The Perils of Publishing
KITMAN, MARVIN
PERSPECTIVES The Perils of Publishing By Marvin Kitman While reading Robert Gut-willig's essay "Reflections of a Publisher" (NL, December 5), I found myself vaguely wondering what a publisher...
...Other best sellers on the list seemed to have some kind of institutional support...
...please deny...
...Dial is also publishing other books in 1966," she said...
...At least book stores were not getting copies of my book to sell anymore...
...But we may be able to save it...
...Like all good editors, Lehmann-Haupt moved to a new job????at the New York Times Book Review?just as I finished the manuscript...
...Dial Press had invested only $5,000 in the book, and within days they seemed to be questioning their judgment...
...he asked...
...The Library Fund of the Ukranian Academy of Arts & Sciences in the U.S...
...I asked nervously...
...If you can't stand the heat in the kitchen...
...I was getting discouraged, but I still hadn't heard anything negative from my editor...
...What hours will the box office be open...
...This is not the proper place to tell the whole story of what happened during the investigation????i'm planning to write a piece for the Harvard Business Review????but here is an excerpt from one of the newspaper stories: "When the Internal Revenue agent showed up for what he assumed would be an average audit of an average taxpayers' return, he was greeted by a battery of reporters, photographers and microphones...
...US51284531...
...as largest bondholder in hukuang railways in bergen county, hope no truth to rumor planning bomb our railroad's property on chinese mainland...
...Magazines always turn to publishers to answer the question of what is wrong with publishing," he wrote...
...Everybody in publishing knew that collections don't sell...
...I welcome this investigation,' he said, T have nothing to hide...
...Apparently not...
...He had implied that he knew even more about selling a book than editing...
...Everybody knows an author's first book doesn't sell," I said, trying to cheer her up...
...It did seem more than merely coincidence that the irs should be interested in seeing my books for the first time in my life????immediately after the publication of a book which poked innocent fun at some of the nation's most sacred institutions, like the U.S...
...In that sense my debut at Town Hall was a failure, but it was a succes d'estime...
...He eventually recommended that I cut out all the connecting fabric I had been instructed to weave into my memoirs...
...You may get sued occasionally for libel, but nothing really exciting ever happens...
...During the summer of 1965, I sat around the plastic swimming pool on my lawn in Leonia, New Jersey, thinking about who would play the role of me in the movie based on my book...
...My editor still had not told me the book wasn't happening, as he promised...
...I'll call you in a few days to let you know what's wrong with it...
...By that I mean my book...
...And I would perish trying to live on Dial's advance...
...We loved your story, but...
...After all his book, The Detective, had already been bought by the movies and the Literary Guild...
...was that once they were bound together they would constitute a collection...
...I also stopped talking to my old friends, except for the ones who were lawyers, accountants, agents, book reviewers, columnists, television interviewers or underground film makers...
...The only trouble with the stories, explained my new editor, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt...
...PERSPECTIVES The Perils of Publishing By Marvin Kitman While reading Robert Gut-willig's essay "Reflections of a Publisher" (NL, December 5), I found myself vaguely wondering what a publisher really knows about publishing...
...Being a sensitive non-fiction writer, I was also a little hurt that Dial had decided to omit the usual pre-publication party in my honor...
...These things are of psychological value, and I felt that I needed more of a boost than Roderick Thorp, the other Dial author being published the same week...
...Gillen proved to be a great patron of the arts...
...I was abie to thank ray lucky stars that the book didn't come out in April, as planned, so the word-of-mouth could get going...
...The next communication I received from him was addressed to "Martin Kitman...
...I was smart enough, though, to know that without any special literary gifts or big organizations behind me the odds were against my book ever becoming the number one best seller...
...The person I want followed is somebody named 'Marvin Kitman.' He is a tall (5'10"), dark, and handsome writer in his mid-thirties...
...And it was worth the pain and anguish just to hear my editor finally say, several weeks after I delivered the revised manuscript: "You're another Thur-ber...
...If you had won the Presidency in 1964," Irving explained, "they wouldn't be investigating you now...
...I fought for my version anyway...
...Everywhere I went????at literary cocktail parties, rental libraries and book stores—people were discussing the number one best-seller...
...Several weeks later, he called and said, "The part where you describe your early life is funny, but take it out...
