Publish Nuisance

Judging A Book By Its Cover

As a slush pile reader for a major publisher for two years I learned that Polonius was right in his speech to Laertes in Shakespeare's Hamlet: Clothes oft do make the man--and the woman too. It's not always true, but true often enough, that care outside reflects care inside.

I learned that manuscripts without the benefit of good presentation were usually not very good in content. I'd look at them anyway, most of the time, just to be fair, but I could usually tell after only a paragraph whether the book was worth reading further. That's because quality has a way of being present throughout a quality work. Someone who knows how to write also usually knows enough to send clean copy in an envelope that won't fall apart in the mail.

The cover is the first line of temptation for the buyer. You desperately want them to pick up the book, read the front, turn it over and scan the back cover, and then open it up. If you can't get that far, almost always, you've lost the sale, period.

Publishers who make it to any size know this, self-publishers sometimes don't. Writers often realize it too late. Sometimes they try to get a better cover from their publisher but don't fight for it.

I've had to fight for my covers at some of the houses that published my books. I was nice about it, and sometimes it worked, and sometimes I got sandbagged in spite of it. One of my covers was so bad a salesman actually said, when he saw it in the catalog, "This can't be the real cover." But it was. And it was unbelievably bad. I'd been assured it was a really nice cover. Ha!

Another cover was sent to me in a mock-up with great colors and came out on the book in garish, harsh colors. A complete surprise when I opened my author's free books box, anticipating those tasteful, appealing covers,and was hit in the face with just the reverse. Did the book sell well? Nope.

I've gotten the rights back for several of my titles and reprinted them myself under my own company name. And for those with less than excellent covers, I've invested in new ones, much better ones every time even though I could have used the designs from the originating house.

Your cover is your book's brochure, its business card.
Would you produce a blah or poorly designed brochure and expect it to work hard for you? Would you hand out dirty or wrinkled business cards?

Your cover is your book's power suit, its dress for success outfit.
Would you go out to speak wearing the dullest thing in your closet? Would you wear your gardening clothes to dinner at the White House?

Having less than the best cover you can possibly get is like:

• Going on a blind date with unbrushed teeth, dirty shoes, and toilet paper trailing behind your skirt/pants.
• Printing "Substandard, and I don't care," or "I don't know much about publishing and didn't bother to learn," on the cover.
• Leaving the baby on top of the car in the car seat in the movie "Raising Arizona."
• Those dreams where you wander about the city in your bathrobe or in nothing, hoping no one will notice.
  
• Sewing project clothing that proclaims, "made by loving hands at home."

Books are selected by larger publishers from among self-published books that find their hopeful way into the mail basket, by reviewers, by booksellers, and by the end customer--the reader by their first impressions and then by what is inside--if they get that far.

Chant this: Cover, Cover, Cover, Cover, Cover, Cover!

Show Me The Money!

My publishing evolved out of my writing. I’d had a cookbook with a big publishing house. It was to be the first book in a three book contract for a set of family reference books. While I was working on it the publisher quit, as did the book’s editor and the marketing person--everyone who’d had an original vision for the book.

Then the next publisher was fired, and my next editor there quit too. The publishing house went through tumultuous changes. When the dust settled it was a new ball game, and my book was not important to the players who had replaced the original team.

I bought 6,000 copies, the remains of the second printing, and asked for the rights back. I thought I’d sell the rights to another publisher. I knew that would involve a title change because the original publishing house was identified in the title.

At that point the book received substantial national media publicity, featured on a cable TV cooking show and in a national magazine. I decided to keep the title so I could take advantage of the new publicity and reprint it myself, starting my own publishing venture to do it.

Publishing wasn’t in the same financial league as writing, but I managed the money, if you can call it managing, in the same way I’d processed author income--haphazardly, playing catch up when I had to. It has been a continuing problem for me.

Dominique Raccah, on the other hand, started Sourcebooks the way publishing should be done. She too began very small, but, as she said in a message to a discussion list for publishers, she checked the financials every day.

That’s so important it should be written large on the wall of every publishing venture, whether it’s an evolutionary startup like mine or one that’s purposeful and planned.

CHECK THE FINANCIALS, EVERY DAY!

KNOW WHERE YOUR MONEY IS, AND WHAT IT’S DOING.

IT’S FIVE O’CLOCK, DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR MONEY IS?

This may not be easy for writer types. We tend to be innovators, inventors, and visionaries who think writing down expenses and balancing accounts is boring work. But, there is little else that will ensure success and satisfaction as well as showing ourselves the money, every day. Make it a requirement. Make it a habit.

Direction

I call myself a micro publisher, maybe it should be micro-mini publisher. Sometimes I'm even embarrassed to call myself a publisher at all. Because, the publishing business evolved out of my writing, and because I've rarely run it in a businesslike manner.

It's not that I haven't tried, but, as I sometimes say, I learned how to do it right by doing it wrong, several ways. But, also, I've had to stop the business part, or slow it down for extended periods of time in order to help family members, and to recover from injury. While I was doing other things, or doing almost nothing the business would stand still, and then slowly slide backward.

I suspect I'm not the only small publisher who has been in a similar boat, sloshing along, sometimes making headway, sometimes drifting with the tide.

One of the reasons I started this blog was to chronicle my progress in making my publishing and other business ventures more businesslike, efficient, and effective. I'm hoping that sharing my own thoughts and  experiences can help readers make headway too.

About This Blog

Is that a photo of me up there on the floor with the laptop?

No, it's not. Originally, it was a Hemera Photo Objects guy dressed up as a genie, with a gold threaded turban and matching vest. I made him female, sort of, and, unintentionally, experiencing a bad hair day. It's hard to do hair-from-turban transformations in Photoshop. At least, it took me awhile, and I'm settling for what you see. Might tweak it some more later. Probably won't.

Why the title, Publish Nuisance? Oh, it's punnyish, and I liked that. I'm sort of a nuisance, not so much in publishing, but maybe there too. At least an irritant to those who disagree with some of the things I've written.

But, mostly, I wanted somewhere to write whatever I feel like writing about writing and publishing, without making a nuisance of myself on PUBLISH-L, my email discussion list for publishers and those who serve them. Since I don't want others to dominate the list, pontificate, nor editorialize overly much, I figure I'd better not do it either.

So, when I discovered a place to blog with unlimited blogs for one price, and learned how to do it, I thought, now I can write whatever I want to, and those who want to read it will, and those who don't won't even have to hit the delete key.