When printing really got going anyone could be published and it wasn’t called vanity publishing, actually, not anyone but almost anyone. Then as the decades went by publishing houses developed and more decades went by until publishing houses were becoming more and more picky about the books they published.

At this point I’m going to step aside and apologise for not having much detail about the history of publishing. I have very sketchy ideas about it and don’t want to give you wrong information so I’m giving very little at all. I have tried to do some research with little luck. I could sign up for the Encyclopædia Britannica website but I don’t like giving my credit card details for a free trial, they wouldn’t charge much after the seven days but it’s the principle of the thing.

It’s now at the point where they want a surefire guarantee the book will sell well and make them lots of money. They’re not greedy. They want proven authors such as Robert Ludlum or Robert Jordan, or even Douglas Adams. If you’re not a proven author you can send in your manuscript via an agent who will often throw it away unless you’ve provided a reply paid envelope. The other method is to send your manuscript to lots of publishers who may put it in their slush pile and may eventually get around to looking at it. I’ve heard only three out of every 10,000 unsolicited manuscripts are published. I imagine the slush pile looking very similar to the pile of books in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury except without the fire, I do see lots of people wandering around the pile looking lost as they wonder which one they’ll pull out and read next. Will it be safe to pull this manuscript out or will it cause a bookalanche? Will it be my fingers that pulls out the manuscript that makes the whole pile tumble down and bury everyone? Will I be the one to pull out the gold manuscript so the publisher makes a mint and I get forgotten?

With this information in mind I was pleasantly surprised to read about a book which has been published without a lot of this happening and where some of the publishers hadn’t even read the book or even had it translated yet. This book by a mystery Chinese blogger looks set to be the best thing since sliced bread (I only use overused clichés) and it’s fabulous as no-one seems to know the name of the author. I liken it to Primary Colours by Anonymous which was later revealed to have been written by Joe Klein. I do hope this sees an increase in publishers taking a chance on unknown authors. I also hope she manages to retain her anonymity. I’ve read that it’s a fabulous romance story so I probably won’t be reading it, sorry about that.