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There Is More than One Way to Become a Bestselling Author

© Deborah Cannon

Once upon a time, an aspiring author wrote a manuscript, submitted it to an agent who submitted it a publishing house who accepted it or rejected it based on the support and opinion of a single reviewer. If the talent was there, the work was accepted, and assigned to an editor who helped revise the book to publishing standards. Those days are past. "If the plot is strong enough or the characters engaging enough, the manuscript is signed up - potential be damned," say editors Renni Browne and Dave King. "If the fiction technique seems amateurish, or the plot doesn't hold the reader from page one to the end, or the characters don't stay in the mind after you close the book, the manuscript is rejected - potential be damned."

Even more devastating is the change that has overtaken the administration of publishing houses. Like every other business, publishing has been downsized, restructured and bottom lined. To get mass distribution, you need to sign with a big publisher. At one time there were many to choose from. "Today," says bestselling mystery writer Carolyn Wheat in her book HOW TO WRITE KILLER FICTION, "a few mega-houses in New York City use imprints that make it appear as if there are twenty to thirty big publishers, when the truth is there are fewer than ten." The Bertelsmann Book Group owns Random House, Ballantine, Fawcett, Bantam Doubleday Dell, Crown Books and Knopf. New American Library owns Signet, Onyx, Signet Classics, Mentor and Roc books.

In the old days, when your agent submitted your book to, say, Random House, if the editor turned her down, she resubmitted to Bantam. If they declined, she moved on to Ballantine. She might even query several editors at once, hoping to start a bidding war. But no more. Now an agent must choose the best imprint within the corporate giant and pitch hard, because no bidding war will occur between editors paid by the same big house. This happened to my manuscript THE RAVEN'S POOL. My agent submitted it to HarperCollins and when they declined, she couldn't submit to any of the other big publishers that fell under the same corporate umbrella. The same thing occurred when it was submitted to Signet Books.

What does this mean for today's authors? There is more than one way to get published and get mass market distribution. The first of course is to look for the right agent and wait it out as she submits to each publisher - the top ten first - before approaching medium sized and small publishers. There is nothing wrong with small publishers, but they lack the resources for mass marketing. Obtaining an agent is the way most authors succeed. A recent bestseller is Ian Caldwell's and Dustin Thomason's RULE OF FOUR, which now rivals the blockbuster THE DA VINCI CODE. These two writers braved rejection, revision and re-submission before signing with their New York agent.

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