Ruby Granger #28 What a depacle!

Sorry if this is a silly question but what does it mean by on submission spring 2022?

London_girl123 said:

Even if Ruby had this intention I doubt it was going to fly with an agent / potential publishers. A family friend who was a journalist got a book deal recently and her whole twitter became about her book, because her publisher told her it had to. Even if you have a minor online presence (she has around 1000 followers on twitter) you're expected to use it to push initial sales.

The only way would be to do like Jk Rowling with her crime series and send books off to agents / publishers under a pseudonym from the beginning.

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Yeah, it was obvious from the moment her agent was announced and they started pitching her book under Ruby’s fake YouTube name and her role as a Studytuber influencer was prominently highlighted that she was only signed for her name and questionable fame.

If she really took a stand and said she wasn't going to use that name or market her book using her social media platforms, her agent would drop her instantly. Not that her book will sell anyway, since influencer vanity books almost never do, and follower counts never translate to guaranteed sales, but Ruby would sell zero copies based on her writing alone, and her agent knows it.

rubysdeadfly said:

Sorry if this is a silly question but what does it mean by on submission spring 2022?

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Not a silly question at all. Going "on submission" means Ruby’s agent going to start trying to sell the book to a publisher. They pitch the book, send the manuscript off, a publisher might buy it, they might tell Ruby to go away, rewrite and come back another time, or they might just laugh hysterically for several weeks and say, "Hell no."

It may just be a coincidence but the Firebird (music she went to see yesterday) is the main characters favourite ballet in a YA book about a teenage ballerina that develops Anorexia. Pretty sure it was on Ruby's list of read books. Just thought I would point it out as it could be another ED thing she is trying to copy

Source: As a teen I had a bad ED and it was one of the books i constantly re-read as it is very triggering

Deeznutslol said:

Literally, where does this 9 year old even come into it? Is it her sister, her mate? I know blurbs are short but she is really giving us nothing there.
I know that tattle said it couldn’t be done, but just from reading that, I actually have a feeling that Ruby may have managed to write a book with a plotline more stupid and unbelievable than Erimenthol’s to do list

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I really hope it gets published, even if Ruby faces nothing but publisher rejection and dumps it onto Amazon. I can't wait for us to roast it. It sounds so tastless, so stupid and so predictable.

Like, the missing girl element was very clearly tacked on because Ruby skimmed a bunch of YA mysteries and copied a bunch of stuff in an attempt to make her book very marketable and commercial. But generally the missing person in those popcorn YA mysteries is in their late teens where they at least have some independence and agency and are able to fend for themselves off in the unknown. They're not a defenseless infant. That's just cruel and exploitative to write about in this kind of book.

And you just know that the 9 year-old kid will turn up alive, since nobody in their right mind is going to have a small child murdered in their book to teach a wealthy genius with a Peter Pan complex a lesson about productivity. What the fuck was her agent thinking signing this shit?

gossip_guy said:

Not a silly question at all. Going "on submission" means Ruby’s agent going to start trying to sell the book to a publisher. They pitch the book, send the manuscript off, a publisher might buy it, they might tell Ruby to go away, rewrite and come back another time, or they might just laugh hysterically for several weeks and say, "Hell no."

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Oh this is interesting - so if I understood that correctly, Ruby's agent (who must have nerves of steel to work with Ruby "I AM A WRITER" Granger lmao) has been trying to sell Ruby's book since spring - I wonder how long it usually takes to get a publisher to buy a book? Like what is the timeline here? Because it would be really funny if this just drags on for months and months without any results - and also, what did Ruby need to take the gap year for if the book is already finished and now it's just her agent contacting publishing companies? It doesn't exactly sound like this is a full-time job for Ruby at this point, so why again does she need to sit in her childhood bedroom for a year in order to become a WRITER? Couldn't she just take a job (wild idea, I know) or go solo travelling or sth while her agent does her thing? This whole writing gap year thing just doesn't make any sense to me.

London_girl123 said:

Even if Ruby had this intention I doubt it was going to fly with an agent / potential publishers. A family friend who was a journalist got a book deal recently and her whole twitter became about her book, because her publisher told her it had to. Even if you have a minor online presence (she has around 1000 followers on twitter) you're expected to use it to push initial sales.

