You can't judge book publishers by their covers

NEW YORK -- The covers said Knopf and Farrar, Straus & Giroux and Putnam and Bantam, and each publishing house had its own personality and image. No longer. It's all blurred now.

Publishers who are still considered literary increasingly publish big commercial books, and the big commercial houses either publish literary books or set up imprints and divisions to do so. Scribner, literary, just signed up Stephen King, the megaseller horror novelist, after a competitive auction that included Farrar, Straus and Random House, which was widely believed in the publishing community to be after it for Knopf, its very literary division.

This smudging of identity has crept up on publishing, and now its the norm. Many people in the book business think it's a good thing, and no publisher apologizes for it. "Old brand names may still hold true, but Farrar, Straus didn't crash and burn" when it started publishing Scott Turow, said Charles McGrath, editor of The New York Times Book Review. "It was pretty cool for Farrar, Straus to take a run at King," he said, adding, however, that it wasn't too big a leap since "King has serious writing ambitions." So in this crossover world, Bantam Books publishes Stephen Hawking and Knopf publishes Michael Crichton. Knopf also publishes Toni Morrison, a Nobel Prize winner, and at the same time 21 Chic Simple books on such subjects as work clothes and women's wardrobe and accessories. Henry Holt, whose list includes the literary Paul Auster, Thomas Pynchon and now Salman Rushdie, makes much of its money from Sue Grafton's alphabet murder mysteries. Despite their subtle leavening over time with the highly commercial, such houses as Farrar, Straus, Knopf and Viking have maintained their upscale literary images for decades. The reverse is also true. More recently, literary and up-market niches in commercial houses have been growing like vegetables. Thus, Simon & Schuster has Scribner, Bantam has Nan A. Talese Books, Delacorte has resurrected Dial Press, Putnam was integrated corporately with Viking and started Riverhead, and HarperCollins announced a new literary imprint, Flamingo. So why is this blurring of identity important? Many publishers say it is because the book world, like the political, is perception- driven and image is very important. Thus, caste often affects the advance payment a writer receives, the shelf space a book gets in book stores and even the reviews. For instance, publishers say some writers and their agents will accept less money to be published by a so-called literary house. Some bookstores, particularly independents, give more prominent display to literary works. Which books get reviewed when they cascade down on critics like so many herring in a cannery? Often the literary ones. Steve Wasserman, book editor of The Los Angeles Times, said there always was a mixture, but now it's more obvious. He says, however, that real distinctions remain between literary and commercial houses. "Knopf and FSG are literary and other houses have their pretensions," he said. "I'm more likely to give credibility to an unknown author, a first novelist, from Knopf and have it reviewed." McGrath says the name of the publisher seldom influences which books are reviewed in The New York Times. Wasserman said, "Farrar, Straus was built on Sammy Davis Jr.'s Yes, I Can, which allowed it to publish Isaac Bashevis Singer for many years." This conceit -- that so-called literary publishers publish blockbusters to get the cash to enable them to publish high art -- is a thing of the past, nearly every publisher agrees. In the current marketplace, each book is is supposed to be profitable in its own niche. John Sterling, editor in chief of Broadway Books, said that the "breaking down is a great thing for publishing," and that "the important thing now is to think carefully about which shelves in the bookstore you want to be on." He said that rather than thinking literary or commercial, a publishing house has to ask itself, "Are you publishing a book without a possible substantial readership?" Virginia Barber, a literary agent who relishes having a literary clientele, said she was "not happy with the trend" but said that she "can survive it by going to the editor." In short, she has substituted the editor for the publishing house and often places her clients with editors whom she has confidence in, disregarding the publishing house they work for. The definition of what is literary is arabesque. Barber said that Knopf, by publishing John le Carre, was blurring its literary image, but some academics would include le Carre in their courses. Generally, a so-called literary publisher has a list of books written for an audience of serious, cultivated, educated readers who presumably want serious fiction and nonfiction, except when they are reading on the beach. Styles change in publishing, as in all art, publishers agree. Thus, Thomas Mann would not write now what he did write, anymore than Rembrandt would now paint what he painted in the 17th century. For many in publishing, the challenge is to mix the literary and the commercial in a single book. Tom Wolfe, published by Farrar, Straus, and Don DeLillo, published by Scribner, are examples. It's no secret, either, that even the snootiest editor wants his or her literary books to be great commercial successes. In book publishing that constitutes Valhalla.

Copyright 1997
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.