Publishing’s a strange, strange business. Over here, in the Dutch-speaking countries of Belgium and The Netherlands, it’s possibly even stranger. I’ve recently read this article, discussing a publisher best known for their literary novels. Finding themselves forced to cut jobs for the second time in a year, they lament that fact that people just aren’t going for literature as much as they used to, wailing “The golden years are over.”
No surprises there, but they went on to say that a large base of readers prefer reading English over Dutch. Why, oh why, I wonder?
See, there’s something I’ve been meaning to address for quite a while now. It’s as if there’s this gaping hole in the building, causing a huge draught. But there’s a taboo about bringing it up. People would rather pretend it wasn’t there. Just turn up the heating, they offer as a solution. Well, that isn’t going to cut it, now is it?
Let’s get into what I mean by my analogy. The gaping hole is the internet. Not only does it offer cheap distractions, it has also opened the floodgates to novels of all over the world, of every era imaginable. Competition has gone way up, not only in price, but in quality as well. The book shop isn’t a closed ecosystem anymore like the ‘golden years’, when you could only get your hands on whatever was on offer. So, let’s take a hypothetical mediocre Dutch writer: he survives in one era, dies in another from too much competition. The notion that it’s all marketing seems very self serving to me: “I’m not a bad writer, it’s just that the other guy has better marketing.” Yeah, right.
Which brings me to one of my pet peeves: writing style. Around here, nine times out of ten, their writing style blows. These scribblers forget everything they’ve ever learned about basic communication and storytelling, and opt to go with this grandiloquent way of writing, which wouldn’t be too bad on its own, but their dialogue skills aren’t where they need to be, ignoring that no one in real life talks like their characters do. And, let’s keep it real, the stories aren’t too good either most of the time. Why? In my view, it’s because we’re weirdly uptight when it comes to language round these parts. We like to nitpick the tiniest of minutiae. So much so that the writer’s focus gets pulled into prioritising language over story and content. And while I’m all in favour of supporting local authors, it doesn’t seem to be making the gaping hole in the building any smaller.
Anyways, just some food for thought. Until next time!
Regards
Vincent J. Dancet