I'm working on a book, an anthology of letters written in the period 1800 - 1840, and nearly all my reading right now is devoted to background research for the introductions which accompany each letter. I have over fifty, none of them in archives and many written by "ordinary people". The Word doc is approaching 80 000 words (plus pictures!) and thus long enough to allow me to remove weaker chapters.
I've had no luck so far in interesting agents or publishers. Below I introduce a letter from an author who had much more success than I am having; he doesn't take up many words so here he is with my rueful introduction:
Reverend John Platts 1825
Eccentric Characters Impostors Extraordinary Females
Some readers will be aware of a thriving industry
which in articles and books, on-line and in person, advises authors on the
procedures to follow and articles of faith to which they must subscribe should
they wish to transition from being writers to being published writers. All
agree that you should be able to complete an inordinately long
one-size-fits-all questionnaire without becoming facetious; Miss Austen’s
epistolary novel Lady Susan is not a competing work to your anthology of
Regency letters.
But how was one advised two hundred years ago? Seeking
patronage was one recommended route; paying the publisher another. The Reverend
John Platts has a different strategy comprising four easy to follow
steps: Step One: Provide a Title and
Table of Contents in Your Best Handwriting; Step Two: Puff Your Work (this
takes an entire sentence); Step Three: Flatter the Publisher (three words); Step Four: Name Your Price. He makes no
reference to his under-represented and marginalised position: he is a Unitarian
Minister, not a Trinitarian one, and he preaches in Doncaster.
Did it work?
Well, not with the publisher he is addressing, Messrs Harding, Leopard
& Co who appear to have had a very small list. But it worked with another
London publisher, Sherwood, Jones & Co, which brought out the work in
1825 and thus at most ten months after this letter was written. They must have
been keen. It may have been their idea to re-title it; the author imagined
it as The Wonders of Human Nature as Exemplified … but it was published
as A New Universal Biography, Containing Interesting Accounts ….
The work is a main reason why Platts (1775-1837) has a Wikipedia page. And the book is currently available in a choice of Print on Demand hardback or paperback. Shall I buy and reproduce one of the Interesting Accounts? It’s not necessary; the Reverend Platts’ letter can stand alone as the book’s teaser:
*
Transcription
Addressed to: Messrs Harding Leopard & Co
Booksellers Finsbury Square London
Datelined: Doncaster Feb. 22, 1825
Gentlemen I have a work, nearly completed, to dispose
of, of which the above is the table; I think it calculated to be a very popular
work. Is it at all suitable for your respectable house? If so, you shall have a
sight of it, if you desire it. It will form 2 vols. 8 vo.[octavo], the price £150 Rev J Platts Doncaster
*
