Thursday, December 4, 2014

"Get me rewrite!"

An Est Quod Est reader writes:

 

3 comments:

  1. And since this time I didn't get a windfall advance, I'm just going to have to suck it up about the Epstein–Barr and sit up straight at the table. Julie, please just close the door and tell the kids to shut up.

    -The Man From K Street

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  2. Alternate translation : rewrite needed because the publisher decided to turn this into "Dante for Young Adults".

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    Replies
    1. Good call. I have a friend who is a Catholic author whose son -- sort of amazingly -- wrote a book about St. Jude and had it published when he was 10 years old. Obviously dad helped broker the deal.

      In the course of the publishing contract negotiations about the manuscript, the author was asked if he wanted to make the book into a kid's "activity book" with connect the dots, word search, etc. He said "no way! I hate those books" and so they published the book the way he wanted it.

      From this anecdote, I am assuming it is easier to sell a book directed toward "young people" and seemingly the younger the better. Or maybe you can cut a lot of costs by churning out low quality paperbacks that are meant to be tossed.

      Let's hope the coloring book doesn't include Rodin sculptures since they have a lot of T&A which would be unsuitable for young students.

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