MOLESKINE ® LITERARIO

This business was never meant to sustain limousines dice Amanda Urban, la agente literaria de Cormac McCarthy y Toni Morrison, entre otros. ¿A qué negocio se refiere? Al de los agentes literarios y los representantes literarios. La crisis va llegando poco a poco a todos los sectores y, al parecer, le llegó al mundo de los agentes. No más gollerías, no más invitaciones alucinantes a países exóticos, no más buffets internacionales ni high life ni lapiceros Montblanc: ahora todo se hará por webcam y que cada uno se arregle como puede. La crónica es de Motojo Rich, apareció en The New York Times y me advirtió sobre ella Willie Schavelzon, mi perseverante agente, que la calificó de "interesante" con un no sé qué que le quedaó balbuceando. Dice la nota:

For decades the New York publishing world promised a romantic life of fancy lunches, sparkling parties, sophisticated banter and trips to spots like the Caribbean to pitch books to sales representatives. If the salaries were not exactly Wall Street caliber, well, they came with a milieu that mixed cultural swagger with pure Manhattan high life. But that cushy schmooze fest seems to be winding down. Just two weeks before announcing staff cuts and a substantial corporate restructuring in December, the publishing giant Macmillan gathered its sales and marketing staff at the historic Hotel del Coronado in San Diego — where Billy Wilder filmed Tony Curtis wooing Marilyn Monroe in “Some Like It Hot” — to talk about titles on the spring lists. Between marathon meetings to discuss plans for new books, the sales reps were invited to take part in wine tastings and spa treatments. This year the meetings will be held via Webcam. In a memo to staff members announcing the layoffs on Dec. 15, John Sargent, chief executive of Macmillan, said the company would hold only one of its three annual sales conferences in person, and the other two would be conducted on the Web and by telephone. Amid a relentless string of layoffs and pay-freeze announcements, book publishers are clamping down on some of the business’s most glittery and cozy traditions. Austerity measures are rippling throughout the industry as it confronts the worst retailing landscape in memory. “This business was never meant to sustain limousines,” said Amanda Urban, a literary agent who represents Cormac McCarthy and Toni Morrison, among other authors. Ms. Urban said she believed Bennett Cerf, a founder of Random House, once said something to that very effect. “At best, you can get a Town Car now and then,” she said. “It’s gotten out of scale, like a lot of businesses in this country.”

Sin embargo, al final de la nota el editor Michael Korda recuerda que no es la primera vez que ocurre esto. En los 70 era igual de mísero el negocio, sin el boato y esplendor de los 8o, pero igual funcionó y funcionará:

Of course longtime industry insiders have seen it all before. Michael Korda, former editor in chief of Simon & Schuster, who often held court from his favorite table in the Grill Room at the Four Seasons, recalled a period in the 1970s when his bosses banned editors from dining at certain restaurants. “And then after a while business got better,” Mr. Korda said. “And everybody went back to doing what they were doing before

Etiquetas: cormac maccarthy, eeuu, NOTICIA, shavelzon, toni morrison

This entry was posted on 1.07.2009 at 3:16 p. m.. You can skip to the end and leave a response.