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From some quarters, it looks like publishing is in big trouble. But that's not enough to slow down editors with vision and inspiration. At the Emerging Writers Network, Dan Wickett interviews seven new independent publishers: Ellipsis Press, Hotel St. George Press, Keyhole Books, Rose Metal Press, Short Flight/Long Drive Books, Tyrant Books and Underland Press. Their methods, methodologies and goals may be diverse, but they share a determined optimism.
Underland Press will publish four books in this, its first year, and six its second. "I do want to grow, and I do want Underland to be a destination press in the genre world," says founder Victoria Blake. The exact shape of that genre — dark fantasy? horror? the new weird? — is still evolving.
Snuggling in the gaps between genres is also on the minds of the founders of Kathleen M. Rooney and Abigail Beckel of Rose Metal Press: we knew that we wanted to create publishing opportunities for work that might get overlooked otherwise because of its formal oddity. From a marketing perspective — which is the perspective that a lot of the larger trade publishing houses take most frequently — work that is hybrid, which is to say work that does not fit neatly into a generic box, is perceived as a tough sell, and therefore as a bad risk. It struck us as perverse that talented authors who can do more than one thing at once — it’s prose, but wait, it’s also poetry! — should often have a harder time placing their work than writers who do just one thing well. So we made hybridity our mission.
For Aaron Petrovich and Alex Rose from St. George Press, it's important to merge the physical book with its content — to, in effect, be able to judge a book by its cover. "Our ambition is not necessarily to be a successful publishing house in a mass-corporate sense, nor even according to any model of Indie-publishing success," they write, "but to make beautiful books that reflect the care with which they have been written whenever we’re able, and to do our best to get them into reader’s hands."
But for Tyrant, a press that has grown out of a literary journal, the sentence is the most important. "We pay attention to the controlled burn of a sentence and how it leads to the next," editor Giancarlo Di Trapano writes. "I hate happy and jokey [bleep] like David Sedaris and most McSweeneys writers (not all!). When writers are serious about what they are writing, they pay attention to what they are doing. These other jag-offs might as well not be in the room when they are composing. It isn’t good and it isn’t funny."
Why found an independent press? And why do it now? Ellipsis Press' Eugene Lim has an answer: I’d like to think an indie movement is going on. Twelve years ago there was an issue of The Review of Contemporary Fiction, titled “The Future of Fiction,” and edited by none other than David Foster Wallace. In it, there’s a hilarious and dead-on piece by Dalkey head John O’Brien, which stated among other things that the “end of literary books in commercial publishing is a historical inevitability.” And so it has come to pass. The bigger houses will cease (have ceased!) to publish literary fiction. It is not profitable for them to market and produce a title that will sell to 5000 people (even if Rick Moody strong-arms a National Book Award for them). S’okay though. The old publishing joke goes, How do you make a small fortune in publishing? Answer: Start with a large one. And then you and your crony get to laugh bitterly together. But it’s the wrong question. A small and lively (and one hopes resurging) group of people care about the novel as art. And with the new methods of production and distribution, it’s getting easier for writers to connect with readers.
For more upstarts in the world of novel as art, including how these publishers found the writers they publish and how they hope to get their books into your hands, check out the full discussion at the Emerging Writers Network.
— Carolyn Kellogg
Photo: "The Sicily Papers" by Michelle Orange from Short Flight/Long Drive Books and a handcrafted letterpress edition of Ben Greenman's "Correspondences" from Hotel St. George Press.
The British newspaper the Guardian, which has absolutely wonderful book coverage, has a post inspired by Banned Books Week here in America. Take this slightly bemused quiz about books that have been banned in the U.S. and around the world to measure the degree to which you've exercised your freedom to read (at less than 40%, my score was "Rather ignorant, I’m afraid").
Banned Books Week began on Sept. 27 and runs through Saturday, Oct. 4. Many events are happening across Los Angeles, including an appearance by author Rick Wartzman on Thursday evening at Vroman's Bookstore. He'll be reading from, and discussing, his book "Obscene in the Extreme." It's about the banning and burning of John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" in 1939 in Kern County.
