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Atwood on the future of publishing

Margaret Atwood is interviewed by Rosalind Porter for The Globe and Mail’s Time to Lead discussion on the state of Canadian publishing. She puts a lot of big issues into perspective, and reminds readers not to overlook the author. Porter asks Atwood if she thinks that with all the discussion going on about the digital revolution there is a tendency to forget that the author is what keeps the business going. This is her response:

Sure, people sit there putting words on the page, and some of them make a lot of money for their publishers and others create huge losses because the publishers placed their bets wrong. When people say publishing is a business – actually it’s not quite a business. It’s part gambling and part arts and crafts, with a business component. It’s not like any other business, and that’s why when standard businessmen go into publishing and think, “Right, I’m going to clean this up, rationalize it and make it work like a real business,” two years later you find they’re bald because they’ve torn out all their hair. And then you say to them, “It’s not like selling beer. It’s not like selling a case of this and a case of that and doing a campaign that works for all of the beer.” You’re selling one book – not even one author any more. Those days are gone, when you sold, let’s say, “Graham Greene” almost like a brand. You’re selling one book, and each copy of that book has to be bought by one reader and each reading of that book is by one unique individual. It’s very specific.