That should read MOST publishers, since at the moment we offer a pretty substantial report, if the author asks for it and pays us a very modest fee. To my knowledge, we’re the only publisher in the UK who offers a paid-for feedback service.
And probably MOST submissions too, since one which is currently lying on my desk came with copies of half-page rejection letters from three editors. Creative writing tutors are keen to point out the different ‘levels’ of rejection: printed rejection slip, printed rejection slip with brief note from editor, individual letter from editor, individual letter from editor inviting further submissions, individual letter from editor with feedback (always brief) explaining why manuscript almost made it but still is being rejected. I don’t count exchange of letters with editor culminating in ‘sorry, I lost the vote in the commissioning meeting’ – that one’s too heartbreaking.
But mostly publishers don’t give feedback. Here’s why Crème de la Crime is giving some serious thought to dropping its unique paid-for service.
1. The guy who disagreed with the feedback and phoned three times to bend my ear about it.
2. The (other) guy who disagreed with the feedback and sent four (badly spelled) e-mails demanding his money back ‘or else!’.
3. The various people who rewrite the extract and resubmit it, having completely ignored (or missed) the main point the feedback was making.
4. The several people a year who resubmit an extract two or three times, asking for new feedback every time. See 10 below if it’s not obvious why this is unacceptable.
5. The people who phone ahead, and tell me the tragic story of their life as a way of convincing me that their novel deserves feedback for no fee. I’m deeply sympathetic, but hey, we’re running a business here.
6. The suspicious people who demand to know the credentials of the editor who will provide the feedback. Isn’t it enough that she’s an editor working for a publishing company?
7. The other suspicious people who demand, a week after the date on the submission, to know why their cheque has been banked and they haven’t received their feedback yet.
8. The people whose manuscripts are single-spaced in faded ink and 10-point typeface. This is not a good way to persuade an editor to read your manuscript, even if you’ve paid for feedback.
9. The people who ask for feedback on manuscripts which don’t fit our criteria at all – showing that either they haven’t read the guidelines, or they are cynically using us as a cheap appraisal service.
But mainly 10 - because it rarely takes less than an hour and a half to read, think about and write a 500-word report on a 10,000-word extract, and we only charge £25. Some professional appraisal services charge £200 or more for feedback on the first 10,000 words of a novel, and provide no more than a couple of hundred words; in one case I came across, a three-line paragraph.
To give it another perspective: the mechanic who serviced my car a few weeks ago charges an hourly rate of £48, and the accountant who prepares our annual profit and loss account costs us close to double that.
To a small publisher who has to be marketing and production departments as well as editorial, an hour and a half is thirty pages of copy-editing or proofreading, three press releases, planning a book launch, or an awful lot of e-mail answering and general admin.
So even though most authors accept the constructive criticism with good grace, or at least dignified silence, I have to ask myself if it’s time well spent.