...Why you wanted to be President...
...He crossed out "Thurber" and wrote "Benchley" into the draft of the jacket copy for my book...
...I already told them in the article that I'd rather be President than write," I protested...
...As I left his office that happy day, I noticed that he withdrew a mysterious file folder from his drawer...
...Sometimes they got the name of the author wrong, but that was because the full weight of Dial's publicity hadn't been felt...
...If my new editor had any flaws, it was the time he took to make decisions...
...the word would spread to other editors that I was one of those tempermental writers...
...As a start, we might advertise," I suggested...
...to the present...
...I knew what she was trying to tell me...
...It occurred to me that the only way to keep a discussion about publishing on a high level is to turn the job over to an objective authority, somebody with perspective, an author who has just received his first royalty statement...
...And my book is right on schedule...
...You're the new Benchley...
...Why didn't you say you wanted to rent space for a poster...
...But Doctorow really seemed to know what he was talking about...
...What are we going to do with your book...
...You can always recognize me at a press conference...
...When the book finally came out on May 23, I assumed that Dial had rushed it out right in time for the summer slump...
...They assured me I was as good a writer as Jackie Susann...
...What can I reasonably expect my publisher to do to help my book sell...
...He assured me that the new editor, E. L. Doctorow, understood my work and all would be well...
...The tickets should read 'Kitman Reads Kitman.'" "You want tickets, too...
...The box office is extra...
...Idon't know the philosophies of other free-lance writers, but around my house my wife is always saying "publish????or perish...
...It only took me two days to eliminate a year's hard work...
...And by Marvin Kitman reading a prepared statement...
...I asked...
...You can imagine how depressed and vulnerable to suggestion I was the night my literary set gathered to celebrate what they still felt was a major literary event...
...My editor, Henry Robbins, who discovered me in the pages of the Saturday Evening Post, either jumped or fell up to a job as editor-in-chief at Farrar, Straus & Giroux before I wrote a single word...
...If you could furnish the color of each eye," his letter of acceptance read, "the distance between the nostrils and lower lip (use the metric system), and any unusual characteristics such as extra fingers or heads . . ." Meanwhile, back at the book stores, whenever people asked for The Number One Best Seller, the clerks were still handing them Valley of the Dolls and Human Sexual Response...
...That will cost you $40...
...Six hundred dollars," the manager said...
...Add $15 more...
...Irving, the politician, said the problem was my book had not been denounced yet by anybody in Washington...
...But I didn't understand my uneasiness until I read author Leonard Baker's letter to the editor (NL, January 2...
...If the book isn't happening, as you call it, please let me know so I can write it off as a tax loss...
...Rather than discuss all the 28,000 books published last year, however, which would only lead to confusion on my part, I will limit my reflections to what I consider the most important book published in 1966...
...Differences of editorial opinion are everyday occurrences in the publishing world, and a writer has no right to complain...
...I believe in the public's right to know.' " 'Have you ever been investigated before?' the tax man asked...
...If that's possible...
...Treasury Department...
...Cornelius Ryan's The Last Battle, for example, had all the research facilities of Reader's Digest behind it...
...Something like this has never been done before.' "He then briefly discussed his working methods...
...But I realized that I wasn't really a literary kind of writer...
...How about something like 'You've read the articles????now read the book.' " I recommended...
...He certainly had been right so far...
...Every time I had an editorial conference with him a doubt lingered in my mind: What kind of guy could he be if nobody was hiring him away from Dial...
...Could they also believe that I was headed for the high tax brackets now that I had a book almost in the stores...
...I meet these rigid requirements...
...I fear no public scrutiny...
...author Harry Truman once said, "get the hell out...
...I took a look at the New York Times Book Review list of best sellers one Sunday, which looked about the same then as now...
...Since Capote had read from his works a week earlier for the benefit of the Hampton Boys School, the sponsors hoped the same literary-charity crowd would be deeply interested in helping Ukranian boys...
...It wasn't even listed in "Books Published Today...
...Actually, the sponsors only hoped to raise enough money to buy a copy of The Number One Best Seller for the Library, the librarian having indicated the book was not on her spring list...
...One way to get on the list was to write something literary, like Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls, Harold Robbins' The Adventurers or James Michener's The Source, an epic of warm lovable Jewish families from 38 b.c...
