25 years of rejection, then 2,500,000 sales.

[Paul Whybrow]

This morning, I found an article on a publishing success in the Book Brunch newsletter, which piqued my interest. Sadly, Book Brunch has recently gone to a subscription service to access the full articles, but I gleaned enough from the opening paragraph to unearth more details.

Author Angela Marson submitted to publishers for 25 years, without success, before being approached by a commissioning editor at Bookouture, a digital publisher. Signed with them, she swiftly sold 1,000,000 books and has since gone on to sell 2,500,000 copies of her six Kim Stone crime novels. Her success has been aided by a traditional publishing contract with Bonnier Publishing.

Wikipedia profile: Angela Marsons - Wikipedia

Newspaper interview: 25 years of rejection then 1,000,000 sales: Surprise success for Black Country author

Author website: About - Angela Marsons

I investigated the Bookouture website, initially bemused by the markedly sexist slant—reverse sexism, I mean—for all of their clients appeared to be female. Founder of the site, Oliver Rhodes worked for romance publisher Harlequin UK for a decade, and Bookouture specialises in crime, thrillers, female fiction and romance & chick lit.

For a moment, my hopes were dashed, especially on reading this statement in the Submission Guidelines: "We’re looking for entertaining, emotional stories for smart, modern women."

But, then I had a look at their roster of writer clients and actually spotted some males. This means that I won't have to squeeze back into my green taffeta ballgown and call myself Rosemary Flowerdew...I'm tired of being Cornwall's only bearded lady!

I've just started my fifth Cornish Detective novel, with four done and dusted and ready for publication. It was always my long-term plan to build up a body of work before querying. While writing, I've made 400 submissions to traditional publishers, getting nowhere. I've also self-published 44 titles online, which feels a bit like emptying a bucket of water into an ocean. As ever, the problem with achieving success is not the quality of your writing, but mastering the art of self-promotion to publicise your book. A schmoozer I'm not....

One advantage of being signed to a digital publisher is their marketing expertise.

I'm going to make a submission to them—why not? The worst thing to do with writing is to give up. I'll let you know how I get on.

It's immensely encouraging to hear of a struggling author succeeding. I was pleased to see that my local library has copies of Angela Marson's crime novels, which I'm looking forward to reading. What is mind-boggling is how traditional publishers got it so wrong, by rejecting her for 25 years. They're supposed to be experts on what will sell, aren't they?

What do you make of Bookouture?

Brilliant?

Dodgy?

Too good to be true?

 

[Robinne Weiss]

25 years is plenty of time to improve your writing. Did her 25 year-old novels get picked up, or new ones? Or maybe she was ahead of the game, writing stuff that was considered fringe at the time, but is now more mainstream and marketable. A lot changes in 25 years!

 

[MaryA]

Yes, what @Robinne Weiss says. I suspect the market changed and something about her work became more accessible or popular. And I'm sure she got better at what she was doing.

 

[Patricia D]

25 years is a long time. Good for her for persisting. And good luck to you with your submissions. Lots of men write romance - at least in the US - although most use nom de plumes that sound feminine.

 

[Amber]

I've always thought the problem with sexism is we sleep with the enemy, we give birth to the enemy, and eventually, we don't care enough to even point out little instances of sexism -- because, women love men and we want peace with them. Women don't work without men. Well, except for obvious examples. Even then, we tend to think men are pretty awesome at times. The whole idea that women don't need men is actually sort of comical when you think about it. What's need got to do with it? We like them.

I watched a documentary not too long ago about the men's movement, and its a sad piece of manipulative journalism. So, I can't fully buy into this reverse sexism nonsense. I want to say its all very confusing. But mostly navigating the female/male stuff is part of being human and I imagine the degree to which we delve into that depends on us. But as a man who I assume is fond of his bits and pieces, you might want to step carefully with the reverse sexism rhetoric.

Having said as much, I've been sending out queries for a friend, and it turns out, there is a higher percentage of female agents to male agents. Also, if you go to an RWA conference or an RT conference (I think these are US only events) you'll find packs and packs of women descending upon tables and authors and free giveaways in a stereotypical fashion. It's probably true that women are over-represented in certain areas of publishing.

I suspect -- which I say because I don't know for sure -- that romance is treated differently in the publishing world. Although, not differently than any other traditionally female occupation ... because who are we kidding ... we know they're written mostly by women and for women... stress on the MOSTLY. I think that perhaps ... more new authors get published in romance ... but that they get less money, less attention, less promotion, and less support. Of course, if they sell, they don't make less. We're talking percentages here. Last year I watched a documentary about romance authors. I knew the names of almost all of the authors in the documentary and some of them I knew personally. Except for the obvious exceptions, they weren't making any money. So, they weren't supporting themselves with their writing. One thing is certain about romance authors, they need to love the genre.

