I was directed to your books on publishing and the book industry by yhlee and wanted to let you know how much I've been enjoying them.
I work in the marketing department of a nonprofit, independent trade press--a rather rare breed in this day and age. My company's idealistic and progressive, but money still talks. It has too; if it didn't, we'd very quickly go out of business and be little more than a memory. And it's worth remembering that it's not just publishers who make decisions based on money. My press has launched a number of good authors, only to see them take their next book to a bigger publisher for a bigger advance. And it's not unusual for that author to come back to us later, complaining of how little attention they're getting at their new company. Is it better to be a lead author at a small press or a less-important one at a large one? My company will often pull out the full promotional press--tours, national publicity campaign, advertising, coop--for a book with a first printing of 5-7K. That's not normal in other places. I don't really blame my company's authors for leaving us for the bigger advance or the bigger name. In their shoes, I'd be tempted to do the same.
There are whole months that go by where I wonder why editors don't talk to writers more openly about the publishing business and their place in it. And then I wander into discussions . . . and realize that it's partly because it would take the editors a zillion hours to explain enough of the background to make that discussion possible.
*sigh* We still try. We really do (for very self-interested reasons). We try not to roll our eyes when our authors suggest sending their book to Oprah or "the NPR program in Philadelphia . . . Fresh Air or something?" But in the end, as you say, it's a lot of time, and there's hardly enough hours in the day to do the actual business of marketing (or editing or production of) a book.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2004-08-02 07:08 pm (UTC)I work in the marketing department of a nonprofit, independent trade press--a rather rare breed in this day and age. My company's idealistic and progressive, but money still talks. It has too; if it didn't, we'd very quickly go out of business and be little more than a memory. And it's worth remembering that it's not just publishers who make decisions based on money. My press has launched a number of good authors, only to see them take their next book to a bigger publisher for a bigger advance. And it's not unusual for that author to come back to us later, complaining of how little attention they're getting at their new company. Is it better to be a lead author at a small press or a less-important one at a large one? My company will often pull out the full promotional press--tours, national publicity campaign, advertising, coop--for a book with a first printing of 5-7K. That's not normal in other places. I don't really blame my company's authors for leaving us for the bigger advance or the bigger name. In their shoes, I'd be tempted to do the same.
There are whole months that go by where I wonder why editors don't talk to writers more openly about the publishing business and their place in it. And then I wander into discussions . . . and realize that it's partly because it would take the editors a zillion hours to explain enough of the background to make that discussion possible.
*sigh* We still try. We really do (for very self-interested reasons). We try not to roll our eyes when our authors suggest sending their book to Oprah or "the NPR program in Philadelphia . . . Fresh Air or something?" But in the end, as you say, it's a lot of time, and there's hardly enough hours in the day to do the actual business of marketing (or editing or production of) a book.