Do you think the claim that she got 500 large is more or less believeable than the claim that she wrote a novel?

Robert Schwartz:

I don't know if it's true, but alas, it's extremely believable. Publishers do this kind of thing all the time. It's one reason why publishing is dying.

Little, Brown signed Viswanathan to a two-book, $500,000 contract while she was in high school. This is the first book that the Harvard sophomore has produced for the publisher under that deal, and it reached 32nd on the New York Times’ hardcover fiction bestseller list this week.

Remember Less Than Zero? Or that supposed autobiographical book about rampant drug use by that guy who actually got on Oprah, and whose (now admittedly faked) book was featured by her on Oprah's Book Club? Both those books were first novels, and both got multi-hundred thousand dollar advances.

In each case, they earned out -- but only because the publishers moved heaven and earth to justify their original stupid decision.

Publishers long ago stopped nurturing actual talented writers -- Bennett Cerf might have been the last such editor -- and instead just keep rolling the dice for a bestseller: they pick out one or two authors they guess (a gut-shot straight draw) might be the next Tom Clancy or J.K. Rowling, often sight unseen (first novel, not yet published), and pour literally millions into buying, publishing, printing hundreds of thousands of copies, hyping, and buying point-of-sale stocking of the book.

Most of the time, it's a bust, and they lose everything. In those cases, they pour even more money into the deal, desperately trying at least to recoup their losses. They push through a movie deal, which may or may not even get made; they squeeze hard on foreign rights; they advertise in the NYT and Playboy. Usually, they can at least make back the money they spent... but the ROI is almost zero.

And to finance this, they cut every other author to the bone: paperback original, no PR, no marketing, no advertising, no sales pitch to the Borders mass-market buyer, nothing but a listing in the publisher's current ordering catalog.

All the other guys get advances of $5000 to $7500 (for a book they took a year to write) -- and even then they don't earn out, so the authors never see royalties.

So I can't say whether this particular claim is fiction -- though why would Little, Brown go along with the ruse if it were false? -- but I have to say it's not in the least unbelievable.

Dafydd

Dear Dafydd:

I enjoy your blog immensely, not least because of the superb prose, but I never thought I'd catch you reading my mind. The thoughts in this piece cry out to be heard. It's definitely part of MY world of experience. After years of trying the traditional publishing route and not simply being rejected but being ignored even by some who asked to see one of my manuscripts in the first place, I turned my back on the smug NY crowd and published my novel myself. It cost me peanuts to do it, and three years later I say without embarrassment that it's still selling, still providing me with royalty checks every month, and (most important to me) is well regarded by the audience to whom it is directed. Had I gone the traditional route, it would--as you say--have hit the remainder bin at warp speed. Thank God for unanswered prayers. And thank you for speaking up for all of us.
Best of luck to you with your novels and with this blog.
Kind regards,
Bill Altimari
author of LEGION: A NOVEL OF THE ARMY OF ROME

echo. praise. decide to go back and write some more on my great american novel. wonder if i can find some teenybop to pretend to be the author. quit wondering. sigh.

Follow the money. There has to be more to this than meets the eye.

Hugh: I am not saying you are wrong. I am just saying that there is a rancid smell and a lot we do not know. In particular, there was a very high profile, high price "college counselor" and book packaging firm. I put forth the following sources, not that they are, shall we say, unimpeachable, but there are a lot of threads lying around and we do not know who paid who for what.

The possibilities are endless. It may be that everyone is straight. It is more likely that a number of them aren't. I think we need a lot more information if want to be able to pronounce who did what to whom.

At any rate, until such time as all of the underlying deals are revealed, I am holding my nose.

How Kaavya Got Packaged and Got Into Trouble; Plagiarism and the teen-marketing culture. By Ann Hulbert

April 27, 2006 First, Plot and Character. Then, Find an Author. By MOTOKO RICH and DINITIA SMITH

April 26, 2006 On Education In College Entrance Frenzy, a Lesson Out of Left Field By SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN

Thanks for hissing in, . Now you can slither in with a comment, o wise. (sign out)

(If you haven't hissed a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Hang loose; don't shed your skin!)

URL:
Remember me unto the end of days? AyeNay!

Comments: (Sssselect text and bite a button to apply HTML tagssssss...)