publishing 101: what about self publishing?

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 my favorite 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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a brief history of children’s books

Slate has posted a slideshow about the origins of children’s books entitled “How Children’s Books Became Wild.” It is inspired by Timothy Young’s new book Drawn to Enchant, which looks fascinating. It includes children’s book illustrations from the Betsy Beinecke Shirley Collection.
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Enjoy!
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Technorati Tags: children’s books, children’s book illustrations, history of children’s books, Timothy Young, Betsy Beinecke Shirley Collection

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just keep writing, just keep writing . . .

Thea is obsessed with the movie Finding Nemo — I don’t know how many times she’s watched it. (We fast forward through the part where Nemo’s mommy dies for obvious reasons.) Anyone who’s ever seen it probably knows the little melody that Dorie sings as they look for Nemo: “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming . . . ”
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Good advice, especially if you’re trying to reach a goal — just keep swimming/keep moving/don’t stagnate. Or, in my case, just keep writing.
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Last week, I spent most of my time on research for the New Book. Between that and having a bad head cold, it feels like I did not get much accomplished that was tangible. This week, I’m hoping that all of those facts which I poured into my head will spill on to the page easily.
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Right now, I’m writing about queens of medieval Europe, and it’s been tricky to locate source material — it’s not like writing about the queens of Henry VIII where there are a gazillion books, movies and more published. (Yup, they’re in my book too). I do have a subscription service for academic research and books, which is helping tremendously. What makes this needle-in-a-haystack process so rewarding is when I come across some fact that is so outright bizarre and colorful that I’m reminded that truth is indeed stranger than fiction.
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For example, I’ve just written about Joan I of Naples. As countess of Provence, she set up a large brothel in Avignon for the nobles, effectively grabbing economic control of that industry. I’m not sure what her motives were exactly — still researching this — but a few years later when she gave Avignon to the church as part of a complicated payback scheme, all of the area prostitutes were unemployed. One wonders whether they moved shop or found a new profession.
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I’m starting to think about the art for the book. It’s going to be illustrated in black and white, and a bit Victorian in style — think Dante Rossetti’s early pen-and-ink drawings.
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I’m already lining up models for the queens. I’ll be starting the art in the new year. I can’t wait!
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Technorati Tags: queens, Doomed Queens, Kris Waldherr, writing advice, dealing with deadlines, Joan I of Naples

• Filed under be-mused, new projects, publishing, queens | 2 Responses

survey: should I publish a goddess calendar?

Right now, I’m mulling over whether I should publish a goddess calendar for 2008 — and am inviting you to help me decide! I’ve posted a short three question survey here.

The calendar would feature 12 goddesses, with short descriptions of their divine attributes. It would be printed on full color coated stock and have spiral binding. Here’s what the calendar would look like:

For me to go forth and create this calendar, I’d need a minimum of 100 definite sales to make a print run feasible.

I hope you will take a moment to take the survey.

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publishing 101: a survival guide for children’s book illustrators

Most of you know that I started out in children’s book publishing — my first jobs in the industry were as a picture book illustrator and a book designer for Dial Books for Young Readers. Though my career has diversified considerably since then, when it comes to publishing I’m most often asked about illustrating and writing children’s books. (Publishing tarot decks are a close second.)

It’s easy to give people the basics. But what about those who have sold their first book or two? Where do they go from there? Or, in these competitive times, should they just be thankful to be published?

My two cents: be grateful for all you’ve accomplished — and aim to grow. With this in mind, here is a short guide for actually thriving (not just surviving) as a children’s book illustrator.

Promote yourself. If you were an agent for another artist, how hard would you market their work to other publishing houses? Most likely harder than you are promoting your own art right now. Most people (myself included) have a real block when it comes to getting out there with their work. After all, we’d all rather be in the studio working than deal with the business end of things. A good exercise in getting past this is to pretend you’re marking someone else’s work, an incredibly successful and gifted artist. Now, what would you do?

Feel the difference? This is how hard you should be marketing yourself.

Are you sending out mailers regularly? By regularly, I mean three or four times a year, not every decade. Make sure your mailing list is up-to-date. I prefer the Literary Marketplace (LMP for short) because I find it more accurate. Read Publishers Weekly to see what editors are moving where, which houses are actively acquiring books. Get on the phone and call a publisher to find out what editor acquired a book you love. Confab with your colleagues with the biz — if you don’t know any, join SCBWI. However you do it, do it. How else will editors and art directors find you?

What about your website? Does it accurately reflect your current work? Is it professional looking? Can art directors and editors easily contact you via it? Give at least two ways to contact you, in case one way isn’t working. E-mail goes down, phone lines go kaplooey — but your business doesn’t have to.

And don’t forget school and library appearances and book signings. They’re all good ways to to gain publicity for your work, and are a good antidote to artist’s isolation. Some illustrators make a nice income from school appearances alone — but that’s a whole other subject.

Expand your markets. It’s tempting to work with only one publisher, especially if they were the one to discover your work. Loyalty is a wonderful quality, especially in monogamous relationships. In authors, it cuts both ways. The realities of publishing preclude a house from publishing more than one of your books a year at the very most. Average book advances being what they are, can you really afford to do that? Plus, what if there were delays while you’re working on a book? Would it be good to have another book to work on while you wait?

These are only some of the reasons I think illustrators should work with more than one publisher.

Diversify! As a children’s book illustrator, you have a unique position of being able to sell yourself as an illustrator of manuscripts and as an author. If you are marketing yourself only as one of these, you’re missing half your income.

To sit around and wait for an editor to find you a manuscript is unfair to your art. It also makes the editor responsible for your career — you probably know better than others what book you’d like to illustrate. Likewise, it’s foolish not to work on someone else’s manuscript because you didn’t write it. A book is a book and will only help your career grow.

Some illustrators feel unable to write for publication. One solution for these woes is common property material. Common property is when the copyright expires on published material, meaning it can be reused without paying the author. Dover Books bases their entire list on repackaging common property material. Grimms Fairy Tales, Blue Fairy Book, and much more are common property.

You can also think of ideas for books and propose them to a publisher. My first two books, Rapunzel and The Firebird were sold from proposals and sample illustrations; my editor then found someone to write the manuscript to accompany my art.

Crossmarket your art. I hope you’re not abandoning your book art in your flat files after it’s returned to you from the publisher. There are other markets awaiting it!

Greeting card companies often use children’s book art. Some pay a flat fee, while others pay a royalty based on sales. All will include sample cards to you as part of your agreement, which is a great way to get art mailers. If your artwork is suitable, there’s also posters, calendars and day books, even novelty mugs and plates. Whether you like her work or not, Mary Engelbreit has based an entire merchandising empire on these principles.

One caveat: Make sure to reserve merchandising rights when you negotiate your book contracts. Most publishers don’t mind, since they rarely exercise them. If there is an issue, sometimes this is because publishers fear competing products — you can clarify in your contract that these rights will only be exercised if they do not materially interfere with the publisher’s selling of your book.

There’s also the fine art world, if you feel you can part with your originals. Every Picture Tells a Story is only one gallery specializing in book illustration — there are others, as well as museums actively acquiring. If you do decide to sell your original art, make certain that you have a high quality scan or transparency of it. That way you can always reproduce it in the future.

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Have a question about publishing, writing or illustrating books you’d like answered on Publishing 101? Send it to Kris: e-comment at artandwords dot com.

Technorati Tags: publishing, picture book art, children’s books, children’s book illustrators

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