The Sweetest Reply

I recently had to send out an email rejecting a proposal. I know what you're thinking. Email? Isn't that something only other (read: worse) publishers do? Surely such a crass, undiplomatic practice doesn't jive with the BK mission. Well, there are two situations in which I will respond to a proposal by email rather than by my customary phone call:

1. If I receive the proposal by email. I try to respond to all mailed proposals by phone, but when I get a proposal by email I typically respond electronically.

2. If you live overseas. Do I need to explain this? Everyone knows by now that not even the most lucrative publishing companies feel like they can justify frequent international phone calls.

So, as I was saying. I sent out an email recently rejecting a book proposal (see #2). This morning I had this gem of a response in my inbox:

Hello Rachel!

Thank you for coming back so fast.

How about a second thought?

Think about it? Perhaps it is time for change?

I am convinced that you are the publisher for me.

All the best!

PS. I love you anyhow!

This email totally brightened my day, and even though I was sorry to deliver the bad news to this guy that, in fact, our decision was final, I can't help but feel grateful for the chance to simply interact with authors like this.

An Odd Collection

It seems like everyone is writing about ways in which the Publishing world is changing:

Here's a Huffington Post blog about (apparently very rich or excitingly entrepreneurial) men who skirting the traditional publishing process.

The New York Times has an article about something even I already knew about: book publishing isn't glamorous! The interesting side of the article to me was learning how ritzy publishing used to be.

ReadWriteWeb (say that three times fast) has a four part series documenting the majors changes book publishing is, and has been, undergoing.

This snarky article published by an author on the San Francisco Gate website is a tribute to the disconnect between authors and publishers. Check out the comments on it for some self-righteous retribution.

The New York Observer takes the cake, though, with this article about one of the most profound changes in publishing: publishers actually backing out of book deals because an author missed his deadline.

That's What We Said

In a recent blog post, I wrote about the likely sources of contention between writers and publishers.

Here's a great Q&A with Steve (publisher of Berrett-Koehler) on the same topic. In addition to some of the points I raised earlier, Steve adds that "Publishers are terrible communicators" and that "Authors’ books are orphaned when their principal contact persons leave the publishers."

Perhaps the most surprising reason is that "Publishers do little to market books:"

This is a universal complaint. Authors typically say that their publishers did almost nothing besides printing and warehousing their books. Some authors half-seriously put forward a conspiracy theory that their publishers are intentionally trying to keep their books hidden.

Read the rest of the article find out what makes Berrett-Koehler different.

Intern to Intern Take 2

In my last post I asked my friend, Sarah, about her experiences working as an intern in a small, independent publishing house this past spring. This summer, however, she moved to another, much larger, company. Here's what she had to say about it.

In comparison to where she had worked previously, this new company was:

MUCH bigger. like, they put out half the new york times list. i was a rotational intern, which meant i spent two weeks in every department. i was in children's/YA editorial, ad/promo, marketing, sales, and editorial for their romance imprint. i also did a book pitch project there, got to go see one of their production facilities, and had the opportunity to meet with executives.

Her job responsibilities were similar to what she had done before, and just as varied:

i still had slush to weed through, but that took up less of my day, since they don't really focus as much on submissions that don't come through an agent they have a relationship with. i wrote press releases and galley letters, mailed things to georgia and to dubai. i got to sit in on cover meetings and acquisitions meetings. the cover meetings were pretty fantastic. i also filled in as the assistant to one of the senior VPs for a few days while her assistant was out.

I was curious about her experiences sitting in on meetings, as that's something I also do frequently as an intern with Berrett-Koehler. I asked her if the leaders of the meeting asked for or expected her input, and if she volunteered it. She said that they sometimes asked her and she sometimes volunteered, but that in general they had "a pretty open and supportive company culture there."

I finished up the interview by asking her to compare the experiences she had at each company:

i learned a lot at both, but i preferred the bigger company, just because i think i was a better fit with the people i worked with there, and because it was much more organized. i got to go in to work later at the smaller company, and i got free booze at work parties and didn't have to wear heels every day, but i also felt really taken advantage of and underappreciated. and as overall excellent as the bigger company was, there were definitely days where i felt like i'd sold my soul to the corporate machine.

