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July 03, 2007
trouble in mind
Sorry for my silence. The last few weeks have been busy and distracting, first with traveling and then with making some structural changes here. That is, I’ve been occupied with practical complexities. I think we call them the vagaries of publishing.
On a more abstract note, a few weeks ago, a publishing colleague and good friend told me he thought I might be trouble to deal with because I’ve spent my life reading novels. Now that’s a provocation—especially coming from a non-fiction publisher as it did. It certainly set me to thinking on what this sort of work can do to a fellow. It also, inevitably, sent me further into reading, probably making matters worse for everyone around me. Over the course of the past three weeks, I finally picked up Water for Elephants and read The Yiddish Policemen’s Union — or, at any rate, some of it. I dashed through On Chesil Beach, continued my reading of The Man without Qualities, and began both The Ministry of Special Cases and The Last Summer of the World . . .
I did throw in some non-fiction, as a kind of check on myself. It was mostly from the growing religious backlash list, though I also bought a book about the 1939 World’s Fair. (I haven’t started that one yet.)
There is much I’d like to assert on what all this has taught me about literary values review coverage, and the best-seller lists. But that’s not the point here. At the moment, I only want to say that I’ve been reading these weeks in response to my colleague’s comment. I’ve read to take stock, and admittedly have felt the return of a kind of literary einfühlung — whatever that means.
Of course, this sort of reading campaign has had to find its place (and the time it takes) within the now generation-long conversation Greg and I maintain about what makes fiction work both literarily and commercially. So, at the same time that I’ve fallen into this reading project, Greg and I have been building the next list. We’ve folded some new titles in for Spring 2008. We’ve also rejected a good many manusripts, including one or two that we have both admired.
I live by reading, or at any rate make my living that way. My reading always takes place within the context of which manuscript to publish next, which not to, and what the relationship is (or should be) between the lists we build as fiction publishers, the apparent wishes of readers, and the expectations of reviewers. I suppose that sort of reading can make a fellow “trouble to deal with”. I know it makes a fellow less thin.
But, really, what could my friend have meant? I’ve come up with a number of interpretations in these reading weeks, and every one of them arose from my perception of precisely what still makes a rich novel such an invaluable trouble-maker.
Fred Ramey
Posted 7/3/07
Posted in: Publishers Blog, | Keywords: publishers blog
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