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Comment from the book world in September 2009

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September 2009

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Pity the poor editors

28 September 2009

'Publishing is often an extremely negative culture... The sheer book-length nature of books combined with the seemingly inexorable reductions in editorial staffs and the number of submissions most editors receive, to say nothing of the welter of non-editorial tasks that most editors have to perform, including holding the hands of intensely self-absorbed and insecure writers, fielding frequently irate calls from agents, attending endless and vapid and ritualistic meetings, having one largely empty ceremonial lunch after another, supplementing publicity efforts, writing or revising flap copy, ditto catalog copy, refereeing jacket-design disputes, and so on - all these conditions taken together make the job of a trade-book acquisitions editor these days fundamentally impossible. The shrift given to actual close and considered editing almost has to be short and is growing shorter, another very old and evergreen publishing story but truer now than ever before.'

Daniel Menaker, former Random House US executive editor-in-chief, in the Barnes & Noble Review

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'Just a guy who tells a story'

21 September 2009

'I was already writing The Lost Symbol when I started to realize The Da Vinci Code would be big. The thing that happened to me and must happen to any writer who's had success is that I temporarily became very self-aware. Instead of writing and saying, 'This is what the character does,' you say, 'Wait, millions of people are going to read this.' It's sort of like a tennis player who thinks too hard about a stroke--you're temporarily crippled. Then the furore died down, and I realized that none of it had any relevance to what I was doing. I'm just a guy who tells a story.'

Dan Brown in Parade

'Rude about commercial fiction'

14 September 2009

'I find it bewildering how often people are rude about commercial fiction and how many really mediocre pretentious literary books are published every year. A lot of attention is paid to books that I quite often think are really shoddy.

What I want my books to be is some kind of escapism. I want you to get lost in them, I want you to feel like you are going on holiday with them and that you know them, that it could be you and that it's some representation of recognisable life, but with a bit more magic thrown into it.'

I hope my publishing background gives me a knowledge of what (publishers) do. Half is how good the book is and half is how well it's published.'

Harriet Evans, editor turned author of I Remember You in the Bookseller

'Encouraging younger consumers to pay'

7 September 2009

'Although I don't wish to be a harbinger of doom, I don't think it's unrealistic to predict that that the global book market will reduce by 30% to 50% in the next 10 years. This will come not only from piracy, but also from reductions in list prices to encourage people to buy rather than pirate and also through a decrease in active readers. It is perhaps worth thinking of alternative ways that publishers, authors and booksellers can survive. Even the big-name authors can't escape, and they can't go on sell-out stadium tours like their counterparts in the music industry. So, how do we encourage younger consumers to pay for products when they are used to getting entertainment and information for free?

Andrew Crawford, CEO of The Book Depository, in the Bookseller