I was surprised to hear her say that she preferred working at the larger company. I would have thought that the freedom and creativity that the smaller, independent house encouraged would have been more conducive to an exciting internship experience. However, even though the larger company may have been a corporate powerhouse, the structure and organization was itself its greatest advantage.

Intern to Intern Part 1

Today I took the opportunity to talk with my friend, Sarah, who has spent not only this past summer but also the previous semester working as an intern at two different publishing companies. Sarah is one of my good friends from college--we are both seniors at the University of Massachusetts Amherst--and we both study English, though she is focusing on creative writing (she's actually created her own major) and I am focusing on non-fiction writing.

I wanted to talk to Sarah because I was curious about how her experiences compared to mine, because even though we were working as interns in the same industry, we seemed to have a different time of it. Sarah managed to work for companies that were respectively smaller and much, much larger than Berrett-Koehler. Though there was some overlap in the types of materials being published, she had a much different experience with the content.

I first asked Sarah to give me a profile of the first publishing house she worked for--a small, independent company based out of Brooklyn.

i spent the spring working for a small -- i mean, five full-time staff members, plus a handful of graphic designers and interns small -- indie press that published poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. most of it had a pretty typical indie bent, and they published a lot of fiction in translation, as well as a series of rereleased classics (i had to transcribe a norwegian novella from the 1920s into a digital file!). their nonfiction tended to be mostly political, with some social commentary, and i think a cookbook or two. pretty eclectic, very literary stuff. for such a tiny company, they were great about garnering publicity, and reviews in major papers, but there were no major bestsellers or anything.

Her job responsibilities were as eclectic as the company's catalog:

because it was such a small company, i had a lot of roles to fill. the budget was pretty small, so i was basically a combination of secretary, editorial assistant, publicity assistant, head of online marketing, and messenger. i was pretty much in charge of the slush pile - i got to read the many insane, unsolicited manuscripts, and write rejection letters. stuff i liked reading got passed along to the senior editor, who'd pass it along to the publisher if he liked it. i also sent out tons of press releases and galleys - literally, probably tons. i found bookstores and professors to contact, i started and maintained the company twitter, i did a lot of online advertising, i filled orders from the company website, i fixed printer jams, and i messengered things all over manhattan and brooklyn. also, the office had a small indie bookstore attached, and i ended up manning that a lot.

Sarah told me that this internship was pretty difficult for her. She had a lot of responsibilities and was often asked to work extra hours--for no money, mind you. She also expressed a sense of alientation from her coworkers--for such a small company, she felt that she hadn't really made any srong connections. When I asked her what she had gotten out of the job, this is what she had to say:

i think it definitely taught me everything that goes into publishing. it's not glamorous - you don't just sit and read all day and take authors out to lavish lunches. usually. it gave me a good foundation to know whether or not this industry would be a good fit for me, and it let me really put my finger on the pulse of what's going on in the publishing world. i also got to see that houses don't have to put out really commercial things in order to be successful and find their niche of readers. with smaller companies like that, you get readers who are really devoted to the aesthetic of the press, which makes the whole process that much more interesting. plus, i got familiar with the chicago manual of style, which is just fun and neat if you are a nerd like i am.

More on Sarah's experiences in the larger company soon!

It's A Hit!

The big news around the office today is about Be The Hero by Noah Blumenthal. This new release has done remarkably well and, as they say, the proof is in the Wall Street Journal rankings:

Are You Sick of Reading About the Kindle?

The Kindle has gotten so much press lately, both for good and bad, that I am reluctant to contribute to the over-saturated Kindle reaction typhoon.

However, an article published by Fast Company does a really great job of putting the Kindle into perspective. It places it exactly where I've long thought of it: a well-intended detour on the way to a really great new technology. Just as Betamax cassettes launched before VHS, the superior technology nevertheless prevailed; the introduction of the DVD then wiped both out.

But I don't think relating the Kindle to the DVD is an apt comparison. The DVD simply provided a new format for viewing what was essentially the same material. Sure with the influx of the DVD we now have special features like director's cuts, deleted scenes, and (does anyone actually listen to these?) audio commentary, but the way we use the product is still essentially the same: insert VHS/DVD, hit play, stare at screen.