The only way would be to do like Jk Rowling with her crime series and send books off to agents / publishers under a pseudonym from the beginning.

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Oh 100% but that more links in to the only reason her having the opportunity to publish a book being down to her position as an influencer. It's just disingenuous to say that you don't want YouTube to influence sales because she knows the only reason anyone will buy it is because it's written by her. If she acknowledged that, there would be zero issue.

I have read the blurb and there are a few things I don't understand.
1. Who exactly is Janey and why is it Lottie's fault that she has gone missing.
2. How do Janey and Lottie know each other as the blurb does not make this clear.
3. Janey and Lottie are not at the same school as Lottie is doing her GCSE's and Janey will be in Primary school. So, surely the book should be about two girls who are the same age or close to the same age and who are both in Secondary school.

FolderDuvet said:

I was just thinking about how much I've read this year, and it's really put into perspective how unimpressive Ruby's reading output is?

I bought my e-reader in April, and checking the stats I've read around 30 books in the 3 months I've had it (we'll give that as a lower limit.) Now, I don't think this is impressive. I don't really read much that I consider particularly challenging anymore. Steinbeck is what I'm currently tackling, am currently about a 1/3 of the way through Grapes of Wrath. Most of what I read is very pulpy (saga historical fiction novels for old ladies) or pop-nonfiction (ngl I love Ysenda Maxtone Graham, would not have found her without Ruby, also have been devouring Jennifer Worth's stuff.) I've also been a student, and hence have had ample time to fill with reading whatever shite takes my fancy.

But if you extrapolate my output, that's 60 books in 6 months (which I believe is realistic). I don't consider myself a bookworm like Ruby does, but the stuff she reads seems firmly on a similar level to what I read. Surely, for someone who loves reading as much as she does, that's a low output for that level of literature?

If we were talking more difficult to read and digest texts (Austen, Achebe, Dostoevsky, Joyce etc) 56 in 6 months would be incredibly impressive, but at the level we see it seems low for a literature student (esp with the corners she cuts to count it.)

I'm not sure if people have been following my revelations especially but I would like to thank everyone here for encouraging me to challenge my perception. It's certainly opened my eyes a bit.

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I suppose you have to bear in mind that she was in her final year of university so no doubt had plenty of coursework to complete. So there will have been a lot less "free" time to read.

I know during term-time, I did a lot less reading for pleasure than I would have liked, as there was always a deadline around the corner, so for me, 60 books would have been an incredible number.

I really enjoy reading, but I like to take my time with books to really engage with the material, and also take 2-3 days break before starting a new one to give myself time to really "digest" it and think about it, maybe read some reviews to see what others have thought of it and maybe throw in some non-fiction to cleanse the palate so to speak, before diving into a new world with new characters.

It's why I'd probably never do a readathon, unless maybe all the books were part of the same series, like A Song of Ice and Fire for example.

I don't have any yearly reading goals and I think it's something that would just make me tempted to choose shorter or easier books to hit the number (which is something we see Ruby do frequently), instead of spending a solid week on a really challenging read with 600+ pages.

GoinDowntown said:

I don't have any yearly reading goals and I think it's something that would just make me tempted to choose shorter or easier books to hit the number (which is something we see Ruby do frequently), instead of spending a solid week on a really challenging read with 600+ pages.

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You’ve just reminded me that I still have Mother Granger’s poetry book marked as read on my Goodreads, while War Special Operation and Peace languishes unfinished on the shelf

teflonpanda said:

Oh this is interesting - so if I understood that correctly, Ruby's agent (who must have nerves of steel to work with Ruby "I AM A WRITER" Granger lmao) has been trying to sell Ruby's book since spring - I wonder how long it usually takes to get a publisher to buy a book? Like what is the timeline here? Because it would be really funny if this just drags on for months and months without any results - and also, what did Ruby need to take the gap year for if the book is already finished and now it's just her agent contacting publishing companies? It doesn't exactly sound like this is a full-time job for Ruby at this point, so why again does she need to sit in her childhood bedroom for a year in order to become a WRITER? Couldn't she just take a job (wild idea, I know) or go solo travelling or sth while her agent does her thing? This whole writing gap year thing just doesn't make any sense to me.

