Mindsight Forum: Jane Austen fan submits her work anonymously to publishers

Jane Austen fan submits her work anon... Log Out | Topics | Search | Forgot Password?
Moderators | Edit Profile

Mindsight Forum » Writers Board » Jane Austen fan submits her work anonymously to publishers

« Previous Next »

Closed: New threads not accepted on this page

Author

Message

Harry Simenon
Unity Member
Post Number: 1631
Registered: 10-2003

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Posted on Thursday, July 19, 2007 - 06:19 am:

Jane Austen fan submits her work anonymously to publishers... and receives a dozen rejections

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=469342&in_page_id=1770

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that many of us who claim to have read a classic novel are telling porkies. Or have simply watched the film version instead. This even applies, it seems, to literary agents and publishers.

For when a budding author sent typed chapters of Jane Austen's novels to 18 of them, changing just the titles and characters' names, only one recognised her words.
Another managed to recognise they were 'a really original read'. But the rest simply rejected them or never responded, according to the man who posted the manuscripts, David Lassman.

"It was unbelievable," he said. "If the major publishers can't recognise great literature, who knows what might be slipping through the net?

"Here is one of the greatest writers that has lived, with her oeuvre securely fixed in the English canon and yet only one recipient recognised them as Austen's work."

Mr Lassman, 43, submitted opening chapters of three of Austen's classic works - Northanger Abbey, first published in 1798, Pride and Prejudice (1813) and Persuasion (1818).

He typed them out himself, and signed them Alison Laydee after Austen's early pseudonym A Lady.

To offer a few more hints, he called Pride and Prejudice 'First Impressions', the original title for the story, and wrote a return address of the Jane Austen Centre in Bath, where he works as the director of the Jane Austen Festival.

In response, the literary agency Christopher Little, which represents JK Rowling, said it was 'not confident of placing this material with a publisher'.

Penguin, which currently publishes Pride and Prejudice, responded that First Impressions 'seems like a really original and interesting read'. But there was no request to see the rest of the book.

Others to turn the works down included Bloomsbury, Random House, Harper Collins and Hodder & Stoughton. The only one who emerged with any credit was Alex Bowler, assistant editor at Jonathan Cape publishers.

His reply read: "I suggest you reach for your copy of Pride and Prejudice, which I'd guess lives in close proximity to your typewriter and make sure that your opening pages don't too closely mimic the book's opening. After all, there is such a thing as plagiarism."

Mr Lassman came up with the experiment when struggling to have his own novel published.

He said it highlighted the flaws in the publishing process.

"Getting a novel accepted is very difficult today unless you have an agent first, but I had no idea of the scale of rejection poor old Jane suffered."

Not very promising, is it?

Todd Hunter
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number: 3637
Registered: 02-2003

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Posted on Thursday, July 19, 2007 - 03:22 pm:

I think the idea of sending classics (and popular novels) to agents and publishers has been done before...

Mindsight Moderator
Aston's Blog

Stephen Lodge
Wisdom Member
Post Number: 562
Registered: 06-2004

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Posted on Thursday, July 19, 2007 - 07:53 pm:

Maybe so - but it sure proves a point ~

http://www.stephenlodge.com
Novels by Stephen Lodge:
"Charley Sunday's Texas Outfit!"
"Nickel-Plated Dream"
"Shadows of Eagles"

Todd Hunter
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number: 3638
Registered: 02-2003

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Posted on Thursday, July 19, 2007 - 07:57 pm:

That publishers (and readers) aren't looking for the same things today they were back then?

Mindsight Moderator
Aston's Blog

Fred Dungan
Unity Member
Post Number: 1953
Registered: 10-2002

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Posted on Thursday, July 19, 2007 - 10:18 pm:

I publish classic literature and I would probably not have caught it. Mea culpa.

http://www.dunganbooks.com

Harry Simenon
Unity Member
Post Number: 1632
Registered: 10-2003

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Posted on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 02:10 am:

I can imagine that a publisher is not familiar with every book ever published, but I would hope they would recognize quality when they saw it? Or perhaps the readers taste has changed?

Todd Hunter
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number: 3639
Registered: 02-2003

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Posted on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 03:36 pm:

Or perhaps the readers taste has changed?
*touches finger to nose*

Mindsight Moderator
Aston's Blog

Gloria Marlow
Unity Member
Post Number: 2003
Registered: 04-2002

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Posted on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 06:11 pm:

It is not surprising to me that a work written in the nineteenth century even if it is considered a "classic" would not be marketable as a new book in the present.

The story itself may be wonderful, but if the style is dated or stilted, the publisher would realize that right away.

I love Little Women, but I realize if I bought it as a "new" book by a "new" author, I may not get past the first page. The speech, style, etc. is just too different and wouldn't flow naturally as it did to those readers who actually lived at that time.

Gloria
www.gloriamarlow.com
Flowers for Megan**Shades of Silence**The Butterfly Game

Harry Simenon
Unity Member
Post Number: 1634
Registered: 10-2003

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Posted on Saturday, July 21, 2007 - 01:39 am:

That does sound like a plausible explanation Gloria. So perhaps there is still hope...

a1207006767341 (Unregistered Guest)
Work-in-progress guest
Posted From: 86.96.226.13

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Posted on Monday, March 31, 2008 - 06:02 pm:

good 1207006767341 <a href="http://www.xanga.com/item.aspx?user=CHEAP425297&uid=642731707">cheap hawaii vacations</a> cheap hawaii vacations http://www.xanga.com/item.aspx?user=CHEAP425297&uid=642731707
<a href="http://www.xanga.com/item.aspx?user=HERTZ413959&uid=642731626">hertz car rental</a> hertz car rental http://www.xanga.com/item.aspx?user=HERTZ413959&uid=642731626
<a href="http://weblog.xanga.com/CAPITALON/639000246/capital-one-credit-card.html">capital one credit card</a> capital one credit card http://weblog.xanga.com/CAPITALON/639000246/capital-one-credit-card.html
<a href="http://weblog.xanga.com/CAPITAL159497/641553945/capital-one-credit-cards-canada.html">capital one credit cards canada</a> capital one credit cards canada http://weblog.xanga.com/CAPITAL159497/641553945/capital-one-credit-cards-canada.html
<a href="http://www.xanga.com/hotpennystock">hot penny stock</a> hot penny stock http://www.xanga.com/hotpennystock
<a href="http://weblog.xanga.com/NASDAQ121271/641553330/nasdaq-penny-stock.html">nasdaq penny stock</a> nasdaq penny stock http://weblog.xanga.com/NASDAQ121271/641553330/nasdaq-penny-stock.html
<a href="http://www.instantbulletin.com/forum/?mforum=creditcardappro">Instant Credit Card Approval</a> Instant Credit Card Approval http://www.instantbulletin.com/forum/?mforum=creditcardappro
<a href="http://fixedlowinteres.dotbb.be">FIXED LOW INTEREST CREDIT CARDS</a> FIXED LOW INTEREST CREDIT CARDS http://fixedlowinteres.dotbb.be

a1208152456182 (Unregistered Guest)
Work-in-progress guest
Posted From: 202.28.27.4

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Posted on Monday, April 14, 2008 - 07:54 am:

Administration