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'A fault line in America'

8 August 2005

'In America, there's a huge schism between literary and commercial, created largely by marketing and by chain bookstores. If you're commercial, you get a lot of money put into your books, better placement in bookstores, widespread release - but no reviews. If you're literary, you get reviews and nominations. I very clearly and intentionally chose the commercial route - all I lost was my pride. Because I don't write in one genre, people have a hard time pinning me down, which is not always a good thing, but it does mean I do get reviews...If you're a commercial fiction writer and you happen to slip them a good book, then more power to you... There's a fault line in America, there really is. Anita Shreve's easier to read than me yet she's considered literary. That's totally to do with the format, and yet Anita is marketed commercially, so there's crossover.'

Jodi Picoult interviewed in Publishing News by Liz Thomson