Shock, however, is something that industries, not individuals, experience. As for the book trade - I'm curious to see what will come out of the scandal. Since the recession began, there have been a gazillion books published about the crisis, and generally portraying how awful city bankers are. I'm thinking especially of Geraint Anderson's book City Boys, not only because this has been very popular: in fact, he's a hack. And most of the books that have come out of the recession have also been written in a very journalistic way: I have yet to see a serious, though non-academic, response to the financial crisis. I'm not suggesting that journalism can't be serious, but by its nature it has to be speedily produced with little time for reflection.Whilst, from a trade POV, speed and topicality are vital, I think that hindsight and perspective are necessarily lacking.
Similarly, I'm curious about the possible books that might come out of this scandal. As it happens, Iain Banks was in the Guardian Books today (doing the ol' Q & A) and he rightly points out, to the question:
Q: Given the current corruption in media and politics, ever considered returning to the themes of Complicity, The Business, Garbadale etc. ?
A: that books are a very slow way to respond to current events. Whilst that means Publishing House Co can't enjoy a glut of ill-considered sales, it does mean that, for the right person, there's a wonderful book to be written in a few years time. After all, chuck a book out there now, when the story seems to have only just begun, and the book will be lacking, of course, and date easily, compared to a work of richer scholarship, taking into account the full story, and mixing it with a dose of perspective.
I'm of the opinion that too many books are produced too quickly these days, to the immediate short term gain of the publisher, but with little thought for anything else. Take, for example, the glut of Royal Wedding books. Sure, they sold well, but honestly - honestly?!? Too many titles were produced (hands up: I did quite enjoy How to Knit Your Own Royal Wedding) but they pretty much all lacked substance. I'd like to see a book come out in five or ten years, charting the relationship, but then of course Kate won't be so pretty, we'll have all decided we don't love her any more, and her sister's bottom will have overtaken the world in any case. I worry that the same is true of this Murdoch mess: he'll avoid prison, release another Sunday paper, and in a few years time it'll be just another one of those stories they show on the end-of-the-year run down and we'll all be saying, 'Aaah remember that?'. I think the implications will be long lasting, but like the similar journalistic exposure of the expenses scandal last year, it'll be a sounding board for jokes soon enough.
On the plus side, something like 4.5 million copies of the paper sold on Sunday. I can't decide if this is a good thing: obviously, that's [4.5 million] x [the price of the paper] going back to Murdoch, despite condemnation. These sales do illustrate, though, that nothing can really replace print media. And I'm sure that's something that all of Fleet Street can be grateful for.
Here's a little something a little someone sent me by email. Totally ace point:
ReplyDeleteOne thing you forgot to note in the post is the amount of time required to publish a book. Some books are rush jobs, like the Christmas market (I remember reading about a biography of Nelson written, published and for sale within eighteen hours or something after the fleet returned from Trafalgar) but for a Iain M. Banks' ilk the gap from manuscript to bookshelf is a year or so. (Charles Stross writes about this: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/02/cmap-2-how-books-are-made.html). Add that to the fact that the manuscript takes a year or more to produce, and well... who writes about two-years-gone current affairs? There's a peak of CURRENT writing and then a dip until stuff becomes old enough to be worth remembering and writing about. The Eighties are obviously rich enough to be worth r&wing now, and I can't think of any major books set in the Nineties - a British book would have to be set under Cool Brittannia and that seems too soon to me.
My only comment: there must be something about the 90's right?I dunno - Irvine Welsh makes a few references; John Niven's Kill Your Friends is about the mid-90s scene; .... more?
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