The Big Bad Book Blog » sales & distribution

What Your Publisher Does for You

Auburn Rutledge Fox — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:36:50 +0000

For many aspiring writers, the process from finished manuscript to printed book is mired in mystery and misunderstanding. What, exactly, is the publisher doing from the point it receives your book until the point where eager readers can pick it up in a bookstore? Is it really all that complicated? Do I even need a publisher? These are all valid questions—no writer should get involved in the publishing industry without learning what the industry is. And there are few better guides through the process than an author who has lived through it . . . multiple times.

Award-winning author Jay Lake, whose books include Green, Mainspring, Madness of a Flower, Death of a Starship and others, including multiple short stories and other projects, wrote a blog post entitled “What my publisher does for me, and why I won’t just quit” to give fellow authors and aspiring authors a firsthand glimpse of the traditional publishing process through a timeline that spans over 32 months. (That’s right, over the course of nearly three years.) While his post is partially a response to the difficulties between Macmillan and Amazon on ebook pricing (read more about that conflict at Wired.com) and the changing model of publishing in general, it is also an eye-opening explanation of the collaborative process that takes place within publishing companies to produce books in any format. And while the face of publishing (and its internal clockwork) is changing at an increasingly rapid pace, the work that goes into producing a book has stayed very much the same for large publishers.

An excerpt from his post below:

Month 16 — Editorial assistant sends hardback page proofs to author.

Month 16 — Editorial assistant receives hardback page proofs from author.

Month 17 — Typesetter makes proof changes.

Month 18 — Proofing editor reviews changes.

Month 18 — Hardback printing goes to press.

Month 19 — Hardback printing goes to warehouse.

Month 21 — Hardback printing released to distribution

Month 22 — Hardback printing goes on sale.

Month 22 — Finance issues publication check to author via agent. (Payment 3 of 3 in typical contracts today.)

Month 24 — Production editor confirms press time slot for book.

Month 24 — Production editor turns manuscript over to book designer.

Month 24 — Book designer sends mass market paperback book to typesetter.

Month 25 — Typesetter does initial layout for mass market paperback release.

Month 26 — Editorial assistant sends mass market paperback page proofs to author.

Read the full article here.

Does It Really Cost Less to Send Things USPS?

Kristen Sears — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:38:33 +0000

Not a week goes by when we are not asked why we don’t ship our books via media mail rather than using UPS or Fed Ex ground service. In an economy like this, we should all be looking for ways to reduce the costs of doing business, and the US postal service is so much less expensive than those carriers. But is it really?

In the last week alone, we’ve experienced a few shining examples that show why using a reliable, traceable, faster ground carrier is definitely the right way to ship valuable or important cargo.

We routinely send book samples and sales materials to our team of field reps, including catalogs. Our catalogs are not some low-cost, newsprint numbers either. They are highly designed, four-color beauts printed on high quality glossy paper. They mirror the level of quality of the books that they contain. They’re nice (and expensive) sales materials.

In the spirit of minimizing expenses, we decided to give the USPS a shot by sending out our catalogs through their priority mail service. Big mistake.

So far, we’ve had not one, but two reps report to us that they did indeed receive the box we sent to them. Trouble is, they only received the box itself and it was a rumpled, mangled mess at that. In both cases, not so much as a single spread from the catalog was delivered.

All told, those two shipments alone cost us one hundred thirty catalogs! One hundred thirty shiny, brand new, never before opened catalogs. We won’t offset the cost of those pieces of collateral in sales dollars.

So shipping packages might be risky with the USPS, but what about your standard fare letter? The USPS has that down pat, right?

Our business requires that we deal a fair amount with agreements and amendments and paperwork of all kinds. We receive these documents through various means, but most of the time our clients simply fold the agreement into a standard envelope and mail it the good old-fashioned way. And that’s normally totally fine . . . until it’s not.

We received the piece of mail pictured below inside a second, bigger, official USPS envelope with their apologies for the damage and assurances that they expedited what was left of the document to us as quickly as possible. Gee, thanks. This two-thirds of a signed agreement doesn’t really do us any good, but we’re glad it got here quickly.

Bottom line, if it matters and it needs to get there quickly and safely, spend a little more on the front end with a ground carrier to ensure that it does. Besides the time and money it will save you in the long run, your piece of mind is priceless.

