Just Because You're Buddy Buddy With Oprah . . .

I recently read in a HuffPo article that New York publishers don't really give a flying rat about the crafting of words inside a book but are more interested in the crafting of a marketing plan for the dang thing. That it's not really about how great of a writer you are, it's about how big your tribe is and how much moolah they'll pocket because of your potential to reach out to that tribe.

Yeah. I get it. They're corporations and making money is why and how they stay in business. But should quality suffer because of that? Do the ends justify the means? Is it fair to shove fourth-class books down readers throats just because the author has a first-class media presence?

Uh . . . a big fat resounding unh-unh. I don't think so, Hoss. Leastwise not in the perfect world I want to live in.

I submit that great writing, consistently put out in the public realm, will eventually rise to the top. It may take 10, 20, 40 years or more for that to happen. The author may well be mouldering in his grave before it happens. But it will happen.

As for the other writing, that which is pumped out because of a current market, I doubt that any of those books have the potential to become classics.

Time will tell, of course. But I'm confident enough to bet an iced caramel macchiato on this issue. Any takers?