Publishers make authors create more-more-more fast-fast-fast because they are profit machines, not organizations committed to nurturing and developing talent. The only way Kiley Reid stays "relevant to readers" (aka profitable, which is what her publisher cares about) is if she generates enough content to keep her name alive in press. If she doesn't write books in time or sell enough books, her publisher will not take her on for another contract.
This is why I think it's such a horrible idea for most authors to look for a big publishing deal when they are early in their writing careers. Far better for them, both emotionally and for their own craft, to build an audience through small independent publishers (or even self-publishing, if they can stomach it), so that they can approach large publishers later with an established readership and therefore better bargaining power.
Kiley Reid is one of the EXTREMELY RARE lucky debut authors who got a lot of push power and marketing spend behind her first book and therefore made a (deserved) success of it. But even she is not immune to the profit pressures placed on her by a machine that exists solely to churn out book-shaped products, in order to drive profit, in order to make more and more book-shaped products. Imagine how much worse it is for the more typical debut author, who gets virtually zero attention for their (often equally excellent) first book, therefore sells nothing, therefore is under massive pressure to produce a "better" second book within a year--and often ends up with no writing career after they thought they had made it in the industry.
My caveat here is that I run a small publishing company. But I've worked for several of the largest profit machines in the industry, and I've interacted with the industry in a variety of ways (both on the inside and on the outside). Publishing is not an arts organization. It is a cutthroat, profit-above-anything industry with no regard for all of the wonderful people who work in it, from editors to designers to production folk to authors.
Just finished The Happy Couple by Naoise Dolan. It’s about mid 20s complicated love lives (I don’t think anyone is so boring as hetero!) and emotional hang ups. I really liked it and am very glad I’m not in that tumultuous phase of life anymore.
I wonder would your readers enjoy this? It’s on Utube.. and so well done, totally deserved the award ..
I love art so that’s what first attracted me..but it’s also a lovely gentle documentary ..
Tony cane Honeysett Emmy award winning film about his mum..
Mary Cane Honeysett .. whose dream was to have her painting accepted into the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.. it’s such a gorgeous film not long but so very interesting… especially if you live in Fulham and enjoy art by just ordinary gifted people
Just a change from. Well for instance ‘Demolition’ that we watched last night.. and One Day .. that I loved
I have a total teenage-in-heat crush on Callum Turner, but only if he's acting as an American (he does the swagger and cockiness well). When he's not playing a Yank, agree that he's not very good.
“How can we stop all authors doing this? I would love - I mean this - to read a modern book by a lesbian about actual Out lesbian life. That is interesting and I want to know about it.”
Can I refer you to the lovely Kate Young’s debut novel, Experienced, coming out (pun not intended) later this year? Kate is a total babe and I have high expectations of the book.
Sorry, this is a bit of a film post - because all I seem to do is bitch about the fact there is NOTHING to watch on telly (bar MAFSA - Amaze) and so I hot the flicks about once or twice a week if I can. Even though I heart Austin Butler because yes - all he does is smoulder (SO WELL) and obvs I love TC - I simply cannot bear to go watch Dune 2. I did watch Zone of Interest - which is shot in a deliberately detached way that leaves a viewer feeling detached. Incredible sound though... Less a film and more a piece of art... Off to American Fiction tomorrow and did Wicked Little Letters over the weekend which is fab - ignore vile reviews. All of Us Strangers is SO incredible that I can't find the words. I wish Andrew Scott was my best friend. Books wise reading Kids by Patti Smith, which is raw and moving and exactly what I imagined starving artists to be like... Thanks for book info. I constantly buy books and then they sit by the side of my bed in a huge pile, mocking me. Then I buy more...
