publishing 101: is self publishing “real” publishing?

We’re off for the holidays until January 2. During this period, every day I’ll be presenting one of my popular Publishing 101 posts. I hope it will inspire all you writers and illustrators for 2009!

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There’s an interesting article over at the New York Times Book Review which explores the phenomena of self publishing. Self publishing has grown tremendously over the past year, which is no surprise when you consider how easy and inexpensive printing has become. Here’s some hard numbers: In 2007, 400,000 books were published or distributed in the United States, up from 300,000 in 2006. This sharp rise is attributed to the popularity of print-on-demand books and reprints of out-of-print titles. Even my small Brooklyn neighborhood is getting into the act. Next door to a local coffee house, there’s a store devoted to self publishing. The store is named (appropriately enough) Publish Yourself. Most of the books in it are decidedly of the personal family memoir/poetry/political manifesto variety.

The Times article presents some facts that might be useful to anyone considering self publishing or, as it’s called in the industry, micropublishing. For example, the vast majority of people who self publish sell less than 200 copies of their books — a good explanation for why these small book runs are called micropublishing. It is assumed that these books find their ways into the libraries of friends and family, rather than into bookstores and other retail outlets. By comparison, the average trade industry book needs to sell anywhere from 10,000 to 25,000 copies to financially break even for the publisher and author.

From the Times:

“‘As publishing has become less expensive, the urge to write my own self has become the opportunity to publish my own self,” said Gabriel Zaid, a Mexican critic and the author of “So Many Books: Reading and Publishing in an Age of Abundance,” a meditation on literary life in an over-booked world. Today, he added, “Everyone now can afford to preach in the desert.’”

Yes, they can afford to. But should they?

Here’s my measured response: It depends.

If you just want to see your book printed under any circumstances, then micropublishing is a wonderful tool. It’s a rare example of instant gratification in the delayed gratification world of publishing, where creating a book can be insanely slow. I mean, it can take years to just place a book with a publishing house, let alone finally see your words in print and on a book shelf. Aside from the issue of time, there are some books which may not have the market available to make a commercial print run feasible. Nonetheless, they deserve to be in print.

However, if you’re looking for something more — fame, fortune, a career as an author or illustrator — then self publishing is problematic for numerous reasons. Printing a book is not the same as publishing a book. Plus once you have books printed, you still have to deal with the industry bugaboo of distributing and selling them.

In other words, self publishing is definitely not a case of “if you build it, they will come.” But that’s a subject for a whole other post on another day.

To read more about self publishing in The New York Times Book Review article, click here.

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publishing 101: how to find a children’s book publisher

We’re off for the holidays until January 2. During this period, every day I’ll be presenting one of my popular Publishing 101 posts. I hope it will inspire all you writers and illustrators for 2009!

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I recently received a question on one of my older publishing 101 posts — and it’s a question I’ve been asked more than a few times. I think it has pertinent information which might be helpful. So I’m including it here.

The question:

Do you know of a comprehensive list (even if I have to buy it) that lists the publishers that will accept children’s nonfiction book proposals? I have Children’s Market and Writer’s Market, but I thought there might be another source.

My answer:

Yup, there’s Children’s Market, Writers Market and the LMP (Literary Marketplace). However, I find them useful only as a backup to my own market research. Generally speaking, by the time these books are in print, they are already dated — the market moves quickly. I also find that they’re often inaccurate. For example, when I worked as a children’s book designer, we’d often get proposals which were obviously addressed from the Children’s Market. How did I know? The editor-in-chief’s name was spelled incorrectly in it. It was a tip off to us that this was someone who relied on a book rather than industry knowledge.

There’s no substitute for going to a bookstore and seeing who’s publishing what. Once you find a publisher you think would be receptive to your proposal, then go check out Children’s Market. Better yet, skip the books and go directly to the publisher’s website for submission information and doublecheck it against the Literary Marketplace.

Another good resource: Harold Underdown’s site at the Purple Crayon. He keeps a page which lists what editors are moving where and why.

Good luck!

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Have a question about publishing, writing or illustrating books you’d like answered on Publishing 101? Send it to kris at kriswaldherr dot com.

