The New York Times has an lively, quote-filled and entertaining article in the recently created genre of Depress-Lit: All terrible news about the publishing industry, all the time. It’s “Puttin’ Off the Ritz: The New Austerity in Publishing.”
What amused me were the quotes. The first, from the literary agent Amanda Urban, who represents Cormac McCarthy and Toni Morrison:
“Books can only support a certain retail price,” she said. “It’s not like you have books that can be Manolo Blahniks and books that can be Cole Haan. Books are books. A book by James Patterson costs the same as a book by some poet.”
Did anyone else find it funny that “some poet” is tossed in so dismissively at the end? I’m not a poet or the son of a poet, but I think it’s very telling that the novelist Patterson gets generic canadian pharmacy named, while “some poet” is thrown in anonymously, effectively grouping everyone in the genre as unknown. Which, granted, is somewhat true (excepting Billy Collins). But still amusing.
Second, this one from Robert S. Miller, president and publisher of HarperStudio:
“‘The two biggest sucking sounds on profits in our business are on advances and returns,’ said Robert S. Miller.”
Returns? Returns I understand. It costs a ton in shipping and pulping. But categorizing what you pay authors — who provide the product that the business is based upon — as a “sucking sound on profits” is either bad faith or terrible judgment when speaking to a reporter. Now yes, I understand that Miller meant guarding against enormous advances that are not recouped, but please, speaking as an author, I would prefer not to be labeled a sucking sound of any kind.
