Dave Lassman's Online Journal
'Rejecting Jane'
‘PUBLISHING’ ARTICLE LOG
16 July 2006 Return from Greece after three and half years. Send out chapters of the novel ‘Freedom’s Temple,’ which I wrote while there, to several publishers and literary agents. Over the following weeks rejection letters from all recipients received back.
October 2006 Become involved with Jane Austen Regency World, through earlier association with Dave Baldock. Over a pint with Dave one night, while discussing my own unsuccessful attempt at getting published, come up with the idea of seeing how Jane Austen would have fared in today’s publishing world.
November 2006 The idea takes shape. The usual scenario for any would be author is to send a biography, synopsis and first two or three chapters of the novel. If an agent or publishers likes what they read, they then request the rest of the novel. This is what will happen in Jane’s case. Decide it would make a great article for Jane Austen’s Regency World (JARW).
5 December 2006 JARW editorial meeting today. Everyone is all for it, but there are concerns over possible legalities repercussions. No worries I say, what can they sue for - having someone show them up for being so bloody short-sighted? There is also discussion as to what books I am thinking of sending out, as they are so well-known. But are they? Certainly the films and the titles of the books have become world-famous, but have the books really been read by the different people in the publishing industry. Really, at the end of the day it comes down to whether or not real talent is spotted. Go-ahead given: deadline of 9th March 2007. This brings everything forward, but that is fine. The article will go out in the May issue, hopefully coinciding with the ITV Jane Austen season. It will be interesting to see when Northanger Abbey is going to be screened, as NA is one of the books that will be sent out.
6 December 2006 Any worries about possible ‘backlash’ in respect of being black-balled by the publishing industry for my own novel. A little perhaps, but sod it, who cares. If all goes well the publicity surrounding the article will be enough in itself to secure a publishing deal.
7 December 2006 Have decided to send three of the six books out. They will be Northanger Abbey, Persuasion and Pride & Prejudice.
21 JANUARY 2007 Have read through first three chapters of Northanger Abbey and changed names of main characters. Catherine Morland becomes Susan Maldorn, Allen - Arnell and Tilney to Filney. It is 22 pages in all. I have also dated the draft 16 December - Jane Austen’s birthday. The chapters will be sent out under the pseudonym Alison Laydee (A Laydee) in homage to Jane’s original moniker A.Lady, which she published Sense & Sensibility and Pride & Prejudice. Her return address for the obligatory SAE’s will be 40 Gay Street - address of the Jane
22 January 2007 Work on ‘Persuasion’. Calling this ‘The Watsons’, after Jane’s unfinished novel. Thought about calling the more obvious title of ‘The Elliots’, but wonder if this might be too much of a give away.
23 January 2007 Pride & Prejudice today. Change title to ‘First Impressions’, Jane’s original title for it. Change the Bennetts to the Barnetts and Neatherfield Park to Weatherfield Manor. Wonder if Sue (JARW editor) is right - that opening sentence is just too damn famous. We shall see.
28 January 2007 Have worked on the ‘Synopsis’ and letters for each book and send out first batch of publishing companies / literary agents today. This is for ‘Susan’ (aka Northanger Abbey).
08 February 2007 Have decided to move deadline from March to May. This means that the article will come out some in mid-July. This should be a good time for it to be taken up by the media, as there is not usually much news around this period.
20 February 2007 Collect first responses from Jane Austen Centre. Agents PFD are first to reject ‘Susan’. ‘Having considered your material’, they write in a letter dated 19th Feb, ‘we do not feel, sorry to say, sufficiently confident about being the right people to represent it successfully’. Mills & Boon acknowledge the receipt of ‘Susan’.
24 February 2007 Send out packages of ‘Persuasion’ under title of ‘The Watsons’.
28 February 2007 Send out packages of ‘Pride & Prejudice’ under title of ‘First Impressions’
06 March 2007 MacMillan reject ‘First Impressions’ with a standard letter. Bloomsbury reject ‘Susan’ saying they ‘read it with interest’, but were afraid they ‘didn’t feel the book was suited to our list.’
08 March 2007 MacMillan (again!) reject ‘The Watsons’, while literary agents Casarotto Ramsay reject Jane herself, saying they only represent writers of film or television.
