Classic error

Two anonymous publishers, on their way to the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival, reply to a wannabe author’s claims that “major publishers can’t recognise great literature”, after he submitted loosely disguised chapters of Jane Austen novels, that were rejected. Neither of us, thank God, were sent these manuscripts but both of us would have recognised Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey. We each get more than 1,000 unsolicited manuscripts a month and can’t reply to everyone. There is no indication of how this manuscript came in: was it by e-mail, was it bound, was it double-spaced? All these things make an enormous difference.

Plagiarism is a tricky business and we would not have said “You’ve obviously copied Jane Austen” because you could get into big trouble for making false accusations. We would be much more likely to say “Not for us” rather than engage in a correspondence about whether it has been plagiarised. Having said that, we were impressed by one reply, from an editor at Cape, which openly acknowledged the plagiarism.

It is difficult to get published as an unknown author. Between us we have worked in publishing for 30 years and in all that time have published only four or five unsolicited manuscripts. But take advice from the professionals and you won’t need to resort to elaborate hoaxes like this.

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