Is there a literary equivalent to Albini's "The Problem With Music" Baffler article?

http://www.nypress.com/18/15/news&columns/harrysiegel.cfm

Or at least the scrutiny that those deemed "bright young (male) authors" get subjected to?

Anyway thanks for that link, my girlfriend detests JSF and she enjoyed it.

Well at least publishers dont charge authors w/ the production costs of their book in the way that record companies subtract the cost of recording from future royalties for musicians. So, yes IMHO.

Also, it seems to me that, with few exceptions, much of the
literary prestige there is to go around belongs to the major
publishing houses, the ones with the greatest lineage and pedigree,
whereas in music, the situation is exactly the opposite, so publishing seems to offer fewer viable alternatives to the prospective author.

I suppose major label bands have advances AND expensive recording/producer fees, though.

I suppose major label bands have advances AND expensive recording/producer fees, though.

-- Jordan (jordan...), April 29th, 2005.

Well, there's not really anything shady about a publisher recouping an advance. That's why it's called an "advance."

An editor probably makes as much in salary as many authors earn from sales, so points would be irrelevant. The top names must be on a decent sum.

I didn't mean that it was shady, just that there are "production costs" in publishing too.

The difference is that in the record industry, the "advance" includes shit that the record company really should pay for, like recording costs.

I don't know a whole lot about the inside workings of the publishing industry, but I'll have to ask my bookseller stepmom for some more details.

all books have editors, yes, but their role is in no way like that of the producer, or not usually. *some* editors (of books be celeb authors) *do* have a lot of work: they basically rewrite books the celebs are too lazy to do properly, and some really big authors have a close (if odd) relationship with the editors. so the editor of, say, jilly cooper, will be a kind of 'guy chambers' figure.

but in general editors see the book from MS to print, and don't get involved as much as you'd imagine -- before the book is written the contents will have been agreed on, because nobody wants unpredictable rewrites once the thing is on the books.

i've never heard of the 'points' thing, but i guess the top-rank eds do have a strange set-up.

Author gets an advance, which is to cover their "costs" during the writing of the book (of course most advances don't come close, on an hourly basis, but that goes w/ the territory). Publisher makes an effort only to acquire, that is, contract to publish, books that they have calculated will sell well enough to at least earn back the author's advance (based on an author getting, like, 10% percent of the house's take on a book, which is NOT the same as the cover price since bookstores don't pay retail). The author is NOT liable for any of the costs of producing the book, the publisher assumes that investment, and if the book is a flop and never sells enough copies for the publisher to recoup the amount of the author's advance, a process known as "earning out", the author does not owe it back -- that advance money is the publisher's risk from the beginning.

I think that last point is the biggest difference between publishing & recording, at least as I understand it. The job of an editor (as said above) is really to provide guidance about content, plot arc, some of the gritty bits of writing, etc, up to and including a significant amount of hand-holding, depending on the personalities of the editor & author involved. (First-time authors can be especially fragile.)

I've never heard of "points" or "deal memos" in the sense meant by the Albini piece but I don't deal with agents anymore so maybe I'm just not up on the cut-throat aspects. As far as I'm aware, the greatest hold a house can really have over a particular author is to retain an "option" on the next work that author offers for publication, and even then if the author's next project isn't really up that publisher's alley, they may just refuse their option and be done with it -- it's not usually a big deal.

There's more about agents, subrights, and the reversion of publishing rights back to the author, but if anyone was reading this at all they're probably sound asleep by now.