Carlin Romano, a former
Philadelphia Inquirer book
critic, came to Bucks and
talked to aspiring writers
about publishing and the
state of publishing houses.
Romano, current critic for
the Chronicle of Higher
Education and book critic
for the Inquirer for 25 years,
now teaches philosophy
and media theory at the
University of Pennsylvania.
He presented “Philadelphia
Noir,” a collection of short
stories that he edited, at the
event.
Noir, mostly associated
with detective stories, is
now a distinguished genre
of storytelling, said
Romano. His collection
contains all the creepy happenings
in Philadelphia,
some of which can even be
found in city guide books.
Romano’s real purpose,
however, was to talk about
publishing in general.
He expressed his fear of
the publishing industry
being killed by the eBook
generation. In the last few
years, digital books for ereaders
have outsold paperbacks
and hardcover books.
The Amazon Kindle ereader,
for example, sold
out in less than a month
after its first version’s
release in 2007, despite costing
over $300. Now, a third
version costs only $139. The
surge in e-readers may be
attributed to the fact that
eBooks are simply cheaper.
Dennis Tafoya, former
Bucks student and author of
“Wolves of Fairmount
Park,” also expressed concern
over the dying publishing
houses. He said that,
with the glut of eBooks, the
publishing houses are losing
revenue, and some no
longer maintain loyalty to
their midlist writers; they
only keep the ones that sell
at least a million copies.
To lighten up the mood,
when asked if it is harder or
easier now for aspiring
writers to get their work out
there, Tafoya replied that
it’s easier. He suggested
getting a blog and subscribing
to Publishers
Marketplace, a database of
writers, agents, editors, and
industry professionals.
Tafoya went on to read an
excerpt from his story,
“Above the Imperial,”
which appears in
“Philadelphia Noir. ”
He also added that he was
glad for the weekly deadline
because, normally,
“you give me unlimited
time, I’ll stare at a blank
paper for months and
months.” Tafoya also mentioned
how he realized he
was a prose writer: “I wasn’t
very good at poetry – so I
went to prose.”