Re: Sturgeon's law

But most of an author's work is consigned to the rubbish bin before it 
gets near a publisher -- or should be. And the publisher's only 'filter' 
apart from the author's record seems to be 'is it like one of last 
year's best-sellers?' -- which accounts for why most novels are 
unsuccessful. I remember being struck by the fact that even Henry James 
novels have been out of print for many decades.

For a discussion of how well publishers perform their sole important 
fnction, see On the Survival of Rats in the Slush Pile by Michael Allen at

http://www.kingsfieldpublications.co.uk/rats.pdf

-- a few years old now but still highly relevant.

Jon.

Daniel P. B. Smith wrote:
>> "90% of everything is crap." -  Theodore Sturgeon
>>     
>
> But isn't it wonderful that nobody agrees on _which_ 90% it is?
>
>   
>> Sturgeon's law applies to pulp fiction, romance, sf and all the other
>> genres equally well.
>>     
>
> I think the context of the remark was a defense of the science- 
> fiction genre from a charge that so much of it was bad, and I think  
> Sturgeon really meant it to apply to "everything," not just genre  
> writing.
>
> As a Jack London fan, let me say that IMHO about 90% of Jack London  
> is crap. 90% of Dickens is crap. 90% of Mark Twain is crap. Oh, I  
> suppose if you were to pin me down I might say maybe only 75% of  
> these writers' output descended to the level of true feculence.

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