In an recent interview about his book, journalist Nick Reding (pictured) railed against publishers’ misconception that people in the Midwest don’t read books. While promoting his recent book, “Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town,” he told the magazine that Bloomsbury was reluctant to promote his book in the flyover states.
Here’s more from the New York magazine interview: “I kept saying to him, ‘You could be selling so many books in Des Moines, Iowa, in Lincoln, Nebraska in Denver, Colorado, all these places, where people read, where there are great independent bookstores,’ and they kept saying, ‘No, mostly I think we’re going to push this in L.A. and New York.’ I thought, you dumb f******. Meth is not a problem in New York except for in the gay community, but it’s a problem everywhere else. But there was this feeling: ‘Well, yeah, but people out there don’t really read.'”
GalleyCat interviewed Reding earlier this year about how he wrote his book after spending four years reporting in a small town. Click here to listen to the whole show, where Reding shares tips about working with subjects during long-form nonfiction pieces. (Via MobyLives)