Editors or Readers?

I had this idea recently and ran it past fellow writers. Most of them liked it, but others were skeptical. Here it is:

The editor of a traditional publishing house receives a manuscript submission of a really good story, but unfortunately, he thinks it would not sell well, so he rejects it. But what if he were to take the manuscript and run it past say 100 ordinary avid readers from different ages and backgrounds? If 90 of them say they love it, it makes sense that the editor accepts that manuscript. This would not only save good authors a lot of stress and heartache, but it would also give the publishing house a higher potential of printing the next great bestseller.

Now that you've seen the idea, let me show you the objections I had from some writers. Here goes:

QUALITY: Someone objected that, with the hundreds of thousands or probably millions of manuscripts that editors receive each year in the US alone, many of them dismal, this idea would not be feasible.

I addressed this concern by saying that only really good manuscripts should be subjected to this screening process. I don’t wanna believe that there are hundreds of thousands of such submissions each year.

COST: Someone observed that it would cost very much to get and pay 100 test readers from diverse backgrounds which would further hike up the price of the book when it finally gets released.

In response to this concern, one of those who supported my idea said that there are a lot of people like her who would absolutely love to volunteer for free to read such manuscripts and provide feedback. And I added that if you were to spend $50 or $100 on each test reader ($5,000 or $10,000 in all) and they agreed that you take on the manuscript… if the book makes record sales, say 100 or 200 million copies, would you remember that you spent that $5,000?

TIME: One respondent observed that this process would further increase the waiting time for publication.

Another respondent addressed this by suggesting that the test readers be given the synopsis or the first few chapters to see if they would love it enough to want to continue. And she also suggested that if you can’t find 100 new readers every time, you could keep a permanent 200 or 300 on a mailing list and you’d only need one human to send a bulk email or print it for posting by mail.

BUSINESS: Some respondents pointed out that publishers had a business to run and they had liberty to choose what would sell or not.

I countered this by saying that many bestsellers today were once rejected by many publishers. How does one tired and overstressed editor know what would sell or not? Is he one million readers in one? The smart thing to do in business is to take every opportunity you can grab and utilize it properly. And also, it’s all about the readers, not the editor. He wouldn’t be the one buying a million copies! Maybe publishing houses should hire more personnel?

We do know that publishers reject a lot of good manuscripts every time, either because they’re simply overstressed and can’t see opportunity staring them in the face or because they genuinely believe that such books would not sell really well. The truth, as we indies have found out, is that, with effective marketing (which every trad should be capable of), you can get your trash book on the bestseller list. I’m not saying traditional publishers should take on a piece of trash, but if such books could fly so high with indie marketing, why can’t a good book fly much higher with thousands of trad dollars behind it?

There are about 8 billion people in the world and you never truly know what they would like to read at any point in time, so who are you to think that you could decide what could be popular with them or not? This idea of mine would not only save talented authors the stress of moving from one publisher to the other, but it would also give publishers the chance to make more millions than ever.

Think of it, what are the chances, if E.L. had chosen to first go trad with 50 Shades of Grey, that she would have been accepted by the first six publishers? With the number of high-quality books that have been rejected, (like a respondent said) 50SOG would have been thrown out on its ass. She also said that my idea of a hundred or so test readers would take the decision-making powers out of the subjective hands of one editor and put it in the hands of the ACTUAL readers. After all, is it about the editor, or the readers?

Please feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you think.

PS: Let’s stop pretending that it’s normal for authors to wait or move from publisher to publisher with so much stress and anxiety. No matter how common or frequent it is, it doesn’t make it normal or fair, and neither should we accept it as such. Since I hate ‘formal’ writing, I’m yet to make the decision to go trad, but I’d like those who have made that decision to not feel much more stress in getting published than in writing what they want published.