Market Yourself, Market Your Book: Online New Year’s Resolutions for Authors

Greenleaf Book Group — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 22:59:58 +0000

The beginning of the year is an exciting time for everyone—including authors. Along with your other resolutions, it’s important to remember that a new year represents a fabulous opportunity to establish, enhance, or even reinvent your author image. Marketing yourself is huge part of making any writer’s book a success. The Internet—and social media, more specifically—has increasingly become the most important aspect of a publicity campaign. If you have not already ventured onto online reading communities and other sites that can help authors spread their work, there is no better time than now! Here are a few to get you started:

Red Room: A site dedicated to connecting authors and readers. As a Red Room author, you can create a very professional customized page that allows you to upload published works, reviews, interview transcripts, videos, podcasts, as well as blog entries.
Goodreads: A book-sharing and reviewing site that allows you to sign up as a published author and get your own page, which will include a short biography and background information, separate pages for your books, a place to add links to reviews and interviews, friends and followers, a comments space, and other common features of a social networking site.
Shelfari: An interactive bookshelf and community for readers, Shelfari allows to create your own profile with a list of favorite books, which you can then review, rate, and tag. A page is created for each author and book, which can be edited by you (or the public at large).
Scribd: A document-sharing site—it’s been called the “YouTube for documents”—where authors can create their own pages and profiles, and easily share a variety of documents—including book excerpts, reviews, interviews, or other book-related paraphernalia for people to view.

The Scoop on Book Store Real Estate

Aaron Hierholzer — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:17:21 +0000

Last month, Fast Company did a great story on bookstore co-op deals, in which publishers pay booksellers for inclusion on front tables, end caps, face-out placements, etc. So, yes, those books out front at Barnes & Noble are there because someone paid for them to be there, not necessarily because they’re the best or most important—although, of course, bookstore buyers only allow placement for books they believe will move. (Also, the two indie booksellers we’ve asked, BookPeople and Vroman’s, say that featured “employee picks,” an upaid form of co-op, are completely at the employee and bookseller’s discretion.)

It’s an interesting negotiation, and as bookstore space shrinks and brick-and-mortar book shoppers dwindle, co-op placement for books becomes increasingly important. Adam L. Penenberg, author of Viral Loop, gives an good overview. Read it here, and have a Happy New Year!

Big Bad Weekly Tip: Amazon Announces New Video Feature on Author Pages

Greenleaf Book Group — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:40:35 +0000

We often hear from authors who would like to add video—book trailers, interviews, etc.—to their Amazon product pages. While Amazon currently does not allow most publishers to add video content to product pages, they announced last week that authors may now upload video directly to their Amazon Author Page.

If you don’t have an Author Page already, now is a great time to get one by signing up at Author Central. Author Pages gives customers a summary of you and your work, and the new video content makes the pages an even richer way to make yourself visible to readers. If you already have an Author Page, uploading video is simple—just sign in, click the new “Videos” tab at the top of the screen, and upload the file. Videos must be less than 10 minutes and under 500 MB. See additional video content guidelines here.

Along with video, Amazon announced an updated Events section, which you can use to post upcoming signings and other appearances (like this author); they also announced more links to Author Pages, which will now be linked in search results. Read more about what you can do with Author Central here.

Big Bad Weekly Tip: Do You Know When Your (Holiday) Book Deadlines Are?

Greenleaf Book Group — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:42:14 +0000

Everyone has a lot on their minds during the holiday season. When it comes to writing a book, you may be just beginning your outline or putting the finishing touches on your umpteenth (and hopefully final) draft. Regardless of the stage, it is important to consider how the holidays can affect your book’s deadlines. This holds especially true for books that center around a holiday theme—love and relationships for Valentine’s Day, Santa and the joy of giving for Christmas, super-spooky and horror for Halloween are a few examples. Consider this:

According to literary agent Nathan Bransford, the weeks around major holidays are a time to avoid sending out query letters.
A certain percentage of book buyers’ budgets are allocated specifically toward holiday-related books, often children books. The largest amount of that percentage goes to established authors, titles, and series.
Most winter holiday book purchases by bookstores take place between July and September.
If your book has been accepted by a publisher, they will aim for the best release date. For holiday books, this may mean the holiday next year.
The time between a book being accepted by a publisher and being distributed and in stores can be anywhere from 6 months to a year. Know what holiday season you are aiming for!

The holidays are a busy time for agents, publishers, distributors and bookstores—and, of course, for authors. Enjoy the season, and make sure you know how it may affect your project. Happy Holidays!

Big Bad Weekly Tip: Do Some Good with Your Extra Books

Greenleaf Book Group — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:27:58 +0000

You likely have excess, old, returned, or slightly damaged books idly sitting somewhere like a warehouse or your own garage. You don’t want to throw them away, but you don’t know what else to do with them. One great way to make sure your books don’t go to waste is to donate them. Better to get them in the hands of readers rather than letting them gather dust or end up in the trash. There are plenty of organizations out there that accept books as donations, and we’ve listed a few here. Click on the following links for more information about the programs and their donation procedures.

