It used to be easier ...

[Ray McCarthy]

I feel a very tongue in cheek comment

Fay Weldon looks back over changing times in the books industry

Getting a book published used to be so easy – those were the days! Sherwyn Sexton, the hero of my new novel, Before the War, gets his first book published by marrying a publisher’s ugly daughter since no one else will: a simple ploy which goes on to win him fame and fortune. Things are not so simple now.

Tank traps always stand between the author and his reader, laid by agents, commissioning editors, marketeers, Amazon sales figures, and so on. Life was easier when publishers didn’t ask for a synopsis, but simply read your novel (all of it: they had the time) and made a decision.