In Praise of Editors, Agents, and Every Other Gatekeeper in Publishing

An author appreciates the rigor of professional publishing 

By Chris Pavone | PW - Jan 24, 2014

At first, my publisher was resistant to a novel about the book business. I understood. There's always something at least a little smug about self-reference-magazine articles about idealistic journalists, TV shows about TV actors, ironic films within ironic-er films: all this meta-media populated by thinly disguised characters making oblique inside jokes.

But, on the other hand, I thought, it wouldn't be a bad thing for book readers to look at us, the book business, at this moment-a moment when more than a few authors are questioning whether they need publishers; when readers are wondering whether they'll continue to patronize bookstores, or instead will buy books the same way they buy ground beef or stream music; when the world might be reconsidering whether to buy books, period.

After all, there are plenty of Real Housewives and tweets and blogs to entertain us. Untrained actors shouting unscripted lines: it's not terribly dissimilar to unedited and unproofread text in undesigned packages, unmarketed and unpublicized and unreviewed and undifferentiated, written by authors who are, essentially, unpaid. The business of publishing words-of putting stories and ideas in front of the public-is rapidly trending toward the unprofessional.

On the face of it, this development might not seem so bad for readers. Unlimited content choices? Much of it free or cheap? No more reliance on gatekeepers-publishers, booksellers, media-to dictate a work's merits? What's to complain about?

Perhaps everything. Maybe the deprofessionalization of publishing isn't just a looming disaster for the book business-there are, after all, not that many of us left in the industry-but for the millions of readers.

In a market of unlimited book options, how does an audience make choices? At the moment, most of that burden is carried by the book business. The publicity and marketing campaigns and cover designs and flap copy-the things that publishers do-are not just methods of selling books; they're also readers' main tools for discovering books. The same is true of the curating and merchandising in stores, and book coverage in the media. Without reviews, staff recommendations, and endcap displays, unlimited choices aren't narrowed down-they're overwhelming.

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Footnote

Chris Pavone, a former editor, is the author of the Edgar-winning The Expats. His forthcoming novel, The Accident, will be published in the US by Crown on March 11 ...

and in ANZ also in March Allen & Unwin will distribute the Faber edition  (with brilliant Alissa Dinallo-designed cover)

http://allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=511&book=9780571298938