Virginia Woolf argued that forced bed rest led to great literature. And a friend just reminded me in email today that Walker Percy attributed completion of The Moviegoer to his TB convalescence. But this is the first time I’ve encountered the argument that a blow to the head gets the writerly juices flowing. Anybody have a sledgehammer handy? (Via Bookslut.)
“There’s a trend afoot in publishing — more than a trend, really; an institutional shift — to keep editors as far removed from the sales side of the business as possible. The marginalization of editorial in this regard seems, I think, to date back the old saw about editors always having their heads in the clouds & not having a realistic sense of what will sell.”
Last month I mentioned something I learned on recent visits to local independent bookstores: smaller indies don’t tend to stock hardcover books. And who can blame them? Most customers just don’t want to shell out $25+ for an unwieldy copy of their favorite author’s latest. So why don’t more publishers opt for trade paperback originals? After all, as the proprietor of Fresh Eyes points out, Lahiri’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Interpreter of Maladies was one. (Soft Skull Press’ Richard Nash also weighs in at Fresh Eyes.)
