Top French publishing house asks would-be writers to stop sending manuscripts

[Klaralven]

Stop sending us your manuscripts! That’s the message that French publishing house Gallimard sent out to would-be authors in April, after receiving a deluge of submissions.

Gallimard, known for publishing Marcel Proust, Simone de Beauvoir and Albert Camus, wrote politely on its website and on Twitter: “Given the exceptional circumstances, we ask you to defer sending your manuscripts. Take care of yourselves and happy reading.”


Successive Covid-19 lockdowns in France have given budding writers the time to finally work on that idea for a novel or to polish up an old manuscript languishing in a drawer. As a result, publishers are overwhelmed. Before the pandemic, Gallimard received around 30 manuscripts a day; now they receive around 50.

Gallimard isn’t the only French publisher facing an uptick in submissions. Publisher Seuil normally receives around 3,500 manuscripts a year. In the first three months of 2021, it had already received 1,200.

https://www.france24.com/en/france/20210411-top-french-publishing-house-asks-would-be-writers-to-stop-sending-manuscripts

[blogslug]

1. Ha!

I'll use that as my excuse for why I haven't finished the thing I'm writing.

[SWBTATTReg]

2. Not surprised. I've always made a joke about everybody being a songwriter, or an author, or a ...

singer, or a ..., you fill in the blank.

What some don't realize, IMHO, is that the reality of one's script, or song, or etc., being a one hit wonder (or more), is probably like the odds in winning a lottery. Next to zero. There are already tens of thousands of artists, tens of thousands of song writers, singers, authors, etc., who are all busily writing their next song, next book, next etc.

And, of course you have all of the reality TV shows, such as America's got Talent, etc., which literally pump out 'stars' every six months (what ever the time frame that AGT airs). So more are added to the mix on an ongoing basis. It'll get to the point that the markets will be flooded, thus in effect, hurting the entire market for these types of things.

[mainer]

3. The pandemic has made writers everywhere productive

I wrote 2 novels and one screenplay while in isolation. Talking to other writers, I'm hearing similar things.