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| Hearsay: |
Responding to articles in the NYRB (on the digital future—another mag might think of it as “present”—for books) and the Huff Po (on the importance of editors as agents for quality control) Robert McCrum, the Crime Fighting Critic, riffs on the role of the editor as cultural gatekeeper in the new publishing world.
The previous age of books is always seen as the golden one. In that fabled time, a generation of Maxwell Perkins clones walked the aisles of the great publishing houses, lost in the quest for split infinitives or dangling participles, or engaged in extracting the angel from the marble of the heroic first draft, as in the case of Thomas Wolfe, author of the sadly forgotten classic Look Homeward, Angel (by the way, my guess – based on experience – is that, yes, there was a generation or two who worked very hard on improving writers’ manuscripts, but that Wolfe’s example is the exception not the rule). Much of what Baron describes as the editor’s function now – her “10 things”, once choosing the book and editing the book have been dealt with – strike me as having more to do with in-house PR. The role of the editor is not what it was: everyone concedes that. So much for the microcosm. When we turn to the big picture, we find Jason Epstein.
His clear-eyed pragmatism is refreshing: the world has changed, irreversibly and forever. The great publishing giants and their old ways are increasingly redundant. And yet there is still the inescapable fact that writers sit alone in rooms, putting words on paper, or on screens.
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March 2nd, 2010 at 2:13 pm
What everyone always forgets to add in such discussions is cost is not the top factor in setting price. The value from the customers POV is. I remember reading these same articles in the past only then featuring the cost of Video tape movie or a music CD. I remember the big box computer stores such as Best Buy selling CDs and Videos below cost to get customers in their stores. I remember Tower Records taking the evil stores to court for breaking MAP laws. I remember when I bought my hamburgers at a local stand and not a discount stand. I remember buying my socks at a locally owned store rather than WalMart.
Instead of looking at it from the suppliers’ end (which is how can I increase my profit) look at it from the customers’ POV (which is where can I find the best version for the lowest price). That applies to everything we buy from socks to books. Ignore that, continue to force a product that cost more than the customer is willing to pay and you will follow the path of Blockbuster and Tower Records.
March 2nd, 2010 at 2:15 pm
Oops, posted this with wrong article. Should be with Moby article below. Hopefully I am smarter about what I wrote than where I posted it.