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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Doomed Queens in the New Yorker — and beyond

DOOMED QUEENS received a rave review yesterday in the New Yorker online:

“It isn’t often that one encounters a book that invites the reëmergence of childhood fantasies, then eviscerates them in a few words. Even less common is the book that manages to make the process utterly satisfying. Such is the rush I got from Kris Waldherr’s deliciously perverse “Doomed Queens: Royal Women Who Met Bad Ends from Cleopatra to Princess Di.” By the time I had progressed from Artemisia I (drowned) and Thessalonike (possibly transformed into a mermaid) to Oghul Ghaimish (allowed to commit suicide) and Alexandra Romanov (firing squad), I had been cured of any lingering dreams of becoming a princess.

Waldherr is an artist who creates tarot cards, among other objects, and her book is lavishly illustrated and accompanied by a set of paper dolls (a final sadistic flourish, perhaps?). But “Doomed Queens” is also a concise, humorous, and keenly observed history of women and power. “What was it about being royal that made so many women so vulnerable to losing their lives?” Waldherr writes in the introduction, continuing:

It has always been obvious that the female of the species holds the keys to the kingdom—the kingdom of life, that is. Without the fruit of the womb, humanity would crash and burn. Boo-hoo, what’s a power-loving man to do? To solve this problem, mating and relating is safely confined within the institution of matrimony and becomes sanctified with religious rites. The power of female fertility is harnessed, thus creating dynastic succession. Royal women who get uppity with the system get offed.

Waldherr’s book is framed as a series of cautionary tales. What does Marie Antoinette teach us? “When you play at being a peasant, you risk being killed by one.” Urraca of Castile? “Biology can be a bitch.” The playful didacticism makes the book seem geared toward younger readers, but older ones stand to benefit as well. On her Web site, Waldherr writes that she was drawn to queens because “it’s time for women to look into the shadow side of female empowerment, so we can better claim it.” With all the inane princess stories out there, a collection that highlights the historical downside is a welcome corrective.”

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I’m sure you can imagine how pleased I am by this! Also, DOOMED QUEENS has been featured in several gift guides, including Modern Tonic, the San Antonio Express News, and the Baltimore Sun.

There’s also a DOOMED QUEENS blog tour going on, with reviews, interviews and book giveaways. So far, Doomed Queens has been featured on:

Scandalous Women
The Duchess of Devonshire’s Gossip Guide to the 18th Century
The Raucous Royals
Marie Antoinette’s Gossip Guide to the 18th Century
The Gaian Tarot Journal
Tudor History Blog

More blogs will be participating in the coming weeks. Oh, and if you have a blog for which you’d like to feature Doomed Queens, interview me regarding Doomed Queens, or host a book giveaway, please download a press kit here.

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more photos of Doomed Queens

I feel like I’ve been very Doomed Queens-y of late. I guess it’s hard to avoid, with its publication so close at hand. Anyway, I just got these photos, which give a good sense of the final published book. I can’t resist posting them….

Exterior of book. You can see a hint of the French flaps and full color endpapers….

Interior, French flaps and full color endpapers. Also a view of the Doomed Queens through history timeline. (It’s very Art Through the Ages!)

Interior spread, Boudicca. Lisa Hunt, my soon-to-be Black Belt friend, posed for the warrior queen.

Interior spread, showing a genealogy chart. The book is printed in sepia ink.

Interior spread, Athaliah. This was posed for by Annmaria Mazzini.

The art can be viewed in greater detail by clicking on the thumbnails. Learn more about Doomed Queens here.

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Take a look inside Doomed Queens!

Random House has just posted this very cool widget for DOOMED QUEENS. It offers a juicy preview of it — take a look!

Yesterday was the official Doomed Queens launch and publication date! I have a post incubating about it, but in the meantime, check out Diane’s post. Diane modeled for my Catherine of Aragon drawing, and was one of the “queens” in attendance at the launch party.

• Filed under Uncategorized, lover's path, mythic living, sister sites, studio and gallery, travels | One Response

Tarot for Obama

The fundraiser is taking place tomorrow! We’re almost completely booked up with rsvp’s, so it should be a successful event.

Many thanks to Elizabeth Genco, Diane Saarinen, Karen Williams, Christina Ambrosino, Amy Saidens, Marla Lombard, Jeanette Gonzalez, Tom Miller, Karen Zuegner, and others who have helped, donated time and art, and so much more. I’m excited to help transform Washington (albeit in a very small and humble way).

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