Scott Mendel thinks that writers should be prepared to subsistence farm, in accordance with grand literary tradition. In this interview, he tells us which books he’s excited about now, and why writing will always be around.
What is your official title at your agency?
The IRS calls me a “Managing Partner.” It’s my agency, so I can call myself whatever I like-but the more self-important it sounds, the more people around me would chuckle at the water cooler and at family gatherings.
What books have you come across that really excite you? What books are other publishers hoping to find?
Different editors are looking for different projects. Here are five books (one adult novel, one YA thriller, one prescriptive nonfiction title, one work of narrative history, and one memoir) by authors of my agency that are coming out in 2010, and that I think draw a decent picture of who I am looking for, what I think will sell well, and what I am proud to represent:
THE GENDARME: A Novel by Mark T. Mustian (Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam)
THE GARDENER: A YA thriller by S.A. Bodeen (Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan)
SEX IS FUN!: CREATIVE IDEAS FOR EXCITING SEX by Kidder Kaper (Avery)
TWILIGHT AT THE WORLD OF TOMORROW: GENIUS, MADNES, MURDER, AND THE 1939 WORLD’S FAIR ON THE BRINK OF WAR by James Mauro (Ballantine)
I DON’T CARE ABOUT YOUR BAND: WHAT I LEARNED FROM INDIE ROCKERS, TRUST FUNDERS, PORNOGRAPHERS, FELONS, FAUX-SENSITIVE HIPSTERS, AND OTHERS I’VE DATED by Julie Klausner (Gotham)
How do you think that Kindles and other advances in technologies are going to change reading and publishing?
The bound, printed book is an efficient and beloved machine, but one that has only existed for a handful of centuries. Writing, on the other hand, has existed since humans discovered they could scrape burnt stick-ends against stone or press wedges into clay tablets. It will continue to exist until humans don’t. The last century of commercial publishing was an undiscovered country to the scribes who copied manuscripts in Irish monasteries during the Middle Ages. The next century of publishing is our undiscovered country. Anyone who pretends to know its geography or, even, its climate is lying to you and, probably, to him- or herself.
Publishing, though, is going through a tough time right now. How do you plan to deal with this downturn, and what should your writers be doing?
I have invested in arable land, on which my wife sometimes threatens to raise Long Island ducks and $50 tomatoes. All aspiring authors should invest in real estate they can pay cash for, and on which they can subsistence farm. There is a grand tradition of American writers or their spouses farming the back yard-just look at Barbara Kingsolver. Or Laura Ingalls Wilder. Or Carl Sandburg, whose wife raised champion dairy goats. Or John Burroughs. Or Wendell Berry. Or Philip Jose Farmer. (That last one was a joke-Philip Jose Farmer was a farmer in name only, so far as I know.)