Escape Hatch 052: October Is The Best Month
The Pram rolls on; Some thoughts on publishing; In Praise of Praise
The Pram Rumbles On
A new story of mine, “The Pram,” was released as an Amazon Original a couple weeks ago, as part of their Creature Feature collection. I’m delighted that so many people enjoyed it… and was very moved by some of the conversations around it. If it did anything positive for you at all, I’m glad.
The story has had a good run — we hung out in the top fifty on the Kindle store for a while, which kind of blows my mind. If you’re looking for a Halloween chiller and you haven’t had a chance to check this one out, I hope you will, and I hope it gives you a bleak blast of joy.
Burnout
(Getty Images; Malte Mueller)
My first book went to press almost twenty years ago (which seems crazy to me — it still feels like something that happened last month) and in the days since I’ve come to know a whole lot of folks in publishing. It was bound to happen: I’ve wound up friends with any number of editors and copy-editors and editorial assistants, audiobook producers and cover designers, marketers and sales reps.
And it’s clear to me something has changed. It didn’t begin with COVID-19, but stole in maybe a year to 18 months later. All those good, imaginative people who make books happen are, at this moment, dangerously, maybe even recklessly overworked. Almost everyone I talk to in the business is struggling with fatigue, recurring illness, or spiraling anxiety. A few folks are walking away. If ‘walking away’ is the term we want here, and not ‘reeling away.’ Those who are hanging in there strike me as embattled and exhausted, unable to keep up with their volumes of work and the unrealistic expectations that have been placed upon them (and which, to a degree, they’ve placed upon themselves).
This is, I suppose, partly what happens when companies are publicly owned and manipulated to maximize quarterly shareholder value. Everything, including employees, are regarded as virgin resources to be strip-mined for everything of value, and then discarded when they’re worn to the nub. Good publishing companies build profit by degrees over decades; their intrinsic worth is the labor of a century. They do it by publishing lasting works that hang around on the backlist to be discovered and enjoyed and argued over by one generation of readers after another. (And, sure, also by finding a book that’s just right for now even if, a couple years later, it’s an amusing relic). But it’s not often that publicly traded companies are operated with an eye towards building up a century worth of value.
The industry needs to at least try and address the problem and the best way to do so would be to organize a conference on the subject of mental health. One day in NYC or SF or London for the presses to convene and have some panels to talk about burnout, and to explore strategies to create healthier working environments. Usually, at publishing conventions, the writers talk — they’re there to sell their books. But this wouldn’t be that. This would be a time for editors and publishing directors, agents and the buyers for the big chains, and a whole host of other industry employees, to get together and make a plan to do better: for each other. To figure out how to do the work without being worked to pieces.
A career in publishing is, and always has been, a joyous, challenging adventure in the arts. Let’s keep it a place where a person who loves books and ideas can build a life for themselves… a place you can start in your twenties and retire in your mid-sixties with stories to tell. It was that place for a long time. It isn’t anymore. But it can be again and it’s time to figure out how.
Shelf-Struck
I almost want to write James Daunt a fan letter.
I do sometimes write fan letters. I once wrote one to author Sam Taplin, author of this and this, because my twins love these stories, and because his books do some things well that many books for toddlers don’t bother to do at all.
When I blurb something, those are like little public fan letters, that sometimes wind up on the back covers of books. C. S. Lewis once wrote:
The world rings with praise - lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favourite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favourite game — praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians or scholars. I had not noticed how the humblest, and at the same time most balanced and capacious minds praised most, while the cranks, misfits, and malcontents praised least.
Offering your unasked for and uninhibited praise isn’t just good for the person receiving it — it’s good for you! Try it, you’ll see what I mean.
And speaking of blurbs, here’s one, for Tananarive Due’s latest novel, out on Halloween Day.
Got Questions? Maybe I have answers.
I’ve started a kind of open thread for questions in Substack’s Chat feature.
TTFN
And that’s probably enough out of me for one newsletter. I hope you’ve got your costume ready for the big night; I hope you’ve got a plastic pumpkin crammed with full-sized candy bars for the kiddies; and I hope you’ve got something scary to read and terrifying to watch. October, with its chilly breezes and drifts of dead leaves, is the best month, hands down… and Halloween is the best holiday. Here’s wishing you a great one.
Burnout is a very real phenomenon and I've been talking about it on panels way before Covid and the pandemic. When the pandemic hit, it hit so many really hard, and some(like myself) even harder. So now in addition to burnout, it's also deeper financial issues. It's not just the publishing industry that needs to have these conversations and have a conference to swap resources and gather together, it's everywhere. There is a reason I opted not to bother even attending NY Comic Con for the first time in 15 years this year. Im glad to see you bring up the topic of Burnout in your email newsletter Joe, but will the industry listen, and will they reach out to those who know how to find solutions?
I did love The Pram but I love even more the idea of a forum to discuss ways of shoring up publishing talent on all sides once again. It's something very near to my past couple years' reality, as more of the industry compresses or moves to unworkable back-end-only arrangements for all involved. I think it'd be a worthwhile and helpful--and necessary--conversation, the big question would just be how to get the right people to listen, care, and change.