Ken has been a successful author, bookseller and publisher for over 60 years. Each month here he publishes a notes and advice on being a writer. You may find his experience and tips useful to writers in the modern day to achieve publication. The latest chapter is listed below. Missed a chapter? Click here: Chapter 1 - Bookshops | Chapter 2 Kinds of Fiction CHAPTER 3 Multiple Submissions When I began my writing career, the practise of submitting a work to more than one publisher at a time was seriously frowned upon. It was considered 'not the decent thing to do' and if one was discovered having done it, one could expect a strong complaint from one or more of the publishers treated in this way. And they had a point. They usually spent money obtaining a reader's report and if they made an offer on the basis of this report and were told that the book had gone to another publisher, then their money had been wasted. My first novel was submitted to the general division of a publishing house for which I had written an educational title. Within a month I received a polite note suggesting that perhaps I should concentrate on writing educational books. The second publisher I submitted the novel to acknowledged receipt of the mss within a week and within a month had sent me a copy of their reader's report, recommending that they should publish the book, which they did. For the next twenty years - during which time I used an agent - I had a further four novels published, all either initially accepted or rejected by the publishers they were submitted to within six weeks. Now, twenty years on, the situation is very different. The publisher to whom I first submitted my most recent novel, - a publisher who had had some success with a previous novel - kept it for eight months before rejecting it. The next publisher, who in a previous employment had edited one of my works and had now risen to the heights, informed me that she would love read it. That was nine months ago. And in spite of three polite reminders, I doubt if I am any nearer getting the book read. Accordingly, for the first time in my life I am now submitting the book simultaneously to any and all publishers prepared to read unsolicited fiction that does not come from an agent. I do not have an agent now - the dear man died a few years ago, and now I cannot even get my work read by another agent. What, I ask myself, is going on? The situation seems to be that nowadays publishing fiction, unless by a 'name' author - and how does one become a name if one cannot get one's work read? - is such a risky business that few publishers are even prepared to spend money obtaining reader's reports on submissions. All mss are read - if at all - in house by publishing executives who, it seems, are so over-worked that they have no time to read. They can't even find the time - or their P.A's can't - to acknowledge receipt of a mss by email - not a significant expense. The situation is aggravated by the fact that so few publishers will consider fiction, that those who do are, presumably, overwhelmed. The situation is further aggravated by the truly frightening number of people who are writing novels nowadays. Thousands are encouraged by creative writing courses of one kind and another to write novels, even though fewer are being published than fifty years ago. Word processing makes it easy to dash off a hundred thousand words, and, as a result, the hills are alive with the sound of mss thudding into the slush piles on publishers' desks. The situation is bad enough for all novelists, published or hopeful. For the so-called midlist author whose works do not fall into the airport or prize winning categories or are not in the fashionable genres of the decade - currently crime and to a declining extent, romance - the likelihood of being read by a publisher, let alone published, seems to be small. Another aspect the situation seems to be that publishers, at any level, no longer think it necessary to treat authors with basic courtesy. Publisher-author relations have often been fraught in the past, but I cannot help come to the conclusion that in recent years we have really become a nuisance factor. Our existence interferes with all the meetings publishers have to attend, promotional activities for their 'name' authors', lunches, dinners - everything, in fact, except reading works submitted to them. And we all know that editing standards are not what they used to be. At 80 years of age it isn't terribly important to me whether my latest novel gets published - and fiction writing has always been a hobby anyway - but to younger writers the situation must be little short of disastrous. They can't get an agent and even if they can find a publisher who will read unsolicited work, they can expect to wait nine months, if not longer, for a decision. What is the answer to our problem? Probably not self-publishing, either with Print on Demand or traditionally. It is hugely difficult to sell fiction without the support of a publisher's publicity and distribution machine. The same applies to e-books. They may be cheap to produce but they still require promotion. The answer seems to be either to write books other than fiction or to indulge in multiple submissions. If publishers don't like it, then they really have only themselves to blame. This way one at least increases one's chances of being read. And if one is read, there is a chance, small though it may be, that one may be published. To be continued....