Rod Pedersen’s mad at me and prairie dog. I would imagine most people in
See, book reviews and interviews with authors have become the red-headed stepchild of a newspaper’s arts coverage. Newspapers have less and less space for even the most important news, and what passes for ‘arts’ coverage in most newspapers (prairie dog and Planet S excepted) has degenerated into tabloid press releases – what Tysonian level has Britney/LiLo/Amy Winehouse/et cetera achieved in their state of mental breakdown for the sheer fact that they are famous for, well, being famous.
Given this state of affairs, it’s hard – very hard – for editors to make room for book reviews. If I strode into the office tomorrow and announced that Sharon Butala or Ken Mitchell had just authored an opus that was worthy of comparisons to Hemmingway and Shakespeare, Whitworth would barely lift his eyes from his desk before intoning, “400 words. Max.” (EDIT: this isn't, or shouldn't be a slight against Whitworth. Unfortunately this is happening to everyone who's reviewing, or promoting, books. Before Conrad Black bought the paper, the Saskatoon Star Phoenix once devoted two pages every Saturday issue to local book reviews. Today, it's a half-page of canned copy.)
Don’t feel bad, Rod. You could be Jim Pitsula. His publishers gave prairie dog two books this year … and in the end I had about the same amount of space allotted for their reviews as I had for yours.
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3 comments:
Healthy debate! I needed something to stir up. Thanks for the space!
RP
I find it galling that Rod thinks that just because he gives away a review copy that he's entitled to a positive review.
I don't recall him asking for a positive review, just a complete one. Might want to work on those reading comprehension skills.
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