I recently sat on a panel with Lynne Tillman, who was asked by an audience member how she felt once a book of hers had been published, letting a little air into that otherwise airless process called writing.
She answered by describing what she called the "incommensurability" of publication and writing. Now, I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I misunderstood the definition of that word; I thought she was referring to the way that the diminished expectations often forced by the realities of publication were incommensurate with the amount of labor involved in writing the book. But once I'd actually looked up the word, I realized that she was simply characterizing the two as separate processes, to be judged by entirely different standards.
Lynne's attitude—informed by her experience publishing at least a dozen books—strikes me as a healthy one. I mean that literally: as in all other fields, the quest for recognition in the literary world can lead the seeker to the brink of psychosis, particularly when joined to the publication of a first novel. No one writes a first novel thinking of it as a throwaway. It is, rather, a demented act of self-confidence. But as you approach publication, the tight unit you've constructed encompassing you, your ambition and the book itself expands rapidly to include agent, editor, publicist, potential blurbers, sales staff, reviewers, booksellers and, oh, yeah, readers. Certainly no writer thinks, "I will deliver my book into a publishing environment whose current fads, obsessions and marketing strategies will dovetail perfectly with my highly individualistic voice and vision" (at least I hope not), but whatever the palette consisting of publishing's current anxieties and enthusiasms (Memoirs! Chick Lit!), it colors the impression your book makes on any of these individuals.
My first novel, Sound on Sound, started making the rounds in 1993—a lifetime ago, in publishing terms. Then, the hotly marketable commodity in fiction was the so-called "Generation X" novel, a species whose members appeared to have little in common with each other aside from their concern with the activities and interests of a specifically youthful demographic. Given my age then (er, young-ish) and my book's subject—a teenage rock band performing on the first evening of the Reagan presidency—Sound on Sound could have been forcibly wedged into that category. But it was told from a variety of conflicting viewpoints and in alternating, highly divergent styles—a tough sell in the eyes of trade publishers, over 20 of whom (closer to 30, counting those who discouraged my then-agent from even submitting the manuscript) rejected the book before it was taken on by Dalkey Archive Press in 1994.
I was disappointed. Why? Well, for one thing, Dalkey Archive, a small nonprofit operating out of Illinois, had no flashy marketing approach. How could they get my slacker mug, posed before a suitably slackerish backdrop, into a slick magazine? How could I succeed without a radioactive dust jacket depicting a scene from the book painstakingly formed out of Fruity Pebbles? Please don't misunderstand me: Dalkey's exertions on my behalf turned out to be arduous, with a small and overworked staff evangelizing for a "difficult" (strike one!) first novel (strike two!) by an unknown author (you're out!). But while Dalkey's marketing and publicity people—ah, person—tried to cajole stores into displaying the book and generate interest from newspapers and magazines, it was hard to compete with the hoopla created by even modestly pushed Gen X offerings like Our Noise(Simon & Schuster) or Bongwater (Grove). And then there was the characteristically tepid response to experimentalism of any stripe. Most, including the all-important New York Times Book Review, simply ignored it. After remaining in view and on the shelves for a brief period, Sound on Sound seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth.
Though maybe not. On the scale measuring the seismic force of literary earthquakes, Gen X makes the Brat Pack look like the Big One; in comparison, the Beats are the planet Krypton exploding in fiery shards of molten rock. Recently, I called my girlfriend to ask what she could remember about Gen X books. "Douglas Coupland," she answered immediately. "Yeah," I said, "but I mean the ones that weren't written by Douglas Coupland." A long silence ensued on the other end of the line. The confusion was understandable. Coupland's written a lot of books (though somehow I've never actually read any of them), enough that it doesn't seem entirely unreasonable to hold him singlehandedly responsible for the whole thing. Finally, she ventured, "Day-Glo dust jackets...?" then trailed off. We left it there. It seemed an appropriate epitaph for an obsolescent merchandising trend. But Dalkey's commitment to Sound on Sound was, and is, for the long run. It remains in print and available, for which I am thankful, particularly since the publication of my second novel, Trance: people coming to Sound on Sound because of Trance are easily able to buy it.
