In
the recent Women’s U.S. Open Tennis Championship, Serena Williams lost her cool on several
occasions. She argued with the ump over a warning about illegal communications
from her coach. Then she was penalized a point when she incurred another
penalty – unsportsman-like conduct (she destroyed her racket by bashing it into
the ground in response to losing a game).
She would then banter again with the ump, disgusted she was accused of
cheating (coaching infraction), which played a role in the one-point penalty,
accusing him of being a “thief” for stealing a point from her. She would cry,
yell, meltdown – even appeal to the people who run the tournament – and then
finally succumbed to her opponent, who outplayed her all day in a surprise
upset. All of this makes me wonder if
authors lose their cool – and if doing so has any benefit.
Of
course in sports there are many stories of clashes between player/coach and
umpires/referees. There are also tales
of fights between opposing players. Sometimes teammates get at each other’s
throats. Sports, a physical activity in
a very public arena, engender arguments, fights and explosive outbursts. But in the world of book publishing, battles
take place differently.
How
many closed door discussions take place where an author fires a literary agent, or a publisher tells an author it doesn’t believe a book is worth publishing
and demands a refund of the advance? How
often do publishers or authors confront a book critic who gave a bad
review? How many times do readers contact
authors to demand a refund for what they perceived was a crappy book?
I
would love to see more fighting – in public – involving books. Controversy sells.
We
already have the typical stuff:
·
People
who are the subject of a scathing book will not only criticize the book as
untruthful, they’ll threaten lawsuits and seek to undermine the credibility of
an author.
·
Some
authors get in trouble with the law for poor personal behavior – domestic
abuse, DWI, fighting, rehab, etc.
·
A
book ban or protest breaks out over a controversial book.
All
of that is good for the book industry but I want to see more Serena-like
outbursts that challenge the rules and the judgment of an industry. Serena, a champion player and a crybaby who
abuses umps, lost her cool. Sure the
sport is hypocritical and inconsistent when it often fails to enforce coaching
penalties or regulate heated exchanges between players and umps, but she
exploded and her controversy became a bigger story than who won. Some authors need to raise the roof and
create a controversy that goes beyond their books.
Why? Controversy sells books and puts media
attention on a quiet industry.
Let’s
at least get some verbal volleys going where a writer lashes out at a publisher
for failing to do its job. Then let’s have a book editor lash out at a writer
who mistreated him or her. Follow it up
with a literary agent confessing to hating to pamper some of his authors and
their oversized egos and undersized works. Let’s see someone get in the face of
an award’s committee and tell them they can’t judge talent because they lack
talent themselves.
I
don’t want to see anyone get hurt – no burning down of anyone’s house or
violent beatings – but a few shoving matches, lots of cursing and screaming, and
a few legal proceedings should get things going nicely.
Okay,
is something wrong with me that I want to see people get emotional, angry, and
accusatory? Look, these confrontations
work in politics, sports and business.
Let the book publishing world go beyond its words to generate interest
in books.
Too
much of the book industry’s conflicts are kept in secret and behind closed
doors. We’ll never know if a
best-selling author told his publisher to drop dead or if a literary agent,
perhaps in a drunken stupor, told her author he is talentless. We’ll never know if two book publicists at a
publishing house decided to slug it out in the men’s room or if an acquisitions
editor got punched in the face by an author. I have to assume all such things
have happened but hush money, ego, threats, or other inducements forced the
participants to be quiet about losing their control.
Sports
is out in the open. Million-dollar,
human machines wear their emotions out on the field and court. Things get
heated. Athletes battle with themselves
and everyone around them is looking for an edge or an excuse. Those in book publishing may not seem to
express themselves physically, but many are filled with fear, jealousy, anger,
and hate as they are judged for their judgments, creativity, and success. All that I ask is for a few good fights to
break out in the open.
Then
someone can write a book about it.
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