I can’t even get a Martian to read it

Another rejection, this time from The Martian writer Andy Weir. I interviewed him for a recent story and as is my wont, half the reason I did so was so I had a possible lead to get Falling some extra publicity.

But as is his wont (and probably more times than he’s had hot dinners now he’s successful because of his breakout hit), he emailed a single line back saying he was too busy with his writing to blurb or comment on other writers.

I don’t hold Weir any ill feeling, I’m sure it’s one of the worst things about becoming successful – being beseiged by wannabes like me who figure you can help them with their efforts to be as successful as you are. If I ever get there I might feel exactly the same and roll my eyes every time some bozo with a book that’s probably terrible asks me for help.

And it’s a very solid, almost scientific principle – the more successful someone is, the less chance you have of getting them to champion you. At the other end of the scale I recently sent Falling to about 40 email addresses I got off the Horror Writer’s Association list of websites and publications that review horror novels, and as you might expect they’re all very small and very niche, many of them just a guy, a website and a Gmail address who wouldn’t be any more effective getting publicity for the book than I already am. If a review in a major News Ltd daily paper can’t help, none of them can.

Still, all the big writers give cover quotes for some books so it is possible. I’m sure they all happen because of existing relationships at the top of the tree among the most well placed agents, publishers and writers, and to reach and breathe such rarified air you have to break out. How you break out without having anyone of influence to talk about you is a mystery that takes me right back to being a school leaver and going to job interviews where they want experience but never consider how you’re going to get anybody because nobody will give you a job.

Anyway, that’s all a long winded way of saying Falling is still languishing in obscurity and doesn’t have any more means to get out of it than it ever did.