Deep breath...
Sometimes, it's impossible not to blog about something. Poor Jean Hannah Edelstein wrote in yesterday's Guardian about the sad slog of working through a slush pile - although in fact, "working through" gives the impression of some kind of light at the end of the tunnel, while the reality is more of a Sisyphean battle against the encroaching tide of submissions. And P.J.H.E. couldn't possibly have imagined the ire and the amount of responses from across the literate community, branding her and her supporters as "ingrates" and suggesting that they might give the job to someone who does like it. One helpful do-gooder suggested some of the following tips (among others): Publicising when (and when not) we consider submissions, stopping accepting submissions when the pile gets too high, carrying out consumer research to find out what the public wants, and pooling some of our promotion budgets to promote reading rather than individual books.
Something like this on our website would seem to be the type of thing this commenter is suggesting, and rumour has it that it makes not a jot of difference on the daily sacks of submissions. Similarly, our finance, sales and editorial teams would be heartbroken at the thought that their careful research and years of experience count for nothing in the area of "consumer research". Or would this be better? And as for promoting reading - wouldn't it be great if someone did something like this? Or this? Or this? Oh well, I guess you can't please all of the people all of the time.
And while another commenter notes with an excellent simile that some of the people being handed the slush pile aren't seasoned veterans, he's offered comfort by someone reassuring anybody who writes only for "dedicated readers", rather than those of us who, say, have just wandered into a bookshop. If only we had the budget for some front-of-book warning stickers along that line.
But a few voices backed Jean - ranging from some hard truths, to a potential new TV series. I once heard the great Richard Briers giving advice to any potential actors: "Don't act because you want to - act because you have to." It seems that may also hold true for writing, and thousands out there might be cursed to do something purely for the pleasure of it. There are worse ways to live...
Sam the Junior Copywriter
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