Book-world commentator Michael Allen has a reputation for revealing the painful truth about writing and publishing. In his latest extended essay, Allen uses the ideas of the mathematician-philosopher Nassim Nicholas Taleb to demonstrate that success for writers and publishers is governed by randomness (chance) to a far greater extent than is generally realised. This creates serious problems for those who work in the book trade. Allen therefore goes on to outline some practical strategies which can be employed by writers, agents, and publishers; these strategies naturally cannot guarantee success, but they may help book-trade participants to survive in an increasingly turbulent environment.
Download details: On the Survival of Rats in the Slush Pile is being made available as a PDF file, free of charge, to anyone who wishes to read it. The best way to proceed is to RIGHT click on the DOWNLOAD link above. You can then left click ‘Save target as...’ and download the file to your desktop while you do something else. The download should take about 2 minutes on a 56K connection. Once it is complete, you can click on the icon to open the file as usual. The most convenient way to read the essay is to print it out on paper. You may also, if you wish, send a copy of the PDF file to any friend who might be interested.