Ah was debating whether to buy the Kiley Reid as really liked her first one, good review, and the other one sounds great. I’m listening to Erotic Vagrancy on Audible which is lots of fun. I’m currently watching Masters of the Air too, but I fell asleep during both the first and second episodes, right before they went into battle and it got exciting so I had a slow start. I started episode 3 earlier in the evening and really enjoyed it though so looking forward to the rest. It’s usually the sort of thing that has me weeping but emotionally it hasn’t quite lived up to the opening credits for me yet. The actual flying scenes are amazing, but the characters blur into one a bit and I just think of them as Austin Butler, Callum Turner and Barry and can’t remember who they are supposed to be in the programme. I did say to my (long-suffering) husband that I thought these things are easier to get into if you have a crush on at least one of them. The other thing I’ve watched was Ted Lasso and oh god I’m finding it so awful, and think I must be a terrible person. All I’ve read is universal praise and delight but there have been moments when I thought I’d rather go back in time and give Eldorado another go. Tonally it’s all over the place like if Richard Curtis and Ben Elton wrote a CBBC show. The content doesn’t feel as if it’s for adults a lot of the time but then it’s punctuated by a load of comedy swearing and crudeness. But a few of the actors are honestly magical, the stuff they have to say like it’s absolutely normal. Sorry that’s all really negative.
We’ve been watching the new series of All Creatures Great and Small as a family and everyone loves that. When I was a teenager reading the books I would have gone back in time and married Siegfried, James or Tristan without needing to see a picture.
Re time travel, I remember reading A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (Mark Twain) at university (trying to impress a boy, I was doing a Real Estate course). Might have to revisit it.
Josh Lucas is in the soon to air Palm Royale. That is all I need to say. My levels of anticipation are verging on the ridiculous. Why he isn’t in more stuff is beyond me. All that Southern charm.
I am also frequently dipping back into Parks & Rec & Big Little Lies as Adam Scott is hot stuff even when being silly / nerdy.
Netflix’s The Gentleman. I’ve spent half my life wondering what the inside of Badminton House looks like, and now I know! And I’d pretty much kill for Susie Glass’ wardrobe.
The rest is very ‘Guy Ritchie-silly’ but good enough fun, and Vinnie Jones is always weirdly watchable.
As the woman who introduced me to Lissa Evans I always trust your book reviews Esther! I’ve just finished All the Fun of the Fair by Caroline Hulse and bloody loved it (I pretty much love all novels about funny teenagers growing up in dysfunctional families in the 80s/90s)
Publishers make authors create more-more-more fast-fast-fast because they are profit machines, not organizations committed to nurturing and developing talent. The only way Kiley Reid stays "relevant to readers" (aka profitable, which is what her publisher cares about) is if she generates enough content to keep her name alive in press. If she doesn't write books in time or sell enough books, her publisher will not take her on for another contract.
This is why I think it's such a horrible idea for most authors to look for a big publishing deal when they are early in their writing careers. Far better for them, both emotionally and for their own craft, to build an audience through small independent publishers (or even self-publishing, if they can stomach it), so that they can approach large publishers later with an established readership and therefore better bargaining power.
Kiley Reid is one of the EXTREMELY RARE lucky debut authors who got a lot of push power and marketing spend behind her first book and therefore made a (deserved) success of it. But even she is not immune to the profit pressures placed on her by a machine that exists solely to churn out book-shaped products, in order to drive profit, in order to make more and more book-shaped products. Imagine how much worse it is for the more typical debut author, who gets virtually zero attention for their (often equally excellent) first book, therefore sells nothing, therefore is under massive pressure to produce a "better" second book within a year--and often ends up with no writing career after they thought they had made it in the industry.
My caveat here is that I run a small publishing company. But I've worked for several of the largest profit machines in the industry, and I've interacted with the industry in a variety of ways (both on the inside and on the outside). Publishing is not an arts organization. It is a cutthroat, profit-above-anything industry with no regard for all of the wonderful people who work in it, from editors to designers to production folk to authors.
Just finished The Happy Couple by Naoise Dolan. It’s about mid 20s complicated love lives (I don’t think anyone is so boring as hetero!) and emotional hang ups. I really liked it and am very glad I’m not in that tumultuous phase of life anymore.
I wonder would your readers enjoy this? It’s on Utube.. and so well done, totally deserved the award ..
I love art so that’s what first attracted me..but it’s also a lovely gentle documentary ..
Tony cane Honeysett Emmy award winning film about his mum..
