Category Archives: publishers

June 25, 2012   Jane   Jane, opinion, publishers, timing  
3

The return of the instant book

Last week, I witnessed something I hadn’t seen in many years.  It took ten days from the time  the  publishing agreement was signed to being handed a bound copy of Tracey Garvis Graves’ ON THE ISLAND. That is truly amazing and exciting in terms of future publishing ventures.  But publishing instant books, as they were once  called, isn’t new to many of us who have been in the business for years.

In fact when I held my copy of Tracey’s book  in my hands, I thought back to many exciting titles that were published in this way back in the day.  And when I looked back I found this New York Times article which describes some of what took place during that time.

This kind of publishing was inspired in the ‘60s , ‘70s and ‘80s by major news events.  The most popular of the titles was The Report of the Warren Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy; others included  The Pentagon Papers, The Israeli Rescue at Entebbe and many, many more.

A publisher would usually team up with a news organization like one of the news weekly magazines or The New York Times and together they would produce a manuscript, often using material from the government which, of course, was in the public domain.  They would work on this for a week, sometimes less, and then go through the production process, typesetting, printing, binding and shipping the books.

I was actually a part of one of these projects right at the beginning of my career:  I carried a manuscript, after the writing and editing, were completed from our offices in New York to Chicago where I was taken to the printer in Des Plaines, Illinois, where the book was ultimately printed bound and shipped out.  It was all very exciting and very hush hush – most of these instant books were top secret until they were published, which created great excitement.

The problem was that while the publishing company was working on these projects , all other work , especially in the editorial department came to a standstill and, ultimately this led to  the demise of the instant book; the profits they were making didn’t justify what they were costing in terms of the loss of other business.

Now, though, with the change in technology, books can be produced much faster and efficiently – and even more inexpensively.  So the possibilities are becoming very exciting and bode well for the future.

As I like to say, there are no totally new ideas, it’s just the way they are “presented.”  What do you think about the whole “instant” book phenomenon?

April 30, 2012   Jane   advice, future of publishing, Jane, opinion, publishers, retailers  
5

What you can do about the DOJ lawsuit

Following up on my previous blog—and having read a huge amount in the last two weeks about this matter—I feel more strongly than ever that we all, agents, authors, publishers, independent bookstore owners, and readers, can and should do something about the settlement the DOJ is proposing.

In order to try to stop the Department of Justice there is something called The Tunney Act, which allows members of the public to comment on any proposed settlement by the government on a civil antitrust suit.  The “Competitive Impact Statement” filed in court by the Department of Justice on April 11th states that the Depart of Justice will cause written comments received from any person to be filed with the court and published in the Federal Register.

If you are in agreement that the terms of the settlement are onerous for publishing and bookstores, you  need to write a letter and send it to:

John R. Read, Esq.
Chief, Litigation III Section
Antitrust Division, United States Department of Justice
450 5th Street, NW, Suite 4000
Washington, DC 20530

You may also submit your comments attached in an email to john.read@usdoj.gov (with a copy to stephen.fairchild@usdoj.gov).

Please be sure to reference the name of the litigation in your comments.  We suggest the following or similar reference:

United States v. Apple, Inc. et al., No. 12-CV-2826(DLC) (S.D.N.Y.) – Comments on Proposed Final Judgment as to Defendants Hachette, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster

All public comments received will be considered by the U.S. Department of Justice and will be filed with the Court and published in the Federal Register (the Daily Journal of the U.S. Government).

These letters and e-mails must be received by June 23rd so please read all you are able to about the issues and write and mail your letters expressing your opinions as soon as you can.

I feel strongly that we must keep the publishers and bookstores alive—both independents and the remaining chains.  I hope you all will help.

April 16, 2012   Jane   e-books, future of publishing, Jane, opinion, publishers, retailers  
10

Is the Department of Justice’s Suit Against Publishers Good for Authors?

Last week, the Department of Justice sued five publishers and Apple and charged them with collusion in the implementation of the agency model for e-book pricing. The charge is civil, not criminal.  Three of the five publishers, Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster are settling their suits, but Macmillan U.S. and Penguin Worldwide are not.  Here is what Publishers Weekly reported followed by statements from John Sargent CEO of  Macmillan and John Makinson, Chairman and CEO of the Penguin Group.

