"Born at the right time," Sonny Mehta rose to prominence when BOOKS were respected and revered, authors could be both best-selling AND literary, and thanks to him, when they could get paid a living wage. And more.
Under his leadership, various book companies became influential, trend-setting, and successful, and his list of authors he signed and nurtured is most impressive. At the top of the list, in my opinion? My sister.
In her case, I do have to credit her agent, "Six Figure Molly" as she used to be known, for bring her to Sonny's attention. But it was Sonny, at Knopf, who outbid Harper, and landed that first book for not too far from a six figure advance.
There are few literary agents who are out there hunting for talent, or who recognize it when a manuscript crosses their desk. Fewer will read that manuscript with enthusiasm AND an eye for making it not only an easier sell, but a better book. Maxwell Perkins was legendary for doing that. A few others did over the years, but not many.
Now? If you look at the best seller list, it's dominated by the same idiot names, who write the same idiot book over and over again, and a year later, that book is in all the thrift shops for a dollar a copy. Where are the new writers? And, more importantly for all the writers...where is the money? The best-seller list used to mean hundreds of thousands of copies sold. Now the number is far less. More and more people want a cheap download, and even more know how to get a pirated one for a buck or two (just go to eBay, type in an author's name and EBOOK or PDF) or, FREE.
Sonny was aware of how the publishing world was crumbling just like the music world did, when CDs gave way to mp3 and Spotify. At a time when PDF, ePub and Kindle means more to most people than having a shelf of wonderful books, and even beautiful large format art books were no longer selling, Sonny shrugged: "We're part of something that is very large but we concentrate on our way of doing things. It may be illusory to insulate oneself from it all, but we try."
Build it and they will come? Publish it and they will buy? I'm sure Sonny would've wanted to have stuck around for another ten years, even if it meant that trying wasn't the same as succeeding, and that more and more of his authors were getting less and less money, and budget cuts had to be made at the office.
Mehta, son of an Indian diplomat, traveled the world before settling down in England, where he received a scholarship to St. Catherine's College. His career took off when, at only 24, he was hired by Granada Publishing and put in charge of a new imprint, Paladin. Germaine Greer and Hunter S. Thompson were some of his imports, and Douglas Adams became a top star. Sonny's next launch was Picador, which was home to Salmon Rushdie, Graham White, Ian McEwan and many more.
In a bold move, Mehta crossed the pond in 1987 to take over Alfred E. Knopf, one of the most prestigious literary publishers in America. Under his direction, Knopf enhanced its reputation by netting even more Nobel and Pulitzer prizes, and more important for the bottom line, stars on the Best Seller list. The most famous names in the world wanted the Knopf imprint on their books: Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher, George H. Bush, Ken Burns, Steig Larssson, Michael Crichton, and even Pope John Paul II. And yes, there was "North of Montana" by April Smith, the first of the Ana Grey thrillers.
Like the San Andreas Fault, which rumbles now and then and threatens to toss some of California into the ocean, there were rumbles in the publishing world. The "pocket book," the small paperback that became so popular in the 40's and 50's, sputtered in the 70's and 80's and went extinct. The "trade paperback" emerged instead, slightly smaller than the original hardcover. Was this a good thing? Maybe. Maybe not. A new generation of morons who couldn't leave their comic books under the bed, or just toss them in the trash, refused to read a book if it didn't have pictures on every page. Thus, the "graphic novel" was hatched. Sonny Mehta tried to deal with this, and remain literary, and "Maus" was one of the more prestigious titles in this infantile genre.
And then came Jeff Bezos and his killer KINDLE. Why spend $19.95 or $24.95 on a beautiful hardcover you can keep proudly on your shelf, and even get signed, when for $9.95 you can download a blip? Hey hey, with video games, comic books and NETFLIX, isn't the whole concept of a "book" pretty old-fashioned? Especially if it's not another thriller, romance book or geeky sci-fi or fantasy item? Isn't meta-entertainment something you get on your laptop or your cellphone, and better than what Mehta was providing to bookstores? Bookstores. There are few of those. And there is no Publisher/Editor like Sonny Mehta.
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