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If the agent has been trying to sell Ruby's book to a publisher since the spring then why in Ruby's video titled A week in my life after University is she still working on the book that Lottie features in. This clearly shows that a publisher may not have been entirely happy with the book and may have suggested some improvements which to be fair it looks like Ruby was working on when she posted this video.

If it's been on submission from spring 2022 and she's currently editing it, it seems like she's had rejections and is having to revise it based on editor feedback. An agent can choose to first send to a select few editors, or can submit to around 20. If those few have rejected, sometimes an agent will suggest reworking it to see if it will be more successful afterwards.
Either it hasn't gone on submission and plans have changed since this was written, or she's been rejected. Some authors will get deals within two weeks or so, others can go on submission for months before getting an offer. For someone high-profile like Ruby, if it has gone on submission and there hasn't been an offer by now, it doesn't look good. It will be an issue with quality - big, fundamental problems with the manuscript.

Hannahebee said:

I have read the blurb and there are a few things I don't understand.
1. Who exactly is Janey and why is it Lottie's fault that she has gone missing.
2. How do Janey and Lottie know each other as the blurb does not make this clear.
3. Janey and Lottie are not at the same school as Lottie is doing her GCSE's and Janey will be in Primary school. So, surely the book should be about two girls who are the same age or close to the same age and who are both in Secondary school.

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Answers:

1. Ruby's an idiot.
2. Ruby's an idiot.
3. Ruby's an idiot.

The mystery hook should be "where did the missing person go?", not "who is the missing person, how did they go missing and how is the protagonist related to any of it?" This is what happens when someone who never reads and has no writing ability tries to write a mystery, or a novel in general: You get a flimsy mess of a plot, garnished with plot holes, tangential bullshit and unbelievable nonsense.

More concerning is that her professional agent couldn't write an elevator pitch that provided enough brief, clear information to hook a reader. It wouldn't have been hard to write: "16 year-old Lottie is a chronic overachiever struggling to stay on top of the academic ladder. When a young girl goes missing because Lottie was too busy copying her best friend Binkley's homework to focus on her babysitting duties, Lottie's entire world starts to unravel."

Instead their pitch is: "Lottie Porter is the most smartest and talented girl who ever lived. She's got a lot to do. She has GCSE work to stay on top of. Her step-dad is on holiday, which is relevant somehow. Oh, and a 9 year-old girl goes missing. Her name is Janey. This is all Lottie's fault. But it's mainly the GCSE thing that we need to worry about. Anyway, did I mention that Lottie could be a professional cleaner if she wanted to be? This is Ruby's first book ever, so don't go looking for any others, please! Erimentha who? We don't know her."

Hannahebee said:

I have read the blurb and there are a few things I don't understand.
1. Who exactly is Janey and why is it Lottie's fault that she has gone missing.
2. How do Janey and Lottie know each other as the blurb does not make this clear.
3. Janey and Lottie are not at the same school as Lottie is doing her GCSE's and Janey will be in Primary school. So, surely the book should be about two girls who are the same age or close to the same age and who are both in Secondary school.

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Tbf if you want to enjoy anything written by Ruby Granger, then you need to throw any sort of logical thinking or common sense like that out of the window before you even start mate

Based on what we know of Lottie who do you think would win in a fight? her or Erimenthol

Hannahebee said:

If the agent has been trying to sell Ruby's book to a publisher since the spring then why in Ruby's video titled A week in my life after University is she still working on the book that Lottie features in. This clearly shows that a publisher may not have been entirely happy with the book and may have suggested some improvements which to be fair it looks like Ruby was working on when she posted this video.
View attachment 1383495View attachment 1383501

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I'd wager that the "On Submission" date was a tentative date her agent put on the profile based on the ideal timescales before realising just how much of a mess the book was and how bad at editing Ruby is. If it's out on submission, I'd wager it only just happened. And if what she showed in her video was her final draft, then god help her.

rubysdeadfly said:

Based on what we know of Lottie who do you think would win in a fight? her or Erimenthol

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Erimenthol would win hands down, she has proven resistant to needle stabs while Lottie’s hands are bloody from too much washing and picking, she probably couldn’t take a decent swing. Plus she’s probably undereating.

rubysdeadfly said:

Based on what we know of Lottie who do you think would win in a fight? her or Erimenthol

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Erimentha's attack of choice is wearing down your resolve with months of "Didjooknyow that Peru is the capitol of Spain and Christopher Columbus invented the baguette?" psychological torture. It's effective, but time consuming.