Now, Trance was a different story. If there exists what I'll call Tillman's Incommensurability, distinguishing the writer's art from the publisher's trade, then there's a similar state marking the difference between being well-published by a trade house and being well-published by a tenacious nonprofit. Contrasting with Sound on Sound's bumpy, year-long odyssey from editor to editor, in early 2001 a partial manuscript of Trance landed, through the intercession of a friend, in the laps of both Ira Silverberg, an agent at Donadio & Olson, and Lorin Stein, an editor at FSG. Both expressed interest. At that point I merely had to back away, allowing the two to work together: Stein and FSG made a preemptive offer on the book, which Silverberg recommended that I accept on the basis of Stein's enthusiasm and FSG's ability to publish it well. I managed to sell the book and, with an advance 60 times greater than the one Dalkey was able to give me, to finance its completion as well. Trance was published in 2005 and received what was, for me at least, a tremendous amount of review attention. Ultimately, it was named a finalist for the National Book Award.
Was FSG the sole factor in determining Trance's reception? Any postmortem discussion comparing the two experiences has to take into account various influences: Trance is a less nakedly experimental book than Sound on Sound, and benefited from a high concept—it's a fictional treatment of Patricia Hearst's sojourn with the Symbionese Liberation Army in the 1970s—making it accessible to most people. It's also a better book. Dalkey is in the center of Illinois, while FSG is in the center of American publishing. Silverberg is a much more assertive and proactive representative than my former agent. Stein's enthusiasm, and that of my publicist, Cary Goldstein, meant that the book received constant in-house support crucial to its visibility among the midlist. Friends and acquaintances gathered over a 10-year period enabled good word-of-mouth and helped me obtain wonderful blurbs from writers like Jonathan Lethem, Sam Lipsyte and Colson Whitehead. FSG footed the bill for a multicity tour. I received support from key publications, such as this one, which chose to cover the tour within its pages and on its Web site. Etc.
The bottom line, though, is that there is a powerful cultural stature, legitimate or not, that derives from commercial publication. I'm uncomfortable with the conceit of small presses as farm teams from which big houses draft writers deemed ready for prime time (mainly because it denigrates the fine books they publish that the American marketplace simply doesn't support on a large scale—poetry, works in translation, experimental literature), and I don't think that's what happened to me. It's likely that Trance would have happened if Sound on Sound had never been published first by Dalkey, but—the downside of that cultural stature—it's possible that it could have had trouble finding a home if a large house had published Sound on Sound and it had failed. In considering Trance, FSG didn't pore over my sales figures the way some publishers have with writers I know whose previous books haven't done particularly well. I believe, in fact, that in comparing the sort of publication Dalkey was able to provide with the one they were considering offering, they considered the incommensurability of the two. And that may have made all the difference.
American YouthPhil LaMarche, 30(Random House, Apr.)Born:Wilmington, Del.; raised in Windham, N.H.; now lives in Syracuse, N.Y.Favorite authors: James Ellroy, William Faulkner, Cormac McCarthy, Flannery O'Connor, George Saunders.Career arc: Writing fellow at Syracuse University; awarded the Ivan Klima Fellowship in Fiction, Prague; short story "In the Tradition of My Family" (Ninth Journal,2005) was made into a short film by OrLater Productions; teacher at Colgate and Syracuse universities.Plot: A teenage boy is involved in a fatal shooting in his home. While his family, the police, the reactionary vigilante group at school and his girlfriend swirl around him, he must come to terms with his guilt and ultimately his responsibility.Author's toughest challenge: "The cuts; the big edits. I had an earlier draft that was probably 100 pages longer. I tested the waters with it and spent the next two years cutting it. There was a lot to cut—some of my favorite stuff."Publisher's pitch: "It is simple but complex, personal but also social and cultural. It is about one boy's coming-of-age, but it is also about a family and a fractured community and a hunting culture in conflict with gentrification," says executive editor-in-chief Dan Menaker.Opening lines: "The two boys walked the high ridge at the center of the wood road, avoiding the muddy ruts along the sides. Loggers had powered their hulking machines along the makeshift pathways—the huge skidder tires clawing deep cuts into the soft earth." —Lauren JoyceBlood of Flowers
Anita Amirrezvani, 45
( Little, Brown, June)Born: Tehran, Iran; now lives in the San Francisco Bay area.
