Book
publishing lacks a big event, one that is televised, reported on, and tweeted
about. The Olympics make me jealous. I would love to be a part of some big
international gathering of the publishing world that is covered by the news
media the way athletes and sports are.
Book Expo
America, The Frankfurt Book Fair, and the London Book Fair each serve as
conventions for the book industry but they don’t consist of pomp and excitement
that is viewed by billions of people. There are no gold medals or awards
distributed, no winners and losers, no two-week long dramas.
I would
love to see a major spotlight put on the individuals who make book publishing
the fascinating industry that it is. Books are so important to us – they educate
and inform, they inspire and enlighten, they challenge and explain, they
entertain and provide escape. Shouldn’t those who contribute to the process of
creating and selling a book get to tell their story? Where is the recognition
for editors, page designers, cover
artists, book printers and binders, distributors, wholesalers, retail stores,
salesmen, book jacket creators, catalog copy writers, advertisers, marketers,
publicists, ghost writers, book shepherds, literary agents, and all of their
assistants and interns? For every best-selling author there are 10,000 writers
whose names go unknown but by the few who read their works. And for as big as
some publishers are, most consumers could not name more than a handful of them.
Books
greatly contribute to our world. Some TV shows and many movies are based on
books. Books are in our schools, homes, and place of business. We bring them
everywhere – on a train, to the park, on vacation, while waiting online, to a café,
etc. They are a part of our culture and life, so why don’t we honor them?
I think
book publishing could certainly make a splash with an Olympic-like gathering of
the global publishing community and people would tune in to segments that
reveal the creative, production, and marketing processes. Or maybe we can
combine the Olympics with “Booklympics” – and have the athletes get timed for
fastest reading, quickest writing, most books bench-pressed, most books jumped
over, etc.
Okay,
so publishing lacks the physical competition that people naturally connect
with, but at an intellectual level, it invites many in. Maybe we don’t need 16
days of 24/7 coverage but for now I will take a day that honors the world of
books. Or at least a Ken Burns documentary on book publishing.
Interview With Author Eric
Dinnocenzo
1. What type of books do you write? The Tenant Lawyer was actually my first novel. I had been a
writer of short stories beforehand, got a couple published in small magazines,
but had never taken a crack at a novel. At age 31, I gave it a try and after a
few years of writing and re-writing, including putting it down for extended
periods, I finished it. The novel is, at least to me, a mixture of legal
fiction and character-driven fiction, with a strong current of social justice
running through it. Novels with protagonists who are young men fighting against
odds or in some way outsiders, with a strong voice, including an off-beat sense
of humor, have always appealed to me, and, for better or worse, I tried to jump
into the fray.
2. What is your latest or upcoming
book about? I haven’t started another book. I’ve
thought about characters and plot in a very disorganized and meandering way.
For instance, I’ll be walking to the grocery store and think about it, but then
when I start roaming the aisles I’ll quickly forget about it. My vague notion
of it is that I would like to continue with the same protagonist, Mark Langley,
but make him a couple years older so that he’s in his mid-30’s and no longer working
in the public interest, but rather at a top litigation firm in a major city
like New York. I think there is a difference between the early and
mid-30’s—generally speaking, you are really no longer a young person, though in
your early-30’s you’re still hanging on by a thread, and you are more ensnared
in the adult world, yet lack the standing that someone in their 40’s and up
has. Also, there are interesting themes that could be extracted from that type
of law firm setting such as power, indoctrination, alienation, and false idols.
Just as one example, I see many people who sacrifice themselves at the altar of
organizations in the hope of advancement and then, in turn, are sacrificed by
those same organizations. It’s interesting to think about why people do that,
why organizations do it, and just in general why it happens? It might be
interesting to see it all through Mark Langley’s eyes.
3. What inspired you to write it? I had just broken up with a long-term girlfriend and
suddenly had more free time on my hands. I didn’t have a girlfriend, I wasn’t
dating anyone, and I didn’t have many friends, at least not in Boston where I
lived at the time. I had to do something with that time, and my solution was
not to gratuitously put in longer hours for the overlords at my law firm where
I was an associate. I figured trying my hand at a novel was a good idea—I
always had a submerged desire to write one, and I figured, at age 31, if not
now, when? Also, I enjoy solitary activity and all it took was sitting at my computer.
