Oh, I love book publishing...

Today, The New York Times ran an article regarding the momentary brown-out of Martin Amis. I was shocked by the following sentence: "According to Nielsen BookScan, through the first week in March [Amis' latest novel] "Yellow Dog" has sold 10,200 copies in the United States..."



Okay, in a country of 350 million people, that merits a wow. I like Martin Amis, he's a fine writer, and anyway, it's not fair to single him out. Seven out of every ten books either lose money or just break even. But given how famous Amis is, it's an interesting fact. Here's another: I recently read that David Denby's American Sucker (once again, according to BookScan, which reports about 60-70% of total outlets) had sold less than 6,000 copies.



Yes, American Sucker--that massively hyped mea culpa reviewed nearly everywhere. For a book to have gotten publicity--the major hurdle for ANY book--in such profusion, and still sold so poorly brought back a lot of great memories for me. A lot of memories of really wonderful, invigorating, intellectually rigorous meetings with "editors" in the American book publishing "business." Forgive me, folks--my axe is out, and I'm gonna grind it.



I like David Denby's reviews in The New Yorker, but who thought that a book like American Sucker would go down in this economy? It doesn't take a marketing genius to realize that the story of an already well-off Manhattanite's self-inflicted financial wound won't sell in a country where the median income is what, $45,000? All it takes it some knowledge of the world outside of Manhattan. Or, if that's too much to ask, just talk to the guy behind the counter at Starbucks.



Publishing isn't easy, but it isn't rocket science, either. People like Amis and Denby are responsible for the quality of their books, as all writers are. But some portion of their success in the marketplace--everything from topic, to packaging, to publicity--is being determined by an obviously out-of-touch American book industry. First-hand knowledge available upon request.



Coincidentally, there's a related article in USA Today, which is celebrating ten years of printing its own bestseller list.



This article says, in bold type, "Publishers don't know why some books sell." In my experience, publishers don't know why ANY books sell. Or don't sell. Or, most importantly, how to make them sell. Sure, people are hard to predict--but other industries, from shaving cream to cars, seem to work harder at it, and do a lot better at it. And that's because (in my opinion) many publishing people are incredible snobs. In a snob's world, you're either bowing and scraping to curry favor with your betters, or deigning to speak to your lessers. What you're NOT doing is listening to the average person--precisely because he/she is average. Even if that average person is your ultimate customer.



I spent ten years crawling the corridors of the NYC book and magazine world, and many of the people I met (though obviously not all) thought they were geniuses compared to the hopeless schmoes that bought their books or magazines. They work in big, impressive buildings in NYC, and you don't. They got degrees from fancy-schmancy colleges, and you didn't. They know famous people, and you couldn't even speak to them without stuttering. You--you're audience. You're nothing. Just buy whatever we tell you and shut up. If you don't like it, it's your fault for not being as smart as we are.



Let's contrast this with other media. Do I think that TV producers or movie studios want to have dinner with their audience? Probably not. But they DO understand that in popular culture, the audience has the power. In fact, it seems that TV producers and movie studios are actually getting better at giving audiences what they will pay money for. Certainly they invest massive amounts of time and money trying to find out. Books should too. Good writing and sales aren't mutually exclusive, and anybody who tells you different is simply trying to hide the fact that they predicted wrong. Nobody's perfect, but it's never the audience's fault.



But even if they're not any better at prediction--and I think they are--the TV and movie industries live in the real world; TV and movies have solved the distribution problem and the publicity problem, and books and magazines haven't. Their model makes money; the model for print really doesn't. And that's on the snobbishness of the American publishing business, not stupid readers or TV in every room or the mean old world. The US book business doesn't have the room for error that TV and movies do, but instead of being smart and innovative, they've put into place an insular, unassailable culture of failure. Suddenly Yellow Dog and American Sucker make a lot more sense.



The book publishing industry simply refuses to learn how to cultivate, expand, and satisfy their audience. And they do this in the supposed benefit of literature! "People like crappy books; if we gave the public what it wants, we'd publish nothing but trash." What could that be but snobbery?



If you're in the business of mass entertainment, and you think you can dictate to your audience--become popular by fiat--you're a snob, and an idiot besides. We're all serving the audience, not the other way around. Until book publishing recognizes this--as hard as it will be for all the Ivy Leaguers to swallow--books will continue to fade as a cultural force. I could care less about the careers of all the status-obsessed office-tower knuckleheads in NYC, but I do care about the printed word, and I resent that it's in the hands of people (mostly) neither humble or principled enough to attempt to lead mass-taste, nor smart enough to honestly and respectfully follow it. There's honor in both paths--albeit much less risk in the second--but the book business chooses to impotently wail and fail. I'll bring this back to my life: some things I write are judged funny, others are not; but whether I like it or not, the audience is always the boss.