Why It's VITAL To Remember That Big Publishers And Their Sales Departments Always Know Best
Thoughts from someone who knows...
What I always make sure I remember as a writer is that big publishers and their sales departments know exactly what they’re talking about and know more about the world than literally anyone else. A big publisher told me it wouldn’t take one of my books, which was about animals, and said some quite insulting things about it and that animals were “over”. Then in an act of appalling disobedience I went ahead and published the book and - because animals weren’t over quite yet and still had maybe a week or two left - it became a Sunday Times top ten bestseller and lifted me out of a hole, financially speaking, but while it was happening I was sure never to forget that, despite my change of fortunes and suddenly being able to eat better food and afford to run a car again and being not quite so utterly terrified about money as I had been in the deepest coldest depths of the night, big publishers and their sales departments knew best, and I am still not naive enough to make the mistake of thinking otherwise. After that book I have gone on to publish several other, much weirder less easily categorisable books, all of which are exactly the books I used to meekly ask big publishers and their sales department for permission to write before being told by big publishers and their sales departments that no way on earth could I have permission because the books were far too weird and niche and had no “journey” and weren't like other books and also why wasn’t I on TV because that would obviously add a greater layer of quality and depth to the books - plus that there was no chance of doing the most important thing, which was getting the books into supermarkets, where they could sit on the shelves nearby the vacuum-packed animals that, as that one big publisher had so accurately predicted, could be seen to be verifiably “over”. Lots of people have told me they loved these weirder books, and - even though most people have never heard of them or, as the big publishers warned, don’t give a f*** about them - I have had enthusiastic messages about my books from other writers I admire, including William Boyd and Kate Atkinson and Stephen Fry, but I know every one of those people bar none was lying just to save my feelings, instead of telling me the truth, which is that my books are all worthless because I refuse to go on TV and don’t have celebrity friends and don’t “play the game” and don’t write real books whose shape and theme are officially sanctioned by big publishers and their sales departments. Despite this, I am continuing to write those weirder kind of books and I enjoy each one more, as it becomes more of a direct expression of who I am and further away from what I think a big publisher and its sales department might wish me to write and sometimes I get so lost in the process that it feels like the most pleasurable activity a human being can indulge in or at the very least one of the two or three most pleasurable. But I never EVER make the mistake of thinking that I am correct to write them or that I know better than big publishers and their sales departments, and I fully realise that when all is said and done and everything is added up and we find out which of us goes in the “good” or “bad” box, I will be reminded that if I had only listened to what big publishers and their sales departments said and done exactly what they advised I would have lived a proper, truly successful life widely approved of by others.
This is why - even though it’s hard work, and can be frustrating - I choose to publish like this.
I’m currently giving away signed copies of two of these weird books - which big publishers and their sales departments would probably warn you against - with every full annual subscription to my Substack. This offer applies wherever you happen to be in the world (I’ll email you for your address when I get news of your sub, then send you Villager and one of the others, plus a piece of my mum’s art if I still have any left). I’m doing this, even though it’s expensive, because I’d rather word of my books got out via readers who’ve connected to them, than via some of the other things that get books out into the world that I don’t like doing.
Oh, I also posted this cat thing yesterday, but didn’t do it as a newsletter, as I didn't want to bombard people’s inboxes any more than I already had this week, but now here I am bombarding you anyway by sending this thing above about big publishers, but I thought maybe it was more important that people were told that big publishers are always right in whatever they do (people generally already know that cats are always right in whatever they do).
I will also add to the above that the same mainstream publisher mentioned early in the piece also once "forgot" to pay me quite a large (for me) chunk of royalties and would have - I suspect - continued to forget if I hadn't got in touch to ask them why the royalties were missing. I am sure it was a totally forgivable oversight. The mainstream publisher probably didn't think either my books or paying the following month's rent was very important to me. Whatever the case, I am sure it was right to do what it did.
I’m so glad you were disobedient because it means I get to enjoy these extremely unpopular books that I, in no way, recommend to my friends and family because they couldn’t possibly like anything that goes against what the big publishers have deemed popular.