"Today, there are more opportunities for writers in terms of access to larger success, but it's more difficult to publish a literary novel in the lower ranges. In other words, you almost have to hit a home run. You can hit a triple, maybe, but nobody's interested in a single"
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Burke frames the modern literary marketplace like a rigged ballpark: the fences are closer in one direction, but the infield is swallowing ground balls whole. The line about “more opportunities” nods to the obvious democratization of access - agents reachable by email, indie presses, online audiences, the long tail of discoverability. Then he snaps the trap shut: that access doesn’t translate into a healthier middle class for novels. It’s a winner-take-most economy, where visibility and viability increasingly depend on spectacle.
The baseball metaphor does quiet cultural work. A “single” used to mean something: steady craft, incremental reputation, a book that found its readers over time. Burke suggests that kind of career-building has been devalued by algorithms, consolidation, and risk-averse publishing math. Advances shrink, marketing budgets concentrate, and books are treated less like art objects and more like volatile products that must justify their shelf space instantly. “Hit a home run” is really shorthand for “arrive pre-legitimized”: a big platform, a buzzy premise, a prize trajectory, or a hook that can be tweeted without embarrassment.
Subtext: the system is not just demanding excellence; it’s demanding loudness. A triple - a very good book with real ambition - might still be ignored if it can’t be converted into event status. Coming from Burke, a writer who built a formidable career through genre-adjacent literary crime, there’s also a seasoned skepticism here: he’s watched the industry reward extremes, while the serious, midlist literary novel becomes harder to justify on spreadsheets. The warning isn’t nostalgic so much as structural: the culture still claims to want books, but the market increasingly only recognizes victories that look like fireworks.
The baseball metaphor does quiet cultural work. A “single” used to mean something: steady craft, incremental reputation, a book that found its readers over time. Burke suggests that kind of career-building has been devalued by algorithms, consolidation, and risk-averse publishing math. Advances shrink, marketing budgets concentrate, and books are treated less like art objects and more like volatile products that must justify their shelf space instantly. “Hit a home run” is really shorthand for “arrive pre-legitimized”: a big platform, a buzzy premise, a prize trajectory, or a hook that can be tweeted without embarrassment.
Subtext: the system is not just demanding excellence; it’s demanding loudness. A triple - a very good book with real ambition - might still be ignored if it can’t be converted into event status. Coming from Burke, a writer who built a formidable career through genre-adjacent literary crime, there’s also a seasoned skepticism here: he’s watched the industry reward extremes, while the serious, midlist literary novel becomes harder to justify on spreadsheets. The warning isn’t nostalgic so much as structural: the culture still claims to want books, but the market increasingly only recognizes victories that look like fireworks.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
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