The saga of Sam Lipsyte

For a story that might make some people angry, others nod their heads in resignation, but also make people realize that yes indeed, good books will eventually find a home, read the New York Observer’s long profile of the saga of Sam Lipsyte’s HOME LAND. Two years ago, when making the rounds of New York publishers, 24 of them turned it down. The book sold to the UK, published by Flamingo in 2004 to rave reviews, but was only published in the US by Picador — as a trade paperback original — last month.

And what happened? Many folks (myself included) fell all over themselves to embrace the book. Why? Because it’s amazingly good.

So, you may ask, why did so many publishers take a pass? For several reasons. First, because the current publishing model is to throw money at debut authors and ignore the ones in-between:

Morgan Entrekin, the publisher of Grove/Atlantic Books—who liked Home Land, but not enough to buy it—spelled out some of the realities impinging on writers like Mr. Lipsyte. "Historically, first books were the hardest ones to launch: You’d always expect that you weren’t going to make any money for the first several books," he said. "Now, the reverse is true. The media has this voracious hunger for the new next thing. It’s much easier to sell that. That’s just a reality of today."

Mr. Entrekin continued: "The toughest cases are when you have these serious writers whose critical acclaim and the quality of their work hasn’t translated into sales. Everybody sort of gives you one shot. Everyone needs that immediate hit right away, and if it’s not happening, it’s very hard to stay the course."

Then there’s the fact that the computer never lies:

Mr. Lipsyte would’ve been best served if Broadway Books had been willing to stay the course with him. However, new computerized inventory systems give retailers and publishers alike access to an author’s sales record.

"The sales record just makes the nature of your challenge absolutely clear from the start," said Mr. Pietsch. It was a challenge that no one, for more than a year, was prepared to take.

"I’ve got a lot of my own guys struggling to keep publishing. And to take on one more that you know is going to be a struggle—that’s a tough thing," Mr. Entrekin said.

And furthermore, the growing trend of many houses to vote by committee — something that can be lethal to a satirical novel like HOME LAND:

One editor who tried to buy it, only to have his editor in chief kill the sale, argued that the decision-making by editorial committee at most major houses around the city "tends to flatten out the aesthetic," which hurt Home Land’s chances. "When you have a really good satire, you’re not going to get everyone in the room to agree it’s fantastic. Some people aren’t going to think its funny; some people are going to be offended. And if you need a complete consensus on a book like this, it’ll never be published."

There’s lots more good stuff that I could keep quoting from but you get the drift. And if you like wildly satirical, scatological, hilarious fiction, HOME LAND is the baby to cherish forever.