So, what does this mean to authors?

Ultimately it means that Amazon, which has had a very strong market share in discounting e-books recently with Barnes & Noble starting to catch up under the agency model, will now virtually have a monopoly on selling e-books.  The company, which as we know, sells many products other than books, can afford to lose money on their sales of e-books because they have so much other merchandise to make a profit from.

Barnes & Noble and other accounts, however, cannot afford to lose money and they will do if they are forced to compete with Amazon’s steep discounting.  In fact late last week, B&N stock took a substantial dive for this very reason.

And, if as a result of this, Barnes & Noble is forced out of business, it will be a disaster for publishers and authors alike.  There will be nowhere to display physical books any longer.

I am not a lawyer and so I can’t discuss the legalities of any of this.  What I can suggest is that if authors agree that giving Amazon a true monopoly in the e-book publishing business will be hugely destructive to the business as a whole, then they should blog, write op-ed columns, and get as much publicity possible in order to attempt to turn this situation around.  It is myopic, in my humble opinion, to believe that allowing Amazon to become a monopoly in the e-book business will ultimate benefit consumers (see David Carr’s piece in today’s New York Times).

What do you all have to say about these developments?

January 17, 2012   John   advice, John, production, publishers  
9

Why is this taking so long?

After reading Jane’s post about joining Twitter, as well as a number of in-house discussions about how we should ALL be tweeting, I signed on as well (@johnwrudolph). And while I’m still hemming and hawing about my inaugural tweet (I know, I know—time to get off the pot), Twitter has already proven its worth. Thanks to Twitter, I found a subject for today’s post!

Actually, the real thanks here is to Veronica Roth, author of the YA bestseller Divergent, whose blog was tweeted by someone I follow. Yesterday, Roth posted a great piece on her website, “A Peek Behind the Publishing Curtain,” which outlines the various milestones in the publishing process from acquisition to publication. It’s one of the most clear, readable dissections I’ve seen on how a book gets made, and it does a great job of answering the question every exasperated writer asks at some point—why the *$%#? is this taking so long?!?!

(One caveat: Roth writes from the perspective of a highly successful author whose next book is already under contract. So, for the first-timer, I would replace Step 1 with the submission process, which likewise can anywhere from a few months to over a year. And then, once the book finds a home, an editor will basically treat the manuscript like a rough draft, so the rest of the schedule holds up.)

In particular, I love how Roth focuses on the physical aspects of bookmaking. I always think it’s important for authors to keep in mind that regardless of content, in Econ 101 terms a book is a manufactured product, and so it’s great how Roth shows that production issues like paper weight and shipping necessarily contribute to the time lag. I also like how she sums up the interplay between sales and manufacturing, and that there actually is some method for arriving at the number of copies that are printed.

So, if you ever find yourself at that point of screaming in frustration that your book still hasn’t seen the light of day, reread Roth’s piece and see where you are in the process. It will probably explain things more clearly that the fumbling apologies of your editor (or agent)!

November 11, 2011   Lauren   fun, Lauren, publishers  
1

Who doesn’t love a good diagram?

It’s been a crazy week, so I find myself scrambling at the end of the day to get this blog entry out of my head and onto your screen.  Fortunately, the fine folks at Publishing Trendsetter have provided pictures to make it all as easy as possible for me (via @publisherslunch).  One of the first questions authors often ask after the joy of the “I want to work with you!” conversation gives way to the practicalities is, “So, now what?”

Authors write, write, write.  And revise, revise, revise.  And query, query, query.  Many of them study, learn, and research as much as possible by the time they get there.  But fundamentally, the publishing process is kind of mystifying.  Even working within the publishing machine, there are departments you only vaguely understand.  The production team…produces things?  This is where Publishing Trendsetter comes in.  With charts and videos, they explain the process beginning to end. Who does what, when, and why.

Now we can all understand just a little bit better who plays what role in making the magic of books happen.

