Writer and former Random House executive, Daniel Menaker has posted an interesting article over at Barnes and Noble Review that some of you must read. Unlike many articles written by book publishing insiders, this article isn’t an exercise in hand-ringing and finger-pointing. Rather, it’s a thoughtful, insightful and, ultimately, somber analysis of how traditional publishing works (or fails to work) from an editor’s point of view.
I find his candor to be refreshing. But, I wonder what it means for the rest of us in the long-run as the response to the decline of traditional publishing has been more reactionary than revolutionary. Most of the alternative models to traditional publishing probably won’t succeed because none of them take into account the nature of the digital world and it’s limits — nor to do these so-called innovators comprehend the cultural forces outside of publishing which are contributing to this decline. I have to believe that the future direction of publishing industrywill have more to do with those cultural shifts than innovations in POS systems. Menaker, himself, correctly notes the decline of “genuine literary discernment.” Sure, books are being published and some of them are even selling, but we no longer live in a book culture — at least not like we did generations ago. Ultimately if we don’t have intelligent readers, the role of the editor becomes pointless. Technology just makes the editor’s demise easier, but will not be the cause.
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