I have the great fortune of being a Sales Manager for Penguin Adult books! In this role, I present all of the upcoming titles from Penguin Books to independent bookstores in the New York metropolitan area. In other words, Iām a bookseller to booksellers! During the course of a year, I meet with various book buyers to discuss and select the titles that will eventually be on their shelves for readers to purchase. The part about these meetings that I love so much is that I get to be involved in curating the store along with the buyer. Every independent bookstore is unique, and it is my responsibility to learn as much as I can about the stores so that the books I sell them will reflect their personalities.Ā
I also work extensively with the other departments in publishing like editorial and publicity. Editors will often let sales people read manuscripts so that we can offer feedback or let them know about a store that will be particularly excited about the book. And then there is publicity! Publicists are dear friends to Sales Managers because we work together to setup author readings and signings at different bookstores across the whole country. In my opinion, there is no better way to spend a weekday evening than to attend a reading at your local bookshop.
When you describeĀ But What if We’re Wrong?Ā to bookbuyers, what is your hook? What is memorable or unique about the book? Why would they want it in their store?
You would probably laugh at how little of a hook I need for Chuck Klosterman a lot of the time! His reputation precedes him, and I often sell the book well by simply saying, āLook, itās the new Chuck Klosterman!ā But there is so much more that I get to tell my booksellers about. When it comes to But What If Weāre Wrong?, I feel like Klosterman has explored a question that covers an impressive number of topics. From a conversation with Neil deGrasse Tyson about the multiverse to reasons why the NFL could potentially fail, But What If Weāre Wrong? is genius in its breadth, and that is going to bring an entirely new audience to Klosterman.
There are so many different reasons for why independent bookstores love Chuck Klosterman! One thing Iāve heard that cracked me up is that many view Chuck Klosterman as a hipper Malcolm Gladwell. Now while I personally think that Gladwell is plenty hip, I also feel like I understand the deeper sentiment underneath that opinion. There is a level of access that every Klosterman book achieves, and it results in a sincere investigation about a topic. Reading Klosterman doesnāt feel like reading an author who is analyzing something from the outside; it feels like reading the carefully considered meditations of someone who is intimately involved with what they write about. That sincerity canāt be faked in a reading experience because it is simply the result of skillful writing. Ā
Whatās your favorite thing about your job? What would surprise a layman to know?
What continues to strike me about my job is that I get to connect people who all love books. My publishing house considers me a specialist on the bookstores I work with, and in turn, my bookstores view me as a specialist about the publishers and all of the different titles we bring out. It is a singular role, and I love the opportunity to continue learning from the books and the people that participate in the world of literature.
Youāre a fan of Chuck Klosterman ā what do you like about his writing? What do you like about this new book? Do you have a favorite moment or line?
I love that Klosterman always feels like he is writing directly to me. It creates an experience that not many authors can bring to the page. Sometimes this occurs through those passages that directly address the reader, but more often I feel addressed by a line of thought. Itās as if a good friend of mine is laying out an issue before me with perfect pacing and allowing me to fully grasp his point of view.Ā
My favorite part of But What If Weāre Wrong? is this amazing section about televisionās ability to capture and portray a time period. The quick take away from the chapter is that while everyone might love Mad Men and think of it as crowning accomplishment that captured the 1960s, many historians of the future would probably disagree. The perceptions that created Mad Men came from people living in the early 2000s instead of the actual 1960s. Everything about Mad Men is too perfectly considered and too meticulously constructed with hindsight to be genuinely natural. Instead, a show like Roseanne offers a much more realistic portrayal of its time period. Like many families living in the 1990s, Roseanne showed a chubby American family trying to get by with okay jobs while living in a kind of messy house. For many, that is an accurate picture of life in the 1990s, and Roseanne was able to capture all of this unknowingly. The show was just created in the very same time period its characters lived in!
Read theĀ first post in this series here, and part one and part two of the Q&A with Klosterman’s editor.
Q: Do you have a favorite part of the editorial and publishing process?
A: I have a few. First, thereās the moment when you realize that you want to work on a book. Itās not unlike the beginning of a romance, minus all of the untoward activities, of course. Then thereās the editing. Itās definitely work, and sometimes itās more work than anticipated, but, when you can shut out the world and really interact with what someone has writtenāask them more questions, challenge them a bit, and just enjoy it like any reader wouldāthatās entertaining. Itās a heightened form of reading. And, last but not least, there are moments when you can tell that a reader (other than yourself) has genuinely loved a book. Whether itās a rave review or a crowd of people at an authorās event who are obviously enjoying themselves, or someone on the subway reading one of your books with an intent (but not displeased) look on his or her face. I have a cynical side, like anyone else, but those are the things that have a way of eroding it, at least until the next moment of pain and disappointment comes along.
Q: Do you have a favorite section or quote fromĀ But What if We’re Wrong?