Favorite authors: "Melville and Dickens and Flaubert and the Brontës; contemporary Iranian writers such as Shahrnush Parsipur and Simin Daneshvar; and living Arab novelists like Ahdaf Soueif, Hanan al-Shaykh and Assia Djebar."
Career arc: Editor/journalist, arts writer and dance critic, M.F.A. student.
Plot: The life of a young woman in 17th-century Persia is transformed by her talent as a rug designer. Left destitute after her father dies, she is forced into a secret marriage, and her tremendous talent and the power of her passion change her destiny.
Author's toughest challenge: "My decision to integrate traditional Persian tales into the narrative—to find stories that matched the emotional arc of the novel. To make things work, I had to write some fresh tales and try to make them sound like classics."
Publisher's pitch: Says executive editor Judy Clain, "We were mesmerized and awed by the simplicity of Anita's voice—how modern and accessible she seems in some ways and yet how completely the reader is transported to another world. We're comparing the book to The Red Tent and Girl with a Pearl Earring.
Opening lines: "In the spring of the year that I was supposed to be married, a comet launched itself over the skies of my village. It was brighter than any comet we had ever seen, and more evil."
—Suzanne Mantell
Eddie Krumble Is the Clapper
Dito Montiel, 36
(Thunder's Mouth Press, Mar.)Born: Astoria, Queens; recently returned after years in L.A.
Favorite authors: "I'm not a reader... I'm only reading the New York Post, now! I love Allen Ginsberg. I love Dee Dee Ramone's poetry in his songs. I also love Leonard Cohen."
Career arc: From memoirist (A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints) to screenplay writer and movie director (for Saints film adaptation) to band entrepreneur (Gutterboy).
Plot: Eddie Krumble moves to L.A. with pal Chris Plork; they land their first gig, as "clappers" for infomercials and sitcoms. A romance with a gas station attendant named Judy ensues, and a surprise career turn unfolds courtesy of Jay Leno.
Author's toughest challenge: "You gotta make some noise, write some noise; you gotta say something, so my challenge wasn't writing this novel—I was excited to write it. I think there's a difference between something that's hard and something that's a lot of work. This was a lot of work, but it wasn't hard."
Publisher's pitch: Says senior editor Anita Diggs, "Dito's first foray into fiction is a fascinating look at all the crazy jobs that exist in Hollywood. The book is sure to catch Jay Leno's eye—he's a featured player."
Opening lines: "My name is Edward Krumble. Sounds like a joke huh? Yeah, I know. Yeah, I like to say 'well' a lot. Not so much that I like to, just do I guess. At least in the beginning. When I'm nervous, like before we get to know each other." —Bethanne Patrick
Free Food for Millionaires
Min Jin Lee, 38
(Warner Books, May)Born: Seoul, South Korea; now lives in New York City.
Favorite authors: George Eliot, Tolstoy, Flaubert, Edith Wharton, Thomas Hardy, Balzac, Hemingway, James Baldwin and Dostoyevski. Poetry: Mark Strand, Mary Oliver, Jane Kenyon and Auden.
Career arc: From Yale College to Georgetown University Law Center to corporate lawyer in Manhattan to award-winning short-story writer and novelist.