...I may be another Benchley, but I don't think a Thurber...
...One of my purposes here,' he said, 'is to read incessantly from my work.' " I spent the next day checking book stores, a common workday for authors who have just had books published...
...I wasn't sure what this had to do with publishing, but like every creative person I've always wanted to make any debut at Town Hall...
...Frankly, I didn't know it was a lucky break that the Internal Revenue Service had decided to audit my tax forms for 1963-4 until one of my advisers explained it to me...
...He grimly said, "Collections don't sell...
...Even when it reached the remainder stores...
...My editor seemed to know what he was talking about, so I followed his advice...
...I would also like to know your rates for only speaking to the press...
...The Irving who worked for the New Yorker said I wouldn't get anywhere in publishing until I invented a new literary art form...
...He had stopped answering the phone...
...I'm mentioning this now not merely to illustrate how publishers curry favor with authors...
...Both copies of my book had been sold...
...Seeing how disappointed I was, he quickly added...
...What you have to do," he said firmly, "is make a collection out of it...
...What a lucky break...
...I decided to write the story of my life...
...Apparently Dial was having trouble with its agency, Sussman & Sugar, over my account...
...The part where you go into your schooling is also funny, but it has to go...
...No matter how literary tastes changed over the years, my book would always be The Number One Best Seller (Library of Congress Catalog Number: 66-12827...
...The few who have actually read my book may be curious about how I became known as "the Benchley of the 1960s...
...That's just what I said...
...The United States government revealed it was planning to investigate me...
...Are you sure...
...As a reviewer from Newsday, Mike Mc-Grady, wrote: " 'Non-fictional autobiography means,' Kitman explained to a hushed audience (of 200...
...the trade had to be alerted for a book like mine...
...The thrill of book publishing is that things can happen and most of them mean extra money...
...I knew my book lacked characters, plot, subplot and motivation...
...I'm the one reporter you can hear saying, Did you get that, dear...
...Several stores were sold out, I thought, until I found out that they had not received any copies...
...T had a court reporter's machine, a few notebooks, and a secretary or two, and, if you must know, a tape recorder...
...Your manuscript doesn't work," he said one day...
...I asked my new friend one favor...
...I would perish if I didn't follow Leh-mann-Haupt's advice...
...Within the year it took to write my memoirs, I managed to become the economic equal of my cleaning woman, before I fired her on the flimsy excuse that I could no longer afford her services...
...But my problems were just beginning...
...Doctorow, who is known in the trade as "Easy Ed" for his ability to stay calm in the storms of authorial temper, looked me straight in the eye...
...Maybe it's not such a good idea, Leonard Baker, for a doctor to examine his own broken heart...
...I'm sure the producers told Helen Gurley Brown when they showed her the screenplay for Sex and the Single Girl...
...Could you please tell me how much you charge for your editorial services by the day and week...
...I've read your book, and what you've done is invented something called 'non-fiction autobiography.' " My advisers decided to rent Town Hall so that I could announce the new art form to the literary world...
...The agency couldn't think of anything to say about my book...
...It would be worthwhile if you simply implied you were working for somebody important on the case...
...I had heard a lot about how important editors were in the publishing business, and I thought it was my usual good luck to have three of them during the critical stage of producing my book, the writing...
...I wouldn't be surprised if it's more than fulfilling Dial's expectations, judging by the way they've pushed it...
...The mysterious file folder he had been hiding everytime I entered his office contained the galleys of his second novel, Big as Life, which his publisher, Simon & Schuster, had published in May with far less shrift than my book got at Dial...
...you want lights on that night," the manager explained...
...When you write a magazine article, that's the end of the experience...
...The publisher was pressing me for the manuscript...
...And there was word-of-mouth, a key publishing index of trends...
...Through other sources I learned something about my editor's private life...
...Early that morning I rushed out to read the New York Times and was shocked to see that my book wasn't reviewed by Eliot Freemont-Smith...
...The raw materials we had to work with were a series of magazine articles dealing with my adventures in Wall Street, the cia, public service, foreign affairs and politics...
...This is a clear case of harassment," Irving, the politician said...
...Like every innocent, naive author, I started each day by telephoning his office to find out how my book was doing...
