Argument134 07—10G同主题写作第8期

pinuoUID: 2328081

Syllabus:
1.       并不一定要找小的不知名的publisher
1>     大的publisher 判断是不是marketable并不一定是根据以前的sales record来的，如果他们的作品足够attractive，有预见的市场,也可能被录用。
2>     如果不够excellent和attractive，small presses 也不一定会用new writer的work。
3>     即使用了，小的publisher并不能使他们有足够的sales record
2.       more people读并不一定就marketable，如果都是低层次的人读，或un-mainstream的reader
3.       即使一半以上的都是first-time的作者写的，也可能是其中最不marketable的部分作品，可能first-time在mystery novel中的写作的reputation并不好，这样并不会有很多publisher愿意要他们的作品
4.       即使mystery作品的市场在expanding，并不能说明publishers会增加number of mystery novels，因为还有其他因素，如publish的风格，如一直是poem或prose，有自己的特色


TOPIC: ARGUMENT134 - The following was taken from a guide for aspiring writers.

"New writers usually cannot convince large, prestigious publishers that their work is marketable, so they must first publish with smaller, less well-known presses to establish a sales record. But the editors of Mystery Writers Magazine have good news for aspiring writers: the number of mystery novels published in the last two years has grown significantly, and more people read mysteries than any other type of novel. In addition, almost half of the mystery novels published last year were written by first-time novel writers. Since there is apparently an expanding market for mystery novels, all publishers will want to increase the number of mystery novels they publish. Therefore, new writers should write mystery novels to increase their chances for first-time publication with a larger, prestigious company."

WORDS: 482          TIME: 00:32:25          DATE: 2007-8-24 20:49:06

The author, in a guide, recommended that the new writer should write mystery novels in order to increase their chance to publish their first-time publication with a larger, prestigious publisher for two reasons. First, there is mystery novel will be more marketable and half of the mystery novel published last year and half were written by first-time novel writers, Second, it is always hard for new writes to publish their work with large, prestigious company. The recommendation is problematic in several aspects, thus rend it unconvincing as it stands.

First of all, it may be not a reasonable choice for new writers to publish their first work with a small, less well-know presses merely to establish a sales record. At the first place, their first work will perhaps be objected by the small and less-know press if the works turns out to be a unqualified one just as refused by the large and prestigious publishers. At the second place, even their work is published by the small press, it is highly unlikely they can establish a sales record if it is not a qualified work. Thus, the new writer should not be afraid of publish their work with large, prestigious publisher if their works are excellent.

In addition, as mentioned in the recommendation, more people read mysteries than any other type of novel cannot guarantee that mystery novel of new writers is marketable. First, it is highly possible the mystery novel readers are mostly the un-mainstream readers, who have little influence in publish market even they are a large part in all readers. Second, even assume that the mystery novel is popular and marketable as the author implicated, the author provide absolutely no evidence that the works of the new writers are popular and marketable though one out of every two mystery works were written by the new writers. It is entirely possible that all or most of the new writer's works is less marketable, thus their mystery wok will earn a negative reputation, and made it harder for them to continue publish mystery works.

Last but not the least, the author provide no evidence that the larger, prestigious company will want to increase the number of mystery novels merely because there is an obvious trend that mystery novel will be marketable. For most large publisher, which perhaps have a long history and a stable reader group, and therefore formed their special style, it will be hard for them to switch to mystery novels if they are used to public poem or prose. Thus the trend will exert little influence on the large publisher, and the recommendation will weaken.

In sum, to convince it is reasonable choice of new writer to write mystery novel and publish in large and prestigious company, the author need provide evidence that the new writer have to publish their work in small publisher rather than large one even they present excellent works. And the author also need to clearly present evidence that the mystery works of new writers are marketable as the work of experienced writers. To better asses the recommendation, I need the evidence that large publish company are willing to publish mystery novel if this kind of work is popular and marketable.

以前我们遵循的“不应该攻击作者给出背景”这一条，是不是在这个提纲中被推翻了呢?
我的理解：攻击的是New writers usually cannot convince large, prestigious publishers that their work is marketable, so they must first publish with smaller, less well-known presses to establish a sales record.这个推理，不是背景。“大的出版社不要新作家的作品因为他们的作品没有市场，则只能找小出版社”这个推理有问题。如果作品不好，大的出版社不要，则小的出版社也不会要；如果作品好，要了，因为影响小，也不一定会marketable，这样marketable就对作品的是否被接受影响不大了，作者要更多的考虑作品的质量。所以小出版社不是有抱负的新的作家的选择，而应当生产好的作品，选择大的有名的出版社。即只要好的作品就能被大的出版社接受。（好像不是很有说服力，是一种理解吧，等着大家拍）

结尾提纲：作者要明确说明对于新作家，写的一般的好的作品也只能找小出版社。
          同时说明，小作家的mystery novel是marketable的。
          同时说明，大的出版社会因为市场的变动而转而乐于接受mystery novel.