I didn’t have to go anywhere or buy any equipment or satisfy any
pre-requisites. That aside, I had worked as a legal services lawyer in the
Worcester, Mass. Housing Court and I found the dynamic there to be a
fascinating and often deeply unfortunate one and thought it’d be interesting to
write about. Think of it: a small number of people are property owners, and
they go to a branch of government – the court – which is financed by the
taxpayer – to evict people from their homes and, in effect, put them on the
street. You thus have the state – through its court system – operating on
behalf of the landlords in order to ensure their right to earn income from
their private property. It is a state-subsidized manner of helping a small
number of landlords evict a sub-population of a much larger segment of the
population which are tenants. And, on a more human level, so many people are
deeply affected by what goes on in eviction cases and it was not a topic I had
seen described in writing. I figured it would serve as a good setting to create
an engaging plot and put the spotlight on political and social justice in the
context of housing. Plus I like the idea of a young lawyer going up against a
more powerful adversary in that setting. That is one reason I enjoy John
Grisham books.
4. What did you do before you became
an author? Before, during, and after I have
been a lawyer. I consider myself quite fortunate because I’ve always
represented the underdog in the 10 years since graduating from law school. It’s
not an easy thing to accomplish, since there are many more positions available
in the service of power rather than as a check against it.
5. How does it feel to be a
published author? Any advice for struggling writers? There is a sense of accomplishment in writing a novel and
then seeing it in print. It’s also gratifying to know that some people have
actually sat down and read it. Other than that, I don’t think about it too
much. My advice for struggling writers is, well, I’m not sure that I have any.
They’ve probably heard the mantra to “keep writing.” I don’t do that myself,
because life gets in the way, especially when you work full-time as I do, and
I’m not always motivated to write, so it’d be hypocritical for me to say that.
I think it is helpful, if one wants to be a writer, to be a reader and to get
into certain authors who excite you. I can’t imagine that I’d have written a
novel if I hadn’t read authors like Bukowski, Pete Hamill, Pat Conroy,
Salinger, and Tom Perrotta, just to name a few. Their voices were like a
healing tonic to me as a young man who felt alienated from his surroundings. I
would also advise writers to make their work “marketable.” I hate to say that,
I really do, because it’s anathema to creating a work of art—for instance, can you
imagine Gertrude Stein telling Hemingway he should make Jake Barnes more
“likeable” in order to sell books?—but, unfortunately, it’s the truth if you
want to get published. Good writing is not always appreciated. Writers should
also craft good “pitch” letters to agents. Admittedly, I’m not good at that at
all. But many agents won’t even look at your work, and instead will screen by
reading “pitch” letters only.
6. Where do you see book publishing
heading? I can’t say for sure. It’s a time of
great flux. And who knows what new technological marvel could pop up tomorrow
and change everything? I have a friend who is a doctor, and he says patients
often want to know with certainty what will be their outcome, and he tells
them, “If I could predict the future, I wouldn’t have two ex-wives and I
wouldn’t have lost a ton of money in the stock market.” That said, I hate to
see hard and softcover books go the way of the cassette tape and transistor
radio and become outdated, because I think that the book as physical object is
one of its defining features. It gives a book more of a flavor and feel. I can
remember where certain passages generally are in the hard text, which I cannot
do with an e-book, and of course there are some novels like Catcher in the Rye
and The Great Gatsby whose identities are connected to the book cover. On the
other hand, in our computer age, it is promising that there are so many avenues
for writers to self-publish and get their writing out there. I think that
publishing is becoming more democratized, which is a good thing. The caveat,
and it is a significant one, is that now there are two major booksellers:
Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I think it has a negative impact on society if
two corporations have control over the marketing and distribution of books.
IN CASE YOU MISSED THESE RECENT POSTS:
Twitter Fatigue
Headline News: Publicists Lie
to Bloggers
Interview With Pubslush
Blueprint Of Book
Publicity Landscape
The Key To Keywords
How Will Publishers
Treat Aurora Mass Murders?
Publishing Trends
Can You Market A Book
Like Fruit Stripe Gum?
Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer, the nation’s largest book promoter. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person.
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