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publishing 101: small publisher, big publisher

We’re off for the holidays until January 2. During this period, every day I’ll be presenting one of my popular Publishing 101 posts. I hope it will inspire all you writers and illustrators for 2009!

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In a recent post about literary agents, I mentioned that you might not need one in the following circumstances:

1. You’re a children’s book illustrator.

2. You have a book that speaks to a specialized audience: academic, technical presses, literary fiction, and so on.

3. You want to be published by a smaller publishing house.

So, if you’re an emerging author seeking to sell a book, why deal with the vagaries of literary agents and large houses if you can diy it? Which brings me to today’s topic: the advantages and disadvantages of large and small publishing houses.

I’m fortunate to have been published by both large and small houses. Much as I hate to admit the passing of the years, I’ve been a published author for almost two decades. When I first started out way back when, I had the romantic notion of “I only want to work with one publisher. I will be loyal to them. They will be loyal to me. We will publish together forever and win Caldecotts.” (Ah, youth!)

And I was fortunate. My first publisher was my dream publisher, one I’d long wished to work with. But time and three books passed. Reality hit: What if I wanted to do a different type of book than what my publisher could produce? Did I only want to illustrate children’s picture books, as wonderful as they may be?

Whatever I write here is based on my personal experiences. Since much depends on the author, the house, and the book, your mileage may vary. Or, in other words, though I am attempting to generalize, it’s not possible to generalize.

With these caveats, here goes:

SMALL PUBLISHER

Advantages:

~ Often times open to new authors, so easier to break into.

~ Personalized attention. Since they’re only produced a small number of books, they handpick each one carefully. They tend to be more involved with directly promoting each title.

~ Generally speaking, you know who you’re dealing with. With only a handful of editorial forces, you won’t be dealing with a revolving door of personnel — usually the acquiring editor is also the line editor and so on. You won’t be negotiating your way around publishing committees, book cover meetings and so on.

~ Things seem to move faster. Smaller list = easier to schedule books. Less editorial staff = less time “herding cats”, as my mother-in-law would say.

Disadvantages:

~ Lack of financial force. This pertains to your advance (which may be nil) to their ability to properly promote and distribute the book.

~ Lack of distribution. Their sales force may be limited and can only do so much for your book. Or they may be relying on a third party distributor to get your book to market. Unfortunately, these companies have been going belly up of late. (See McSweeney’s for a cautionary tale of how this affects small publishers.)

~ Though you may get personalized attention when promoting your book, they may not be able to pay for a book tour or to advertise your book. Which will affect how widely your book saturates the market.

~ Sometimes there’s just a lack of professionalism — not all small houses, just some. They’re a bit off the publishing mainstream, unaware of what’s going on in the bigger burgs. So things may be done in a “this is how we do it” way that bears little resemblance to industry standards. I’ve seen this especially in contracts from small publishers, which can have some very strange clauses that are not in an author’s interest to endorse.

~ I hate to say this, but I’ve had problems getting paid by small publishers — not all, but some. Royalties are delayed or paid in a casual fashion. And since you’re dealing one-on-one with them, it’s hard to not allow personal feelings get in the way. I mean, people who work in publishing tend to be nice people who are passionate about publishing. They’re not bad, just overextended. But if you want to make a living as an author . . . need I write more?

After writing all this, it must make the pluses and minuses of large publishers implicitly apparent. But just in case, here are some additional points:

LARGE PUBLISHER

Advantages:

~ You are dealing with a well-oiled machine. They know how to publish books and they do it well.

~ You’ll get paid. You’ll get an advance. You’ll be able to support yourself.

~ Superior distribution. A dedicated sales force means that they’ll also know how to place your book in special sales (catalogs, stores outside of bookstores). They’ll also have tight relationships with chain store buyers, like Barnes and Nobles.

~ They have the money to advertise and promote your book.

Disadvantages:

~ May only acquire books from authors who have been previously published or have literary representation. So harder to place a book with them.

~ They can be a little impersonal at times, but it’s business. (Actually this is a plus in some ways, unless you’re an author that likes a lot of handholding. Less time-consuming to deal with.)

~ With so many books being published, it’s easier for your book to be lost within the crowd unless your editor champions you specifically.

