The latest editor to answer a selection of your questions (compiled over on the forum) works up in Nottingham on one of HarperCollins' latest impints: Angry Robot.
SUBMISSIONS PROCESS:
I assume that most of the books you first investigate with a view to taking on come to you through the hands of trusted literary agents. What are some other ways you might become aware of a book? (bluestocking/Maria Bustillos)
I’m a big fan of the small press, and every now and then we find a book there that seems to have slipped through the fingers of the bigger publishers. Sometimes we don’t find a book we particularly like, but if a writer shows promise we will sometimes contact them and enquire about their future plans.
Do you ever take a book from any source and tell the author to make specific changes in order to get a contract? (Jemstone/J E Murphy)
Absolutely, No matter how good the book, if it doesn’t meet the imprint’s criteria, it’s never going to get published by that particular imprint.
Will you only consider completed MSS – or, if the author has a strong ‘voice’, would you consider a work in progress? (Ali Mair)
We will only commission on an uncompleted manuscript if the author has a very strong track record, but if we find a new writer whose style we think suits the imprint, we might help and encourage them through the process. In this instance, though, there is no guarantee of publication, and it’s also very difficult for an unpublished writer to have an unfinished manuscript read by an editor, as the editor has so many finished ones to read.
Are you willing to take a chance on a large novel from a new author if the voice and story are good? (Jemstone/ J E Murphy)
Absolutely.
Why, when an author has researched the huge potential market for a book (mine has 1 million at least in UK CCs alone) do they still completely ignore it? (hallyally/Allie Sommerville)
The size of the potential market is only one consideration when buying a book. Others are: is the book any good? Is the author someone we can work with? Does the author have other books in them? Do we have anything else on our list that may be too similar? Also, it is easy to overestimate the potential market for a book, which is why publishers subscribe to specialist services that tell them how many books were sold by similar authors/similar titles.
Are agents worth their cut? (Mardi Johnson)
Bad agents are not; average ones, maybe; good ones are worth more.
Are you more biased towards British authors? (Jemstone/ J E Murphy)
No. Indeed, of Angry Robot’s first six titles, for instance, only one of the authors is British.
Does HC (UK) publish American books? (RobRow/Robert P Rowley)
Yes.
How do you feel about books that have already been self-published? (Jemstone/ J E Murphy)
Warm and fuzzy. It is an amazing achievement to sit down and write 100,000 words of fiction, to actually complete a novel. It is true that self-published books are generally – though not always – of a lesser quality, but that isn’t necessarily due to a lack of talent by the writer, but self-published books rarely get the full editorial treatment that is applied to books published by traditional publishers.
EDITORIAL PROCESS:
Do you agree that it is the role of the literary agent to perform, or demand, substantive market-oriented editing of the book before the publisher’s editor has seen the manuscript? (Seamus33/George LeCas)
Agents should – in my opinion – not perform or demand anything regarding the text. It doesn’t belong to them, and remember, they work for you, not the other way around. A good editor will make suggestions as to how you might be able to improve your manuscript’s chances with a publisher, and ideally this should be done before it gets to the editor’s desk.
CURRENT ECONOMIC CLIMATE:
There is a great deal of rumour flying around in the current economic climate. In your opinion, will it be harder for unknown authors to get published before the economy picks up again? (Lallie/Laura Jarrett)
That will vary considerably from imprint to imprint. At Angry Robot, for instance, our first two titles (which launch next month) are by first-time novelists, and they have both been contracted for multi-book deals. At the start of 2010 we have another 3 authors publishing their first novels with us. Talent will out.
WHAT IS HARPERCOLLINS LOOKING FOR?
What are you actively looking for at the moment? (Jemstone/ J E Murphy)
Good ideas, supported by excellent writing from writers with more good ideas for their next books, and (preferably) with the knack of self-promotion.
How much is your present catalogue of authors and books an indication of what you’re looking for in new submissions? (Alexandra Marell)
It’s a very good indication, but lists evolve.
Would you ever take the risk of publishing a work you loved but that did not fit a pre-existing marketing niche? (Lord Biro/Kevin Lester)
Yes, but it would have to be exceptional. As well as loving the book, we have to convince the retailers to sell it, so a book that doesn’t have a natural home in the bookshop takes a lot more work to sell (both to the bookshops, and to the book-buying public).
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