...Yet there were many cases of Hollywood buying books just for the title...
...His secretary said he was busy...
...Publication day is a major event for an author...
...it's the true story of a person writing about himself in depth...
...It's The Number One Best Seller," he or his secretary assured me...
...But can't Ed and I still be friends...
...And then I finally got the kind of literary recognition every writer wants...
...I finally called my friend, the editor, and asked him what was going on...
...His party was at the Regency...
...That's like asking a lawyer what's wrong with your liver...
...There were also charges for opening the doors to let the crowds in, unlocking the ladies' and men's room doors and other incidentals which brought the bill to $1,300...
...Dial Press was going out of business...
...That's an extra $25...
...Finally, I coldly calculated the kind of story that would appeal to major motion picture producers, tv-special makers, the drama and musical comedy stage...
...Irving Mansfield is the producer-press agent who seemed to do nothing but push his wife's book in 1966...
...I had touched a sore point...
...But I was suspicious of Doctorow after the first month...
...Naturally, I wanted my editor to like me, too...
...Truman Capote invented the non-fiction novel," he explained...
...It was rescheduled for February...
...Inc., my favorite charity, had been selected as the beneficiary of the reading...
...Unsafe at Any Speed by Ralph Nader had the full cooperation of the automobile industry and General Motors...
...I didn't say anything...
...To make sure that my dreams as a writer would come true, I called it The Number One Best Seller...
...All my editors had been saying about the President of Dial Press, Richard Baron, if there's anything he knows it's how to sell books...
...T refuse to answer,' he replied, 'on the grounds that it might tend to incriminate me.' " What was my publisher doing while I was winning headlines...
...His first book, Welcome to Hard Times, had just been sold to the movies, and I was ready to believe he was "the Max Perkins of the 1960s...
...As an outsider, all I knew about was Please Don'l Eat the Daisies...
...Irving, the New York Times reporter, suggested I write to Vincent Gillen, the private detective who had been hired by gm to promote Ralph Nader's book...
...I wasn't sure what it had to do with publishing, but I spoke out on Vietnam anyway: disturbed to hear reports defense department weighing escalation of vietnam peace effort...
...I rushed to my publisher's defense by pointing out that I finally had been booked to appear on my first tv show, a late afternoon spot on wnyc-tv...
...My friends still were enraged by the injustice of it all, and before I knew what was happening I had 13 Irvings pushing my book...
...Reader's Digest has thousands of tape recorders, some of which automatically condense whatever they hear...
...A store on Fifth Avenue really had been sold out...
...You're a veteran," he explained, "Why don't you throw your weight around at the Pentagon...
...The postponement saved my book from certain disaster because Dial now had time to give it the proper buildup in mass media...
...That set my mind whirling...
...My only problem, I discovered while trying to perfect my memory, was that I couldn't remember the questions anymore . . .' "And then Kitman got to the heart of the matter...
...My editor told me that I was lucky the date had been postponed...
...You would have put everything in your wife's name...
...When can our artist put up his poster in front of the hall...
...Drury's book, Wallace's book, or Susann's book might be called "the number one best seller" this week, but who knew what they would be called next week...
...The Number One Best Seller was scheduled to be published in January...
...Then Irving, the lawyer, and the manager discussed some of the other details about the reading...
...Before I wrote my book, I tried to figure out the secret for making it a number one best seller...
...What a shame you're not married to Irving Mansfield," said one well-wisher...
...My first choice was Otto Preminger, since that might encourage him to bid for the movie rights...
...marvin kitman pfc (Ret...
...What readers want to know," he advised, "is why you wanted to corner the market in Imperial Chinese Government Hukuang Railways Sinking Fund Gold Loan 5Vi% 1911 bonds...
...Irving, the lawyer, called the Town Hall management the next morning and asked how much it would cost...
...But when I ran into him in Dial's editorial rooms on Third Avenue, he acted as if he had forgotten something important...
...My editor told me to make a single narrative out of the stories...
...I felt a lot better about his ability after learning that Dial had hired him away from New American Library for more money...
...Puzzled by the fact that copies of The Number One Best Seller were not in book stores either, I called a friend who had had three books published and knew the business...
...Nothing," he said...
Vol. 50 • January 1967 • No. 3
