Under the Cover: The Creation, Production, and Reception of a Novel

by Clayton Childress

Under the Cover follows the life trajectory of a single work of fiction from its initial inspiration to its reception by reviewers and readers. The subject is Jarrettsville, a historical novel by Cornelia Nixon, which was published in 2009 and based on an actual murder committed by an ancestor of Nixon's in the postbellum South.

Clayton Childress takes you behind the scenes to examine how Jarrettsville was shepherded across three interdependent fields--authoring, publishing, and reading--and how it was transformed by its journey. Along the way, he covers all aspects of the life of a book, including the author's creative process, the role of the literary agent, how editors decide which books to acquire, how publishers build lists and distinguish themselves from other publishers, how they sell a book to stores and publicize it, and how authors choose their next projects. Childress looks at how books get selected for the front tables in bookstores, why reviewers and readers can draw such different meanings from the same novel, and how book groups across the country make sense of a novel and what it means to them.

Drawing on original survey data, in-depth interviews, and groundbreaking ethnographic fieldwork, Under the Cover reveals how decisions are made, inequalities are reproduced, and novels are built to travel in the creation, production, and consumption of culture.

-- "Choice"

Genres: Nonfiction, Sociology, School, Academic

320 pages, Hardcover

First published June 20, 2017

Reviews

[Clayton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote this book, and although I could not be more biased, I think it's actually pretty good. If you read it and have any questions or comments for me don't hesitate to email and get in touch!

[Donna]

Although this is a serious, academic-quality survey of how a novel is born, raised, and sent out into the world, it is also well-paced and surprisingly readable. I would highly recommend it to those involved or aspiring to be involved in any aspect of the publishing industry including authors, agents, editors, and booksellers.

[David Eisler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating story detailing the "biography of a novel." Not only is this an interesting work of academic sociology, it is surprisingly gripping as a story itself. Using a single novel as his subject, Childress takes you inside every decision point and transition from creation to production to reception, even injecting bits of narrative tension into what could have been dry prose. This book will interest anyone who is curious about how novels are born.

[Jeri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started this book after finishing Wendy Griswold's American Guides. Instead of taking a bird's-eye-view of how institutions come to form a nation's literary scene as Griswold did, in Under the Covers, Childress takes readers through the entire life cycle of a novel (in his own words, a worm's-eye-view, 8). By showing how different players in every part of the three fields are strategic, reactive participants who generate small yet important forces to translate a cultural object into something legible to the other field, this book argues these fields exist in a continuum whose relationship is often complementary than antagonistic (232). I am not a cultural sociologist, but this attention to the organization between fields strikes me as a helpful addition to the Bourdieuian model of cultural fields. Apart from the theory, I really enjoyed the details that go into every stage of a book's life. From the author's decision to drive to a Starbucks so she can "buy" herself two hours of writing time to how different readers take up the novel in entirely different ways, these bits and pieces are fascinating for anyone interested in writing and reading as creative--yet, as this book teaches us, deeply social-- processes. The large-picture snippets on other books, other agents, other editors and readers are both fun and important since the author's goal is to illuminate the general picture of fiction publishing and reception. Lastly, as someone working solely on qualitative research, I still appreciate the quantitative aspect of the book for many charts in the book are quite striking (e.g., Figure 11.2 on p.235)--kudos to the author for making numbers accessible to non-expert readers.

[Anson Cassel Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Under the Cover, sociologist Clayton Childress follows the trajectory of a single, mildly successful novel, Cornelia Nixon's Jarrettsville (2009), from its initial inspiration to its reception by reviewers and readers. Childress conducted dozens of interviews of writers and publishers and even surveyed members of book clubs that read and discussed the book. For readers interested in how authors and publishers interact, what literary agents do, and how book sellers choose which titles they think will sell, Under the Cover provides many helpful insights.

Unfortunately, though Childress can write clever prose when he chooses to, he often buries his insights in heavy academese, presumably to please senior sociologists who will pronounce professional judgment on his work. In his introduction, Childress advises readers uninterested in sociology to skip the next eight pages. I would take that suggestion further and counsel the general reader to hop, skip, and jump through this overlong work. About half of it is worth thoughtful perusal, and the acknowledgments actually make better reading—and better sense—than does most of the introduction.

[Yasmeen · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Just as there is no shortage of boundary-traversing relationships hiding under the covers of books, there is likely no shortage of them hiding under the covers of fields"

I read this for a class and honestly greatly enjoyed it! A fascinating, detailed, and insightful read, Childress explores the process of a novel's travels through different fields: creation, production, and reception. Never thought I’d have this much fun reading a sociological text, but here I am lol. Obviously some parts are a bit more dull than others(there's only so much reading about literary agents a person can take) but overall it was entertaining whilst being informative.

4 out of 5 stars!

[Lacey Losh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ever wonder how a novel is published? This nonfiction book follows Cornelia Nixon’s historical fiction novel “Jarrettsville” from conception and creation, acquisition, design and production, onto the field of reception with marketing, sales, and reviews. Even as someone working at a University Press, I was able to glean a lot from this text, especially when it comes to details about trade publishers and the parts of the process I’m not involved in.

[Leorah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really didn't know much about how a novel moves from manuscript to print, but I understand the process now. Thank you, Clayton for a well-written and illuminating work that allowed me, a non-academic, to explore this subject area through an academic's lens.

[Karen Carlson]

rec by DDan Sinykin on Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/dan-sinnamon...
Now I really do need to have a "reading about books" year - 2025 (sorry, 2024 is already, um, booked)

[Crissy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won!
I can't wait to read and I will update my review when I finish reading!
Thanks!

[DM · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of interesting insights about both the publishing industry and cultural sociology/field theory.

[niv · Rating 3 out of 5]

tbh very interesting at times!

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for class- honestly super informative and now I wanna read Jarrettsville

[Mills College Library]

070.5 C5369 2017