Plot:Princeton grad Casey Han navigates the worlds of the haves and the have-nots in New York. While her parents run a dry-cleaning shop in a Korean community in Queens, Casey works on Wall Street and tries to figure out what she wants out of life.
Author's toughest challenge: "The hardest thing was to keep going and think anyone would want to read it. Sometimes you wonder that there's a lack of something because there should be a lack. There aren't that many books by Korean-Americans, and I was thinking: Why can't there be a Cousin Bette with Korean-American characters in my village in New York?"
Publisher's pitch:Says editor-in-chief Amy Einhorn, "It's a Korean-American Goodbye, Columbus—a new take on the immigrant experience and the American melting pot. You can read it purely as a page-turner, but there's also an incredible subtext."
Opening lines:"Competence can be a curse. As a capable young woman, Casey Han felt compelled to choose respectability and success. But it was glamour and insight that she craved." —Judith Rosen
Hick
Andrea Portes, 36
(Unbridled Books, May)Born: Champaign, Ill.; family moved to Austin, Tex., when she was one month old.
Favorite authors: "I'm reading Faithful by Joyce Carol Oates and about to start Philip Roth's American Pastoral, but I'd have to put Edith Wharton in first place."
Career arc: From "all-black-clad" Bryn Mawr undergrad to M.F.A. in theater from UC San Diego to script reader for Paramount Pictures to nightlife columnist for Web sites.
Plot: Luli McMullen is on the run from Palmyra, Neb., to Las Vegas, where she plans to escape her disturbed past, disturbing present and less-than-hopeful future by finding a sugar daddy.
Author's toughest challenge: "Luli's voice started talking to me and wouldn't shut up. I began writing her words down in a blank book, but it took a lot of years and a lot of procrastinations to finish, because my main challenge was getting past the thought that I was totally crazy to think that I could write a book."
Publisher's pitch: Says editor Fred Ramey, "This is very definitely Luli's voice, not Andrea's. When I read the manuscript, that voice was so developed and so authentic that not only did I believe in it, but I wanted to travel with Luli. The ride with her is very rewarding and curiously affirming."
Opening lines: "You know why you keep losing, cause, guess what, you're a fucking loser. If I could grab you out your seat and make you fly past yourself and set you down in the middle of this red wooden shoebox, you'd be staring at my mama." —B.P.
Landsman
Peter Charles Melman, 35
(Counterpoint, June)Born: Born on Long Island, N.Y.; raised in Louisiana; now lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Favorite authors: Czech author Bohumil Hrabal, Cormac McCarthy, Philip Roth.
Career arc: English teacher in the Czech Republic; editorial assistant; doctorate in Creative Writing, Univ. of Louisiana at Lafayette; teacher, Hunter College High School, New York City.
Plot:Landsmanexplores Confederate New Orleans' seductive gangland, a tender epistolary courtship between two young lovers, and one guilt-ridden soldier's search for faith and familial atonement. The novel ponders why a Southern Jew would be willing to kill and die so that another might remain enslaved.
Author's toughest challenge: "Enduring two manuscripts of failure and then pursuing a third. Finding health insurance."
Publisher's pitch:"Landsman is a lushly told epic of the Civil War, with a morally complex center," says executive editor Amy Scheibe. "It's as much a bildungsroman as it is a strong battle-driven narrative, yet it has a very romantic protagonist at its heart. I can't remember a recent character as interesting and attractive as Elias Abrams."
Opening lines: "Beyond the walls of the Vieux Carré where his mother sells her greens, beyond the deep fetid stink of Gallatin Street's brothels and the crotches of its whores, its swindlers and inebriates and roving gangs of violent footpads, Elias Abrams fears for the first time that he might lose himself to the sky above." —L.J.
The Lost Diary of Don Juan
Douglas Abrams, 40
(Atria, May)Born: New York City; now lives in Santa Cruz, Calif.
Favorite authors: Gabriel García Márquez, Jorge Luis Borges, Milan Kundera.
