Thought.is

There’s a secret right behind her eyes as she listens to the meticulously tousled Jim Courier say the obvious and watches Paul Annacone, the Bob Newhart of coaches, try to come up with a response.

On the eve of Stockholm’s The Next Chapter publishing conference, the former chief of the UK’s Penguin Books Digital spoke of the “inherent decency” of the industry; the message of video’s prevalence; the fact that everybody is a publisher today; and the possibility that publishing is “too nice.”

As Faber’s Henry Volans says, publishing has been taking its digital disruption very hard. What if we widen the debate to include more traditional voices?

A major talent’s powerful début (a good story) has come to the world’s attention after a decade of rejection that some say is a shameful indictment of the publishing establishment’s commercialized interests (making it an even better story). And yet, even in its new fame, US readers won’t find it in their national market until September. I’m not so sure that’s a good story.

While “women’s fiction” is an actionable classification in much of publishing today, one author points out that there’s no such common categorization for men. Could sales be hurt, not helped, by the implied limitations of “women’s fiction”?

Publishing is full of negative voices. Of course, in Congreve’s era, fops competed by showing “the turns of their pretty legs.” I’m not sure we wouldn’t be better off going back to that. Let’s get these boys into some tights and let them prance.

The absurd element here is that entrepreneurial authors, the smallest-business element of the industry! the industry!, are being penalized by the ISBN’s pricing. And the larger, corporate entities in the business, whether independent houses or the mighty Big Five publishers, are getting the best deal.

“Scary” doesn’t get it. Something bigger is at work here. In this book, every road in the world is Elm Street. Including yours.

Everybody’s doin’ it, doin’ it, doin’ it.