Oh no, it isn’t: The truth about litfic in 2024, by a 2024 Selfies Finalist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCcRG2QBb_k

This post was inspired by a massive, even tidal, response to a writer’s tale of woe on Facebook.

To shorten the literary author’s — very long — post: it’s a conspiracy. The evil publishers — who would undoubtedly reject Thomas Hardy, were he alive today — are meanly denying contracts to great writers. Literary agents couldn’t care less about fine writing, either. Readers are being force-fed books aimed at the unintelligent.

In short, it was a fine old rant, and he probably felt very much better for it. The only trouble is that most of it is wrong — or maybe backwards.

It’s the lack of serious readers that’s making success harder for serious books. Publishers and agents merely like to eat and have this quaint, old-fashioned preference for having a roof over their heads. (They like to eat, in my experience, even more than most people.) This results in their pushing romance, thrillers, bodice-rippers etc. Which doesn’t mean that they like these books. Believe me, most agents come home from a day choosing which graphic novel is least awful or pretending inane levels of enthusiasm for some trashy series to crack open — in addition to that bottle of vintage wine — a volume by T. Hardy.

Overall, though, the popular demand — for literary fiction, I mean — just isn’t there. Hence the beaten-up livers of prominent publishers and agents.