William

The great change recently is that the power of the editor is much less than it used to be. It has to be backed by the marketing people, and they are not looking, I think, for necessary quality. They are looking for something which is going to—if marketed properly—sell lots of copies.

Cavern

If you are a new novelist, and if it happens that you’re already well-known as a journalist or television presenter, then publishers would be very interested in you because you already have a reputation in another area of the media .That actually benefits a very small number of new writers.

Steven

Twenty years ago, you could publish westerns, horror stories, crime books .Nowadays, you can’t really publish any westerns at all .Horror hardly sells unless it’s by the big name, such as Stephen King .Crime books do of course sell .They sell very well if you’re Ruth Rendell .If you’re Joe Bloggs, forget it .

Larry

From the writers’ understanding, one of the great problems is advertising and marketing-selling the books .As these giant publishers have got bigger, so they have a great need to have a few best-selling titles .And most authors feel that the publishing houses put all the advertising effort and money in the best-sellers .And so, for the rest, it’s sink or swim they don’t get much attention.

Matt

For a literary novel, however good it is, it’s always very difficult to know who you are going to aim at-literary editors or readers .If you want to aim it at the publishers, literary editors, of course you can write such a novel, but it may well be that such a novel doesn’t sell at all.

Now match each person (1～5) to the appropriate statement. Note: There are two extra statements.

Statements

1. William

A. Unless you have been successful in the media, you have almost no chance of success as a new writer.

2. Cavern

B. I don’t know who I should write for, editors or readers.

3. Steven

C. The publishing industry is as it was in the past.

4. Larry

D. People will publish books which sell well regardless of their quality.

5. Matt

E. You will be supported from the publishers only if they think your book will sell well.

F. Small publishing houses have little chance of competing against big ones.

G. It’s not possible to publish the kind of books that sold well two decades ago, unless it is written by a very famous writer.