What this article points out is that the Kindle may be the best e-reader out there--it may be the best e-reader ever--but that's not what people are looking for anymore. The key is integration. The article points to rumors that Apple is intending to release a new tablet that will outperform the Kindle in almost every way:

And an Apple media tablet with a 10-inch color multitouch screen, Wi-Fi, and perhaps 3G access to boot, could make the Kindle's grayscale screen, cramped keyboard, and one-note functionality seem mighty drab. Apple could also use the existing iTunes infrastructure as a virtual storefront to distribute the e-books -- it already sells audiobooks.

And timing is everything. Apple has never been one for invention; it's in the market of re-invention.

After Amazon went through the trouble and expense of seeding the landscape, implanting the concept of the e-book in people's minds, creating a market where there wasn't one before, and moving to control the distribution system, Apple could muscle its way in with a full-color multitouch-screen media tablet that not only reads books but also offers video, music, Web surfing, email, and the combined power of the iTunes and Apple App Store. The device might even load into a desktop dock that accommodates a full-size keyboard. Books would only be a small part of what it offers, making it appeal to a vastly larger audience than the Kindle's.

In short, this article validates the reasons why I've been so reluctant to buy a Kindle. Well, that and the strain it would induce on my intern-sized income (nothing). However, with any luck, by the time Apple's new tablet is released, I'll be able to afford it. Or at least request it as a graduation present.

Worse than Vampires vs Werewolves

While sitting in on a recent editorial meeting between Steve and a few authors, I learned the answer to a question I hadn't even thought of to ask. Luckily, the authors asked it for me.

Why is it that so many authors dislike their publishers?

I had no idea that authors disliked their publishers. Call me naive, conceited, or delusional, but I always just figured that authors held their publishers in a state of reverence. I mean, without a publisher, where would you be? Self-published with an Amazon ranking in the six digits, right? Right??

Not necessarily. However, this doesn't dissuade authors from attempting to get published anyway (close to 80 rejections so far this summer). The problem usually occurs sometime after the contract has been signed, often after the manuscript has been turned in, and before the book hits the shelves.

Often authors feel ignored and discarded after they've turned in the final manuscript. They've relinquished their rights and powers to this formidable publishing company and now feel like they've pulled the short straw in this bargain. In retaliation, authors contact the publishing company--anyone who will tell them what's going on really--which causes the publishers to regard the authors as pains in our bottom-line bottoms and thus exacerbate the cycle.

This is when authors start looking to Berrett-Koehler for their next book. I've talked to a number of authors who have published books with large, corporate publishing firms. In many cases these same companies have agreed to publish future books, but the authors were so dissatisfied with the treatment they received that they choose to work with Berrett-Koehler instead. Steve explained why.

In the course of the meeting, Steve invited the authors to contact anyone from Berrett-Koehler at any time, including himself. He gave them some guidance as to who they should contact for what kinds of questions, but reiterated that the most important part of sustaining a working partnership is frequent communication. "If a month goes by without you hearing from us or us hearing from you, that's a problem."

No other publishing company does this. They view authors as nuisances; we view them as partners. This concept of author-publisher partnership is the key to the successful relationships that BK enjoys with its many authors.

I Matter

E-Grammarian

The internet is full of snarky grammarians:

The Grammar Vandal
The Grammar Blog: Mocking Poor Grammar
Motivated Grammar: Prescriptivism Must Die
The Grammarphobia Blog

But I'm going to out-snark them all.

FREEconomics?

Yes, I know. There are too many puns in the world of economics. This is what literary types resort to when we write about subjects far outside the realm of our expertise. The worst is, I can't even take credit for this particular punishment. (I'm stalling.)

Chris Anderson, editor of Wired and author of Free, wrote this article last year about why the cost of information and digital resources should be free. Music, books, newspapers, games--all should be, nay, will inevitably be, freely available to anyone with a computer and an internet connection. His argument is compelling and sensational and you should all read the article, if not the whole book. Although you can spend almost thirty dollars on his book at Amazon, Anderson lives us to the premise of his argument and offers his book, in its entirety, free on Scribd.

