Authors Electric

I just had this email exchange: 'Hi Roz, I'm reviewing for the New York Journal so get your publicist or publisher to send me your books. We don't take self-published.' Let's pause for some naughty words.  There. Frustrating though this is, cherished policies are not updated easily. But the age of enlightenment is being held back by bare-faced misrepresentation from traditional publishing. I've seen two examples in the publishing press in the past month - and it’s time to call them out.  Misrepresentation #1 The first was a post on the blog of top UK literaryagent Andrew Lownie , where editors list what they're looking for.  Every one of them says they want new work that twists a genre, unique concepts and voices, unforgettable books that defy expectations and break the mould. Read this and you'd think all the exciting authors get the recognition they deserve. That those who don't are not special enough. What’s really ...

We never think of ourselves as experts, do we? That is to say, I certainly never do, though I’m no expert on what other people think of themselves. So it is always rather surprising to be asked to do something in a technical capacity. Flattering, intimidating, but above all surprising. In the space of a week I will be “expert”ing myself in two very different spheres. So I want to ponder the whole question of expertise. The two events in question illustrate perfectly the flip sides of my writing life, the good and bad angels as it were, sitting on my shoulders whispering like something from the comics I read as a child. Last Friday, I hosted an evening of poetry at The Tea Box in Richmond. This Wednesday I am speaking to a writers’ group in Oxford about the ins and outs of self-publishing. The two events are as far apart as you could imagine events being. My job in Richmond was to perform poems, to make an audience feel at home, to make people who had never performed be...