January 1st, after reading a well known novelist complain about the fact that writers make very little money, I was so fired up I wrote a letter to the WSJ:
Dear Editors,
In your profile of author Ann Patchett in December/January’s WSJ magazine, she laments that “nobody gets rich doing this…” Patchett is in the position to do something about this, not so much as a writer, but as a bookseller at Parnassus Books. It’s time to dispense with the Great Depression-era incentive that allows bookstores to return books at any time for any reason, a policy that hurts writers by delaying or denying royalties. It is also time to wrest control from the entity that makes more money from the process than writers, and in many cases more than publishers: the distributors. Warehouses make money every time a book moves—from storing books and filling orders, to returns and ultimate pulping of unsold books, which are often damaged by repeated shipping. When booksellers order direct from publishers, without the benefit of free returns, they have more incentive to sell the books, ultimately funneling more revenue to the individuals who created the work: the authors.
Before I pushed SEND, I re-read the article to make sure I had spelled Patchett right. Then I had a Roseanne Roseannadanna moment, but now, after fact-checking [again!] I realize I was actually having an Emily Litella moment. When Ann Patchett said no one makes any money at this, she meant selling books, not writing them.*
OH, THAT’S VERY DIFFERENT. NEVER MIND!
*But this does explain why Patchett could talk so unabashedly about having two home offices plus a treadmill desk earlier in the article. She, unlike most writers, is well compensated for her work, as she should be. As we all should be.
Here’s to fact-checking, proofreading, and to Ann Patchett. (I’d still like to talk to her about the role booksellers play in the economy of writers.)