Career arc: Floor sweeper, editor, agent, coauthor, novelist.
Plot: This is the untold story of the world's greatest lover, Don Juan, abandoned at birth in the barn of a convent. When he leaves the church, he is recruited to be a spy and taught to be the world's greatest libertine.
Author's toughest challenge: "To do justice to 16th-century Spain. Their 'thought world' was so dramatically different from ours, especially in terms of understanding women's place in society. I have enormous respect for the truth and I didn't want to do any less for Don Juan."
Publisher's pitch: "This is a very wise book about women," says executive editorial director Emily Bestler. "Doug describes exactly what a woman needs from a man, and that's rare to find. It's a great swashbuckling romantic story. On one level, it's the kind of book you can't put down; on another, it offers truth about life."
Opening lines: "I write in the naked pages of this diary so that the truth will be known and my fate will not be left to the rumors and lies already whispering through the streets of Sevilla. Many I am sure will try to turn my life into a morality play after I am dead, but no man's life is so easily understood or dismissed."
—Hilary S. Kayle
Portrait of an Unknown Woman
Vanora Bennett, 44
(Morrow, Apr.)Born: London; lives there after spending time in Paris, Moscow, Asia and Africa.
Favorite authors: "I love fat novels!"—Dickens, Dostoyevski, Tolstoy, Bulgakov.
Career arc: Teenage "embryonic Emily Brontë," Russian lit major, Reuters journalist, nonfiction author, novelist.
Author's toughest challenge: "After training as a journalist, I found it hard to deal with the notion that writing fiction meant focusing on all the bits you leave out of nonfiction writing—the atmospherics, the feelings, the insubstantial."
Plot: In politically tumultuous 1527, portraitist Hans Holbein has fled to England, where he paints two nearly identical portraits of Sir Thomas More's family; meanwhile, More's headstrong ward, Meg, is torn between Holbein and her tutor, John Clement.
Publisher's pitch: "She takes the seed of an incredible tale involving an art mystery and turns it into a full story involving moral dilemmas; romance; questions of religion, loyalty and faith," says executive editor Laurie Chittenden. "The characters and their inner struggles ring so true, and the historical detail is effortless."
Opening lines: "The house was turned upside down and inside out on the day the painter was to arrive. It was obvious to the meanest intelligence that everyone was in a high state of excitement about the picture the German man was to make of us. If anyone had asked me, I would have said vanity comes in strange guises. But no one did." —Michelle Wildgen
What You Have Left
Will Allison, 38
(Free Press, June)Born: Columbia, S.C.; now lives in South Orange, N.J.
Favorite authors: "The authors who've been the biggest influence are the ones I worked with at Story: Nathan Englander, Chris Adrian, Joyce Carol Oates, Chuck Palahniuk and Tim Gautreaux."
Career arc: Ghostwriter, busboy, clerical temp, landscaper, process server, baseball card dealer, executive editor of Story magazine andcreative writing teacher.
Plot: A man leaves his daughter with her grandfather for a few days so he can tend her injured mother, a former race car driver. When his wife dies soon after, he doesn't return, and the two don't see each other again for three decades.
Author's toughest challenge: "Figuring out what will happen in any chapter and cutting possibilities down. I get up at four A.M. and write before I take my daughter to school, and may have only one paragraph to show for it. Chances are I'll rewrite it. Some chapters I rewrote 20 or 30 times."
Publisher's pitch: Says associate editor Wylie O'Sullivan, "Will brings both insight and compassion to his characterizations. He understands what makes people tick and he's able to translate that empathy into entirely fluid, organic storytelling."
Opening lines:"I was sentenced to life on my grandfather's dairy farm in the summer of 1976. The arrangement was supposed to be temporary, a month or so until my mother recovered from her water-skiing accident, but after one week... a blood clot traveled up from her leg, blocked the vessels to her lungs, and killed her." —J.R.