13 March 2007 Gillon Aitken turn down the chance to represent Jane through reject ‘Susan’. The letter is signed by Billie Hope. Blake Friedmann turn down Jane through reject First Impressions. ‘In order to take on a new author, several of us here would need to be extremely enthusiastic about both the content and the writing style. I’m sorry to say we don’t feel that strongly about your work, but please do persevere.’
March 2007 Simon & Schuster and Hodder & Stoughton both reject ‘The Watsons’ Penguin, publishers of all Jane’s books in their classics series, reject ‘First Impressions’. ‘It seems like a really original and interesting read’, they say.
16 April 2007 Receive letter from Jonathan Cape. They have spotted ‘First Impressions’ as being ‘Pride & Prejudice’.
24 April 2007 Christopher Little turn down the chance to represent Jane with the following statement, ‘this is not for us I’m afraid as I am not confident of placing this material with a publisher’. The material in question being ‘Persuasion.’
May 2007 Article written and submitted for approval. The magazine is due out in mid-July.
04 July 2007 At the editorial meeting it is decided that we will ‘launch’ the magazine on Tuesday 17th July. The press release will go out the day before.
16 July 2007 Exactly a year since I returned from Greece. Spend the afternoon at the Jane Austen Centre sending out the press release. I would like to think it will be big news, but one never knows. I tell Dave B, however, that may well go glacier! No response all afternoon. Spend the last part taking the Festival programme to various outlets around Bath in torrential rain. First response to press release comes as I return home. Interview with Bath FM over the phone. It will be broadcast the following day.
17 July 2007 The magazine is now out. The response has been quiet - I am surprised a little, but one never knows how these things will work themselves out. The phone rings. It is a reporter from the Western Daily Press, a regional newspaper based in Bristol. They are running the story the following day and want a few more questions answered. Also arrange for photo to be taken at Jane Austen Centre. Apart from this, nothing. Am surprised, but one radio interview and a regional paper I guess isn’t too bad, although can’t help thinking the story was bigger than that.
18 July 2007 I buy the Western Daily Press and Bath Chronicle. WDP have a double page spread, while the Chron has half a page. Glad the local paper had it as well, as I had not heard anything from them. There is a chance that some other papers will pick it up, but as they all have had the press release it seems doubtful. Then all hell breaks loose. The Guardian, The Express and a news agency all want quotes and more information. It seems none of the writers have seen the press release. Send it over to all of them. ITV news then ring, they want to film an interview for that evening’s broadcast. They are late getting there, so it will go out the following day. We film at the Jane Austen Centre and up at the Royal Crescent. As we are finishing up, a reporter from The Times rings. They are running the story the following day as well.
19 July 2007 (5.24am) Can’t sleep, at least not since around 4.00am. Not sure what today will bring. Receive google alert through email. The Guardian story is on-line. Read it. From first brief look, several of the publishers seem to have been contacted and replied with much backtracking. Catch up on writing this journal. Am concerned that the magazine Jane Austen Regency World is not getting mentioned as much as I would have liked. Am plugging it, but cannot control what is written.
19 JULY 2007 (8.45am)
Walk to work. Find interview request for Radio Four ‘Today’ programme on voice-mail. I ring number but programme is about to finish. Find out later though that the story was mentioned by John Humpreys and he had ‘a good laugh’. Also later find a request for BBC World Service, but again too late. It has gone National though.
The Times runs a big piece, as do the Guardian. The Express, Sun, Mirror and most the other dailies run it. The rest of the day is crazy. This is what I dreamed of sitting in that pub back in October, when I first mooted the idea. Even I can’t really believe it has happened though.
The phone calls come in thick and fast and I find myself finally having to take a half day’s leave from day job. I head down to the Jane Austen Centre. It is ‘madness’ there. ITN News are coming down later, BBC are on their way. Radio Four have phoned again, for a later programme. Interviews requests also come through email and include CNN - no! CNN!! That one kind of stops me in my tracks and tells me it is going global. I have been on various UK media, but never US. They want me to go to London the following morning. They are prepared to pay train fare and will pick me up by car from Paddington.
The rest of the day is spent doing various interviews, BBC 24 and ITN News for television, Radio Four PM programme, Radio Five Live, BBC Radio Scotland, Radio Europe, Morning Report (New Zealand) for radio and various newspapers interviews for the international press.
