publishing recently told me that the most frequent mistake made by authors for children was to misalign the age levels of story line, characterisation, and language. In other words, if you are writing for the age bracket 8 – 10, then your story, the people in it, and the way they speak must appeal to 8-10 year olds.
In addition to this, there are the ‘political’ and ‘literary fashion’ considerations. Publishers want their books to be reviewed well, and also to go into schools and libraries and on syllabuses. Stories which are a bit ‘right field’ or ‘uncool’ or which do not conform to current educational theories will therefore be rejected or, if accepted, heavily doctored.
And then there’s the profit motive. Most children’s publishers are owned by large publishing/media combines which expect their constituent companies to achieve certain profit levels each year.
All of the above, taken together, means that publishers can rarely afford to take risks. Depressing? – yes, but if you want to publish for children you should stick at it, and try and learn as you go along. There is always a demand for new child fiction – it is one of the most voracious markets. Were things easier for Ransome? I suspect not. Remember that Cape only accepted the manuscript of SA as a gesture because they really wanted Ransome’s book on fishing. Phew!