Preview
PATRICK CREAN
WordFest: Banff-Calgary International Writers Festival
Saturday, October 16
Art Gallery of Calgary
Good writing is something you can judge for yourself. You have the page right there in front of you, so you can concur or disagree with all of the reviews. It’s much harder for readers to weigh the contribution of a good editor. Editing takes place offstage, in the wings. What readers can be sure of is that, if an editor had not chosen a manuscript, then convinced the publisher to adopt it, and worked with the author through the revisions process, we simply wouldn’t have the book to read.
Editor Patrick Crean is one such offstage contributor whose impact cannot be doubted. Crean, who appears at WordFest this week, has a long record of editing successful titles, from Barbara Gowdy’s Mr. Sandman, to Greg Hollingshead’s The Roaring Girl, and recent Giller and Commonwealth Prize winner Austin Clarke’s The Polished Hoe. After working with McClelland and Stewart and Key Porter Books, the 2003 Canadian Booksellers Association Editor of the Year is now with Thomas Allen Publishers. (There, he recently edited WordFest author Natalee Caple’s Mackerel Sky.)
All of this experience means it’s worth listening when Crean calls the present "the best of times, and the worst of times" for Canadian writers and publishers.
Speaking by telephone from his Toronto office, Crean says that, perhaps because of Canada’s excellent creative writing programs, "there’s never been a better time to write, and never been more competent writers." Over the past 35 years, he argues, literature has become Canada’s "most mature art form – along with comedy and pop stars."
But Canadian publishers, like prairie farmers this summer, find themselves with a bumper crop and bad weather for the harvest. What makes this the worst of times, says Crean, is the way good books now struggle to find their readers amid a book marketplace in crisis, "with one monopoly and 300 independent bookstores left." There are also fewer places to seek media attention for new books, not to mention the overwhelming distractions and competition offered by two huge English-language book industries.
"The Canadian book market is probably the most unforgiving in the world, because of the U.S. and England," says Crean. "If we spoke Danish, we’d have a captive market."
In this situation, editors play an even more pivotal role in "taking art to market." As publishers try to balance artistic and commercial values, "the fulcrum between art and commerce is very tricky," says Crean. Ideally, publishers find a way to balance these demands, as he feels Thomas Allen is doing. Still, he sees that with most publishers, "sales and marketing rules."
Crean’s own reputation now shelters him to some degree from these pressures. For instance, he says, "we don’t publish to deadlines." This gives the editor time to work through the process, from manuscript selection to the final text, in a less hurried manner. Time and care matter enormously, especially since the editorial process involves so many imponderables. "Looking at manuscripts is not, for me, an intellectual exercise, but more of a visceral thing," Crean says. "You just simply know after a page or two." Yet editors remain "very fallible" and make mistakes – for instance in rejecting work which later finds great success. "We’re involved in a mystery here," says Crean. "I mean, Nino Ricci won the GG (Governor General’s Award) with his first novel. Who knew?"
Working with authors is another challenge for editors, since they have to maintain trust without shrinking from tough criticism when required. Crean has a reputation for handling this part of the process well.
"There has to be good communication, with a searing honesty," he says. "So you have to develop a good bedside manner." Clear boundaries count, too. "Editors should never intrude into the text. We can say ‘That’s not quite right,’ but we don’t know how to fix it." This raises yet another "mystery," says Crean, since "it’s one thing to intuit something and another to explain it. You can make all kinds of suggestions, and that triggers something else entirely." In fact, Crean is happiest when authors provide at least some unpredictable responses to his comments. "I get terrified if the writer does everything I suggest."
It’s easy to see how the grinding wheels of commerce might threaten this delicate dance of authorial imagination and editorial judgment. On this theme Crean speaks in terms that wouldn’t be out of place in an AdBusters magazine editorial. "My big beef is corporate culture," he declares. "I think it’s seriously impacting the human imagination. Corporations would like everyone to be robotic and consume" – as uniformly as possible, for maximum convenience. While he believes some small publishers will always survive to pursue their craft in the shadow of the corporate machinery, "what worries me," says Crean, "is the medium houses, the Key Porters and Douglas and McIntyres."
Which brings us back to the best/worst dilemma. Just when the quality of Canadian writing has reached a high-water mark, Crean points out that "the majority of Canadian talent is now published by foreign publishers. I’m sure Jack McClelland would be rolling in his grave."
Patrick Crean joins fellow editors John Kinsella and Marcelo Uribe for the discussion Lost in a Good Book, October 16 at 1 p.m. |
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