After writing for most of my adult life, publishing fourteen books, and receiving wonderful reader reviews from all over the world -- especially America -- I have once again been rejected by a New Zealand publisher.
For some reason I have never been accepted by mainstream publishers in New Zealand who, unlike my readers, don't seem to see any value in genuine New Zealand fiction. The constant refrain is basically: 'You're a good writer, your book is wonderfully written, but we don't see any market in New Zealand for quality literature like this'.
This time it's my new novel Twice Upon a Time There Lived (see previous post below) about which Bateman Books said (by way of polite rejection): "While your writing is descriptive and evocative, we feel this novel is too niche and literary for our list. It’s also hard to sell a novel about an obsessive love between cousins to a New Zealand audience."
How do they know that?
