Controlling publishers

[toomuch]

I stumbled upon a blog, and it got me thinking whether what we read is controlled by value judgments made by the publishers. The blogger makes his point by giving the example of a publisher who rejected his article because it had some nasty quote by Watson (DNA discoverer, I guess).
Is it too common or not much? What do you think?

[Old Crow]

Publishers can be a pain for the author, just like author's can be a pain for their publisher. I think alot of the time the publisher's concerns tend to be more sales driven than aesthetic, though. Case in point: The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami in it's English translation (released by Vintage International) is actually missing several relevant portions from its chapters, and even an entire chapter itself. Apperantly Vintage had some kind of word limit that the novel exceeded, and so, instead of just making the book longer, or increasing the word limit, they completely short changed English readers by removing whole segments of the book. I know I was extremely frustrated with this, and, consequently, try to avoid Vintage editions of books where possible.

[Granny5]

I have no expierence with publishers but I would think that they are sales driven more than art driven. Isn't that how they make their living?

[DigitalLove]

I'm an editor at a small publishing house. There are many different angles to this subject. First of all some publishers welcome controversy as a way of getting a lot of attention and hype built up around a particular book or author. However, some houses totally shy away from controversy. And I understand what you are saying Old Crow about publishers editing works on a whim. Where I work we try to give our authors total freedom of expression, but sometimes we do have to edit their work. I can think of one beautifully written book that had a lousy ending so we changed the ending completely. Yes that is an extreme example, but you have to understand publishers must make these kinds of judgements all the time. Most publishers are in business to make money. There are some like City Lights that like to be more artsy.

And I have to add the simple fact that a lot of writers are not angels. Some have HUGE egos and are almost impossible to get along with and they are never satisfied with anything. We have one author that complains about everything we do for him. For example, since we didn't get the right shade of blue on his cover he gets upset about it. But I have had the pleasure of working with some that are complete gems.

To get back to the original post. Yes publishers make all kinds of judgements and it is very common because it's their job to make them.