Blogelstein!

23/09/2009

“ The sheer book-length nature of books combined with the seemingly inexorable reductions in editorial staffs and the number of submissions most editors receive, to say nothing of the welter of non-editorial tasks that most editors have to perform, including holding the hands of intensely self-absorbed and insecure writers, fielding frequently irate calls from agents, attending endless and vapid and ritualistic meetings, having one largely empty ceremonial lunch after another, supplementing publicity efforts, writing or revising flap copy, ditto catalog copy, refereeing jacket-design disputes, and so on — all these conditions taken together make the job of a trade-book acquisitions editor these days fundamentally impossible. „

(via fluffynotes) This rather disgruntled blog post from former top New York editor Daniel Menaker makes publishing sound like the worst job ever, but it isn’t: it’s simply a job, and if you deconstruct the daily grind of any profession (especially desk-based ones) it won’t sound like very much fun, despite the glints of loveliness. I think a lot of people initially go to work in publishing because they imagine that they will get to hang out in a nice office, reading books and wearing tweed and talking to very smart people . And when the distance between the actual and expected - the antisyzygy, if you will - is realised, it can be rather upsetting. But I don’t think what Menaker offers here is so much an argument against working in publishing as much as it is an argument against having a job.

That said, Menaker’s point that working in publishing means almost entirely giving up reading for pleasure is very true, and kind of unfortunate since most people go to work in publishing since they love to read. 

Quote posted at 12:29

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