If, however, you're skeptical, you can read Malcolm Gladwell's rebuttal. Gladwell challenges all of the premises of Anderson's argument and, frankly, cuts it to shreds.

However, I can't help but be amazed that I found all this information--articles, reviews, the book itself--without paying a dime. The two economists/philosophers/erudite scholars can debate this until one or neither is proved right, but, as a lay person, I can't help but believe Anderson's prediction.

It seems to be a reflection of my generation's sense of entitlement to digital content. First it was music--sure, Napster may be a relic, but if you want free music, there are still plenty of options--now it's everything from iPhone apps to software to phone calls. The music industry, at least, has backpedaled. The iTunes store now offers individual song downloads for 99 cents. Many iPhone apps are also 99 cents.

The thing is, the difference between free and 99 cents is huge. In all my years as an Apple user, I have never paid for a song, a podcast, or an app. I have taken advantage of their free downloads, but this has never been incentive enough to pay for any of these things. Anderson's argument rests on his belief that a profitable relationship can be generated by giving away free products to consumers. This is a two step process: they give something away for free so that we will feel compelled to purchase something else.

In one model, he's correct. Assuming iTunes does begin giving everything away for free--the program itself has always been free--Apple will still make money from selling its computers, iPods, and iPhones. But how can this apply to book publishing?

Anderson practices one model: he offers his book for free online but still offers a paper version, to be sold for money, on Amazon. This action seems to be emphasizing that what you are paying for is paper and ink, not the information itself. Still, the book is selling well--over 6,000 copies sold since its release earlier this month. And, of course, with every book he sells and every download he gives away, his name recognition and fame grow, as does his marketability. If it's not one thing it's another.

Harry Potter and the Unsentimentor

Transitioning to Digital?

This recent article from Slate, by Jack Shafer, highlights some of the growing tension occurring within the publishing world over how to cope with the growing popularity of e-books. On the one hand, the sales of digital material are increasing, even doubling or tripling, with time. However, when we compare the numbers we see jumps from three books a month to six books a month--hardly pension-securing. But still, with the emerging popularity of the Amazon's Kindle and the promise of an even better e-reader, digital releases are a big issue for Berrett-Koehler.

One of the biggest problems, as highlighted by the article, is pricing:

"Amazon and the others insist on selling most e-books for about $9.99, which pleases the publishers when the e-book retail price is close to that of the paper edition...The publishers dislike the rigidity of the e-book price, however, when the hardcover lists for $27.95 and Amazon sells it at a loss for $9.99."

Publishers are afraid that such a discrepancy in pricing will encourage readers to buy the much cheaper e-book, dramatically cutting into their profits. They're also afraid that by pricing every e-book similarly, Amazon is effectively capping the pricing potential for every new book. Just as no one is willing to pay more than $.99 for a song download, people will become accustomed to paying $9.99 for a book download.

Jack Shafer predicts that as publishers fight to increase the prices of e-books, readers will simply turn to the e-legacy of pirating and bootlegging. Why even pay $9.99 when you can safely steal Grisham's latest title from Napster's nerdy cousin site?

E-Community Building

Check out CV Harquail's blog Authentic Organizations which discusses the effectiveness of certain companies and practices with an emphasis on "aligning identity, action, and purpose." She has a lot of great things to say about this blog and about Berrett-Koehler. It's also a very thoughtful and interesting blog in general--definitely worth reading.

Why, in spite of everything, this job is fantastic

Rejection Still Sounds Harsh

Last week I wrote a post about rejecting (often unsolicited) incoming book proposals and manuscripts. I tried to explain what makes a proposal successful or not--by Berrett-Koehler's standards. However, I think an equally important part of BK's reaction to the "slush pile" is how we inform the author of our decision.

The most common response from a publisher to an author whose work will not be published is nothing. My own father, a published Berrett-Koehler author, can attest to this. Many publishers don't even send out a form letter informing the writer of their decision. It's one of the most trying aspects of becoming a published writer. It's more than constant rejection. It's being absolutely ignored.



That's why Berrett-Koehler makes it a policy to personally respond to each proposal. Because I am the one who first reviews them I am also the person in charge of responding to them. Most of the time, this takes the form of a personal phone call. I call every author and give them reasons for our decision. I invite them to ask questions, call me back, do whatever they feel will help them. When possible, I give constructive advice which sometimes includes a referral to another publisher or an agent.

