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Dec. 4th, 2008 05:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lagilmanand more to the publishing industry: this
At Random House, it was clear that saving the imprints was key. Markus Dohle talked about aligning “existing strengths and publishing affinities” and how this imprint or that will be better, stronger, safer. As if that matters. Who really cares if Crown or Knopf or Ballantine or Bantam Dell survives? I’m serious. Who. Cares.
No really, who cares if these groups are retaining editorial independence while combining strengths? Is that really going to change the business dynamic, or is it just focusing on the wrong problem?
Speaking as someone who still has a (thankfully fading) emotional attachement to the imprint she used to run, I understand the insider's view of imprints -- it's your baby, your identity, your chance to say "this is what I think is good." And in a perfect world it would be a useful and understood brand. But that's a lot easier to do in specialized genres (DAW, Baen, Nocturne, etc). For general fiction? Not so much. Not much at all, in fact.
Y'know, it's a very weird thing, being an insider-trained writer. I'm never quite sure if I'm a Christian or a Lion.
At Random House, it was clear that saving the imprints was key. Markus Dohle talked about aligning “existing strengths and publishing affinities” and how this imprint or that will be better, stronger, safer. As if that matters. Who really cares if Crown or Knopf or Ballantine or Bantam Dell survives? I’m serious. Who. Cares.
No really, who cares if these groups are retaining editorial independence while combining strengths? Is that really going to change the business dynamic, or is it just focusing on the wrong problem?
Speaking as someone who still has a (thankfully fading) emotional attachement to the imprint she used to run, I understand the insider's view of imprints -- it's your baby, your identity, your chance to say "this is what I think is good." And in a perfect world it would be a useful and understood brand. But that's a lot easier to do in specialized genres (DAW, Baen, Nocturne, etc). For general fiction? Not so much. Not much at all, in fact.
Y'know, it's a very weird thing, being an insider-trained writer. I'm never quite sure if I'm a Christian or a Lion.