Manage to see myself on the local news and then ITN news at 10.30pm. It seems surreal, to be in the middle of a National news story, but then again, not that surreal. Finish my last interview at 1.00am.
20 JULY 2007
Wake at 5.00am after four hours sleep. Catch 6.15am train from Bath to London.
A message on my mobile is a request from Good Morning America for an interview. I get in touch. They are happy to do an interview in Bath, but I tell them I am on my way to London. They tell me to ring them after I finish CNN and they will send a car over! Reach London around 7.45am.
CNN car picks me up and takes me to studio. Wait around for about ten minutes before I am led into the live studio for an interview. I am thinking it will be sitting around on a sofa having a chat. It is not. I am sat down next to an interviewer (whose name I learn is Todd) behind an oval desk (ala newsreaders). He asks me a couple of questions between reading off his autocue. I go to speak but he shushes me with his hand and starts speaking. We are live on air. The main story is Harry Potter, but before I know it he turns to me and asks the first Jane Austen related question.
I cannot remember too much about it, only that he asks about my own novel being rejected. ‘Do you think,’ he says live on international television, ‘that the real reason your book was rejected was that it wasn’t much good?’ or something like that. Manage to fire on half-decent answer, at least one I was happy with it. Something along the lines of ‘well, of course it made me wonder and knocked my confidence, which is one of the reasons I did this ‘experiment’. The result of which has restored my confidence, as Jane was also rejected. Not that I’m comparing my writing to hers, but it shows it probably doesn’t depend on the quality of writing.’
I haven’t been able to see a tape of interview since, so I can’t remember exactly, although as I said, I was happy with my answer.
Before I know what’s happening, the interview is over, he shakes my hand, wishes me luck, and a crew member escorts me off set. If CNN was the only interview I would have been pretty cheesed off getting up that early, as I didn’t get a chance to show the magazine (tried, but he said no).
On reflection I realise it’s an experience I will remember for a long time; actually appearing on CNN! Ring Good Morning America and they send a car for me.
Go over to the buildings and am taken to a studio. This is thankfully a pre-recorded interview.
They suggest a little make-up and I agree, as during the CNN interview I saw myself on the monitor and I looked pale. The interview lasts around ten minutes. It is done by a woman called Carolyn. I get to plug the magazine, Festival, the Centre and my novel. They also shoot footage of the rejection letters, the front cover of my novel and the magazine cover. I am then taken to another studio where I record a taped interview for ABC news. It’s turning out to be quite a day. Look at me Ma! I’m on top of the world.
A car then begins to take me back to Paddington. The phone rings. It is the studio. They have missed filming one of the letters (The Jonathan Cape one) and so the car turns around and takes me back.
During the ride back I conduct an interview over the mobile with the Jewish Chronicle.
ABC shoots the letter and then the car takes me back to Paddington. I arrive back at the Centre around 2.30pm.
I record an interview for BBC Chinese Service; my voice is to be dubbed into Cantonese!
Finish up at the Centre and go home. Absolutely knackered, but tap my name into Google. The story has gone global and has been reproduced in newspapers throughout Europe and as far as Australia, Japan and India. I kinda thought it might be big, but not really THIS big.
I look up a few sites and then after a bottle of wine with the evening meal slumped into bed in the knowledge of a job well done.
21 JULY 2007 Browse through web-site. I have won the Blatant Self-Promotion of the Week Award from Lewis360 - a global PR Company. I send a comment back thanking them. Have received many, many emails from people congratulating my on my ‘expose’. They are gratifying in the fact I know I have a nerve. Not much mention in the Saturday papers. Harry Potter’s final instalment was published at midnight and that is the main literary story dominating the papers today.
22 JULY 2007 Expect to see stuff in the Sundays, but again, the Potter story dominates. Conduct live interview for a New Zealand radio station in the evening. Manage to plug everything again.
23 JULY 2007 I do a live lunchtime interview for News Talk, which is an Irish radio station.
24 JULY 2007 Day off!
25 JULY 2007
Live lunchtime interview for Radio Scotland discussion programme; this is also filmed by documentary crew making the film about the Festival. This is probably the last one on this story. Not bad coverage though. Get a kick out of seeing a Japanese site googled and all the writing is Japanese characters except David Lassman and Jane Austen.
|
| |||||