http://www.multiverse.org/fora/showthread.php?t=12601
Many here probably knew about this anyway, but it's still interesting.
DW anecdote over at the Michael Moorcock page
Had to laugh on that one. I did a series of articles for Canal and Riverboat magazine, on the songs of the Navvies, and 19th century canals. When the seventh article was published,a new editor took over, and sent me a rejection note for my original idea, saying it was not right for themagazine! Give me streangth!. How many great writers have been turned down and ignored by the muppets in the publishing business. I wonder in this day and age if Wheatley was a new writer trying to break through, if he would self publish and sell on line?
A conservative like DW doing on line stuff? Doubt it...
We have had previous discussion here on what the content of DW's tales would be if he were writing today though... As usual I let my imagination soar off into the borders of faeryland with the Duke taking on Al Quida etc... Others, I recall, had more sensible suggestions.
Given DW's sparse, no-nonsense sale, I doubt he'd have had any trouble making the grade as a writer today. Of course, writing something publishable and getting it published aren't the same thing. A case of being in the right place at the right time, usually...
We have had previous discussion here on what the content of DW's tales would be if he were writing today though... As usual I let my imagination soar off into the borders of faeryland with the Duke taking on Al Quida etc... Others, I recall, had more sensible suggestions.
Given DW's sparse, no-nonsense sale, I doubt he'd have had any trouble making the grade as a writer today. Of course, writing something publishable and getting it published aren't the same thing. A case of being in the right place at the right time, usually...
I think this type of experiment could be done on a great many novelists today to similar effect, and it probably could have been done with many of Wheatley's peers, too. With the first few novels, writers tend to conform to what's already out there, to get published and to get into the pool; if they hit it big, as Wheatley did, they tend to loosen up and become more themselves. This sometimes leads to sloppiness or self-indulgence, but of course the power balance changes. If a publisher has a writer whose latest novel rehashes much of the ground of the last and could probably do with losing 300 pages, but it's his tenth million-seller in as many years, they're unlikely to want to rock the boat.
Wheatley promoted himself extremely effectively from the start, sending letters to everyone he knew and a few he didn't, visiting bookshops personally, and so on. That sort of thing is vital, perhaps even more so now. I think whatever age he had tried to make it in, his self-promotional abilities would have helped enormously.
Wheatley promoted himself extremely effectively from the start, sending letters to everyone he knew and a few he didn't, visiting bookshops personally, and so on. That sort of thing is vital, perhaps even more so now. I think whatever age he had tried to make it in, his self-promotional abilities would have helped enormously.
Re: DW anecdote over at the Michael Moorcock page
There's a similar story about the studio exec who, in the early 60s, took a Casablanca screenplay and put a fresh cover on it. Under the (original) title Everybody Goes to Rick's, it was sent around the studio, where it was almost unanimously panned as unworthy of production.Alan wrote:http://www.multiverse.org/fora/showthread.php?t=12601
Many here probably knew about this anyway, but it's still interesting.