October 25, 2011   John   Amazon, children's books, John, opinion, picture books, publishers  
9

Picture book blues

Sorry to be a bit of a downer, folks, but two news stories today gave me a touch of the picture book blues. First, there was word that the Mr. Men and Little Misses books are heading off to new corporate masters. Not that I have anything against these books (don’t want to be called out as Mr. Grumpy here!), but considering how the hardcover picture book market has been eviscerated by mass market over the years, it’s a little depressing to see so much value placed on these characters when hardcovers are dying on the vine. Feels like it’s been a while since a hardcover character got a similar courtship from the major media conglomerates—even Fancy Nancy ain’t that fancy.

And then there’s the whole Amazon kerfuffle on the Room for Debate page of the Times. Certainly, the level of anger and vitriol against our industry is enough to discourage anyone associated with books, but it’s extremely depressing for a picture book enthusiast to read the comments bashing traditional publishers. Because picture books are one of the few formats where a traditional publisher provides an indisputably vital function–can you imagine Amazon attempting to shape, edit, design, and package a picture book, not to mention pairing a writer with an artist in the first place? If the Big Six really go the way of the dodo, it’s going to be a very bleak day for the art of the picture book.

Now, I know these blues will pass, because the death of Big Six publishing has (per usual) been overstated of late. Plus, the picture book market, while not what it used to be, is still out there. In fact, one of the first projects I sold here at DGLM was a picture book, so I’m still very actively looking for author/illustrators. And the Society of Illustrators is gearing up for its annual picture book art show, which is always a great reminder of the incredible talent working in picture books today—well worth a visit if you’re in NYC this fall.

Still, if anyone’s got any uplifting picture book thoughts or news, I’d love to hear them. And full disclosure, I’m also getting pretty sick of reading the same books over and over to my toddlers–so new picture book recommendations would be very much welcomed. I’m sure they’d buoy my spirits!

October 11, 2011   John   celebrity, future of publishing, John, opinion, publishers  
30

Authors with imprints

Word came down today that HarperCollins is giving Dennis Lahane (author of Mystic River) his own imprint. To quote the Washington Post: “Dennis Lehane Books will issue ‘a select’ number of literary fiction works each year that have ‘a dark urban edge.’ The author himself said in a statement that he was hoping to help ‘worthy writers’ in need of more attention.” This comes on the heels of Anthony Bourdain also getting at imprint at Harper to showcase authors of his choosing.

Now, it’s long been a truism of publishing that the only people who care about imprints are people in publishing. And while some knowledgeable consumers might expect a certain level of quality or type of book from an imprint, I think for most readers the only important things on the spine are the title and author. Yet Harper is clearly banking that readers like and accept Lahane and Bourdain as stamps of approval—if they dig a book enough to publish it, it’s got to be good, right?

What do you think of this strategy? Would seeing either of their names on a book convince you to take a look, much less buy a copy? Are “literary celebrity” imprints the wave of the future? Or is this just a myopic publishing stunt that won’t really mean much when it comes to the register? Discuss, discuss…

September 15, 2011   Michael   controversy, LGBTQ, Michael, publishers, submissions, voice, YA  
33

De-gaying YA

**Updated 9/18/11**

There’s been a lot of talk in the YA world this week about an article over at Publisher’s Weekly about the difficulty in selling work with LGBTQ protagonists, and the story is even being picked up by non-publishing outlets. (There’s also now some controversy, seen here on the Swivet, about who the mystery agent is, and if, in fact, they ever said such a thing.)

In the interest of full disclosure, I passed on the manuscript in question. It had absolutely nothing to do with the gay character–in fact, it’s not something that even registered. Perhaps it’s having lived on the coasts for years, or perhaps being gay, but finding a gay character in a book rarely registers. An author of mine recently sent in a new manuscript in which the brother of the female protagonist is gay, and honestly, I wouldn’t have noticed if the author hadn’t mentioned it in relation to a plot point. The guy’s gay.  Ok.  Moving on. And I’ve sold more than one YA book with an LGBTQ protagonist, including a YA memoir.

The same is generally true when I get in submissions. I’m not looking for gay or straight protagonists, and I don’t pay much attention. I care about the concept, the plotting, the voice, the writing–the sexual orientation of the character is the last thing I’m thinking about. Please send me books with LGBTQ characters; I’d love to see anything good! I think just about every agent and editor out there would say the same thing; it’s it’s good, we want to see it.

