During one of my writer’s workshops, I was asked by one of the participants the very question that is the title of this article. At the time I was discussing the merits of Proust and I guess this is what triggered the thunderous applause that followed. I quickly cited a few examples of florid writing from SWANN’S WAY that I felt were incontrovertible and moved on. Later, it dawned on me that anyone writing in earnest and hoping to be published deserves an honest answer to the question: Why are so may novels on the bestseller lists lousy?
How Well Known is the Fiction Author?
Is this ever a huge issue. Publishers want books that can sell. A well-known author will have a guaranteed sale of “x” number of books, regardless of the quality of the work. This is why we can pick up a book written by a heretofore quality author that reads as though it had never come across a line-editor’s desk. And, if the truth be known, the novel might not have.
Do All Prolific Authors Write Their Own Work All the Time?
No. Is it realistic to think that a person can write an 80,000 word novel each and every month? Yet some Romance writer’s houses put work out at this pace under the aegis of some very popular names. Famous writers who admit to employing a dozen or more full-time people–not to provide ideas, but to write the material we see in airport gift shops and book stores that are ascribed to their handle.
Bestseller Lists can be Skewed, Very Skewed
I recently attended a popular fiction writer’s presentation of his latest offering. He told the group his agent had informed him earlier in the day that the novel was going to open at number 12 on the New York Times Bestseller List. How is this possible when the first copy has not been sold? If a publisher arranges enough presale commitments from bookstores, libraries, etc., a lofty position on a bestseller list is not a difficult chore. Especially if one keeps in mind that 20,000 copies sold will land a book on the NYT list.
What is the Answer?
If books are not always written by the person who is listed as the author, material is not edited, and presales cannot be representative of actual sales, what is a the public to do? My best answer is to be certain the store a person purchases from will accept a return. It is the only prudent course of action I can recommend.
Publishers are in the most demanding positions of their collective corporate lives. They want to go with what brung ‘um. If an author of theirs has sold well, he or she will be provided with the opportunity to sell well again, unfortunately many times to the detriment of the consumer. This is why so many novels on the bestseller lists are lousy.
Robert L. Bacon
robertlbacon@aol.com
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