The Long Haul in Publishing

Everything we read informs us that the public’s attention span has dropped like an anchor in shallow waters and the window for judging success has been squeezed down to microdot size.

 

Movies are judged by their opening week returns.

 

In the New York Times, Jeff Huber Google’s senior vice president of engineering (adopting the Nurse Rached philosophy) sets out how he wields the executioner’s sword brining it quickly brought down on projects that don’t quickly show financial results.

 

Perhaps this will be a direction for authors in the Brave New publishing world.

It wasn’t that long ago that writers like Ian Rankin had time to build an audience. Not that the axe didn’t hover over his neck, but his novel Blue gave him a reprieve.

 

Ian Rankin has been interviewed on the subject in Scruffy Dog: http://www.thescruffydogreview.com/Rankin.html

 

“There were a lot of years back then when I just wasn’t selling. The first six or seven books sold very poorly and then suddenly Black and Blue came along at a time when my publishers were getting ready to drop me. They felt they had done everything they could to try and break me into a bigger market, so they were getting ready to let another publisher take a shot. Everything just clicked. I’ve got diary entries from around Mortal Causes time saying how disastrous it all was; the books aren’t selling, they’re not getting well reviewed, and that was eight years of my writing career. I was panicking.”

Has Jeff Huber switched on the warning light in the tunnel where authors are working the coalface?

 

Sunday Writers Breakfast in Bangkok

On Sunday 22^nd February I will have breakfast with Timothy Hallinan and Steve Martini in Bangkok. Tim writes an exciting series staring a journalists/private investigator set in Bangkok. Tim’s latest novel The Fourth Watcher has received many rave reviews, and he has a third novel coming out this year.

 

Steve Martini’s latest novel is Shadow of Power.This is Steve’s ninth Paul Madriani legal thriller. A number of his novels have been on the New York Times bestseller’s list.

 

Living in Bangkok has many advantages and compensations but it is difficult to make the case that it is a “hub” of crime fiction or any genre of fiction. Writers living here normally need to travel to New York or London to meet other authors who are published by major publishers. Sunday should be a treat. Occasionally, despite all evidence that physics is against such an event, the mountain does manage to go to Muhammad.