3 ms·

It's the bookstore syndicate making an argument here, not the publishers. The bookstores should be blaming the publishers for refusing to pick up this book. Ins

It's the bookstore syndicate making an argument here, not the publishers. The bookstores should be blaming the publishers for refusing to pick up this book. Instead they are blaming Amazon, and the Renaudot contest for considering this book. Their self-interest is completely transparent, the Renaudot winner will have good sales, they don't want a book that they won't sell to win. I read the press release in French, they are warning the Renaudot prize jury that they could be hurting the author by depriving him of having his book sold in bookstores. The argument is nonsensical.

bunderbunder 8y ago
The self-interest I can understand. The trying to project their self-interest onto others, though, is a really bad look. "Chers jurés, vous êtes écrivains." (Dear jurors, you are writers.) Indeed they are. Why on earth would they want to punish one of their own for doing what he needed to do to get his book published, after first being stonewalled by the publishers? The SLF is asking the hand that feeds it to bite itself.
- greenshackle2 8y ago
  Well, they are trying to avoid biting the other hand that feeds them, the traditional publishers. They are used to living in a world where publishers hold the power over authors. Alienating a few authors matters much less than alienating a few publishers. The rise of self-publishing, enabled by Amazon and the likes, would be to some extent a reversal of the existing power dynamics. But asking authors to join them in opposing this reversal of power is absurd, when it is clearly to authors' advantage, as we can see with Koskas. They can't expect authors to enjoy being at the mercy of publishers.
SilasX 8y ago
Exactly. You pass on good writers/startups/movie pitches, you eat crow when the public turns out to like them. What’s unfair about that? If publishers use a bad filter, they have only themselves to blame when the writer finds a channel that appreciates them.
rurban 8y ago
It's a shame, but unfortunately they are very successful in such public lobbying. They also forced the Cannes film festival to censor movies produces by streaming services. In this case the writers union should step up and do some press release. But the last time I saw this in France the unions were instrumented to punish the Cannes winner Abdelatif Kechiche for essentially being a sleazy jerk, filming his naked actresses for too many unpaid hours. His next film was then punished (unions threatened legal trouble) and had to be premiered in Venice.

bunderbunder 8y ago

The self-interest I can understand. The trying to project their self-interest onto others, though, is a really bad look. "Chers jurés, vous êtes écrivains." (Dear jurors, you are writers.) Indeed they are. Why on earth would they want to punish one of their own for doing what he needed to do to get his book published, after first being stonewalled by the publishers? The SLF is asking the hand that feeds it to bite itself.

greenshackle2 8y ago
Well, they are trying to avoid biting the other hand that feeds them, the traditional publishers. They are used to living in a world where publishers hold the power over authors. Alienating a few authors matters much less than alienating a few publishers. The rise of self-publishing, enabled by Amazon and the likes, would be to some extent a reversal of the existing power dynamics. But asking authors to join them in opposing this reversal of power is absurd, when it is clearly to authors' advantage, as we can see with Koskas. They can't expect authors to enjoy being at the mercy of publishers.

SilasX 8y ago

Exactly. You pass on good writers/startups/movie pitches, you eat crow when the public turns out to like them. What’s unfair about that? If publishers use a bad filter, they have only themselves to blame when the writer finds a channel that appreciates them.

rurban 8y ago

It's a shame, but unfortunately they are very successful in such public lobbying. They also forced the Cannes film festival to censor movies produces by streaming services. In this case the writers union should step up and do some press release. But the last time I saw this in France the unions were instrumented to punish the Cannes winner Abdelatif Kechiche for essentially being a sleazy jerk, filming his naked actresses for too many unpaid hours. His next film was then punished (unions threatened legal trouble) and had to be premiered in Venice.