Editing for The Big Picture
tags:
editing, publishing, writing
Pencil in hand, I am reading the first draft of the manuscript sent to me by my new author, Tamarian Graffham. This is my absolute favorite part of being a publisher and is the number one reason I do this work. It’s also the reason…
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leave a comment Memoir Lies: Why do writers make up stories and call them true?
tags:
memoir, publishing, writing
I’ve read several articles about recent bestselling memoirs turning out to be fiction and the subsequent outcry against the authors. Kathy O’Beirne’s 2005 memoir, Kathy’s Story: A Childhood Hell Inside the Magdalene Laundries, about growing up in a Catholic home for fallen women. Love and…
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The Best of New Writing on the Web
tags:
publishing, writing
So, I said that we had become quite excited about a possible new publishing project, and now that we’ve had a little time to sort out the details, I’d like to tell you about it. I’ve been blogging long enough now to know that not…
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Strategy
tags:
business, publishing, strategy
Right now we have two projects in development at Medusa’s Muse Press; an anthology of transformative Punk Rock tales, and a novel about the power of friendship over death. Both compelling and exciting to work on. But which one should launch first? I guess the…
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1 commentTen Things I’ve Learned About Being A Publisher
tags:
lists, publishing, top ten
Top 10 Lessons I’ve Learned About Publishing My Muse lounges on the couch with her feet up and announces, “I feel fecund.” “That’s an interesting word,” I reply, sitting in my favorite chair across from her. “It covers it all. Fecund. Creatively fertile and satisfied.”…
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ON COMPLAINTS ABOUT THE MEDIOCRITY OF CONTEMPORARY POETRY
tags:
poetry, publishing
There are many mediocre poems being written and published today. Many mediocre poets are being praised, in print. I believe that we can safely state this as a fact. Most writers would likely agree with me, as would most readers of poetry. Even the great…
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What Makes a Book Successful
tags:
bookstores, industry, NYTBR, publishing
In the New York Sun, David Blum writes in ”How Not to Write a Bestseller” about how the highly praised novel Then We Came to an End by Joshua Ferris was not a success because it never appeared on the NY Times bestseller list. The hardcover book, though, is already on its fourth printing. That sounds like success to me. Bestseller status isn’t required for a mid-list book to be successful and profitable. But expecting it, a book by a first-time author, to sell like James Patterson is idiotic.
The fact is that there are difference audiences for books. Smart audiences don’t drive the bestseller lists. They don’t. The majority of books bought and sold are very predictable and tested books. James Patterson does not require a good review in the NYTBR to sell a lot of books. People who read Patterson or David Baldacci (numbers 1 and 2 on the NY Times Bestseller Hardcover Fiction list as I write this) are not turning to the NYTBR to read about new books. The reviews that praised Ferris’s book certainly garnered it more sales than it would have seen otherwise, but a review also let’s people know something about the books (besides the subjective thumbs-up or thumbs-down) that helps them decide whether they might be interested in reading it. Ferris’s book is written in that annoying “Rose for Emily” collective perspective. My guess is that this turned some readers off and, I’ll admit, has made me a little reluctant to read it.
Blum’s article goes on to make some great points about bookselling that I absolutely agree with:
What if bookstores created sections devoted to that week’s best-reviewed books? Or posted positive reviews alongside the books themselves? That way, book reviews (even those that appeared only online) would be easily accessible to those most likely to buy books — people already browsing in the bookstore. Right now, bookstores place all their marketing muscle behind bestseller lists, meaning that prize positions get awarded to those who’ve already won the horse race. Even movie theaters operate according to more democratic principles than that. Shouldn’t good bookstore placement go to good books? Just a thought.
But that would require that bookstores care more about selling interesting books more than they care about selling what they know will sell. They don’t. Yes, this idea would likely sell more mid-list books, and more books I’m interested in, but they might sell less books overall.
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The Publishing Crap-Shoot
tags:
publishing
This very interesting article from the NY Times on the business of publishing and the unpredictability of it seems to forget one thing: it’s art. We’re not talking about manufacturing and selling widgets. No one decides whether they “like” a widget in the same way they like or dislike a book. In fact, I’m afraid that publishing is actually too much like a traditional industry, always trying to repeat and copy its previous successes. Certainly, if editors were to only select books because they believed they would be “successful,” many great books would never be published. Great books are not always successful. And the successful book isn’t always what one would think might be successful.
I do think, though, that publishing as a whole would gain if it were more responsive to the audience. As the article points out:
Television stations have created online forums for viewers and may use the information there to make programming decisions. Game developers solicit input from users through virtual communities over the Internet. Airlines and hotels have developed increasingly sophisticated databases of customers.
Publishers, by contrast, put up Web sites where, in some cases, readers can sign up for announcements of new titles. But information rarely flows the other way — from readers back to the editors.
The article is most interesting when it talks numbers. $25,000 paid for “The Nanny Diaries. $8 million for Charles Frazier’s follow-up “Cold Mountain.” And 750,000 copies of it printed,with only 240,000 sold. That means the company hasn’t even (and probably never will) recoup the advance.
All of it tells me that there is room in the industry for a new business model, something outside of digital or print-on-demand. I think there remains away to make publishing traditional printed books profitable.
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I’m published again!
tags:
Fantasy, Publishing, Science Fiction
After I wrote this post yesterday, my copy of the latest Black Gate Magazine came in the mail and guess who’s letter to the editor was published? That’s right, little old me. In Issue 9, a reader of the magazine (Lawrence Ore), and a Christian,…
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