Do Publishing Salaries Affect Literature?

Jason Boog / Galleycat

Pondering the merger of the William Morris and Endeavor agencies, New Yorker writer Willing Davidson wonders how the merger will affect the salaries of assistants at the literary and talent agencies.

The post examines the connection between internships and literary production. It's a good question for GalleyCat readers. Do the famously low starting salaries for writers, assistants, and aspiring literary types affect literature?

Here's the key passage: "Tiny salaries in the low ranks of publishing are miserable for the young workers, but they're probably worse for literature ... It's a truism of the industry that most of these jobs are held by people who can afford them--people with some parental support and no student loans. Often they've had unpaid internships, that most pernicious example of class privilege. Their superiors are the same people, ten years later. They--we!--are smart, cultured people with good intentions, but it's easy to see how this narrow range could lead to a blinkered view of literature."

Anthology of McSweeney's Funny Women

For your weekend reading pleasure, here’s a gender-specific, curated Rumpus essay by Elissa Bassist about the long list of women who have written for the funny pages of McSweeney’s Internet Tendency.

The list includes the hilarious essay “Commentary by David Simon, Creator of The Wire, for the He’s Just Not That Into You DVD” by Maureen Miller and the instructive how-to, “Borges Teaches Self-Defense” by Susan Schorn.

Here’s more from the essay, a somewhat bitter response to an infamous essay: “‘Why are men, taken on average and as a whole, funnier than women?’ inquired Christopher Hitchens in ‘Why Women Aren’t Funny,’ Vanity Fair, January 2007. That’s a good question. And by that I mean, f*** you.”

From Jason Boog at Galleycat