Many years ago, when I was a new trade book editor for Houghton Mifflin, the first book I published was one called IN COLD TYPE: Overcoming the Trade Book Crisis. Working on that book was a revelation as was the publishing of it. The book so upset the publisher that he forced the author to accept a disclaimer in the front of the book. A disclaimer. "We're publishing this book but we don't believe what it says' is essentially what a disclaimer communicates. But they had to since the book laid bare the stinking practices that hamstring the industry to this day. Nothing changes except the publishers that have to go to the wall or be assimilated into the borg. Same things obtain. Short term gain vs. long term profit. Too many items in inventory and too slow a turn in the inventory. Items priced way outside of the public's perception of value and so heavily discounted across the board. Large chunks of favoritism and neopotism. Sly little inside deals such as the recent humping and pumping of Issacson's Franklin bio by his buddies at Time. It is often said that publishing once was a 'gentlemen's profession." True enough if you remember that gentlemen are often the biggest scoundrels of all.

There are radical ways of selling books and making publishing companies, but F von Blowhard is right when he says that it won't be likely to come from the cozy club on the East Side.

My own favorite quote from that damning NYT profile is found here:

http://americandigest.org/mt-archives/000294.html

Posted by: Van der Leun on July 20, 2003 3:47 PM

What can you say about a guy who struts his way through a trade show commenting, "I fired that guy . . . . I fired that guy ...."?

And who makes curiously inane -- disjointed -- comments about Genghis Khan.

In Cold type indeed.

Posted by: rur42 on July 20, 2003 9:03 PM






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