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This was an interesting ruse: some Jane Austen aficionado sent only slightly modified copies of some of her works to publishers for publication. Only one of 18 caught the fact that these works were ripped off from Austen's works, and it doesn't appear that any of them accepted any of these works for publication. Austen scam exposes publishers' pride and prejudiceMakes me wonder - are publishers simply not well enough versed to know classic literature? Do they not know how to spot great literature when they see it? Or is the process for deciding which works get published simply flawed in some significant way?Or, we could take the questioning in another route. Perhaps the publishers weren't at fault, and instead the kinds of materials which were appropriate for the early-19th Century are truly not cutting enough for modern-day readers. Is this the case?
It's all about money. The major publishers won't publish a nobody unless their work is extremely marketable (like Harlequin romance garbage), or the author is already well known. When I was first trying to publish my book, I had several rejection letters that said they loved my book, but it wasn't what they wanted to publish or it they deemed it not marketable with their vendors etc….Vanity publishing was what I had to resort to, and in many ways, I'd prefer vanity publishing over the big outfits. Jane Austen probably would go that route too.
This might sound cynical, but the public is simple minded now days, they dont want Dickens, Hawthorne or even Hemingway or Steinbeck, so can you blame the publishers, they are only going to cater to what the market is demanding.
... public is simple minded now days, they dont want Dickens, Hawthorne or even Hemingway or Steinbeck, so... the publishers, they are only going to cater to what the market is demanding.
Thank goodness Harry Potter came along; sitcoms are 27 minutes long for a reason. Given that people are beginning to read longer books maybe we can get rid of reality TV and go back to things like Playhouse 90 and the like.Wally