I've talked to my boss, Jeevan Sivasubramaniam, about the merits of this method. Certainly it would be easier to send a form letter (or no letter at all) but that kind of action doesn't fit into the Berrett-Koehler mission of community building. In his own words, responding personally "is just the right thing to do." It's easy to forget that behind each proposal is a person who worked really really hard to prepare that document. It's important to respect that.

In another light, it's also good for business. Sure, the only exchange is communication, but the authors I speak to will remember Berrett-Koehler. Sad as it may seem, this small gesture is a mark of distinction in the publishing world.

Determining Your Audience

As I mentioned in my last post, most of our books--Current Events, Business, and Self-Help--are being sold primarily to the authors' respective communities. This means that if you are writing a book intended for CEOs and Consultants and Coaches to CEOs, then you had better already have a network of people of these professions who are interested in your product. If you are writing a book for sales executives, but you yourself have no connections to sales executives, then there is a very small chance that any one from your intended audience will even consider buying your book.

This is a symptom of a bigger, largely unnoticed phenomenon: filtering. As Cass Sunstein writes in his book Republic 2.0, consumers of media are constantly gaining the ability to filter the information they receive. As general interest news sources are on the decline, personalized media websites are on the rise. Part of the problem is an overabundance of information--far too much for any one person to read. However, this ability to filter can lead to increased polarization; as a person gains the ability to choose what to include and exclude in her daily readings, she is automatically denying herself exposure to certain types of information.

This is what authors are up against. As publishers we're not worried that people who see your book will not buy it. We're worried that people will never see your book. Period.

More and more, people are seeking out what they want and ignoring what they don't. Publicity campaigns, in the traditional mail-blast sense, are on the decline. What is working these days is specialized, targeted campaigns, to carefully compiled networks. Just like finding a job, it's best to know people who know people.

How Many Books Have YOU Rejected?

Since starting here at Berrett-Koehler (a scant two weeks ago), I have informed 24 authors that we will not be publishing their books. As I'm writing this, I just received queries for three more books--a quick scan informs me that they will push the number up to 27.

Sometimes the decision making process is quick and easy. "No, I'm sorry, but Berrett-Koehler does not publish books on vampires and werewolves, try Little Brown Young Readers," or "Sorry, but you live in Antarctica...and we are in San Francisco."

But more often than not it involves a closer look into the proposal.

The proposal is the most important part of the package. If you include a manuscript or sample chapters, that's great, but I won't look at it unless you have other information.

The first thing I look for is the author platform. The sad reality is that books (especially non-fiction books in the ilk of Berrett-Koehler) are selling primarily to the author's immediate community. A lot of writers think that publishing a book will launch their careers, launch their movements, when in reality the opposite is true. The most successful books are those published by people who already have a solid reputation, a national platform on which to rely. You may have the most brilliant idea in the world, but people will be reluctant to buy it if they've never heard of you.

After that, I try to determine what the main focus of the book is--the longer it takes me to do that the worse. In this oversaturated market books need to have a instant hook, something that distinguishes them from the, literally, millions of other books against which they are competing. A lot of times there is nothing wrong a book, per se, it is just not a new or compelling idea. This is often the hardest news to break to an author, "I'm sorry, but there's no room for this kind of book," or worse, "There's no audience for this kind of book."

If all that looks good, then I may move on to looking at the actual manuscript. This starts with the table of contents. A good table of contents neatly summarizes the arc of the book and indicates where it begins and ends. If you have so many chapters that I get bored before even finishing the table of contents, you should hire an editor before submitting this proposal. Then I review chapter summaries and sample chapters.

Keep in mind that throughout this whole routine I am reviewing your writing. If nothing else, I'm a grammarian and if your writing is not up to par, I'm hesitant to consider your book for publication.

Right now, if you're an aspiring author, you're probably chaffing at the crass nature of this whole process. Well, join the club. It's almost as hard to get a book published as it is to get a book sold. If you keep in mind that book publishing is still a business--and a floundering one at that--you may have found the edge you need.

