What sort of platform does a Rockefeller construct?If you're Ashley Prentice Norton, a descendant of the oil man, you'd be standing atop a solid platform and the likes of Bill Clegg would notice your manuscript.
Mrs. Norton has penned a novel about a wealthy Chicago heiress. She herself is a wealthy Chicago heiress.
It's the sort of novel that you'll see often, with well-placed writers putting themselves into their manuscripts and publishers snapping them up because the reading public wants the inside story on the lives of the rich and famous.
In Mrs. Norton's case, however, you can expect the writing to actually be good. Not only is she the daughter of writers, but she holds a master's in English.
The Chocolate Money sounds like the usual saga of money, power, sex and all the things you can only read about because you're lucky to have two dimes to rub together.
You're not living on the streets, either, and there you have it.
You have no story to tell about yourself because you're average, so you make up stories, but that's no sort of platform at all.
So you struggle to get your novel published.
No chance that you could marry well and make your life more interesting to a literary agent?
10 comments:
Not sure I agree with this assessment of publishing. If anything, I would think people are bored with the "Old Money" story and would much rather read about celebrity culture (now they have a platform to stand on)! And I do think publishers pick style over content in fiction. Maybe you should read her book before passing judgement on just why it was sold.
I've not seen much evidence that the public is bored with tales of the moneyed elite, who are celebrities on a different plane.
There's a market for the roman a clef. I don't need to read the book to be aware of what's selling.
Style has nothing to do with it. It's all about the author's platform, which sells copies and turns profits.
Ok, This is Ashley Norton. My friend told me about your blog and I must say it is far from true. Bill Clegg was interested in book 13 years ago, before learning about family connection. My relationship to JDR dates so far back as to be tenuous. It is not a roman a clef. I do not hang in those circles and am not disguising anyone's identity. Instead, I hang with my kids and am involved with their schools and other charities. Have you posted about Georgina Bloomberg's YA novel? Now that is a platform! Please delete mentions of me from your site if possible. Thank you, APN
Don't read YA actually.
While you believe you're downplaying the Rockefeller connection and the social position, your publisher isn't. It's not about you. It's business, and business is about selling product.
Well I hope you will read my book and post your thoughts then. IF you are writing something yourself, I wish you the best of luck. I am sure you have a platform yourself. It might not include a monied lineage (which makes me cringe) but must have other other interesting things that will catch the eye of publishers.
Ashley Norton
That's the problem, nothing interesting in my family background that would mean anything to an American publisher.
I will read your book when it's available at the public library. Maybe you'll prove to be the next Edith Wharton, chronicling the faults and foibles of the moneyed class.
T&C has now published an excerpt of "The Chocolate Money" by Ashley Norton. Having now read said excerpt, all I can say is that it not very well written, much more bitter than ironic, not funny nor revealing about the lives of uber-WASPS. Mrs. Norton claims that the novel is 80% fiction and 20% true; but being acquainted with both the author and her family, it is the reverse. "The Chocolate Money" appears to be a thinly veiled tell-all masquerading as a novel.
Time and sales figures will tell if the reading public approves of the novel.
How much is real and how much is fiction? That's a question that can generate buzz, which builds interest in the novel, which creates sales.
Personally, I think the novel is exceptionally well written and I like the voice of Bettina. I did like the fact it was written by "an heiress" but I didn't read the book jacket until I was done. I think who she is adds to the story, if only to give the settings and details weight. I also think that a book like this is hard to write, to maintain the narrative structure and develop the character through different relationships and experiences. It was painful, heartwrenching, smart and funny.
In publshing the line has really blurred between fiction and non-fiction and I think readers expect that, but I don't think she's been published on the basis of who she is, but what she's said. Not everyone gets a MFA from NYU after all, no matter how much $ you have.
Not every MFA from NYU gets published, either.
Publishing is a business, and authors with platforms fit more neatly into the business model. If Ms. Norton's ancestry were utterly unimportant to the marketing department, we would not have so much pre-release hype that touts her connection to the Rockefellers.
It doesn't mean she is not a talented writer. It means that she has something her publisher can use to promote her book, a something that has nothing to do with art or creative prose.
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