One by one, America's industries are conforming to the practice of mediocrity in how they conduct business. Now, it has permeated the publishing industry, as well.

Some years back, the English author, Jeffrey Archer, wrote a short story that included a few of the trials and tribulations of being a published author. Included was a recollection (whether fact or fiction is unknown to all but Mr. Archer) of a twelve-year-old child, who had called him collect from California. It seemed there was a misspelled word on page 23 of his latest novel. Since the incident had upset him to no small degree, we may assume that the word truly was misspelled and that it wasn’t simply an issue of the Queen’s English versus American English (although even that is unknown to all but Mr. Archer).

Indeed, when an author puts a book out for the public to read, he or she does so knowing that that collect call (or that e-mail message) may arrive. It makes no difference whether the author is as successful as Jeffrey Archer or Margaret Truman or as obscure as I am. The risk is the same, and the fear is as great.

I enjoy reading Margaret Truman’s capital murders series. At present, I am reading Murder at the Opera. Oh, how editorial services have declined since Miss Truman began the series twenty or more years ago. Not only have I found misspelled words; I have also found factual errors, such as the following, which appears on page ten:

…a class of a different sort of confinement was in session at the rehearsal facilities of the Washington National Opera Studio in Takoma Park, a funky suburban village straddling the upper northwest boundaries of D.C., and Prince George’s and Montgomery counties.

In actual fact, Tacoma Park straddles the upper northeast boundaries of DC, and Howard and Montgomery counties. Prince George’s County lies east and southeast of the District.

Miss Truman is in her eighties, now, and may be forgiven such an error, although it seems likely, considering the extent to which she researches her books, that she might have picked up an atlas to ensure these facts, as well. More to the point, an editor at a major press (Ballantine, an imprint of Random House published this book) should have caught the mistake. Does a major author at a major house no longer receive editorial services?

Alas! The practice of giving fewer services for more money seems to have permeated the publishing industry. The industry now conforms to the popular practice of settling for less than the best.

Some forty-five years ago, the actor, artist, and philanthropist Jack Lord spoke on the topic of conformity in an interview with Movie Life (1963):

There is a terrible tendency to conform today. It’s choking this country. It’s particularly sad because all great men and women have had one quality in common — they have dared to be different, dared to speak their minds, dared to espouse the unpopular cause.

Does it take any courage or express any individuality to dress exactly like ‘the crowd’ — the group of friends around whom most of your social activities revolve? To tease your hair or get a flat-top cut because the majority of kids at school do it? Does it take any creativity to like the same kind of music, or art, or dance as the pack?

No! Being a silly, weak-minded follower can’t satisfy any real human being. And besides, it’s a very unhealthy atmosphere to grow up in. It’s stifling. No red-blooded American wants to be a carbon copy. What you have, what you are — your looks, your personality, your way of thinking — is unique. No one in the world is like you. So capitalize on it — don’t submerge it and come on like a mass-produced auto part.

As it goes with hairstyles, so it goes with how one conducts one’s business. How pathetic!

August 13, 2007
Copyright © 2007 by Virginia Tolles