Last week, I had one of the more unique experiences of my
writing life: meeting with the directors of
Elan Sud, a boutique French
publisher, at their cozy headquarters on a quiet side street in Orange. The
interview was arranged by the woman who owns the house we were renting in
Rapheles-les-Arles, an avid book reader and the friend of an author who
publishes with this press. It was a
wonderful experience talking with Madame Corinne Neidegger and her partner
Monsieur
Dominique Lin. Madame Neidegger understands spoken English but speaks
little herself; Dominque speaks and understands English, yet it is, of course,
very far from being a first language for him; I understand spoken French
somewhat, but I don’t speak it well at all.
So for over an hour we engaged in a fascinating triangulated
conversation. Madame Neidegger asked me
questions in French, and I answered them mostly in English, with interpretations
and amplifications provided by Dominique, a working writer himself--I bought one of his novels (
Toca Leon!) during my visit--with long
experience in the publishing industry, as has Madame Neidegger. In fact, Madame Neidegger once worked for
Actes-Sud, one of the largest publishers in all of France and a company
headquartered in Arles.
A passion for well-written, well-edited books is what
encouraged them to start Elan Sud. Like
many niche presses, it is a labor of love and one that tries to address
important needs left behind by mainstream publishers. For Elan Sud, this means publishing, among
other things, graphic novels, novels by young first time writers (through a
labor intensive, multi-stage submissions and drafting process), and publishing
fiction set in atypical settings, like Cuba.
We spent a good deal of time discussing my Van Gogh novel, but also many
minutes reviewing the state of publishing in France. What was striking was how similar their
complaints were to complaints made about publishing in the United States; e.g.,
a few massive houses buying up many smaller presses, a lack of courage and
originality in what they publish, too many examples of patently bad books—with
little evidence of editorial oversight—being not only allowed into the market
but turning into bestsellers. The
subject of Fifty Shades of Gray came
up. (Yes, the book has been published in
France too.) I told them what I tell
everyone: I hear that it’s pretty badly written. Dominique was beside himself. “Of course, of course, it’s badly written.
That’s what everyone says. And I don’t
understand. When somebody tells me this food smells terrible and tries
to give it to me, I will not eat it. But if someone says , this book is terrible, people want to read it!”
They are both lovely, dedicated, and shrewd people, with
wonderful senses of humor and an abiding interest in publishing provocative work. Here I thought I was driving to Orange from
Arles just to drop off a copy of my novel, and I found myself invited in, given
a place to sit, offered coffee, and engaging in a chat that lasted seventy
minutes long and covered everything from my own life history to the history of
my book to the characteristic of my book to the characteristics of their press
to the state of “the book” to the practical challenges of literary
translation. We even talked over their philosophy
on book covers. I’ve never had a more
engaging if nerve-wracking hour, an hour I could never have imagined for myself
years ago when I first started my book.
One I could have never imagined for myself when I first thought of
visiting France. Sometimes, it’s simply
amazing where a project can take you. In
this case, I really mean where.
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In my last post, I wrote about meeting with the directors of Elan Sud and discussing a possible French-language edition of my Van Gogh novel. Well, how fitting that with this post I can finally announce the publication of the original English language version of the book. That's right, Days on Fire is finally out and available! The book can be purchased through Amazon. com here; also through Barnes & Noble.com here; and through Lulu.com here. It can also be special ordered by your favorite neighborhood bookstore through Ingram Distributors. Finally, for readers in the UK, the book is available through Amazon.co.uk. Click here for that link.
