Who's Fixing Your Toilet?

It is always nice to know that I am not the only writer disgusted with two recent very pricey book deals made to people who have no business writing books. I am speaking of course of Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber. Last Sunday, Timothy Egan weighed in with his opinion of the plumber's tome in The New York Times. Suffice it to say, he wondered if the plumber wanted Egan to fix his leaky toilet.

That is the point of course. Forget sour grapes or deals gone south or stalled indefinitely. This is about people getting paid great sums of money to write books who have absolutely no credentials to do so. As Egan phrases it: "I don't want you [Joe the Plumber] writing books. Not when too many good novelists remain unpublished. Not when too many extraordinary histories remain unread. Not when too many riveting memoirs are kicked back at authors after 10 years of toil. Not when voices in Iran, North Korea or China struggle to get past a censor's gate."

Not when publishers are laying off skilled shapers of language by the dozens and independent presses struggle to stay solvent. Of course, there is the argument that it is books like Joe the Plumber's that presumably open the door for those by lesser known mortals. Countered by Egan's observation that "the idea that someone who stumbled into a sound bite can be published, and charge $24.95 for said words, makes so many real writers think the world is unfair."

Especially when people like Joe the Plumber are hogging all the advance money the struggling industry can dish out. Want to save publishing? Stop publishing garbage and making money off it.

I just think we deserve better.