A Storybook Autumn: Book Publishing in the Fall

Auburn Rutledge Fox — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:33:16 +0000

As leaves begin to shed their green coats in favor of warm reds, yellows and oranges, the weather cools and the days grow shorter, publishers too are feeling a shift in the season. Fall has traditionally been the most important time of the year, when publishers release some of their biggest and most-anticipated books by authors well-loved and brand new.

This past year and a half has been a difficult time across all sectors, and publishing’s ever-changing landscape has felt oftentimes brutal shifts, from mass layoffs to the closure of publishing and printing houses, the continuing fight over the Google settlement and the struggles of bookstores big and small. Interspersed within this is the consistent re-examination of the industry itself, changing ever-more quickly due to technology, and leaving us wondering how today and tomorrow’s readers will find and share and read their books.

Yet the excitement of fall prevails. And this year, some are even calling it a “storybook season.” Joseph Kahn of the Boston Globe notes that “the number of quality novels and story collections coming out this fall compared with last is striking,” reflecting upon this season’s major focus on fictional tomes from big names such as Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol and Stephen King’s Under the Dome. At latest counts, The Lost Symbol has already sold over 2 million copies in under two weeks. The focus is not just fictional, however, and popular nonfiction authors and works will be represented in force. But, as happens, fiction garners a more vocal fanbase.

Publishers are counting on this particular fall to help buoy the slumps we’ve all felt. And their efforts are already showing promise: aside from Dan Brown’s record-breaking numbers, bookstores are pre-ordering books in larger quantities in anticipation of readers hungry for something new.

Below are some of the season’s more notable and anticipated titles:

Notables of the season:

Catching Fire by Susanne Collins (9/1)
The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks (9/8)
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (9/15)
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger (9/29)
The Wild Things by Dave Eggers (10/1)
A Touch of Dead by Charlaine Harris (10/6)
What the Dog Saw by Malcom Gladwell (10/20)
Ford County by John Grisham (11/3)
Under the Dome by Stephen King (11/10)
Too Much Happiness (11/17) by Alice Munro
Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton (11/24)

Do you have any books being released this fall that you are excited for—either as a reader, author or publisher? Let us know!

Big Bad Weekly Tip: What You Can Do To Get Your Book On Shelves

Greenleaf Book Group — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:57:28 +0000

It’s more obvious than ever that the publishing industry is changing, and combined with the current retail slump, it is even more difficult to get independent books onto bookstore shelves. However, in addition to keeping your book distributor updated on your upcoming media appearances, there are some other things that you can do as an author to help make headway. One recommendation is to develop a strong following in your local community from which you can expand upon into other markets. Click here for some great tips from Penny Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., on how to get in good with your local bookstores.

A Compliance Primer: How to Get an ISBN, LCCN, and Copyright Registration

Jenn McMurray — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 19:28:26 +0000

One of the most confusing (and least fun) aspects of publishing a book is making sure your title is in compliance with all the appropriate organizations in order to maximize its searchability. There are so many different factors involved in this process that it’s easy to get bogged down with the amount of information that gets thrown at you. Even though there is no need to learn all the ins and outs of the Library of Congress, the sheer multitude of acronyms alone is enough make you cross-eyed.

For those of you who don’t enjoy hours of web research on a topic that is less than stimulating, here’s a quick breakdown of the basic steps you’ll need to take. (Keep in mind that doing things in this order is important.)

Pre-production:

1. Get an ISBN. International Standard Book Numbers are required for every book that is going to be sold in the book trade. These can be obtained through Bowker, also known as Books in Print.
2. Register your book with Books in Print. Once you receive the ISBN you’ll need to make sure that your title data is registered in their system. This is important because a lot of sources (Amazon, Ingram, etc.) receive data feeds from this system—not to mention the fact that this is a resource for bookstores, libraries, and publishers around the world.
3. Create a barcode with the ISBN and price embedded. Most trade stores require this to be on the back of your book before they will place an order.
4. Obtain a LCCN (also know as a PCN). The Library of Congress Control Number (or Pre-Assigned Control Number) is a unique number that differentiates your book in the Library of Congress database. Librarians use this number to access the associated bibliographic record for a given title.
5. Obtain CIP data. Cataloging in Publication data creates a bibliographic record for forthcoming books that are likely to be acquired by librarians (and hopefully, librarians will want your book!). This is to be printed on the copyright page, and this data is only available for works that are not yet published.

Post-production

1. Send one final copy to the Cataloging in Publication Division of the Library of Congress.
2. Send two final copies to the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress along with Form CO and the registration fee. Alternatively, you are now able to fill out this form and submit payment online with eCO (electronic Copyright Office).
3. Wait to receive your Copyright Confirmation (current wait time is 12–16 months).

While this outline may not seem too arduous, there are many potential roadblocks in this process—so brace yourself, hope for the best, and don’t be afraid to ask questions!