Mary Cane Honeysett .. whose dream was to have her painting accepted into the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.. it’s such a gorgeous film not long but so very interesting… especially if you live in Fulham and enjoy art by just ordinary gifted people
Just a change from. Well for instance ‘Demolition’ that we watched last night.. and One Day .. that I loved
I have a total teenage-in-heat crush on Callum Turner, but only if he's acting as an American (he does the swagger and cockiness well). When he's not playing a Yank, agree that he's not very good.
“How can we stop all authors doing this? I would love - I mean this - to read a modern book by a lesbian about actual Out lesbian life. That is interesting and I want to know about it.”
Can I refer you to the lovely Kate Young’s debut novel, Experienced, coming out (pun not intended) later this year? Kate is a total babe and I have high expectations of the book.
Sorry, this is a bit of a film post - because all I seem to do is bitch about the fact there is NOTHING to watch on telly (bar MAFSA - Amaze) and so I hot the flicks about once or twice a week if I can. Even though I heart Austin Butler because yes - all he does is smoulder (SO WELL) and obvs I love TC - I simply cannot bear to go watch Dune 2. I did watch Zone of Interest - which is shot in a deliberately detached way that leaves a viewer feeling detached. Incredible sound though... Less a film and more a piece of art... Off to American Fiction tomorrow and did Wicked Little Letters over the weekend which is fab - ignore vile reviews. All of Us Strangers is SO incredible that I can't find the words. I wish Andrew Scott was my best friend. Books wise reading Kids by Patti Smith, which is raw and moving and exactly what I imagined starving artists to be like... Thanks for book info. I constantly buy books and then they sit by the side of my bed in a huge pile, mocking me. Then I buy more...
Ah was debating whether to buy the Kiley Reid as really liked her first one, good review, and the other one sounds great. I’m listening to Erotic Vagrancy on Audible which is lots of fun. I’m currently watching Masters of the Air too, but I fell asleep during both the first and second episodes, right before they went into battle and it got exciting so I had a slow start. I started episode 3 earlier in the evening and really enjoyed it though so looking forward to the rest. It’s usually the sort of thing that has me weeping but emotionally it hasn’t quite lived up to the opening credits for me yet. The actual flying scenes are amazing, but the characters blur into one a bit and I just think of them as Austin Butler, Callum Turner and Barry and can’t remember who they are supposed to be in the programme. I did say to my (long-suffering) husband that I thought these things are easier to get into if you have a crush on at least one of them. The other thing I’ve watched was Ted Lasso and oh god I’m finding it so awful, and think I must be a terrible person. All I’ve read is universal praise and delight but there have been moments when I thought I’d rather go back in time and give Eldorado another go. Tonally it’s all over the place like if Richard Curtis and Ben Elton wrote a CBBC show. The content doesn’t feel as if it’s for adults a lot of the time but then it’s punctuated by a load of comedy swearing and crudeness. But a few of the actors are honestly magical, the stuff they have to say like it’s absolutely normal. Sorry that’s all really negative.
We’ve been watching the new series of All Creatures Great and Small as a family and everyone loves that. When I was a teenager reading the books I would have gone back in time and married Siegfried, James or Tristan without needing to see a picture.
Re time travel, I remember reading A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (Mark Twain) at university (trying to impress a boy, I was doing a Real Estate course). Might have to revisit it.
Josh Lucas is in the soon to air Palm Royale. That is all I need to say. My levels of anticipation are verging on the ridiculous. Why he isn’t in more stuff is beyond me. All that Southern charm.
I am also frequently dipping back into Parks & Rec & Big Little Lies as Adam Scott is hot stuff even when being silly / nerdy.
Netflix’s The Gentleman. I’ve spent half my life wondering what the inside of Badminton House looks like, and now I know! And I’d pretty much kill for Susie Glass’ wardrobe.
The rest is very ‘Guy Ritchie-silly’ but good enough fun, and Vinnie Jones is always weirdly watchable.
As the woman who introduced me to Lissa Evans I always trust your book reviews Esther! I’ve just finished All the Fun of the Fair by Caroline Hulse and bloody loved it (I pretty much love all novels about funny teenagers growing up in dysfunctional families in the 80s/90s)
I am dying to see masters of the air - I adored band of brothers and Memphis belle.