~ Big publishing generally works years ahead of time when acquiring books. This can leave your book a little vulnerable to change. Editors leave and you could be “orphaned”, a term used to describe when an author has lost her acquiring editor; though you’ll be assigned a new editor, it’s usually not the same. Or imprints get snapped up by even bigger publishers, like fish in a pond. When this occurs, books are often cancelled (though you’ll get to keep the advance, it’s still upsetting) or lost in a later list with a perfunctory publication (which means your book will quickly go out of print).

So that’s that. Notice that there’s another possibility I haven’t discussed here: what if you’re an author who doesn’t want a publisher at all? These days, it’s not so hard to self-publish a book using a POD (print-on-demand) service — or is it?

Well, that’s a subject for another post. Stay tuned!

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Have a question about publishing, writing or illustrating books you’d like answered on Publishing 101? Send it to kris at kriswaldherr.com.

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publishing 101: how to create a book proposal (with definitions)

We’re off for the holidays until January 2. During this period, every day I’ll be presenting one of my popular Publishing 101 posts. I hope it will inspire all you writers and illustrators for 2009!

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I haven’t been spending much time with this blog lately. That’s because I’ve been in the middle of developing book proposals, an undertaking that requires a lot of attention from me. Every winter around this time I seem to do the same thing: create book proposals and send ‘em out, so I can line up work and stay in business. That’s probably because my book deadlines usually fall toward the end of the year. Which leaves the beginning of the year my first opportunity to dive into new projects.

Book proposals take a lot of work — at least the way I make them. Way back when, when I was first working in children’s book publishing, I often would try to sell a book on the basis of a pitch letter* and art samples. A lot of times I got lucky, especially since I was only working with one or two publishers at the time. But as my work evolved and my market expanded beyond children’s books, my proposals got more elaborate. And I do mean elaborate — the proposal for The Lover’s Path was essentially the book itself, ready for press with only a few editorial changes. Ditto for the Goddess Inspiration Oracle, which included a box mock up with cards.

I suppose this seems counterintuitive to what one would usually think. I mean, wouldn’t it make sense that, as an author-illustrator* gains publishing experience, a publisher would require less hoops to jump through? In some sense, this is true — it’s definitely easier for my work to be considered seriously when I present a book proposal to a publisher. But on the other hand, my work has changed as the industry has changed. When I was first starting out, it wasn’t possible to design a book on a computer, let alone present an entire project ready for the printer. With this capacity, creative opportunities have expanded dramatically for the everyday author-illustrator.

Since I’m someone who envisions her projects from start to finish as a sort of gesamtkunstwerk, I embrace these changes and have eagerly incorporated them into my work. These days, what I provide for a publisher is basically not that different from a book packager*, where I’m contracted to provide them with art, words and design. That written, sometimes an author gets lucky and can sell a book based on a short description, especially if they’re dealing with publisher who has previously published them.

Either way, I’m thankful that as I’ve gained more publishing experience, I’m more aware of what it takes to make a book proposal a slam dunk for acquisition*. If I’m going to ask an overworked editor to take time to look at a proposal, I want them to have as much information as possible from me, to address any concerns that might come up if they decide to take my book to the acquisitions committee*.

Since my books are usually elaborately designed and illustrated, my book proposals are elaborate. They usually include:

1. a book dummy*. I design this to look as close to the final product as possible;

2. the pitch, including the unique selling proposition*;

3. market information — what similar books are out there. Or not, preferably;

4. promotion plan — how the book can be effectively promoted to the public. I usually break this down by media (print, online and others) and by retailers (catalogs, special markets).

5. oh and author info — my bio and publication list.

As you can tell, this is a lot of information. One recent book proposal was 64 pages long — and this doesn’t include the promotion plan or author information, which was a separate enclosure. No wonder I’m not blogging much these days! Just writing all this down makes me tired.

