The Juggling Novelist
Publishing’s Peak: To the Author
I’ve been writing for a very long time.
I came up in the school of thought that was certain publishing had reached its perfect form.
Guides to style had not changed in a century. Trade paperbacks were more common than magazines in every type of retail outlet.
Authors had a very hard time piercing the blotter. Once they did, they did everything possible to stay on a precise schedule.
The Schedule
This schedule was based on when the publisher’s paid advance ran dry, how much material needed to be shown to negotiate a second advance. If a third payment could be negotiated.
When it was necessary to know the plot line in full. The time needed to get to the end of act 2 on an outline scribbled on a diner napkin. When you can no longer safely get an extension. When you cannot avoid a second lunch with your agent, editor, or publisher. How much alcohol the contact is willing to call a business expense.
And the last possible second to produce the finished manuscript as though it was exactly the time you had estimated when you pitched the book.
Lastly, in the event of disaster, you had taken longer than you’d estimated, cannot buy a small window of time with slick bullshit, the difficulty of acquiring another direct line to a printing press. The good thing about having hit this final awful event, you would be calling up people in the industry, with a finished manuscript ready to turn in.
This was the industry. And the industry operated heavily on the ability of everyone involved to drag out the process for as long as possible, allowing for the easiest lifestyle.
Sometimes I miss it dearly.
Jack Lhasa