Response From A Publisher
By Jerry D. Simmons | January 17th, 2006 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
There was a blog that I wrote in December entitled, “Are Publishers Lazy?” Click LINK to review. I received a response from a publisher that I thought was important and wanted to share. It was written by Bill Fessler, CEO of Primer Publishers, click LINK to visit their web site.
Here is what Bill wrote: “I just read your comments about “lazy” publishers, and I want to add my two cents. First, it’s interesting to read your thoughts and apply them to a publisher like myself. I’m wondering if there’s a misperception about marketing and authors are confusing it with advertising. In reality, marketing is very hard and time consuming, but “grassroots campaigning” (is) the only way small publishers can afford to create interest in our books. Buying a TV, radio, or print ad is not marketing.”
“Second, I hope you can emphasize to authors that they not only need to understand the publishing side of the business, but they must enter the arena as an active participant. The best written book will not be sold unless the author does his or her share of promoting it. Great examples are all the college professors who are mandated by the school to write books but never do anything after the manuscript is submitted. A university press might publish 500 books a year, but about 490 of them will sell less than 100 copies. I’m not wanting to use these numbers to point blame, but rather take a look at the 10 books that succeeded. While the university press spends time working on each and every book, realize that means that only 1/500th of their time can be spent on a single title. It’s the authors effort that makes a book rise above the rest. At small, independent presses, the effort might be divided by 2 or 10 or 20 new titles, but the backlist needs our attention as much as the new books and becomes a factor. (Jerry, you can better explain the motivation behind the big publishers, but the fact is that effort is divided among all titles in the “repertoire”). An author is focused on their one, solitary “tree” and needs to recognize that the publisher is managing an entire “forest” – and when a tree falls in a forest, if the author isn’t standing nearby, it doesn’t make a sound.”
Bill Fessler, Primer Publishers
Tags: Book Marketing, Book Sales, Booksellers
Leave a Reply
