Diary of a Mad Editor

A not so interesting interesting story this morning in The Guardian’s Book section about how publishers are reshuffling their publishing schedules to avoid having their top titles going head-to-head with Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code sequel.

I find this story both interesting and uninteresting — interesting, because the timing of the story suggests that it is nothing more than pre-publication PR for Brown. Uninteresting, because this sales strategy is nothing new when it comes to the mega-big deal bestsellers. They did the same thing when J.K. Rowling was still churning out the Harry Potter books and back in the 80s and 90s when Stephen King’s offerings were kicking just about everyone else’s ass sales-wise. It’s also uninteresting because it assumes that the same audience for an author whose books don’t sell quite as well as a Brown or Rowling or King or whatever fill in the blank with your favorite mega-selling author will suddenly see a drop in readership if their book is released the same week as the big book author’s.

One example given is Nick Hornsby. Honestly, do people who normally read Hornsby go into a bookstore, see Hornsby’s book and Brown’s book and decide, “Gee, I think I’ll buy Brown’s book instead because his books are popular” ? Hornsby writes cleverly-written fluff with a significant number of pop-culture references to make smart readers think they’re cool and Dan Brown writes dumb potboilers with a significant number of historical references to make dumb readers feel smart. Two totally difference readerships if you ask me.

Another example given is William Trevor. Huh? Who the fuck reads William Trevor that it would even matter when his book is released? No, I’m not saying William Trevor is a bad writer or unworthy of Dan Brown-level popularity — I’m just saying that he’s not a very popular writer (Maybe in the U.K. I don’t know, but would most Dan Brown fans have even heard his name before?) so it doesn’t really compute that his books would fare any better even if it was released well in advance of Dan Brown’s new opus. So, what’s the point of reporting on the matter other than to hammer in the nail that Dan Brown is a big dog writer in the publishing world and his new book is coming out soon? Exactly . . . ’nuff said.