There's a good site for getting your book reviewed
http://www.youwriteon.com
agents and publishers read the top ten each month.
I found it a bit complicated but finally fathomed it out.
You have to review five other excerpts from novels before someone reviews yours
It's worth a try to get noticed anyhow
Quote: Griff @ August 11 2008, 7:55 AM BSTThere are very few bad books which get published. There are lots of books which aren't to my taste, but not many which are genuinely poorly written.
There shouldn't be any books published that are poorly written. There are plenty of proof readers, sub-editors and editors available to help the writer correct any badly written bits. 
Quote: Frankie Rage @ August 11 2008, 9:13 AM BSTThere shouldn't be any books published that are poorly written. There are plenty of proof readers, sub-editors and editors available to help the writer correct any badly written bits.
The trouble is some writers get too big to be edited.
Quote: zooo @ August 11 2008, 12:37 AM BSTHaving attempted 1. for a bit, I'm now trying 2.
I expect I'll go back to 1. again when that doesn't work either.
I reckon route No. 2 will work if you can come up with a sound sellable idea. I think that is the route our BSG friend Baumski has taken, for example, with his Shakespeare 'yoof speak' book - neat idea - attractive on the shelf - nice xmas stocking filler, you can see how a publisher would think and might go for that.. it has potential to move in volume if marketed well. You don't even need to read the book to see the obvious potential ..and as long as he's written it well, which I am sure he must have.. bingo!
Having got a success with a No. 2 you might be able to get your No. 1 stuff through!
Song writing is the same (unless you're a performer as well), to get your foot in the door you need a 'breakthrough song' that could be a hit for anybody. My foot was in the door once but I managed to pull it out all by myself and run off and hide. I have never been near the door again to knock. But I shall do so some time in the not too distant future, but it will be No. 2 material, written for a purpose and well targetted.
Quote: Marc P @ August 11 2008, 9:25 AM BSTThe trouble is some writers get too big to be edited.
J K Rowling?
Quote: Griff @ August 11 2008, 9:30 AM BSTYes, I've done my share of proof reading and copy editing (for technical manuals, not fiction). Although I am noticing more and more errors in fiction paperbacks these days as publishers cut back on these overheads. My point is that nobody gets published without their writing having some merit, however much some unpublished writers would like to believe this is the case. The obvious exception being things like ghost-written celebrity memoirs, but that's a different game anyway.
I think most people realise you need to be able to write well to get published. And writing well, at least to some extent is a craft which you can learn. The worry is more that you can write something of merit that doesn't get published because it's not commercially viable in the current market. I think unpublished writers are more concerned about that?
I think it's very hard for a writer to read their own work and know if it's REALLY 'any good' or not. And just because 500 publishers reject it doesn't mean it's not artistically a worthy piece. When you read about famous writers, they sometimes have had hundreds of rejection slips in their early days before they made a sale. And poor old Ken Barlow has BURNT his book in a fit of self-doubt when it may well have been a 'meisterwerk', and all because of Deidre! 
Quote: Frankie Rage @ August 11 2008, 9:33 AM BSTJ K Rowling?
I'd rather have her sitting on my lap than Russel T Davies!
Quote: Marc P @ August 11 2008, 9:56 AM BSTI'd rather have her sitting on my lap than Russel T Davies!
mmm me too!
But she's BIG!
I wonder how she reacts to being edited, or wouldn't they dare?
Quote: Griff @ August 11 2008, 9:34 AM BSTOr indeed, Giles Coren. Although he was absolutely correct to be cross with his sub-editors on that occasion.
Really?!
A shit joke taken out? Oh, no!
Coren is an insufferable arse.
Quote: Griff @ August 11 2008, 9:56 AM BSTMost sensible people realise you need to write well to be published. But you'd be amazed by the number of would-be writers I've spoken to who say "all the books that do get published are a load of shit why isn't mine boo hoo".
But yes, it's difficult to know whether your own writing has any merit or not. And luck has a lot to do with it, ie whether you've written something that people are looking to read at that time, or whether people are a bit tired of your type of book right now because there were a couple of big sellers along those lines last year.
Good points. I haven't met many 'book' writers. I have met other songwriters who think their songs are wonderful, and most have been pretty dire to my ears, ..well.. OK maybe, but average or mediocre, but those writers seem to hear something that is not there, because they remain too close to their own work I guess.
Also, in the pop music world, there have been some crappy songs sell a lot of copies because of the performer, but they don't sustain success for long though. Mediocre/average songwriters often pick out some crap song and say, 'well, that made it..' instead of comparing their own stuff to widely-accepted 'great songs'.
I have always been severely critical of my own writing efforts (maybe too severe) and have thrown about 99% of stuff away. After decades of writing songs (hundreds, a thousand, maybe more) I still only have about six songs under wraps that I would say could be commercially successful in any meaningful way.
..unless I had been prettier! pushier! or a better singer! or luckier! ..when younger.. We had a lotta fun though!!
Quote: Seefacts @ August 11 2008, 10:14 AM BSTReally?!
A shit joke taken out? Oh, no!
Coren is an insufferable arse.
Quote: Griff @ August 11 2008, 10:20 AM BSTThey didn't take the joke out, they altered the meaning of his sentence. It's not the job of sub-editors to change the meaning of your copy. They're there to correct facts (a wrong date, say) or typos or grammatical errors, or to trim the piece to a new length if needed. And all the other points he made about the rhythm of the final sentence being f**ked and so on were good ones too. I'm not saying he's T.S.Eliot, he's just A.N.Other journalist. But it was a crass piece of editing.
I thought it was a pompous and big-headed attack on the subs.
The joke was rubbish. His line didn't make sense if referring to food. Okay, should they have changed it . . . Well, yeah, it didn't make sense and it was a crass gag.
The thing with Coren is he's like his dad, but without the wit, intelligence or integrity.
Quote: Aaron @ August 11 2008, 10:24 AM BSThttps://www.comedy.co.uk/forums/thread/8336
Ohh, must have missed that thread!
Quote: Griff @ August 11 2008, 10:30 AM BSTI didn't say I liked the way he did it, or that I approved of it being made public. I said he was correct to be cross, and that remains my view.
His line did make sense, as it wasn't referring to food. I agree it wasn't
particularly funny."I can't think of a nicer place to sit this spring over a glass of rosé and watch the boys and girls in the street outside smiling gaily to each other, and wondering where to go for a nosh."
However the replacement line
"I can't think of a nicer place to sit this spring over a glass of rosé and watch the boys and girls in the street outside smiling gaily to each other, and wondering where to go for nosh."
really doesn't make sense.
"Go for nosh" means go for food.
"Go for a nosh" just means where to go to have your cock sucked. It's supposed to be a pun, but it doesn't quite scan.
Quote: Griff @ August 11 2008, 10:37 AM BSTYes. I did get that, thanks.
Oh, I know, I was just pointing out how I thought it didn't work. That joke is a crime against jokes.
I hate Coren more now since I woke up.
Probably for the best I missed that thread, we'd have fallen out again Griff!
Ah me, the finer points of a great piece of work being discussed at length in the hallowed cloisters of BSG! *lights pipe and eases slippers off*