Lottie's weapon of choice is just throwing burdensome children down a well and saying they "went missing". Fast. Ruthless. Efficient.

Advantage Lottie.

Isn't it so boring to write essentially the same book twice over? I struggle sometimes to work properly on the book I'm writing, and it's all new ideas / plot points than what I've written before.

Just went back and read the article with the blurb and omg it's so clear that Ruby was heavily inspired by her own struggles at Axatah, it's equal parts hilarious and fucking sad-

"Lottie Parton has her life together. She always has done" etc --> This is Ruby during her school years (aka when she peaked), before the Dreadful Oxford Rejection and having to go to Exeter threw her off course. Or at least, this is Ruby's self-image of what she was like, i.e., the most perfect student who ever lived and the smartest girl of her age.

"But now everything has started to go wrong" --> This is the sudden shock of school being over, getting rejected from Oxford, and having to go to her second-choice university, kicking off a crisis that Ruby is still not fully out of, it seems like.

"With her step-dad away" --> Ruby trying to deal with the psychological trauma of being separated from her parents during her university years.

"GSCE workload piling up" --> Ruby being overwhelmed with the university workload (and traumatic events like getting a lower second on that first essay she wrote)

"Everything is suddenly a lot harder than it used to be [...] but she can't let anyone know" --> Ruby struggling and suffering through four years of university while having to keep up a front on youtube and social media because heaven forbid being honest for once.

In summary: A clumsy attempt at self-therapy through writing about a 16-year old who shares Ruby's characteristics and has the same kind of crisis she had. And honestly, I think there's nothing wrong with that, except that 1) why tf do you need to introduce a plot about a missing 9-year old that has nothing to do with the story you're trying to tell here?? and 2) why on earth would you want to publish that!

In all honesty though, I do feel a bit bad for Ruby because she clearly suffered a lot during her time at university. I think it was all a bit too much for her, and she simply did not have the tools to cope with it all in a healthy way (and still doesn't by the looks of it). And in a way, it's not even her fault - any child who was sheltered and coddled to such an extreme degree for all her life would struggle massively once she has to deal with moving out, becoming independent, getting negative feedback sometimes, solving problems on her own, etc.

But it is her responsibility to recognize that, take charge of her own life and her issues, and get the help she clearly needs. But she never did. She just kept lying and pretending everything was fine, and then she just ran back home to hide in her bedroom after finishing uni, like a child after coming back from a particularly long school trip. She's still refusing to take any responsibility for her own life, and even becoming a published WRITER won't solve these fundamental issues.

The more I read of that description, the more it makes me think Ruby requires serious therapy regarding her childhood obsession.

She's back to writing about children, school and GCSEs. This was clearly a happy period in her life which she's desperately trying to cling onto, just like by going back into school to give a talk. Something she wasn't asked to do but sent an unsolicited email asking to do it.

The pandemic and being forced to go back home definitely exacerbated it and undid many of the positive steps she made in her first year. Having another year at home with mummy and daddy, getting to spend her days writing a book about her favourite period in her life is going to make things even worse. It could be extremely damaging and she needs to get help before it gets worse.

I think part of the problem is her constant need for validation. At school, she was Head Girl and it was "well done Ruby", while she could have friendly relationships with her teachers, who'd shower her with praise. You don't get that at uni and think she hates it, going back to school and receiving that infantilising treatment is something she wants. Still don't think she's over the Oxford rejection either, which is very sad considering it was close to 5 years ago now. She's gone to Exeter, a very prestigious university and graduated with (very likely) a first. She should be happy and moving on to the next chapter. Instead, she's regressing back to her schooldays. You just know she's going to apply for a Masters at Oxford too. I'd find it funny if it weren't incredibly sad. I feel sorry for her.