Just two more programmes to go in the current series of Phil the Shelf, and we're turning them into a double opportunity for new writers.
Shelfstarters, that is - the word I came up with to replace what we used to call Slushpile, the publishers' own contemptuous term for manuscripts sent in by the Great Unpublished.
Nowadays, it's all changing. Instead of ploughing through the thousands of pages stacked on their desks, publishers tend to look first at the self-published novels in the Amazon Kindle charts so they can see which books are already earning money.
It's all a bit cynical. It means that sloppily-written books can get picked up while worthier works are dismissed, because of comparatively poor sales. And, when a book's on offer at less than a quid, sales are easy to come by, especially if the author's well-off and has plenty of mates happy to give it rave five-star reviews.
We’re probably the only broadcasted book programme ever to offer an assessment service, and I did wonder, for a while, if Shelfstarters was even valid any more, now that anyone can be published at minimal expense. But, of course, it isn't really about getting your book published, not directly, anyway. What it's mainly about is finding out exactly what you're doing wrong. And most times that's something really obvious and easily corrected.
For anyone who hasn't heard it, this is what happens. You send us the first 25 pages of your novel, plus a one-page synopsis of the story. If we think it's worth a shot, we send it to a leading publisher's editor or a literary agent (some publishers won’t even look at an unsolicited manuscript if it hasn't been submitted by an agent) who comes on the programme to explain what's wrong with it.
Or - very occasionally - to ask for the rest of the book, with a view to publication.
Which leads inevitably to the question: how many Shelfstarters have actually found a publisher?
Well... fewer than we hoped, but more than you might think. It just rarely happens immediately. Only yesterday, I had an email from a writer in south east Wales whose police-procedural set in Catalonia came very close to being accepted by one of our publishers a couple of years ago.
He put the suggestions to good use, did some rewriting... and now he's been signed by a literary agent who thinks the book has a good chance of finding a major outlet. We'll keep you informed.
Shelfstarter M Stanford Smith, from north Wales, was picked up fairly quickly (in her 80s!) by Honno, the Welsh Women's Press, for a series of historical novels. A couple of other writers have eventually made it with different novels to the ones they sent us.
There's also the memorable case of a manuscript involving serious child cruelty which our expert dismissed as too revolting to publish. I recall telling the author afterwards that in my experience nothing was ever too revolting. And so it proved about a year later, when the controversial novel was lavishly publicised in several national papers.
So, whatever the reaction, having your work discussed on Phil the Shelf is never a waste of time. In Sunday's programme, we'll have two Shelfstarters and be looking, in some depth, at the art of writing a quality popular novel, with the very experienced Frances Fyfield.
Meanwhile, if you have a typescript under the bed, why not send it to us at
Shelfstarters,
Phil the Shelf,
BBC Radio Wales,
Llandaff,
Cardiff
CF5 2YQ
or simply email it to Shelfstarters@bbc.co.uk.
Worth a punt - really.
