I was reminded today about P. G. Wodehouse, the creator of the Jeeves character. When I was a kid in school, we were always assigned to read these intolerably boring novels, like Moby Dick, and Heart of Darkness, etc. I always thought I hated reading, because this is the only crap I was ever given to read, until I happened upon a bit of playful prose by P. G. Wodehouse at someone’s summer house.
This guy’s writing style was so light and bouncy, it didn’t even seem like literature. It seemed more like a fanciful jaunt down silliness lane, and I loved it! That’s why they never recommend his books in school: kids might enjoy reading then, and we can’t allow that! Then, nobody would get to complain about the school system, etc. (Remember, solving problems is bad for politicians, as they can’t point fingers as much!) Actually, I think the truth is even worse than that: most adults think that when kids have fun, it’s bad; and so they make sure they never get to enjoy learning, because it makes it seem like a vice. (I think we have religion to thank for this, mainly. And I’m not anti-religion, either. But you must admit that fun = guilt = evil, in most religions, and I think this is counter-productive.) Also, adult tastes are very different from kid tastes: that’s why adults don’t drink from juice boxes, and kids don’t watch Masterpiece Theater: and if they don’t even want to watch it, why would they want to read it?
But one of things about P. G. Wodehouse I’ll never forget is something you won’t find on his Wikipedia page (surprisingly!). It has to do with his name as credited on his books: when I was a fan of the Jeeves & Wooster programs on PBS in the 90s, they had a little spot about him, and they talked about how he got signed up with a publisher. Well, apparently, he submitted his work as his regular name, and everybody rejected it. Then, someone at a publisher said something about how everybody who was hot had two initials, and so he resubmitted his work as “P. G. Wodehouse”, whereupon it was instantly snatched up as the best thing since sliced bread. (Actually, did they even have sliced bread in 1916? Oh, never mind…)
But this issue has come up again and again. Apparently, Blue Oyster Cult submitted a recording to record companies as some other name, and they were told it was unmarketable, so they changed their name to “Blue Oyster Cult”, resubmitted the same recording, whereupon they were told it was great, and they got signed up! So basically, it comes down to branding, and fashion. You have to attract people to care before they will even give you a chance.
Think of it like fashionable clothes at any given era. Say you went to try to get hired as a hot actress now somewhere, but you wore high-waisted jeans from the 1980s. Nobody would even give you the time of day, I’ll bet. It’s not even about you yet: you simply have to fit in first, and then you can stand out afterwards. But you can’t even be considered until you strike their fancy, and most of that comes down to branding and style.
And there’s this: any writer who has been rejected by everyone must consider this before they give up and say their stuff won’t work: practically every big thing was rejected by everyone before it broke big. Just look at Harry Potter: everyone rejected that first. And how about the movie A Nightmare on Elm Street: everyone rejected that one, too. It’s like everyone is locked in mentally by whatever is popular at any given moment, and they can’t see beyond the current fad. After all, everyone was surprised when the Guitar Hero/Rock Band video game fad ended, and it left tons of games collecting dust on the shelves. And what replaced it as the next big thing? Angry Birds. So you just never know what’s coming next. That’s why publishers, agents, etc., ought to look for quality, rather than clones.