This weekend, L.A. Times books editor David L. Ulin urged us to think about Banned Books Week as more than just a celebration of challenged books that we like. "What happens when our ideals require us to defend a piece of writing that is reprehensible, that stands against everything we stand for?" he asks, continuing: It's easy to condemn those who would remove "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" from a library, but what about "The Turner Diaries" or "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion"? Or for that matter, "Tintin in the Congo," which Little, Brown dropped from its "Tintin" reissue series last fall after controversy arose about the book's racist overtones?
These are not just academic questions; they are the heart of the matter, regardless of where you stand on the ideological divide. How do we defend one book without defending all? Such a notion can't help but make us uneasy, but then, that's one of the most essential things books can do.
If you've made your peace with defending dangerous or even heinous speech, and if you were dubbed "a brave champion of liberty" after acing the Guardian's quiz, another front remains. For the second year in a row, the American Library Assn. is celebrating Banned Books Week in Second Life — the freedom to read needs defending, it seems, in our virtual worlds too.
— Carolyn Kellogg
Jen Lancaster's third book, "Such a Pretty Fat: One Narcissist's Quest to Discover if Her Life Makes Her Ass Look Big, or Why Pie Is Not the Answer" hit the NY Times and USA Today bestseller lists this summer. She writes sassy, funny memoirs -- she's also the author of "Bitter Is the New Black" and "Bright Lights, Big Ass." Lancaster, who lives in Chicago, wrote to tell Jacket Copy that she supports John McCain and that she's "a staunch Rush Limbaugh-listening, Ann Coulter-reading, Sean Hannity-watching, National Review-loving Republican," whose "one regret is that I was never old enough to cast my own vote for the Gipper." So I wanted to know more.
Jacket Copy: Many of the authors who have come out for Obama write fiction; you write memoir. Do you think that writing fiction insulates authors from being judged on their political views? In other words, if your creative work wasn't connected to your personal life, would you feel freer about expressing your political ideas?
Jen Lancaster: Expressing political opinion can be a powerful way to establish a character's voice when writing fiction. For example, in "Bridget Jones's Diary," there's a scene where Bridget argues pro-Labour politics with her conservative dining companions. I can't imagine any British reader, regardless of party affiliation, who didn't find what Helen Fielding wrote utterly charming. And Jennifer Weiner, one of my favorite American writers, seems to infuse her characters with a left-leaning bent. Her viewpoint subtly defines her characters, and her skill in quietly advancing this philosophy makes me feel like I'm getting valuable insight into the other side. In short? Including bits of her worldview works.
As a reader, I notice political views regardless of whether or not the book is fiction. What annoys me is when said views do nothing to advance the narrative. For example, I read a celebrity diet memoir recently, and I found myself identifying with the author. That is, until apropos of nothing the author went off about the evils of conservatism. All I could think was, Honey, unless the president himself forced you to eat all that fried chicken, I don't want to hear it.
For me, my party views don't advance my narrative. Until I can find a way to write political satire like my idols Christopher Buckley or P.J. O'Rourke, I'll simply say what team I play for and leave it at that.
JC: If you were asked to join a group of authors speaking out in support of McCain, would you? You wrote in an e-mail that you admire Reagan -- if he were back and running in this election, would you help fund-raise or organize in support of him?
Jen Lancaster: I've done what I can as a private individual to help McCain's campaign; I've donated money, put up yard signs, coordinated with others on Facebook etc. However, I'm not sure my public support of McCain would be helpful. I'm a humor writer, so I don't always present myself in the best light. The person who accidentally gets high on Ambien and then orders Barbie heads off the Internet may not be who McCain wants as an ad hoc campaign mouthpiece.
However, if Ronald Reagan were alive and running, that's another story. I'd put my career on hold to work for him. It's a question of passion -– I like McCain, but I loved Reagan.
JC: Do you think your readers would judge you differently if you were more vocal about your political views?