For All You Logophiles Out There

As a new intern, I often find myself with odd pockets of time during the day in which I have no work to do. So, while snooping around the office this afternoon I found The New Book of Lists--and I was hooked. They have a whole section of lists about words. Here are some of my favorites.

Untranslatable Words

1. BILITA MPASH (Bantu) : a word for specifically blissful dreams
2. CAVOLI RISCALDATI (Italian) : literally "reheated cabbage," this phrase metaphorically links the messy and distasteful act of reheating cabbage with trying to revive a dead love affair
3. DOHADA (Sanskrit) : the unusual appetites and cravings of pregnant women
4. DRACHENFUTTER (German) : literally, "dragon fodder," a drachenfutter is a gift a husband brings to his wife after he stays out too late; may also be used by other couples trying to avoid guilt and retaliation ie employees to bosses, children to parents, and students to teachers
   
5. ESPRIT DE L'ESCALIER (French) : that brilliantly witty response to a public insult that comes into your mind only after you have left the party; literally "the spirit of the staircase"
6. KATZENJAMMER (German) : a monumentally severe hangover (leave it to the germans to quantify this)
7. TARTLE (Scottish) : to hesitate in recognizing a person or thing, such as forgetting an acquaintance's name; "Oh, hello Lisa!" "Hi... I seem to have forgotten your name. Pardon my sudden tartle!"
   

Obsure and Obsolete Words

1. BOANTHROPY : a type of insanity in which a man thinks he is an ox
2. CHANTEPLEURE : to sing and weep at the same time
3. GROAK : to watch people silently while they are eating, hoping they will ask you to join them
4. GYNOTIKOLOBOMASSOPHILE : one who likes to nibble on a woman's earlobes
5. PARNEL : a priest's mistress
6. PILGARLIC : a bald head that looks like a peeled garlic
7. RESISTENTIALISM : seemingly spiteful behavior manifested by inanimate objects

Favorite Yiddish Words or Phrases

1. TUMMLER : someone who stirs things up, a clown
2. FONFER : someone who talks through his or her nose; a gossip; unsuccessful optimist (I'm actually surprised this word exists in Yiddish because it implies that someone existed who wasn't a fonfer)
   
3. TSACHEL : good judment (high praise)
4. K'NOCKER : a big shot who shows off but has no real merit
5. FARTOOST : confused, befuddled

Go Where You Feel You Can Make the Biggest Difference

Last week I had the privilege of speaking with Steve Piersanti, the President of Berrett-Koehler. He told me about his experience within the Publishing Industry, beginning as a Promotional Copywriter at Jossy-Bass Publishers over 30 years ago. In 1992, after becoming the President of Jossy-Bass, Steve left and founded Berrett-Koehler. His goal in founding this company was to create a publishing company with balance among its employees, authors, stakeholder groups, and customers.

I was eager to get Steve's perspective on the industry as a whole and ask him about its uncertain future. Preparing myself for the worst, I was still surprised when his first words to me were, "There's no hope for publishing books."

He explained the basic premise of the publishing business model:

1. It's a tiny industry. The whole industry combined (trade, professional, academic, everything) is only worth $50 billion.
2. The market is saturated with new products--there were almost 200,000 books published in the US alone last year.
3. Each new product generates only $100,000 to $200,000 in its lifetime. New products in other industries are expected to gross over $1,000,000. However, the same preparation, marketing, and distribution costs factor in to creating a new book.
   
4. The barriers to entry have gone to zero. Now, anyone can write, print, market, and distribute their book themself.

After being thoroughly discouraged, though, Steve did manage to infuse some hope in me. The industry is popular. People still like books. There's something fun, interesting, even kind of sexy about them. People who write books are, at least momentarily, considered glamorous, successful. For people within the industry, the work is challenging and diverse.

Steve's final words to me were, "Do what your heart says. Go where you feel you can make the biggest difference." I asked him if he felt he had made a difference and he smiled and said, "Yes."

All For One and One for Profit

Increasingly, the rules for acquiring the various permissions needed to reproduce pieces of others' work are getting simultaneously more complicated, confusing, and necessary. Jeevan and I had a talk about what Fair Use really means and how to protect yourself as an author and, by extension, as a publisher.

