Just make sure you can live with the consequences of your decision. It is up to you whether you refuse to compromise your vision, and thus run the risk of your career facing a potentially fatal setback, or accede to their requests. Publishing is an industry, and industries want to make money (although kudos and credibility in the form of prizes or critical acclaim from the intelligentsia form a lesser part of the equation). Your agent and publisher will usually look at your labour of love with an eye on what is right for the market, not what is right for your vision.
![apocalypse cow script apocalypse cow script](https://64.media.tumblr.com/328a09962b63eab63b421dfa6953be0b/tumblr_okod9hcFEi1tbkdqco1_500.jpg)
As an artist working in a commercially driven industry, you could face an uncomfortable choice. You may have to compromise to gain commercial success. While it is better to be published than not, choose your first book wisely: it may define the next 20 years of your career.Ģ. If you give them something totally new, there is a strong chance they will turn their noses up at it even if it is staggering work of heartbreaking genius. In the words of one big publisher, they want ‘the same but different’ for subsequent works.
![apocalypse cow script apocalypse cow script](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5e/88/2a/5e882a97b0214496fa2919b494ef07a2.jpg)
If your first novel is crime, that is what your agent and publisher will want you to deliver again in order to keep any readers you have hooked. Most publishers will think you are just a spanner if you do this (Americans: please do not hold this very British joke against me, and accept this definition).
![apocalypse cow script apocalypse cow script](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/1e/a2/24/1ea224c33d6cfc5182805fda7c922cea.jpg)
You may see yourself as a genre-spanner who dabbles in whatever takes your fancy. Your first book often defines your career.