DAVID
LEHMAN
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have become stars - they've done almost as much for talk shows as
talk shows have done for them . The apparatus of quick fame and the
possibilities of mass-merchandising have combined to lend book
publishing that show-biz aura, that Hollywood glow. This isn't an
altogether happy development, especially if you think the written
word's place is on the page, not on the
Today
show. Nevertheless, it's
a fact of glitz; an appearance on
Donahue
will sell lots more copies of a
book than a rave review in an influential magazine.
The ebullient Ms . Evans herself made headlines this year as
the pivotal figure in a publishing industry script that Hollywood
couldn't have bettered . It came as the latest twist in publishing's
relatively mild-mannered version of the cola wars. Until recently ,
Ms. Evans ran the trade division at Simon & Schuster, where her
husband- Mr. Snyder-happened to be her boss. Perhaps her
departure from the S&S family was inevitable from the time the cou–
ple divorced. Still, it was rather stunning of Ms . Evans to defect for
a top spot at Random House, Simon & Schuster's traditional adver–
sary. Beyond the irresistible operatic effects, it was, in away, like
Macy's going to Gimbel's - or like Coke imitating Pepsi. It'll be in–
teresting to read the next chapter in the long and often acrimonious
rivalry between the two publishing giants, but that's another story.
Other lunchtime conversations center on the perennial favor–
ite,
whither publishing?
There are several ways these state-of-the–
industry appraisals can go. One is the ever-popular "decline of the
West" approach. An extreme form invokes a Golden Age, which is
usually supposed to have occurred around the time that the speaker
got started in publishing. There is something as suspect with this
theory as with its polar opposite, the hyperbolic "better-than-ever"
point of view ("Take a look at the numbers! There are more readers
than ever!"). Editors who gnash their teeth at the system protest too
much.
If
the ship is really sinking, you wonder what's keeping them
from manning the lifeboats.
Ted Solotaroff, an editor at Harper & Row, issued the strong–
est recent indictment of the book business, a jeremiad that
The New
Republic
ran last spring under the witty headline "The Literary–
Industrial Complex." Twenty years ago, when Solotaroff went to
work at New American Library, "publishing was still largely a gen–
teel profession ," he writes. Publishing used to mean "taking sensible
risks in the pursuit of what was interesting" Now it means "the pro–
miscuous pursuit of best-sellers." Corporate ownership of publishing
houses is blamed, as are bookstore chains and "the new breed of
