by Jeremy Hunt
Daily Lobo
The editor of the New York Times Book Review spoke to almost 100 people Wednesday in the SUB about the new age of publishing and how his publication decides which books to review.
Publishers are being bought out by corporations, many of which are international, and it puts literary publishing in unfamiliar territory, Sam Tanenhaus said.
Corporate conglomerates emphasize high profit margins, but they don't realize most books won't be on Oprah's book list or bestseller lists, Tanenhaus said.
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"That creates unrealistic expectations," he said. "Quality is tempered by the concern it won't make a lot of money."
It was enlightening for local writers to see how the Book Review works, said David Dunaway, an English professor.
"For authors, the New York Times Book Review has an aura of mystery about it," he said. "Anytime you demystify a phenomenon, you have a chance to make more of a contribution."
Dunaway said it is rare for New Mexican writers to get a glimpse of such a prominent publication.
"It is arguably the single most important book reviewer," he said.
Tanenhaus said publishing houses are often bought out by conglomerates and become part of publishing groups.
There may be five or six editors representing different divisions of the same conglomeration, Tanenhaus said.
"Those editors at those different publishing houses are competing internally," he said. "If they're competing in the same corporate environment, they tend to herd together."
An editor of one publishing house may wonder why something wasn't picked up by one of the other houses, and the work may be discriminated against based on that, Tanenhaus said.
He said the NYT's Book Review tries to find books that have fallen through the cracks of major publishers.
"We do everything we can to find those books being published by the smaller companies," he said.
The fact that the Harry Potter series was turned down for years
before being published by a small press shows how important literature can be overlooked, Tanenhaus said.
"It shows you how everyone can get everything wrong," he said.
Originality is a major factor in determining whether a book will be reviewed, making it more difficult for fiction writers, Tanenhaus said.
Issues that haven't been touched on before have a much better chance, he said.
"If the subject matter is important, then people will want to know about it," he said. "The bar is actually higher for fiction."
Greg Martin, who attended the event, said it was interesting to hear that book sales depend on how much money the publisher spends on advertising.
Martin, a writer and assistant English professor, said he wasn't discouraged by what
Tanenhaus said.
The quality of writing is still what's important, despite the influence of money on a book's success, Martin said.
"It makes me focus more and more on keeping my eye on writing well," he said.
Martin is the author of Mountain City and is working on a novel called The House of Bedlam.
Writers shouldn't get their expectations too high, because there's a lot of competition in the publishing world, Martin said.
"If you're going to aspire to be on a bestseller list, you're dooming yourself," he said.