Now, having gone sideways in a blowhardy fashion .... I wish you all the best. Also ... I think unless you're absolutely brilliant ... self-publishing is the way to go ... and if you're absolutely brilliant ... don't compromise... and if you aren't ...publishing is so easy I wouldn't suggest letting someone else do it. The other thing I have noticed is people going to small publishers, getting their book published, but nothing is done to help them ... they aren't 'represented' .... So basically to me, there are two good options ... if you're brilliant .. hold out for an agent and a publisher ... if you're not .. then write something commercial and self pub.

No, I'm not one of the brilliant ones but then I haven't written anything commercial either.

 

[Quillwitch]

This morning, I found an article on a publishing success in the Book Brunch newsletter, which piqued my interest. Sadly, Book Brunch has recently gone to a subscription service to access the full articles, but I gleaned enough from the opening paragraph to unearth more details.

Author Angela Marson submitted to publishers for 25 years, without success, before being approached by a commissioning editor at Bookoutre, a digital publisher. Signed with them, she swiftly sold 1,000,000 books and has since gone on to sell 2,500,000 copies of her six Kim Stone crime novels. Her success has been aided by a traditional publishing contract with Bonnier Publishing.

Wikipedia profile: Angela Marsons - Wikipedia

Newspaper interview: 25 years of rejection then 1,000,000 sales: Surprise success for Black Country author

Author website: About - Angela Marsons

I investigated the Bookoutre website, initially bemused by the markedly sexist slant—reverse sexism, I mean—for all of their clients appeared to be female. Founder of the site, Oliver Rhodes worked for romance publisher Harlequin UK for a decade, and Bookoutre specialises in crime, thrillers, female fiction and romance & chick lit.

For a moment, my hopes were dashed, especially on reading this statement in the Submission Guidelines: "We’re looking for entertaining, emotional stories for smart, modern women."

But, then I had a look at their roster of writer clients and actually spotted some males. This means that I won't have to squeeze back into my green taffeta ballgown and call myself Rosemary Flowerdew...I'm tired of being Cornwall's only bearded lady!

I've just started my fifth Cornish Detective novel, with four done and dusted and ready for publication. It was always my long-term plan to build up a body of work before querying. While writing, I've made 400 submissions to traditional publishers, getting nowhere. I've also self-published 44 titles online, which feels a bit like emptying a bucket of water into an ocean. As ever, the problem with achieving success is not the quality of your writing, but mastering the art of self-promotion to publicise your book. A schmoozer I'm not....

One advantage of being signed to a digital publisher is their marketing expertise.

I'm going to make a submission to them—why not? The worst thing to do with writing is to give up. I'll let you know how I get on.

It's immensely encouraging to hear of a struggling author succeeding. I was pleased to see that my local library has copies of Angela Marson's crime novels, which I'm looking forward to reading. What is mind-boggling is how traditional publishers got it so wrong, by rejecting her for 25 years. They're supposed to be experts on what will sell, aren't they?

What do you make of Bookoutre?

Brilliant?

Dodgy?

Too good to be true?

All I can think is, sometimes the marke isn´t ready for what you have to offer, sometimes, traditional publishing has no idea how to market your work, so they pass.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I'd be interested to know whether Angela Marsons novels that were recently digitally published are the same works as she submitted two decades ago. Hopefully, we all improve our writing technique and who knows how many times she reworked manuscripts? Yesterday, I made a library request for the first of her successful crime series, Silent Scream, so soon I'll be able to assess the quality of her writing.

It's encouraging to me, rather than disheartening, how some great books have been rejected by traditional publishers. John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces was repeatedly turned away, and, in despair, he committed suicide. His mother persisted for eleven years trying to attract interest, eventually succeeding and it was published in 1980. The following year it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction! The original Chicken Soup for the Soul was rejected multiple times by New York publishers but picked up by a small self-help publisher in Florida. Its success spawned 250 titles in the series with worldwide sales of 500 million copies.

Sexism in publishing is a peculiar thing, especially when it comes to marketing. Over the years, I've known two male writers who used female pen names to publish Mills & Boon romances. Neither has ever 'outed' themselves, concealing their identities by using fictitious biographies and photographs of dead female relatives. Previously, they both submitted their stories as men, getting nowhere.

 

[Alistair Roberts]

So, nothing much has changed! Well, maybe not quite true. I did get a publishing contract this week..... got to paragraph two and realised the buggers are vanity publishers, so don't bother submitting to Austin Macauley!! I do like your attitude Paul, that certainly is a winner