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Interesting quote from a publisher

edited June 2009 in - Reading
An interesting quote found on an extremely good site that I read frequently.

The quote is on 'The Elegant Variation' Mark Sarvas' blog - http://marksarvas.blogs.com/elegvar/

The full interview is on http://www.pw.org/content/agents_editors_qampa_jonathan_galassi

FSG is the publishing house, Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

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The legendary Jonathan Galassi, president and publisher of FSG, is interviewed in Poets & Writers.

But what if you have some ambition, as all writers do, and really want a readership and think that you deserve one?
If they deserve one, they'll get one. I believe that. I believe that eventually they will get their readership. Now, I also think there are way more people writing books than are going to get a readership. But I think that the books that really make a difference are going to have a readership. It may not be immediate. There are many examples of writers who have labored in relative obscurity for a long time until their ship came in. Look at Bola

Comments

  • Too heavy for me at this time of night, so I'll read it when my brain is up to speed. Thanks. :)
  • The idea of the canon is a really outmoded idea (died in the 1950's) so I'm really surprised to hear a modern voice talking about it.

    The greatest classics (Milton, Hogg etc) where never considered part of the canon anyway.
  • Depends on your view, Stirling. In the States Howard Bloom has championed the Canon for many years and still does so, though I agree, he is increasingly becoming an isolated voice.
  • Maybe its because I'm reading Scottish Literature (distinctly outside of the canon!) Saying that, when I was studying Linguistics with the OU, that was anti-canon too.
  • There is an on-going battle regarding the merits or not of a 'Canon'. Maybe more so in the US than here. I'm not sussed up on it enough to know the current status. Whatever its relevance, a lot of what is considered 'Canon' is still pretty damn fine art. In the case of books, there's some humdingers. I read Dante's 'Divine Comedy' and it blew my socks off. There's no denying that sort of thing is great art. Whether an individual likes it or not is something else, I suppose.
  • I'll just add that the full interview is extremely interesting if you want to read about the life of an editor and a publisher. It's a long article but well worth it.
  • I agree, reading classics has improved my writing 1000% and it amazing to read. It's the inclusion/exclusion debate.
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