Fair Use has two main components:

1. There is no specific limitation on how many words, lines, or pages of an original text you may reproduce. What is important is the ratio of the quoted material to the size of the material as a whole. For instance, reproducing one page from a book the size of Moby Dick probably won't cause much of a fuss. However, if you were to reproduce one page from a short story which, in total, is only two pages long, you've just copied half of the whole work. This is when you run into problems.
2. Even if you only copy a small amount of the original text, if the selection you choose reveals the core idea you may still be in trouble. These are the cases that are hardest to judge; two people may have very different ideas on what a work's main idea is. The deciding factor is whether or not by revealing this core idea you have detracted from the original work's potential profitability. If in your review you quote a section of the book which persuades a reader that he does not, in fact, have to buy the book to benefit from its lessons, then you've violated this second principle. In general, this is really only enforced when dealing with new releases; spoiling the ending of The Sixth Sense, for instance (Bruce Willis was already dead!), probably won't cause much of a problem--at least I hope it won't.
   

The best ways to avoid these issues are to:

1. Use your judgment
2. Ask for permission; simply asking in advance can avoid many unfortunate legal problems
3. Cite your sources
4. Ask yourself, "Is this quotation necessary to include in my work?"
   

Protecting Your Own Work

Everything you write is automatically copyrighted. You don't have to do anything; your work is yours and it is protected. You can, and Berrett-Koehler does, go the extra mile and register your work with US Copyrights Office. This legally protects your work more firmly because it includes a date of registration and so guarantees you a claim to First Usage. If someone else claims that you stole their manuscript, you can merely direct them to the Copyright Office and prove that you got there first.

But maybe you're not sure that you really did get there first.

No problem. All the copyrights and trademarks are archived and available to the public at USPTO.gov. Even if you're not conducting research, this website is really interesting to explore. Try running a search for the silliest word combinations you can think of and odds are someone else not only thought of it, too, but went to the trouble of registering it with the government.

Anyone Who Tells You Otherwise is a Liar

Today I sat in on an editorial review meeting. Steve (via phone) Jeevan, Johanna, David, and I discussed promising--and not so promising--book proposals. It was fascinating to see what considerations weighed most heavily in determining whether or not to go forward with a project. It all comes down to an author's platform. When you write a book you are assuming some level of expertise and authority, and it is BK's prerogative to determine whether that authority is justified.

I got to really understand this first hand after the meeting. Jeevan is back, and that means I am being turned into a one-woman proposal reading machine. Together, Jeevan and I looked through about five incoming book proposals and systematically rejected all of them. I have about six more proposals to review on my own. This is an industry of tough-skinned, persistent people.

I'm starting to learn what to look for in a proposal and, more importantly, in an author. The book may seem like the product, but increasingly, it is the author himself (or herself) whom we are trying to sell. Without a good reputation and an excellent network, it is very unlikely that BK will publish your book.

It's easy to learn why not to publish a book--in the upcoming weeks I hope to learn what exactly does make a book stand out enough to warrant consideration and, eventually, publication. This seems like a much more nuanced question that I think will grant me a look at the heart of BK's mission more than insight into the publishing industry in general, though I anticipate the two to overlap in certain areas. I'll keep you posted.

What Kind of Editor Do You Want to Be?

Yesterday I had a very informative meeting with Johanna Vondeling, the Acquisitions Editor at Berrett-Koehler. She sat me down and explained the various roles that editors play in the grand course of a book's publication.

Here is the Campbell's Soup version of what I learned (condensed):

Acquisitions Editor -- In charge of seeking out new material. Johanna told me that she looks for leads for books in many different places. Most of the books Berrett Koehler publishes come from established authors, or other professionals who have already achieved a sizeable following. Previous BK authors also recommend new authors from within their respective professional communities. Other manuscripts come from agents who represent authors. By far the fewest number of books come from unsolicited proposals which go into the proverbial junk pile. Part of my job this summer will be to review these proposals and elevate those which I deem to have real merit.

