Stephanie Meyer, Harry Potter Discovered By Accident: Any Chance You'll Be Next?

Wall Street Journal:

In 1991, a book editor at Random House pulled from the heaps of unsolicited manuscripts a novel about a murder that roils a Baltimore suburb. Written by a first-time author and mother-to-be named Mary Cahill, "Carpool" was published to fanfare. Ms. Cahill was interviewed on the "Today" show. "Carpool" was a best seller.

That was the last time Random House, the largest publisher in the U.S., remembers publishing anything found in a slush pile. Today, Random House and most of its major counterparts refuse to accept unsolicited material.

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Read the whole story: Wall Street Journal

Comments

[rainsmom]

12:58 PM on 01/18/2010

It has been a couple of DECADES since submitting directly to publishers (in most genres) was the norm. I can figure out why this article was even written.

The slush pile today is the query system for landing an agent. It's extraordinarily competitive, but so what? It's not like it's an inalienable right to be published. If you feel that strongly about seeing your masterpiece in print, self publish.

If you want to maximize your chances for commercial success, hone your craft. Take classes, join critique groups, attend writers conferences. Revise your manuscript until it shines, and then spend equal energy creating a stellar query and synopsis. Then do research -- figure out which agents rep your genre, check Preditors & Editors to weed out the scammers -- then begin querying.

While you're querying begin establishing your online presence -- it will be required once you have a contract. Start figuring out the best way to market your book. Give some thought to whether a book trailer would help your book. Write all your ideas down, and be prepared to discuss them with your agent. Then get to work on your next book.

It takes time, and there are no shortcuts. If you want your books on the shelf in Barnes & Noble, then be better than 99.9% of the competition, land an agent, and get published by a big house. If that's too much work for you, self-publish and then whine because you're being discriminated against by the major

[gulopartisan]

12:30 PM on 01/17/2010

This story is about the 5% -- the greedos who don't think a book is a success unless it makes a million and gets you on Oprah. If you are an illiterate who is not a former governor, and you want a $100,000 advance on your self-help book, then yes, you need an agent and luck comparable to being next to a tree struck by lightning twice.

If you are a writer, writing for readers, there are lots of ways to find them, including the Internet, small publishers, and even self-publishing. Pursue those routes, and if the agents and the corporate junk makers smell money, they will find you.

[MJinCanada]

08:53 PM on 01/16/2010

There are small publishing houses that are easier to approach, but they don't have the marketing power. However, they are always worth a shot. Look for a local writers' guild, which can help you find places that take unsolicited manuscripts.

A writers' cooperative can also set up its own publishing house, and use local readings, dinner theatre readings and assorted literary fundraisers to get their books in print. Once the books are in local public and school libraries, as well as the Library of Congress, things can take off.

[Shawn de Montaigne]

11:20 PM on 01/15/2010

Boo-hoo for those big corporate publishing houses. -Sniff- I ... -sniff- feel so, so bad for them. Their tale of woe is so touching and haunting and why o why are they going down in flames...?

Here's the skinny: those corporates *deserve* their end. What the WSJ--of course--does not elaborate on is the publishers' immense greed, which, more than anything else, put them in the position they are in today.

Before you get all sorry-feeling for HarperCollins, et al, I'd recommend you read the trials and tribulations of The Tao of Pooh author Benjamin Hoff: http://web.archive.org/web/20071215041107/http://www.benjaminhoffauthor.com/essay.htm. He'll set you straight.

Screw the publishers. I'm enjoying watching them suffer. Any sane and rational person would. And any sane and rational author--especially new ones, like myself--would, and should, be dancing in the streets at their demise.

[KellyKay]

02:14 PM on 01/16/2010

I loved "The Tao of Pooh" and read and re-read the book so many times, I had to take great measures to keep the cover together. As a young women trying to find my way, it became my "religion". Then I read "The Te of Piglet" and was shocked that it was writen by the same person. Especially where he put women down for not changing their name once married. I am not surpised he had so much trouble publishing later on. You sense an arrogant person from his writings, and now he is going to lower himself to writing articles for magazines. I would guess he, himself, never learned the lesson about Thomas Edison, that he mentions in "Te".

[MAragon]

09:53 PM on 01/15/2010

I gave up on the corporate publishers in 2006 and started publishing my own stuff via a recently started website called Lulu.com. Taking the power into you own hands may the only way to get your work out there anymore as more often than not with these publishing houses it's not what you know, but who.

[MJinCanada]

08:54 PM on 01/16/2010

Good for you. There's some pretty good stuff on the web.

[tora]

08:35 PM on 01/15/2010

If my kids write as bad as Meyer I would be disappointed.

[blindjester]

12:28 AM on 01/16/2010

Hmmm. Best-selling author, adored by millions....

Could it be that your standards are unreasonably high?

[ReedYoung]

08:39 PM on 01/16/2010

It could also be that the standards of millions of semi-literate Americans are unreasonably low.

[Jolimont]

11:49 PM on 01/17/2010

I don't like her writing style either, but she puts together a good story.

[ESerafina42]

12:06 PM on 01/18/2010

Yeah - elderly abusive stalkers are romantic, as long as they look 17 and are hawt.

[danusgram]

06:19 PM on 01/15/2010

well I think an enterprising person should start publishing themselves and others and kick these big publishing companies to the curb.

[Scoutxx]

02:56 PM on 01/16/2010

Never going to happen... Not EVER.

People have been screaming about the death of big publishing forever, and "indy" publishing isn't nearly the threat the media will have you believe. Why? Because the majority of people don't want to wade through a sea of bad writing in order to find a decent book.

There's a reason 99% of "indy" writers are unpublished, and it's because they aren't any good. Sure, a few good books get passed by in the flood of garbage, but not as many as people would have you believe.

As long as people want to read, there will be big publishing houses.

[stargazer13]

04:38 PM on 01/15/2010

I hope to write a book !

[noweknow]

04:17 PM on 01/15/2010

Who needs them? Just publish it yourself.
It's so easy anyone can do it.

[spineflower]

04:13 PM on 01/15/2010

Ummm, I'm no "Twilight" fan, but it might be nice to spell the author's name correctly in an article title...just sayin'...