Stephen King's column in issue #928 of Entertainment Weekly takes the publishing industry to task over what he sees as the inefficient marketing of a worthy book, Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski (published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux):
If this is such a good read, what's the bad news? That's easy. As of March 26, Fieldwork was No. 24,571 on the Amazon best-seller list, and not apt to go much higher. The reason why is illustrative of how the book biz became the invalid of the entertainment industry, and why fiction sales are down across the board (with the possible exception of chick lit). Critics, with their stubborn insistence that there's a difference between "literature" and "popular fiction," are part of the problem, but the publishers themselves, who have bought into this elitist twaddle, are also to blame.
Comments (8)
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Posted by John DeNardo at Monday April 02, 2007 at 12:28 AM
© 2008 SF Signal
Yep...One of King's closing arguments was something along the lines of "...if you won't do it, the I will.)
Posted by John on Monday April 02, 2007 at 7:23 AM at 7:23 AM
"How to Bury a Book"
So its not:
A) Dig hole.
B) Throw book in hole.
C) Cover hole with dirt previously taken from newly dug hole.
?!?!?!? Where did I go wrong ?!?!?!?
Also, where does one purchase "elitist twaddle"?
Posted by Trent on Monday April 02, 2007 at 2:53 PM at 2:53 PM
Elitist Twaddle Depot?
Elitist-Twaddle-Mart?
Amazon?
Posted by John on Monday April 02, 2007 at 3:13 PM at 3:13 PM
Actually when you said King was talking about how to bury a book I figured wooden stakes would be in there somewhere.
Posted by Simon Haynes on Monday April 02, 2007 at 11:12 PM at 11:12 PM
Unfortunately, the book in question, in my opinion, is crapola.
JeffV
Posted by Jeff VanderMeer on Tuesday April 03, 2007 at 5:04 PM at 5:04 PM
Amazon sales rank:
#402 as of 4/8/07
Doesn't sound like my sort of thing, fwtw.
Happy reading--
Pete Tillman
Posted by Peter D. Tillman on Sunday April 08, 2007 at 5:35 PM at 5:35 PM