Jen Lancaster: I guarantee being more vocal would have an impact. I started blogging about politics in the last election cycle (before I was published), and according to my stat counter, I lost half my audience. I'm noticing a lot of the big bloggers who've posted about politics are experiencing an ugly backlash. Readers are angry because they went to the bloggers' sites for a laugh, not a lecture. Again, it's a question of being appropriate for the audience.
Now that fans have read my books, maybe they'd have a better understanding of who I am and they'd be OK with some political dogma. Maybe they even want me to weigh in with my opinions; maybe they wouldn't. Regardless, I have too much at stake to find out.
I've never been shy about expressing my views, but if I'm going to inadvertently alienate fans, I'd prefer to lose them over causes I'm really passionate about, such as pit-bull rescue and not a pit bull wearing lipstick.
Jen Lancaster writes more about keeping politics and writing separate at her blog, Jennsylvania, where she calls herself the governor.
--Carolyn Kellogg
Photo credit: John Fletcher
New York landmark Times Square isn't what it used to be — according to novelists Richard Price and Junot Diaz, who talk to each other, and New York Magazine, about New York. Richard Price: I hate Times Square so much. It’s like the triumph of some kind of fundamentalism. I miss those all-night movie houses. All those guys with the popcorn pimp hats. I loved that.
Junot Diaz: I know this is a reach, but I always think that there are these zones where really cool, non-formulaic [bleep] is happening. And for all the [bleep] dinge of those places, we’re our best selves there. And no matter where these zones are, people want to get rid of them. Anyone with any kind of power.
New York City is losing something else: the 6-year-old New York Sun, which will close its doors Wednesday. Get its always interesting book coverage while it remains online.
Bill Maher chooses his six favorite books, and he's not above padding. "Moby-Dick" makes the list, although he's never read it. Maybe he should see the movie.
But wait! Even "Moby-Dick" isn't what it used to be! A plan is afoot in Hollywood to "reimagine" the novel. "Gone is the first-person narration by the young seaman Ishmael, who observes how Ahab’s obsession with killing the great white whale overwhelms his good judgment as captain," Variety reports. One filmmaker says, "This is an opportunity to take a timeless classic and capitalize on the advances in visual effects to tell what at its core is an action-adventure revenge story." LAist laments this as "the worst idea in history": this story has very specific intent, very sincere and deeply expressed meaning. Making a version of the story that rejects everything but the most superficial aspects of the story is an insult to the intellegence [sic] of the nation for whom the book was written, and the moviegoers who are the film's intended target.
The LAist rant is pretty darn funny. I'm not going to see that movie. But — honestly? — I haven't read "Moby-Dick," either.
— Carolyn Kellogg
Photo by heymynameispaul via Flickr.
International financier George Soros is a billionaire who has made a habit of supporting liberal activists in the U.S. His financial career is summed up by John Cassidy in a new piece in the New York Review of Books: George Soros has been an active investor for more than half a century. In the mid-1980s, when I started writing about Wall Street, he was already a leading hedge fund manager. Not many people understood hedge funds back then, but for those in the know Soros's Quantum Fund, which he founded in 1973, was the model: year after year, it had achieved returns in excess of the broader market. After weathering the 1987 stock market crash, Quantum, since 1989 under the day-to-day management of Stanley Druckenmiller, racked up more big gains, culminating in a huge bet against the pound sterling in 1992, which reportedly netted more than a billion dollars. (Soros has never publicly confirmed the exact figure. The British newspapers put it at $1.1 billion.)
... Soros remains first and foremost a speculator. In 2007, after the subprime crisis erupted, he returned, at the age of seventy-seven, to directing Quantum's investments, with results suggesting he hadn't lost his touch. Alpha magazine, a glossy publication that covers hedge funds, estimates that he made $2.9 billion in 2007, placing him second on its list of mega-speculators, behind only John Paulson, of Paulson & Co., who raked in an even more astonishing $3.7 billion.
The other thing Soros has returned to is writing. His book "The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crash of 2008 and What It Means" was published earlier this year. It was hurried to shelves; the manuscript was completed in late March and it hit shelves in May. In June, the book made the L.A. Times bestseller list.