A: More than any of the other nonfiction books that Chuck has written, this one is all of a piece. I think Chuckās reader have gotten used to reading his books like collections, reading some essays, but not others, and sometimes not in sequential order. Which is fine. But not for this book. It builds. The chapter on music is the first chapter I read because it was the first chapter draft Chuck shared with me. I enjoyed it, but I know now that I didnāt fully get it, and thatās because I wasnāt reading it in the context of the book. (The chapter begins on page 59.) My early impression became problematic when I expressed some vague concerns about the piece, which I think alarmed Chuck, becauseāfor anyone who knows meāmusic is my primary preoccupation, and, if I donāt love reading something that a writer I enjoy reading has written about music, then there might actually be something amiss. But the only issue was that I wasnāt reading the material within the flow of the book. Now the music chapter is definitely among my favorites, and, having said all of this, Iām sure the chapter will be excerpted somewhere, and therefore read in isolation. Iām not too worried. I look forward to seeing how readers react to it. The chapter about TV is a challenging one. Chuck makes an argument that I have a hard time understanding, or ābuyingā as some people like to put it. But thatās why I like it. I donāt just read books to agree with them. Towards the end of the book, thereās a significant riff on the phrase āyouāre doing it wrongā that sums up quite a lot about the problem of our collective experience at this point in human history.Ā
Q: How would you describe this book to someone whoās never read Chuck?
A: Imagine youāre about to meet up at a bar (or any other kind of location where you can relax and enjoy yourself) with several of your best friends. Youāre going to discuss both important and completely unimportant subjects. Youāre going to play some songs on the jukebox, which might lead you to ponder the career of Gerry Rafferty. Youāre going to casually watch whatever games are on. Youāll argue, youāll laughāboth with and at each otherāand you might be surprised by a good friendās revelation or news. And, unless someone loses a tooth or a credit card, youāll have a good time, living in a world where not all times are good.
Reading Chuck is the literary equivalent of that night out. Thereās part of me that hesitates to characterize his work in that way because I fear it implies, to some people, a lack of quality, which is not what Iām trying to convey at all. In fact, if thatās what you think it implies, then maybe you need some new best friends.
This book, specifically, asksāin every which wayāwhat we, as individuals and as a society, might be wrong about. We look back in history and itās obvious to us that people have always been wrong about major facts or issues at any given time, yet itās difficult to apply that same scrutiny to the present. Chuck tries. He looks at art, science, politics, sports, dreaming, the fabric of reality, and just about everything else. He consults experts in each field, and he draws some fascinating conclusions about how we think about what we know, or donāt know.
Q: What would surprise a layman about the editing and publishing process?
A: People who are unfamiliar with the publishing industry probably donāt realize the extent to which editors are involved in a book at every step from signing it up to editing it (they probably can guess about that part) to publishing it to finding ways to promote it years later. Editors depend on countless colleagues in production, design, sales, publicity, marketing, rights, and legalānot to mention booksellers and media and partners outside of the publishing houseābut an editor is generally involved throughout the entire process. An editor is the authorās primary connection to the publishing house. Maybe a layman knows all of this. Sometimes that guy is smarter than we think.
Q: What do you look for when you acquire a book? How does that apply toĀ But What if We’re Wrong?
A: Itās relatively simple: I look for books I love to read. Of course, I have particular interests in music, pop culture, sports, counterculture, and quirky/weird/wild subjects, so most of the books I look for relate to one or more of those realms, but I also love a writer who can pull me into a subject I was never expecting to want to read about. That takes a distinct voice and command of language, and usually some sense of levity, which can range from subtle to outlandish.
As for Chuck, Iāve been working with him since the beginning of his literary career, which was essentially the beginning of my career as an editor. In 1999, I was a novice editor, but Iād been trained to look for writers and books, applying the aforementioned principles, and Iām extremely fortunate to have been in the right place at the right time to start working with Chuck. The way in which he typifies the kind of writer I enjoy reading cannot be overstated.
Q: Whatās the first thing you do after acquiring a book? How do you start the editing process? How do you collaborate with Chuck? How has it changed since his first book?
A: Usually, in the process of acquiring a book, an editor has had some kind of conversation with the author. So, the first step is usually an extension of that conversation, and just getting to know each other a little bit. If the writer is in New York, I take him or her to lunch. We talk about logistics of the project and the general approach the writer is going to take with the book.
With Chuck, this is the eighth book weāve worked on together, and we know each other well. Weāre pals whoāve watched approximately fifty college football games while sitting in the same room. But I still take him to lunch sometimes. We usually have three big conversations about a given bookāone before he starts writing, one after heās been writing for a while, and one before he delivers the first complete draft. Then we have lots of little conversations and email exchanges until the book is ready to go to the printer. That hasnāt changed a lot over the years.
Check back soon for Part 2., in whichĀ Rumble describes his favorite parts of the editorial process and the most striking chaptersĀ of But What If We’re Wrong?.Ā
Read the first post in this series here.
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Miguel, in consumerĀ marketing, is readingĀ Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates.
Find out more about the book here:
Hereās what his second or third draft looks like, i.e. when clarity begins to assert itself:
And hereās what happens when he puts his pen down and commits to a final draft, which he commemorates via a Swiss-made Hermes 3000 typewriter, circa l959, with standard serif pica font.Ā As David says, āItās like typing on a Steinway – just the right mechanical resistance to make you mean what you say.ā
Finally, David also takes photos of the things he writes about, and several of these photos appear in the book. Think W.G. Sebaldā¦ if W.G. Sebald lived in Dallasā¦ and drove a truckā¦ and said things like āholy crapāā¦ and spent a lot of time thinking about the venality of Scrooge McDuck. Though I love the title, the overall effect is: no shame, all wonder.
Find out more about Shame and Wonder here:
