Andy Le Peau – Page 69 – Andy Unedited

Nobody Likes Planning

Corporate planning is the butt of many jokes and the bane of many managers. But as folks in InterVarsity have said for years, “Aim at nothing and you are sure to hit it.” Tom Woll offers 35 pages on planning in his book Publishing for Profit, a book on which I’ve been offering a serial review. Woll covers a lot of territory. Here are some highlights:
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Public Speaking Isn’t Life or Death–It’s Much Worse Than That

Once I was invited to be part of a panel discussion during a conference. The panel went well, and I was ready to go back to the office to finish up some work I had there. As the moderator of the conference closed the panel he said to the group. “We’ll take a fifteen minute break now, and then for the next hour Andy Le Peau will be speaking to us.”

My worst speaking nightmare had come true.
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Never Apologize for Your Reading Tastes

“Never apologize for your reading tastes.” My local library uses that quote from Betsy Rosenberg as a motto. There’s a lot of wisdom there.
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The 2007 Andys

Here are the 2007 Andys, based on what I read last year:
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Do You Itch for a Niche or Are You on the Leash of Your Niche?

Publishing consultant Tom Woll thinks a publisher needs to start by defining its niche. In an earlier blog I said I agreed. My wise friend, Al Hsu, commented on that blog that authors need to think the same way, but that “calling” might be a better way to think about it—a term that gives both focus and flexibility. This of course can be a helpful way for publishers to approach their work as well.

Niche (or calling) can be defined by:
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What I Read in 2007

I read many manuscripts each year on the job, of course. Here are the books I read in 2007 after they were published, in the order I read them.
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Define Your Niche

With 200,000 new titles being published in English every year, getting attention for your books is one of the hardest and most important tasks a publisher has. What strategies could you use to succeed?

One option is to throw lots of money at it. Large publishers (there are about 8) do that all the time. What can smaller publishers (there are about 80,000) do?
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How Long Does It Take to Publish a Book?

In August we received a request from an author to publish their book by Christmas. Next July we will receive a request from someone to publish their book before the November election. I mean, how long can it take to publish a book? You get it typeset and printed and you’re done. Right? A month? Two months maybe?
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Literary Death Scene

When a bookstore goes out of business, what do the books do? That is the penetrating questions asked by the folks at Loome Antiquarian Booksellers, where one of the employees is the son of IVP’s business manager, Jim Hagen. You can find the very literary and humorous answer here.

Save the Books!

Dear Santa

Dear Santa:

We have been a very good publisher this year. We have paid our bills on time. We have one of the highest “in stock” rates in the industry. We have published many valuable books. We got several awards for our book designs. We have played nice with our authors. We told the truth in our marketing (even if we did get a little “excited” now and then). So I hope you will keep that in mind as Christmas gets near.

I know your elves are working harder than ever this time of year. Maybe they would have time to squeeze in one or two of the following into your sleigh before you take off.

1. Lots and lots of shelf space in bookstores so people can see our award-winning covers, not just our award-winning spines.
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