That said, we also have to be honest about the realities of the marketplace. There are fewer gay readers than straight readers. “Gay books,” on average, sell less than “straight books.” Readers seem to be more interested in reading about straight people–at least that’s what sales indicate. So publishers thinking about what to publish have to take this into consideration. Despite appearances to the contrary, publishing is a business, and sales matter. But YA books with LGBTQ characters continue to get published, are published well, and find audiences well beyond gay teens.  For more on this issue, I really recommend you read Malinda Lo’s brilliant blog post “How hard is it to sell an LGBTQ YA novel?”, which was referenced in the Swivet post above, and gives a great view from an author on this subject.

Publishing has to be one of the least homophobic businesses around. The percentage of gay agents, editors, and other publishing professionals is much, much higher than the population in general (no matter which statistic you’re looking at), and people are fairly liberal. I can almost guarantee that there’s no one censoring gay content. ***

If you want to see more books featuring LGBTQ characters, I have a piece of advice: seek out and buy those books. If publishers are rejecting books with LGBTQ characters because they believe they won’t sell, the way to change their minds is by buying the books when they are published. Publishers are chasing after sales, which is why you see so many copycat books–vampire novels after Twilight, dystopian novels following Hunger Games. Vote with your dollars. The more LGBTQ books you buy, the more you’ll see. And I know that we publishing professionals will be happy to sell them to you.

*** I should have chosen my words more carefully in this sentence. I didn’t mean to say that there was never any suggestion that GLBTQ content be removed from a book; clearly, that isn’t true. I was trying to say that I didn’t think anyone was doing this with a set agenda; I don’t think any particular editor’s or agent’s homophobia (blatant, latent or internalized) is the reason that such suggestions are made.

I also never intended to offend anyone with this post, and while I still don’t think I’m being naive or ignoring a blatant issue, I will certainly be more aware and sensitive going forward. I appreciate your responses and comments on this post, whether you agree with me or not. As so many have pointed out, what matters here is that we’re discussing the subject openly. And that can’t be a bad thing. Thank you.

August 09, 2011   John   future of publishing, John, opinion, optimism, publishers  
4

A little ray of sunshine

Who would’ve thunk that with the economy going to hell in a handbasket, publishing would actually offer a beacon of hope?

Believe it or not, a survey conducted by the The Association of American Publishers and the Book Industry Study Group concluded that in the past three years the publishing industry has actually expanded. While the reported increases in net revenues and sales are only in the single digits, hey, that’s a lot better than plenty of other industries. Better yet, it appears that the growth is across the board—trade as well as professional/educational publishing. It’s also encouraging that ebooks, while they certainly contributed to the growth, were not the only driving factor. And kudos to adult fiction!

So for those of us who’ve been feeling pretty low watching the stock market collapse, I hope this raises your spirits a bit—we ain’t dead yet!

August 01, 2011   Jane   Jane, opinion, publishers  
9

Why does everyone seem so confused?

These days I am having a difficult time recognizing my colleagues on the publishing side and what they are trying to do to be successful.

They tell us (authors and agents) that an author needs credentials and a platform but when I present to them an author who is a leading character from a very highly rated reality show, they say they don’t like “the voice.”

When I present to them a biography of a fascinating woman who has just come to the world’s attention written by a very well respected journalist, they say “the story is moving too fast”—very confusing as what I am sending them is a biography not a news story.

When I recently sent out a proposal on using leftovers in other dishes and not disposing of food as we are used to doing, people told me there was no market and yet there was a huge front page piece in the food section of The New York Times last Wednesday about just this subject. Evidently, there are many, many readers who would be interested in such a book.

When I offer them a wonderfully executed proposal about a subject that is being talked about more and more these days and where the author has a video that has gone viral on YouTube, they tell me they don’t know who the market for the book would be and yet this past Saturday, there was a feature about this very subject that began on the front page of The New York Times and continued for a full page inside.

Finally, there was the New York Times piece, also in Saturday’s paper, about self-publishing and the fact that more and more people are doing it.

All of this makes me think that my colleagues on the publishing side have lost sight of the fact that in these new wild, wild west days in publishing, this is the time for them to take more, not fewer, risks. Taking risks has always been what the business of publishing is all about.   There are no sure winners, guys, and the more fearful and cautious you get, the more authors will want to publish on their own—and won’t need you anymore.

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