BS Murthy
2025
In order to penetrate the book market, the publishers came up with the stratagem of promotional campaigns bringing authors into the media fore. This insensibly glamourized authors thereby attracting the aliens into the arena of writing though publicizing the book is one thing and promoting the author is another. Not to miss out on the new openings in the book trade, some of the opportunists in the west came up with courses in creative writing for aspiring authors thereby putting art on the assembly line and successfully at that! The net result is not hard to imagine what with everyone throwing his tailored manuscript into the publishing ring. And to cope up with the author rush that they helped create, the publishers would need an army of editors, which of course, the economics of publishing wouldn’t permit. The corollary is the need to offload. It’s thus, the newfound job work opportunity in book manufacturing created the species of literary agents. Thus, the literary agent took it upon themselves to sort out the publishers’ mail and the face of book publishing assumed a new dimension. The editorial judgment of yore gave way to the phenomenon of influence peddling as the editors conceded their literary ground to literary agents. While the system bred laziness in the editorial department is empowered the agent who could well boast that getting his mod is a good as being published! After all, the agents are aware of their ability to make the editors lean towards the manuscripts they canvass for. One could imagine the scope of the trade what with hundreds of thousands of manuscripts making the rounds. It is but natural that a spurious agent would surface sooner than later to fleece the gullible writers. In spite of the individual’s causalities, the agent system seems to work well in the western mass publishing industry.
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