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The Sad State of the Publishing Industry

“Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid.”
Only one man could’ve written the sentence above: Raymond Chandler. It was from an essay that appeared in The Atlantic Monthly in November 1945.

Raymond Chandler has been called one of the greatest stylists of the twenty-first century. Who am I to argue? I love this man’s prose.

From The Long Goodbye: “Alcohol is like love,” he said. “The first kiss is magic, the second is intimate, the third is routine. After that you take the girl’s clothes off.”

It’s true: they don’t write prose like that anymore.

Why?

Because creative writing courses, agents and publishers alike all claim it takes the reader out of the story.
What’s wrong with that? Commercials on TV take us out of our favorite dramas; but do we enjoy them any less? I live for prose that makes me stop and think whoa. That makes me reread the passage several times and leaves me wishing I’d written it.

Raymond Chandler, from The Lady in the Lake: “The little blonde at the PBX cocked a shell-like ear and smiled a small fluffy smile. She looked playful and eager, but not quite sure of herself, like a new kitten in a house where they don’t care much about kittens.”

As a novelist—one who professes to be somewhat a stylist—I’ve endured my share of rejection letters: I really like your voice, but this just isn’t right for us. Translation: We really look for something milk toast, something anyone could’ve written that has no style.

Creative writing courses advise wannabes to write little narrative, to focus on dialogue because, in their opinion, that’s what drives a novel.

Elmore Leonard (who writes with a screenplay mentality) claims that he leaves out of his novels anything he perceives the reader will skip over, i.e., narrative, and that narrative is the author’s attempt to butt into the story.

Raymond Chandler, from The Lady in the Lake: “I had a funny feeling as I saw the house disappear, as though I had written a poem and it was very good and I had lost it and would never remember it again.”
I once submitted as my own work an excerpt from a Joseph Conrad novel. Not surprisingly, it got ripped.
Writers are advised to write to a ninth grade level.

I might subscribe to that advice if the book industry were profitable. But the truth is it continues to lose money at an alarming rate. You’d think that maybe they’d look at their product and reconsider feeding the consumer the same old tired product—that which fits neatly into a box.

Raymond Chandler, from Farewell My Lovely: “I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun. I put them on and went out of the room.”

Sadly, the industry would prefer the above to be written as: “I needed a drink.”
What a shame that, were Chandler attempting to break into publishing today, he’d be turned away.

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Comment by J. Conrad Guest on May 14, 2011 at 8:20pm

Thanks, Theresa, for adding your voice here.

I agree with you; however, the publishing industry is first and foremost a business and they are, as they have always been, concerned with the bottom line. There is nothing wrong with that. My point is that if they are losing money they should look at the product they are making available for consumption. I think the music industry suffers the same malady. Today they require everything to fit into a neat little box, too. I daresay if the Beatles were attempting to break into the recording industry with all their creativity, they'd be turned away.

Comment by J. Conrad Guest on May 14, 2011 at 1:03pm
Sadly, John, editors have little to say regarding acquisition. Decision makers, in my opinion, still look for cookie cutter texts.
Comment by John Kremer on May 14, 2011 at 12:54pm

Chandler would not be turned away today. Editors still like great writing.

Sadly, they also need authors with a platform.

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