Sunday, February 22, 2009

The End of Cultural Authority

Poets & Writers interviewed editors Lee Boudreaux, Eric Chinski, Alexis Gargagliano, and Richard Nash. An interesting excerpt from Chinski (though I don't quite understand the reference to blogs as one of the biggest problems of the industry):
Q: When you look at the industry, what are the biggest problems we face right now?
CHINSKI: I think they're all so obvious. Returns. Blogs.
GARGAGLIANO: And just finding readers.
CHINSKI: The end of cultural authority. That's something we talk about a lot at FSG. Reviews don't have the same impact that they used to. The one thing that really horrifies me and that seems to have happened within the last few years is that you can get a first novel on the cover of the New York Times Book Review, a long review in The New Yorker, a big profile somewhere, and it still doesn't translate into sales.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Gwen, sounds like their thinking is backwards. They seem to be blaming bloggers for stealing some of the mass media's audience and influence. Actually, the audience and influence dissipated first, and bloggers filled the vacuum. It does make a publisher's work harder, because they have to be more creative in generating buzz. That's why they get the big bucks.