RARA-AVIS: a lot less published

From: Frederick Zackel ( fzackel@wcnet.org)
Date: 15 Dec 2006


MrT wrote, "I don't think academics have the foggiest idea of how good books come to be written. Neither do writers, in my experience. As to value, I don't think all books are equally good; in fact, most books suck."

A few years back on C-Span's Books, the weekend show, I watched Judith Regan, the publisher of strange and curious non-books, talk about big city publishers. She said, and I wrote it down, "If we knew what sold, there'd be a lot less books published." Now, William Goldman famously said about movie-making, "Nobody knows anything." Neither do publishers. Apparently Regan was just fired by HarperCollins -- in this month of December! -- over her OJ Simpson publishing deal.

Fred Zackel Cocaine & Blue Eyes c/o Point Blank Press

The Greek term "gnostokoi" can be translated as "those who understand divine matters, knowing what the gods know."



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