In a New York Times op-ed piece, Jonathan Galassi, president of Farrar, Straus & Giroux and one of the preeminent figures in the editorial world, has issued a stirring defense of the publishing industry. Without the thought, energy, and passionate dedication that originally bring books to us, the raison d’etre of e-book reprints would disappear.

Citing William Styron, focus of a controversy involving e-reprint by another company of books originally published by Random House, Galassi reminds us that “An e-book version of Mr. Styron’s ‘The Confessions of Nat Turner’ will contain more than the author’s original words. It will also comprise [Random House editor Robert [Loomis’s] editing, as well as all the labor of copy editing, designing and producing, not to mention marketing and sales, that went into making it a desirable candidate for e-book distribution. Mr. Styron’s books took the form they have, are what they are today, not only because of his remarkable genius but also, as he himself acknowledged, because of the dedicated work of those at Random House.

Among the tasks performed by Random – tasks performed by every publisher to bring books into the world – are:Line-by-line editorial attention

• Extensive copy-editing and proofreading
• Book design
• Selection of appropriate typeface
• Commissioning of cover art
• Writing of cover copy
• Talking-up by publicity department
• Submission of bound proofs for review
• Sales staff efforts to obtain advance orders
• Pitches by rights department to magazines, book clubs, film agents and foreign publishers

Curiously, Galassi omits an item that may be the most significant of all: the investment of money. The omission only reinforces his defense of traditional publishers: without a heavy outlay of money, none of the other tasks listed above could be performed. For a publisher to issue a book with even a modicum of attention requires tens of thousands of dollars. To go out large requires hundreds of thousands. By contrast the cost of producing an e-book (by my own calculations at least) is not much more than one thousand dollars.

“An e-book distributor”, Galassi concludes, “is not a publisher, but rather a purveyor of work that has already been created. In this way, e-books are no different from large-print or paperback or audio versions. They are simply the latest link in an unbroken editorial chain, the newest format for one of man’s greatest inventions: the constantly evolving, imperishable book — given its definitive form by a publisher.”

To get the full flavor of Galassi’s statement, read There’s More to Publishing Than Meets the Screen.

Richard Curtis