Oh, and if you want a look at a “celebrity” book proposal, click here. Prepare to be horrified-yet-fascinated in a “yuck” kind of way.

definitions

pitch letter: letter you write to an editor to convince her to buy your book.

author-illustrator: how someone who writes as well as illustrates their books is referred to in the biz. Instead of author and illustrator. Obvious, I know.

book packager: someone who sells books to publishers as a complete editorial and design package. They tend to create more designed-oriented projects, which a traditional publisher doesn’t have the resources to deal with. Usually a book packager spearheads the project — they hire the writer, illustrator and designer, and provide editorial guidance and liason with printers. From there, they sell the book directly to a publisher, who is not involved editorially — they only serve to distribute the book.

acquisition: when a publisher decides to publish a book. Editors who can purchase books for publication are known as acquisitions editors.

committee: when an acquisitions editor decides s/he wants to publish a book, s/he has to present it to a publishing committee for final approval. This committee can include people from marketing, publicity, as well as other editors. So if an editor says, “I love this book and want to take it to committee,” it’s a very good thing.

book dummy: your book, mocked up and laid out design-wise as close to the final product as possible. Usually book dummies only come into play with illustrated or gift books — you wouldn’t make a book dummy for a novel (unless it was an illustrated novel, in the case of The Lover’s Path).

unique selling proposition: or USP for short. What makes your book different or better than others, and how it addresses the needs of the marketplace. I mean, why would a publisher publish a book unless it had something unique to offer?

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Have a question about publishing, writing or illustrating books you’d like answered on Publishing 101? Send it to kris at kriswaldherr dot com.

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publishing 101: do you need a literary agent?

We’re off for the holidays until January 2. During this period, every day I’ll be presenting one of my popular Publishing 101 posts. I hope it will inspire all you writers and illustrators for 2009!

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One of my recent posts about publishing flushed out a question about literary agents. In this day and age, there’s no argument that literary agents do make it easier to get published. But do you have to have one to get published?

Here’s my wishy-washy answer: Yes and no.

On the “yes” side:

1. You can get published without a literary agent. But not everywhere. Generally speaking, most large established publishers refuse to consider book submissions unless they are represented by an agent.

2. Which means that many smaller houses (which may be very established and venerable in themselves) are open to unrepresented authors. To smaller houses, add specialty markets: academic, technical presses, literary fiction, and so on. However, they may not offer the distribution and financial muscle that a larger house does.

(The advantages and disadvantages of large versus small publishing houses is worthy of a separate post.)

3. Children’s book illustrators can often get published without agent representation. Even if a publisher will not consider unsolicited picture book manuscripts, they usually will look at illustration portfolios, which usually include book dummies with manuscripts and the like.

On the “no” side:

1. See above. You cannot get published without a literary agent at the majority of established publishers. Why? It takes too much time and money to wade through the “slush” pile for that rare diamond in the haystack. (How’s that for mixing metaphors?)

Is this unfair? Perhaps. But I can tell you that based on my short-but-not-so-sweet experience reading unsolicited manuscripts, maybe one (or less) in one hundred manuscripts are worth showing to an acquisitions editor. Sobering, isn’t it?

2. Literary agents provide editors with a valuable service as acting as a gatekeeper by prescreening manuscripts for them. And publishing houses don’t have to pay agents a wage, unlike editorial assistants or a freelance readers.

3. Literary agents earn a fee based on the sale of the book; generally speaking, 15% of the book advance. (In the interest of public service, let me add that a reputable literary agent will never ever charge a reading fee or a fee for representation. Ever. If they do, run far, far away.)

Accordingly, it’s in the agent’s interest to only represent manuscripts that they believe have a serious chance of reaching print and will command a serious advance. Otherwise, they are wasting their time as well as the editor’s. Waste an editor’s time = lose professional credibility = not make money. Not smart to do if an agent wants to stay in business.

So where does that leave the aspiring author or illustrator who wants to sell their first book? Here are a few questions to help you decide whether you need a literary agent or not.

~ What type of book you want to get into print? Children’s picture book? Scholarly bio? Nonfiction with a highly specialized market? Or are you writing a potboiler novel with wide mass appeal?

~ What type of publisher do you want to publish your book? Check out their submission guidelines. Large house with many imprints? Small literary house? Academic press?

~ Where do you see your career going — one book in a lifetime or a lifetime as an author? Do you simply want to see your book in print? Or are you looking for a black swan of a payout?

These are but a few of the factors to consider when deciding if you need a literary agent. Once you do decide, proceed accordingly.

For additional info, here’s an inside look at how an agent decides to sign an author and more.

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Have a question about publishing, writing or illustrating books you’d like answered on Publishing 101? Send it to kris at kriswaldherr dot com.

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