Writers need 2 novels before a publisher is interested.

[Skeptic]

Is there any truth in a story I heard in a writer's club that publishers will only look at a writer's work if they know he/she has two or more novels written, (although not necessary published). The reasoning given was that 'everyone has at least one good story' but to be commercially viable the publishers expect a writer to be able to churn out future profits for them.
It kind of makes sense.

[snopes]

Originally Posted by Skeptic

Is there any truth in a story I heard in a writer's club that publishers will only look at a writer's work if they know he/she has two or more novels written, (although not necessary published). The reasoning given was that 'everyone has at least one good story' but to be commercially viable the publishers expect a writer to be able to churn out future profits for them. It kind of makes sense.

But not all writers are novelists, nor are novels the only profitable form of books.

- snopes

[Logoboros]

I can say in the world of literary fiction, this is not true -- though publishers certainly like to hear that you have something waiting in the wings (be it a short-story collection or a novel or what have you).

It may be different for some of the mass-market genre publishers who more interested in selling fantasy or sci-fi franchises and things like that.

--Logoboros

[TheAmazingRando]

I would assume that most people who have written and published novels have had a repertoire of smaller, unpublished, works prior. It isn't as though many people sit down and think "I've never written anything else, but I'm going to write a novel" and end up with something marketable (though I assume, technically, it's possible). Writing, like most other things, takes practice.

[Esprise Me]

There may be a publisher somewhere in the world with this rule, but the overwhelming number of published first novels in circulation seems to indicate that most publishers require only one.

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

That idea may have arisen because most novelists learn to write while working on the first book, so it isn't until the second novel that they write something publishable.

The first 500k words are crap, you know.

Seaboe

[Brad from Georgia]

It isn't true--but it is true that publishers like to find writers who have more than one story to tell. My editor tells me not to encourage people who "have put into a book the story of my grandmother and how she overcame adversity" because such folk generally can only write the one book. She says, "I don't buy books--I buy careers."

[Bad Ronald]

"I'm sorry Miss Lee, but unless you can show me the first 5000 words of Mockingbird 2: The Revenge of Boo Radley, I'm afraid that we can't do business."

[Ben_Who]

I've heard this offered as a bit of advice rather than a solid rule, but in twenty years of trying to break into the biz I've heard a lot of advice, much of it rather contradictory and perhaps about three percent of it actually helpful.

Now, when I first heard it, it was in regard to agents, the rationale being that an agent isn't going to be interested in a writer who doesn't plan on being in the job for the long haul. Not sure why a publisher would go this route; a profitable commodity is a profitable commodity whether your supplier only produces one or a hundred.

Love, Who?