Book editors -- and some readers -- have been griping for a long time about newspapers and their book coverage. The complaints are familiar by now. Book review sections in newspapers are shrinking. Little support -- space, finances, and/or personnel -- is given to the coverage of books, particularly literary fiction. Few magazines, let alone newspapers, run fiction anymore. Poetry, once a staple of dailies, has all but disappeared from newsprint. And when book review sections do feature more high-brow material, they risk becoming marginalized.
J. Peder Zane, book editor at The (Raleigh) News & Observer, has heard all of these gripes. He is sympathetic to the economic crunch faced by newspapers. A one-man operation for his newpaper's two-page book review section, he understands that resources are limited. But he believes that, for newspapers, book coverage and attention to good writing is not optional. "Showing a commitment to good writing and good language is, after all, what we're all about," he says. "You don't want a paper to read like The New York Review of Books, but why can't a little bit of the paper read a little bit like The New York Review of Books?"
Those interested in reading and writing may not be the newspaper's only audience, but they are most likely its core subscribers -- particularly in the Raleigh-Durham area, which enjoys a high concentration of college students and writers. And Zane and his editors have found a number of imaginative ways to present books, authors, and original writing to attract that kind of readership. On a regular basis, the newspaper runs poetry, fiction, book reviews, essays on reading, author profiles, and excerpts from books. And they do it on a shoestring budget.
Each week the
News & Observer devotes two pages to
book reviews and runs a profile of a visiting author (under a feature called Book Mark). But it also runs a column called "
The Sunday Reader" on page two of its "Sunday Journal." Taking up two-thirds of a broadsheet, "The Sunday Reader" features either a 1,200-word short story, a poem accompanied by an explanation of its inspiration, or an excerpt from a forthcoming book by a Southern writer (defined as someone who was born in or moved to the South). The pieces are accompanied by a photograph and a biography of the writer.
The cost? All the writers are paid the same for their work: $100.
In addition to these regular features, the News & Observer has run several occasional series about books. The most recent was a series of 2,000-word essays by writers on reading called "The Book I Read.'' Running in the newspaper's Arts and Entertainment section from February 2001 to August 2003, the series was the brainchild of Zane.
Zane asked writers to assign a superlative to a single book they had read and then write an essay explaining why they chose that moniker. The results, says Zane, were "hybrids of personal essays and criticisms,'' with writers bringing their personal experiences to each book critique.
Among the 34 writers who contributed essays were Bebe Moore Campbell on Dr. Seuss' "The Cat in the Hat" (The Most Memorable Book I Read), Charles Frazier on Antonin Artaud's "The Tarahumara" (Most Tempting), Lee K. Abbott on William Faulkner's "Absalom, Absalom!" (Most Daunting), Elizabeth Hay on Pauline Kael's "5001 Nights at the Movies" (Most Fearless), and Marianne Gingher on Eudora Welty's "The Robber Bridegroom" (Most Double-D-Daring). Editor Zane weighed in himself with Sigmund Freud's "Civilization and Its Discontents," which he declared was the "Hippest Book I Read."
The cost? All the authors — even Charles "Cold Mountain" Frazier, who received a cool $8 million advance for his second book — accepted a payment of $200 for their News & Observer essay.
Isn't that remarkable?
On a regular basis, the newspaper runs poetry, fiction, book reviews, essays on reading, author profiles, and excerpts from books. And they do it on a shoestring budget.
And speaking of remarkable, all the authors recently received another $200 for reprint rights when Zane published the essays in an anthology called "Remarkable Reads."
Even the story of getting the series published in book form speaks well of the News & Observer's commitment to books and authors. After 20 essays had run in the newspaper, Zane took them to five small publishers to see if he could anthologize them. Four houses turned him down. A fifth, Algonquin, showed interest, but told Zane he would need 34 essays and more geographical representation for a book. So Zane went back to his editors, who agreed to add more writers to the series. By the time Zane returned to Algonquin, however, the interest there had waned. A month later, however, he sold the manuscripts to Norton, which published "Remarkable Reads" as a paperback original.
The News & Observer has had a long history of supporting book and writer coverage, says Zane. In 1989, then-News & Observer book editor Michael Skube won a Pulitzer Prize for his book criticism. Zane's immediate predecessor, David Perkins, launched an essay series called "Books of Passage," in which writers talked about books that had changed their lives. The response to these projects -- both inside and outside the newspaper -- has been positive, says Zane. "They not only provide a service, but by showing the importance of writing, they give the paper prestige within the writing community and among readers."
The News & Observer, of course, is in an area with a strong literary community. With the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University nearby, the area has long been a magnet for the literati. Would the News & Observer's approach to book and writer coverage work in other areas with a weaker literary tradition? Are there other newspapers running fiction and poetry? Is this a wise use of the limited real estate that can be reasonably allotted to the coverage of book-related topics? Let's hear from other editors who may have reservations about this approach and other suggestions on how to cover books and authors.
Bravo to Mr. Zane -- his sounds like a wonderfully...
