On Being Kind by Anonymous
By Jerry D. Simmons | June 20th, 2006 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
I have a colleague who believes that the horribly unpleasant agents and authors that riddle the publishing world actually get what they want more than if they were nice, and he has a point, given that so many examples seem to exist. However, I firmly believe that unless your books are “keeping the lights on” at a given publishing house (and therefore people are forced to work for you), you should make every effort to be kind to the people you deal with, both at bookstores and at the publishing house, because in the end, building relationships helps to build sales. If people genuinely like you and feel appreciated, they will tend to work harder for you. And truly, it’s not that difficult to achieve.
One easy way to impress people is to learn their names. Publishing and bookselling involve long hours at ridiculously low pay. Editorial, sales, publicity and marketing assistants do an enormous amount of work and are almost never recognized. A thank-you note, holiday acknowledgment, or even just a “You’re doing a great job! If there’s anything you need from me, just let me know” email can go a long, long way. We had one author actually bake brownies for our group and people talked about it for months. That author became a staff favorite, and even though her sales weren’t huge, she got far more attention than other authors at her level. Ridiculous? Maybe, but it’s the little things that people notice the most. I have had bottles of champagne sent by authors making millions of dollars per book, and they aren’t nearly as nice to receive as a handwritten thank-you note.
I think the same holds true for bookstore events. In another life, I managed an independent bookstore, and the few times we got thank-you notes or little gifts after events, they were so appreciated. The bottom line is that those author’s books stayed out front longer. The authors that came in and bullied us, or were just generally nasty, were quickly relegated to spine-out as soon as they’d left town. You’d be amazed–but that’s for another day…
Publishing people are not in this for the money, because unless one is a CEO, there simply isn’t any money to be made. We do it for the books, and for the authors.
Anonymous is currently a New York publishing executive at a major company.
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