And it's back, at least on Amazon. The last few weeks of turmoil in the markets have book-buyers wanting to know what the credit crash means. As of this writing, the book is No. 2 in two categories — Business & Investing > Finance, and Professional & Technical > Accounting & Finance > Finance — and No. 1 in Business & Investing > Economics > Money & Monetary Policy. It's a theoretical book but one that's "digestible," according to the New York Review of Books. The introduction begins: ... the current crisis marks the end of an era of credit expansion based on the dollar as the international reserve currency. The periodic crises were part of a larger boombust process; the current crisis is the culmination of a superboom that has lasted for more than twenty-five years. To understand what is going on we need a new paradigm.
Hardly comforting, but it might make what's happening on Wall Street today understandable. Soros, the New York Review of Books writes, "doesn't have all the answers, not by any means. But unlike some of the professors who dismissed him as an overremunerated gadfly, he has something to say." And with the book now on sale for $15.61, it seems like one investment that's worth the risk.
— Carolyn Kellogg
Photo: Jeff Ooi / LensaMalaysia.com
 Sana Krasikov has been named one of the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35. Her first book is the short story collection "One More Year." Born in the Ukraine, Krasikov has lived in Russia, the U.S. and Georgia (not the American one). In an essay on Beatrice, she takes on the idea of reading for pleasure:
"I'm often surprised when I hear readers talk about whether they are 'enjoying' a book. The pleasure of reading takes many forms, but the conversations I’m referring to rarely move beyond the likability of the characters (are they sympathetic?) or the narrative’s emotional tone (does the story offer hope or is it depressing?). Or we read anthropologically — to learn about an exotic culture or to 'get a glimpse' into a closed world. In other words, what's interesting about the story is the information we take away from it. But such an approach to reading feels so much like one rooted in consumer culture. After all, why read something if it doesn't have utility for the reader, if it doesn’t make you feel either better or smarter?"
The idea of what makes a book pleasurable also came up in Krasikov's conversation with Luke Ford this spring: "Happy is such a funny term because there are so many different ways to be happy. Americans often equate happiness with pleasure. Even as a writer, I’m not happy in a day-to-day way. It’s grueling. On a deeper level, you’re tapping into a deeper dimension than you would if you were doing something else. They may be moving toward a goal or trying to untangle things in their lives. Life is tough but it doesn’t mean that they are totally miserable.
"Happy characters? I’ll have to get back to you on that one.
"Happiness is like, Americans always fetishize happiness and harp a lot about it. I don’t always understand what is meant by that. Russians never ask you, ‘Are you happy?’ Happiness isn’t a category as important for people with a Russian mentality. The pursuit of happiness is a uniquely American way of thinking. ...
"We always read things from the cultural lens we come from. I don’t see someone who’s struggling as being necessarily unhappy."
I'm guessing that Krasikov's stories are a wee bit depressing, something which she makes sound pretty good. Krasikov appears on a panel on the first day of the New Yorker Festival, which runs Oct. 3-5 in New York City.
-- Carolyn Kellogg
In Sunday's paper, Susan Salter-Reynolds profiled Thomas Friedman and his new book, "Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How It Can Renew America." She sets up the issue: What we need is a Green Revolution. This is our chance to show the rest of the world how to create a sustainable future. And we are blowing it. We have the knowledge, Friedman believes, but we lack the political will.
Friedman said that several threads of understanding -- about the economics of oil, the challenges of global warming and the effects of increased consumption -- came together for him in 2007. "I had this pregnant moment a year ago in May at a conference in Aspen," Friedman recalls. "I realized that the IT revolution would inevitably be replaced by the ET [energy technology] revolution."
Salter-Reynolds writes, "Friedman works by his own idiosyncratic process: speeches, followed by columns and articles, usually written on airplanes, followed by books. 'I am a verbal person,' he admits. 'I talk my ideas out.' "
Which is why it's particularly neat that the Aspen Institute has put this video speech online. It's five minutes of him talking out the ideas that would become his book -- his "pregnant moment."
