Bibliofile

But publishers haven't quite given up trying to beat down agents and their authors at this high-stakes gamble. With agents pushing up the bids ever higher, Macmillan has come out with a scheme that will enable them to fish for new writers without an agent's intervention. Its recently-launched New Writing list invites writers to send in manuscripts. If they are accepted, the publisher will pay no advance, only the usual 20 per cent of royalties from sales. Worse, if the MS needs editing, the writer will have to cough up the money to hire an editor. Sounds like vanity publishing? Many agents and writers (including advance-beneficiary Hari Kunzru) are crying foul. But Macmillan says it's been receiving over 200 manuscripts a month since the project started two months ago.

It's one of those literary riddles that no one has yet been able to solve: why is it that an author complains that a reviewer hasn't really read his book only when he gets a bad review?