>I've been lurking on this list for quite a while now,
and I know there's
>some interest in the books of Robert Skinner. I
thought the first two
>books (BLOOD RED, SKIN DEEP and CAT-EYED TROUBLE) were
excellent. I was
>eagerly looking forward to the third book in the
series. But now I may
>never see it. Kensington had the book set in print,
had the cover
>designed, and even had bound galleys done. But the
swine canceled
>publication! "Not enough advance orders" was the
official reason given.
>If you've ever given thought to boycotting a publisher
or writing an
>irate letter, Kensington is a deserving
target.
>Bill Crider
I'm going to try not to start foaming at the mouth, but it's
hard when I
consider the state of the publishing business.
I read an article in the New York Times within the last year
which said
that given their initial sales, neither Amy Tan nor John
Irving, among
others, would have ever gotten their second book
published.
That would tend to indicate that the current "all or nothing"
strategy of
publishers doesn't stand the test of their own empirical
experience.
I was on a really interesting panel at the Southern Mystery
Gathering on
the future of the small press. The panel was mostly
interesting because
everyone else on the panel knew a lot more about the subject
than I did.
I came away from that experience with the feeling that if
there is a
serious collapse, as predicted, of the willingness of the New
York houses
to continue with midlist writers, the experience may not be
pretty but at
least the readers/writers of hardboiled literature will have
some
advantages in that there is an established group of serious
readers and
professionals (booksellers, critics, collectors) who are
talking to each
other and maintaining and infrastructure.
It's still cold comfort to those trying to put a career
together.
Fred
-- ----------------------------------------------------------- Down on Ponce by Fred Willard fwillard@mindspring.com http://fwillard.home.mindspring.com/ -----------------------------------------------------------
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