Developmental Editor -- These are the people who work with the author to improve the book as a whole. They are often freelance--few publishing companies have in-house developmental editors. Johanna explained to me that they enjoy their work because it allows them to select the projects they find interesting and to wok on a variety of books. Developmental Editors are important because they are the people who bridge the gap between the specific field of the author and the conventions of book publishing; ideally they have some level of expertise in both arenas.

Copy Editor -- The detail oriented person who closely reads the manuscripts and makes sure it reads well (in standard American English).

My goal for the upcoming week is to have more of these kinds of meetings with other people from Berrett Koehler. I want to figure out how the industry works and what everyone does to accomplish BK's mission of creating a world that works for all.

Signing It Away

Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Intern/Volunteer Agreement

This agreement is intended to indicate the seriousness with which we treat our interns and volunteers. The intent of this agreement is to assure you of our deep appreciation of your internship or volunteer participation and to indicate our commitment to do the very best we can to make your experience her a productive and rewarding one.

Berrett-Koehler Publishers agree to the following conditions:

1. To provide an environment where new knowledge, skill development, and learning opportunities are conducive to achieving the intern/volunteer's objectives and desires.
2. To ensure supervision, and to provide feedback on performance.
3. To be receptive to any comments from the intern/volunteer regarding ways in which we might mutually better accomplish our respective goals.
4. To treat the intern/volunteer as an equal partner, jointly responsible for completion of Berrett-Koehler's mission.
5. Upon request, Berrett-Koehler agrees to provide a letter of reference.

Intern/Volunteer

1. To complete my assignments to the best of my ability.
2. To adhere to Berrett-Koehler's office rules and procedures, including record-keeping requirements and confidentiality issues.
3. To meet time and duty commitments, or to provide adequate notice so that alternate arrangement can be made.

Twittering into the Future

Today I also sat in on a "webinar" (add that to your business lexicon) with David Marshall and Bonnie about how to use Twitter to promote your business, your product, and to gain a following. It was about half an hour long and then half an hour of questions. I had no idea that so much research had been done to calculate the prime Twitter numbers.

Facts and Figures
--Prime number of Tweets per day: 22
--Prime ratio of Following to Followers: 1:2
--Obama's success on Twitter vs. Hilary's: A Million to None

And in the infamous words of MC Hammer, "Forget the numbers, just make it interesting."

My First Day

Today marks my official start at Berrett-Koehler's newest intern. I arrived promptly at 9:30, totally clueless as to how I was to engage myself that day.

My immediate supervisor, Jeevan Sivasubramaniam, is in DC this week--instead of delaying my start date a whole week, however, we decided I should come in today and get started with helping out the marketing team. I met with Bonnie Kaufman who got me started on my first project.

The Berrett-Koehler website (www.bkconnection.com) serves as a catalogue for all of BK's publications. In an effort to increase site traffic and specific books' prominence on Google, I am creating spreadsheets for the books including Title, Author, ISBN, Meta Description, and 10 Key Words. To do this, I examine the copy written about the books on book jackets, in the BK catalogues, and on the website to create a one sentence description and 10 specific, but not unsearchable key words.

Obviously, this is a very large (somewhat tedious) task. The basic plan is to start with the most recent books--those that actually are not published yet--and work backwards, focusing on BK Bestsellers. To make things even more complicated, some books have multiple editions, and most books come in Hardcover, Paperback, and a PDF E-Book format, each of which has a different ISBN.

Bonnie assures me, however, that this will not be my only assignment. Once Jeevan returns I'll have other tasks. I offered my services as a web developer and graphic artist, so we'll see if they have any use for those skills.

I would very much like to help develop book jacket designs--BK usually outsources these jobs to independent designers, but I contributed a little bit to my dad's book cover. Before my dad's book, Effective Apology, was designed, he asked me to create a mock-up of a book cover to place on his website. I made a very simple design, and was surprised when a few months later I was invited to participate in a phone conference with Diane Platner, a Senior Manager for Design and Production, my dad, and the designer they had hired to do the job. Obviously my design was not the one chosen for publication, but the process is really interesting and I think it's something I would be good at.

Welcome to San Francisco

Good things in San Francisco:

• Lots and lots of restaurants, delis, and little, foreign, food markets.
• Cable television.
• Cheap manicures.
• My own bathroom.
• Entering the publishing industry.