Dream and the Deal by Patricia Mangione

Author:Patricia Mangione [Mangione, Patricia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Published: 1996-11-01T05:00:00+00:00

The gibes leveled against the Washington Guide's ponderous format were largely responsible for my job with the Writers' Project as its national coordinating editor. This sumptuous title was a euphemism that obscured my principal role in the Project's Washington office — that of literary agent, perhaps the first to be employed by any government agency. Alsberg's chief purpose in establishing the post was to encourage nationally prominent commercial publishers to issue future books in the American Guide Series, and in that way avoid any further dealings with the Government Printing Office.

Months before the GPO issued the Washington Guide, Alsberg and his staff became aware of its disadvantages as a publishing agent. The GPO — chiefly involved in printing the Congressional Record, sundry pamphlets, and government forms — was not geared for the complex job of book publishing. Little or no attention could be given to the niceties of designing and manufacturing as ambitious a work as the Washington Guide. Even more discouraging was the GPO's lack of marketing and distribution facilities. Copies of the book could only be purchased directly from the GPO; no discounts were offered to bookstores. Nor was there any effort made to publicize the book. The Project was obliged to send out its own review copies and to promote the publication as best as it could.

The publication of the Idaho Guide by a commercial publishing house which not only assumed its publication costs but also promoted it in the bookstores and the press inspired Alsberg to try to find commercial publishers for as many Project books as possible. The stumbling block was a federal law which stipulates that any material produced for publication by an agency of the federal government must be printed by the GPO. Vardis Fisher neatly dodged this hurdle by persuading a nonfederal government official, Idaho's secretary of state, to become the sponsor of the state guide and, in that capacity, to enter into a contract for its publication. The sponsor, in turn, also signed a pact with the Federal Writers' Project, agreeing to transfer to the United States Treasurer any royalties paid to him by the publisher. The effect of this procedure was to bypass the GPO without, apparently, infringing on the law.

Although it was a clear circumvention of the law, the procedure became the Project's standard method for having its books issued by commercial publishers. The greatest value of the system was that it transferred the heavy burden of publication expenses from the shoulders of the taxpayer to that of the publishers. This unforeseen marriage of government and private enterprise enhanced the prestige of all parties concerned and proved to be the most potent single factor in keeping the Writers' Project alive.

Most of the sponsors of Project publications who signed contracts with publishers were state or municipal officials or agencies, or nonprofit organizations, such as state historical societies. Some of the sponsoring bodies were nonprofit groups of leading citizens established for the express purpose of sponsoring Project books. Among the most

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