is the bona fide name of a website. A refreshing marketing perspective, that. On there you can find this article by Danny Bernardi about finding a publisher for his Birmingham-set novel, Under The Rotunda. It's another "publishers are stupid" story, but it's worth saying again and again...

Here's the opening of the article:

"Love the story but why on earth have you set it in Birmingham of all places? No one wants to read a novel set in Birmingham!" my editor announced in despair. "Any chance you could set in London, preferably Islington?" she pleaded.

This conversation was repeated more times than I care to remember as my novel, Under the Rotunda, was undergoing the tortuous process of being written and rewritten at the behest of this London obsessed editor. There are, however, times as a writer when you just have to stand by your artistic principles whilst remaining aware that, in reality, such high-minded stances rarely pay the rent. Over the two years it took to write Under the Rotunda I was bluntly informed that I'd sell more copies if the book was set in London. Trouble was nobody seemed to understand that I didn't know the geography of London too well, having only ventured down there for meetings and interviews. Furthermore, as a native Brummie I wanted to write about my city and it's recent renaissance. I don't know whether it's possible to claim Birmingham is actually cool but it's probably safe to say it's cooler now than it ever has been and I wanted to shout (or at least speak loudly) about it. They always say you should write about what you know and as I've lived here all my life I do know about this place, warts and all. I've watched Birmingham transform itself from a dying conurbation, reliant upon manufacturing and heavy industry into a vibrant, service based economy where knowledge is the new currency. Furthermore, at the risk of sounding shallow (never a good trait for a writer) I'd got this snappy title, 'Under the Rotunda' and it rhymed! Under Big Ben or Under the London Eye didn't have quite the same ring.

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Posted by Chris to splinters: books, authors, literature, travel, politics at 10/13/2006 05:03:22 AM