--Carolyn Kellogg
Photo credit: Jennifers S. Altman / Los Angeles Times
Going to a book festival means you might get to see one of your favorite authors. It was a thrill to just be in the same room with Joan Didion — albeit way up in the balcony — at the Festival of Books in 2006. But when interviewer David Ulin got her to discuss, out of all her decades of work, one of my all-time favorite essays, I couldn't imagine anyplace I'd rather be. The essay? "Goodbye to All That" — which is about, in part, wanting to be somewhere else.
Sometimes it's not an interviewer but the questions from the audience that bring the best out of an author. At the National Book Festival on Saturday in Washington, D.C., for example, author Richard Price ("Lush Life") was asked a simple question about writing for the TV series "The Wire." His response, captured on video (scroll down), is less tough guy than kinda cute.
Other times, there are surprises. Walking between events at a big festival one year, I had an extra 20 minutes. A guy was reading in a tent, and I ducked in for a shady place to spend the time. The reader was funny. His delivery was amazing. When I had to leave, I walked around to see the sign and figure out who the hysterical stand-up comedian was. Not a comedian: Sherman Alexie. At a book festival, you might accidentally discover an incredibly funny National Book award winner-to-be.
I'm heading out to the West Hollywood Book Fair, which will, I hope, be full of surprises.
— Carolyn Kellogg
Photo of Joan Didion and David L. Ulin at the 2006 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books by Carolyn Kellogg
Paul Newman, who died today at the age of 83, appeared in his first film in 1952. During his career, he won one Oscar, was nominated for nine more, and appeared in classics including "Hud" (pictured), "Cool Hand Luke," "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," "The Hustler," "The Sting" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."
His roguish on-screen persona was belied by his personal life: in 1958, he married actress Joanne Woodward, and they never split. (OK, it was his second marriage, and he still liked racecar driving). Eventually they moved to Connecticut and had kids and cooked.
That's when Paul Newman, movie star, became Paul Newman, chef-philanthropist. Proceeds from his Newman's Own brand -- of salad dressings, spaghetti sauces and more -- was designated to go to charity. You can read how a lark became serious business in "Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good: The Madcap Business Adventure by the Truly Oddest Couple," written in alternating chapters by Paul Newman and foodstuff partner A.E. Hotchner. The original 2003 edition can be found used; the 2008 reprint edition, retitled "Pursuit of the Common Good: Twenty-five Years of Improving the World, One Bottle of Salad Dressing at a Time," came out this summer.
There are also multiple editions of the "Newman's Own Cookbook," (1986, 1998) co-authored by Newman and a handful of others, including daughter Nell -- who has her own book, "Newman's Own Organics Guide to a Good Life."
Trying to get close to Paul Newman through biography may be tough. The 1973 "Films of Paul Newman" looks like a fan's dream, with its share of handsome publicity stills. Dan O'Brien's 2004 book "Paul Newman: A Life in Pictures" has more than 60 photos but pulls its biographical data from previously published sources. Publisher's Weekly wrote of Eric Lax's 1996 book "Paul Newman: A Biography" that "The account of Newman the man is superficial, however, though perhaps necessarily so, since the star is notoriously one of the most private men in show business."
Maybe there's an autobiography waiting to be published -- I hope so. Until then, we'll be left eating Newman's Own popcorn and watching his films -- be sure to include "Empire Falls," based on Richard Russo's novel.
-- Carolyn Kellogg
Stephen King might be a master of horror and suspense, but that doesn't mean he can't enjoy a good ball game. In fact, King is a longtime fan of the Red Sox, going so far as to co-write "Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season" with Stewart O'Nan. Maybe it's his dedication to his favorite ball team that prompted him to appear in this new Sports Center commercial, set to debut on ESPN on Monday.
"Ghost writer" -- heh. And out in time for Halloween.
Thanks to the literary blog Syntax of Things, which found the video here.
-- Carolyn Kellogg
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Book Editor, Los Angeles Times
Deputy Book Editor, Los Angeles Times
Lead blogger, Jacket Copy
email: jacketcopyla [at] gmail.com
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Staff Writer, Los Angeles Times