publishing 101: self publishing, take two

In my neck of the woods (better known as Ditmas Park, Brooklyn), Publish Yourself! offers aspiring authors a authentically DIY publishing experience. It’s also the offspring business from my favorite local coffee house, Vox Pop, where I’ve enjoyed many a playdate with other busy moms-of-toddlers.

Our local NBC news affiliate recently featured Publish Yourself! in a short piece. It’s an interesting take on  how easy it is to get a book in print, though the piece offers little regarding the realities of book distribution. As my literary agent would say, publishing is more than just printing up books.

Click here to view the Publish Yourself! video

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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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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.

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publishing 101: letter to a new children’s book writer (with apologies to Rilke)

First things first: You are brave. You want to share your book with the world by having it published. It’s not enough for you to write and let your words linger in private. You want to make a child happy, to transform their understanding of the world — to inspire them. That is something to be applauded and encouraged.

You ask for how information on how to sell your book to a publisher. Well, I have to be honest: It’s not easy. I know that everyone has a story about someone they know who met an editor at a party and they got their book published like that. Sorry, exception to the rule. Ditto for J.K. Rowling.

But just because it’s hard to sell a book with a publisher doesn’t mean it’s not possible.

The not-so-good news: The publishing industry has changed dramatically since I started working in it well over a decade ago. Children’s books have gotten more commercial and celebrity driven — all those Harry Potters have made publishers hungry for the big book that will make a lot of money. It used to be that children’s book publishers would be satisfied if a book broke even at 5,000 to 10,000 copies. Not any more. Publishers could also rely on selling a good portion of books to schools and libraries, but budget cuts have changed this. Selling to schools and libraries gave publishers the freedom to acquire books that spoke to a niche demographic, or were clearly educational. Again, not anymore.

Children’s book publishing these days is all about how well it sells in the chains, such as Barnes and Nobles or Borders. It gets more complicated since chains often order large quantities and then return said large quantities if they don’t sell within a 90 day window, which really wrecks a publisher’s bottom line. Publishing is one of the few industries where the product can be returned; usually they can’t be repurposed (ie: sold elsewhere) because they’re paper products and usually don’t hold up for repeated sellings. So that means books get remaindered or, worse, destroyed and the publisher is out of pocket. And yup, there’s Amazon, but that’s a whole other complicated issue.

Suffice to say that publishers have become more cautious. They try to publish books that they’re sure (as much as they can be!) will sell a lot of copies. These days, they’ll even consult with a Barnes and Noble rep before deciding to acquire a book from an author.

So why am I presenting you with all this doom-and-gloom? Is it to discourage you? It may seem that way, but that’s really not my style. I simply want you to understand what you’re up against, so you’ll understand the following:

Your book has to be the best it can possibly be before you send it to an publisher or a literary agent.

Make this your mantra. Publishers don’t care if your family or your child’s class likes your book. They don’t care that you’ve always wanted to write a children’s book. They care that they can sell your book, that there’s a market for it, that it’s good.

What do I mean by good? Look at children’s books that move you. Try to analyze what makes them work, what elevates them into essential contributions to children’s literature. Writing a good picture book or children’s novel is an art onto itself. Spend some time at your local children’s bookstore or library to familiarize yourself with the classics. Talk to the people who work there, who are passionate about children’s books. Some people think that because a children’s book is shorter it’s easier to write than a book for adults — not true.

Workshop with other children’s book writers. Join the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (or SCBWI for short). They have programs, workshops and resources for those just getting into the biz to those who are already published authors. Just about everyone I know in the industry belonged to SCBWI at one time or another.

Educate yourself about the industry. One good website about children’s publishing is Harold Underdown’s site at http://www.underdown.org. He’s also written The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Publishing Children’s Books, an essential guide to children’s books which has been recently updated. (Don’t be discouraged by the title - you’re not an idiot!)

It’s great that you’re aware of similar books to your’s. This gives you the knowledge you need to shape your book differently — different focus, different structure, different pov. There are lots of books on your subject matter, so clearly there’s a market for them.

You mentioned hiring an illustrator for your picture book. Just so you know, you don’t need any illustrations to sell a picture book to a publisher. That’s the publisher’s job. But if you like, you can set up your manuscript as a 32 page book dummy on white paper; just indicate with words where you want the art to go. If you want to illustrate the book yourself, then just include one or two sample pieces of art.

In regards to setting up a book dummy, most picture books are 32 pages in length — sometimes 24 or 48, but that’s unusual. One classic book which describes how picture books are created is Uri Schulevitz’s Writing with Pictures: How to Write and Illustrate Children’s Books. It’s really written for illustrators, but writers of picture books can take away a lot here too.

Once you know that your book is (a) as good as it can be and (b) has a market, then you’re ready to send it out to a publisher! And that’s a whole other ball of wax.

There’s information on how to sell a book to a publisher here and here and here.

I hope you find this helpful! Good luck to you.

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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.

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publishing 101: how to find a publisher

We’re getting ready to take off for places north. But before I leave, I received a comment and a question on one of my older publishing 101 posts. 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: e-comment at artandwords dot com.

Technorati Tags: publishing, how to sell a book to a publisher, children’s book publishers

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