Andy Unedited

“It is easy to get into publishing. It is hard to stay.”

I’ve mentioned this adage here before. The first half is drawn from the fact that virtually every facet of the publishing process can be outsourced with relative ease and relatively little expense. You can contract an author to write the book, a freelance editor to edit it, a typesetting firm to set it, a designer to create a cover, a printer to print it, a marketer to promote it, a distributor to sell it and an accountant to keep track of the money. You don’t need any employees. All you have to do is coordinate what everyone else does.
Continue reading “Easy to Get In. Hard to Stay.”

Editors are responsible to bring new book ideas and proposals to the publishing committee. Previously I wrote about how weak books can kill strong books, especially if the committee has not been objective enough about a given project. Here are some additional questions editors can ask of themselves before they ever bring a book to the publishing committee.
Continue reading “Questions Editors Should Ask”

“Why don’t you just publish bestsellers?” I think everyone in publishing has gotten this question at least once. And don’t we all smile knowingly to ourselves that it is not quite that simple.

Of course, every once in a while someone comes along who thinks it is that simple. Here you will read about Jonathan Karp at Twelve who seeks after the Holy Grail of publishing.

Certainly he is to be commended for limiting his list to give every book the best chance possible (publishing only one title a month–thus the name of the firm). Every publisher knows that too many books can mean that each book does not get the editorial or sales, marketing and publicity attention it deserves. With over 290,000 new books published in the U. S. in 2006, all publishers have to ask if they are doing too many.

Of course, it is not necessarily the goal of every publisher to only publish bestsellers. For some the goal is to publish the best books of a certain genre and still stay in the black. Nonetheless, it will be worthwhile to check in with Jonathan Karp in three, five or seven years. For we can also lay alongside the common question noted above the dictum: “It is easy to get into publishing. It is hard to stay.”