Writing to sell

So, Sal Lombino settled into his new role under the guiding hand of Milton Lesser.

He was quickly introduced to the book Writing to Sell, written by Scott Meredith himself.

This was a guidebook describing the publishing business and offering advice on plotting, structure and preparing manuscripts that would appeal to the publishers and agencies.

The book was republished in every decade until the 1990s, and the 1974 edition featured an introduction from one Evan Hunter.

Whilst any burgeoning writer might have found Meredith's advice on plot and structure helpful, the book also served another purpose.

The readers at the agency were encouraged to refer to the volume in their responses to the manuscripts from wannabe writers.

This enabled the readers to minimise the amount of time they had to spend talking about the actual content of the submitted work in their rejection letters, and to encourage the author of the submission to buy their own copy of Writing to Sell.

If a manuscript was considered to be worthy of representation by the agency, then it was passed on to the pro desk, which was where Lombino ultimately found himself working.