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.