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February 09, 2009

Do Something Different for Valentine's Day: Buy a Book

Cook Yes, writers should be recognized in Canada and, earlier today, the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction made life a little easier for Tim Cook. The organization awarded Cook $25,000 for Shock Troops: Canadians Fighting The Great War, 1917-1918, Vol. 2.  Barring a mega hit, it is extremely difficult to make a living as a writer in Canada and it's getting worse. In his wonderful profile of Anne Michaels in the current Toronto Life, Don Gillmor describes the battleground of the publishng world, with mid-tier authors being "culled" and tossed out by big publishing houses. In earlier times, they might have been given a chance to grow and develop, but no longer. (Gillmor's piece highlights Michaels' soon-to-be-released, The Winter Vault.) There's also an ugly trend in the U.K. and U.S. for publishers to insist books be pre-edited (passing the costs on to authors) and, post-publishing, be publicized by the author. That's on top of swelling costs to the writer, which include the cost of the index, photo rights and any other rights involved. In an age of big box bookstores, Amazon and a generation less inclined, perhaps,  to sit down with a book, publishers prefer to publish "name-only" writers. It's always been like that for fiction and non-fiction, but not to this degree. Even the freelancing and speech-giving fields are drying up and they've been the money-makers for struggling writers who try to live without a full-time job (not that there are many of those anymore, either). It's scary out there.

The Charles Taylor Award recognizes writers need more than prestige sandwiches. In fact, Cook, curator of the Canadian War Museum and an adjunct professor at Carleton, is probably one of very few Canadian writers who actually has an job he loves that fits perfectly with his literary ambitions. Runners-up today (winning $2000) are Elizabeth Abbott's Sugar: A Bittersweet History and Ana Siljak's Angel of Vengeance: The "Girl Assassin," the Governor of St. Petersburg and Russia's Revolutionary War

So, for Valentine's Day, how about forgetting flowers and buying a book for that special someone. The thought involved in the purchase of a book is more romantic anyway.

* * *

In the "Say What?" category. Or better, people have some nerve.

Robert's Picton's family is suing the RCMP for messing up their pig farm - where they found the dismembered bodies of six women. It was pretty messy when Picton murdered those poor women, crimes for which he was found guilty and sent to jail.

Please.

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Much kudos to Tim Cook. He has written a fantastic and unique two-volume look at Canada in WWI from the soldiers' perspective.

And I agree that writers need to be recognized more often in this country. But, in tandem with that, so do the many in-house and freelance editors who put in long hours for very little remuneration. These people are often the unsung heroes who turn manuscripts of dreck into something publishable (or not quite publishable) and disjointed mediocrities into something entertaining, cohesive, and perhaps even shortlistable.

While Cook's works are clearly top drawer (i.e., not mediocrities), his books are massive and he most certainly had a lot of help in marshalling his materials and keeping the prose smooth. If you're picking up a copy of Shock Troops, or any other book for that matter, take a moment to peruse the acknowledgments.

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Political Decoder by Linda Diebel


  • Linda Diebel is a veteran political reporter who worked across Canada, including on Parliament Hill, and as the Toronto Star's bureau chief in both Washington and Latin America. She has written two books, Betrayed: The Assassination of Digna Ochoa, and Stéphane Dion: Against the Current.

    She's been described as "that mean Diebel person" by President George H.W. Bush and someone "with a good head on her shoulders" by Noam Chomsky. They're probably both right.

    Email: ldiebel@thestar.ca
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