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Designating and Signifying

Well, I set out on this blogging day in response to the reports that the British pressis now hip to the cost of lead-rack display “opportunities” in chain bookstores. I was going to assert that we’ve recently had to consider this reality here as quite a few of our titles have begun to generate real momentum— Hick, Devils in the Sugar Shop, The Unnatural History of Cypress Parish, and the forthcoming The Pirate’s Daughter.

But, first, that path was leading me toward an assertion that is probably already wholly unnecessary: that, even while lamenting the shrinking markets for good books, the publishing industry supports promotional practices that marginalize the majority of their own titles. The post was to be something about “designated” and, therefore, undesignated books—a term I first heard at Putnam sales conferences. I wanted to get something in there too about Amazon’s selling the new Harry Potter at a loss and about what that used to be called . . .

But (second), all that was just depressing. No fun at all.

Then, this review of Hick was posted at The Bohemian Aesthetic and raised my spirits. As always, Peter Quinones reviews a book by engaging with it. Given our commitment to publish novels that are deserving of re-reading, a review that takes one of them on its own terms (in this case, literally) is as fair and invigorating as it gets.

And I love it that he quoted one of my favorite lines from the novel: “A girl just can’t live on lollipops the way she can live off Snickers.”

(My other favorite is “They could sure make these ditches more comfortable.”)

In 2007, we have mounted what I believe is a remarkable list. And the potential, for many of our books, seems to me as great as we have ever had. Indeed, in our Spring list, Andrea Portes and Timothy Schaffert write with such far-reaching humanity and with such a sweet-sharp edge that my hopes for Hick and Devils are well-nigh boundless. Those two books flat out reward the reader.

And this sort of serious attention is all we ask. We’re at work here at Unbridled with the recognition that the books that enthrall us have fewer outlets in the book world as the gates narrow in promotion, display, and reviewing. But we’re also convinced that an even larger readerly community is developing with a Web 2.0 sensibility. That community, we believe, already shares our admiration for writers whose works the old world might not have “designated.”

Fred
posted 19 June 2007

 
 

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