Exploring Books, Life, and Writing
It is a truth universally acknowledged that people in possession of a good manuscript must be in want of an outstanding cover. A great cover can make an amazing difference. So can a bad one.
A few years ago I heard Ken Peterson of Tyndale House Publishers offer two simple keys to success—coding and positioning.
Continue reading “Two Keys to Outstanding Cover Design”
John Stott, one of the most influential Christians in the world, retired recently from public ministry. Now he has issued his last book, The Radical Disciple.
In the postscript (titled “Farewell!”) Stott offers a last bit of encouragement and exhortation, one that I resonate with myself after a lifetime of loving books:
As I lay down my pen for the last time (literally, since I confess I am not computerized) at the age of eighty-eight, I venture to send this valedictory message to my readers. I am grateful for your encouragement, for many of you have written to me.
Looking ahead, none of us of course knows what the future of printing and publishing may be. But I myself am confident that the future of books is assured and that, though they will be complemented, they will never be altogether replaced. For there is something unique about books. Our favorite books become very precious to us and we even develop with them an almost living and affectionate relationship. Is it an altogether fanciful fact that we handle, stroke and even smell them as tokens of our esteem and affection? I am not referring only to an author’s feeling for what he has written, but to all readers and their library. I have made it a rule not to quote from any book unless I have first handled it. So let me urge you to keep reading, and encourage your relatives and friends to do the same. For this is a much neglected means of grace. . . .
Once again, farewell!
All writing is autobiography.
Fiction. Non-fiction. Quasifictional-semirealistic-self-congratualtory historical narrative. It’s all autobiography.
Obviously memoir, journals, travelogues and a lot of bad poetry are autobiographical.
But what about auto-repair manuals?
Continue reading “All Writing Is Autobiography”
Every few months we get together a whole bunch of us from editorial, marketing, sales, production and design–anyone substantively involved in making or selling a book–to evaluate the releases from a season in the previous year. Once we had a cover designer attending for the first time. In trying to explain to the designer what the meeting was all about, someone said with a wry smile and in a voice everyone could hear, “This is the meeting in which we do judge a book by its cover.”
Continue reading “Books Without Covers”
The best quote from a conference I was at this week came via Linda Cannell. She cites Mark Yudof, president of the University of California:
Continue reading “The Technical Term for No Change”
In my last post I exposed the awful truth that there’s a lot publishers don’t know. They just don’t have the ability to predict the future, unfortunately. But there’s a lot they do know too. Such as?
Continue reading “What Publishers DO Know”
Many people seem to have a notion that publishers somehow are (or should be) a superior form of human being. It’s nice to be so highly thought of–until you find out what they mean. Like the question many of us have heard. “I thought you guys were smart. Why don’t you just publish bestsellers?”
So, true confessions, we’re not omniscient. And I’m here to dish. What don’t publishers know?
Continue reading “What Publishers Don’t Know”
Since I’ve been an editor all these years, many people assume I have a degree in English or journalism. They are wrong, of course. I have a degree in mathematics.
That may seem an odd thing, but studying mathematics has helped me tremendously as an editor in at least two ways. First, it trained me to think logically and rigorously. Second, it means I’m not totally lost when it comes to thinking about the numbers side of publishing. And there are a lot of numbers to think about: profit, loss, expenses, budgets, sales rates and projections, price calculations, spread sheets, and more.
Continue reading “Not an Exact Science”
I encourage reading. I’ve tried to do it here and there and elsewhere, noting a variety of excellent reasons to do so. I tend to think that reading in general and thoughtful reading in particular need all the support they can get. My suspicion is that if people are reading, books will get their fair share of attention.
But some people just really love books. And who am I to stand in their way? It’s delightful when someone exposes such passion in unfettered terms. That’s what James Emery White has done on his Serious Times website.
He even makes an ardent case for not just reading books but for buying them, marking them and keeping them.
May his tribe increase.
It’s tempting to roll our collective eyes when someone recognizes the obvious. Now we learn that sociologists have got religion. They have made the absolutely amazing discovery that religion is actually important.
Continue reading “To Sociologists: Duh!”