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Troy
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Troy
Post Number: 1090
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, February 03, 2008 - 11:08 am: | 
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Waiting for It
Essay By RACHEL DONADIO
New York Times Sunday Book Review
Published: February 3, 2008
http://tinyurl.com/3dp22u
For writers, few steps in the publishing process are as strange as the state of suspended animation between submitting a manuscript and seeing the book appear in stores. The sudden change in cabin pressure from writing to waiting can be jarring — and can last a very long time. “It comes as a huge shock when it happens the first time,” said the Irish writer Colm Toibin, whose first novel, “The South,” appeared in 1990, a year and a half after he turned it in. “It was all slow and strange.”
Technology may be speeding up the news cycle, but in publishing, things actually seem to be slowing down. Although publishers can turn an electronic file into a printed book in a matter of weeks — as they often do for hot political titles, name-brand authors or embargoed celebrity biographies likely to be leaked to the press — they usually take a year before releasing a book. Why so long? In a word, marketing.
“It’s not the technology that’s the problem; it’s the humans that are the problem,” said Jonathan Karp, the publisher of Twelve, which releases one title a month.
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Troy
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Troy
Post Number: 1091
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, February 03, 2008 - 11:27 am: |
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The most telling quote is “It’s not the technology that’s the problem; it’s the humans that are the problem,”
Of course there are many other problems where humans are at fault despite technology; the voting process and education are two that pop into my mind quickly.
This delay in the publishing cycle is one of those manufactured problems. It is a poor use of resources. Actually longer delays create additional risk, because one can not predict future events. But if there is colusion amoung the publishers the risk is mitgated.
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Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 6226
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, February 04, 2008 - 11:01 am: |
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Ah, you computer generation. You think that everything is press a button and make it happen.
This delay in the publishing cycle is one of those manufactured problems. It is a poor use of resources
(How many books are published every year? I have heard figures as high as 30,000.
Now suppose they came out with all of them the first week in January? The ones at the top of the list would get read and the rest lost.
One factor in this is no doubt the fact that the publishers must pace themselves or see books get lost in the process. |
Urban_scribe
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Urban_scribe
Post Number: 644
Registered: 05-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, February 04, 2008 - 12:48 pm: |
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I have heard figures as high as 30,000.
Chris, you missed a zero. Last year, over 200,000 books were published in the US alone. But I totally agree with your point. Not only that, but many steps go into acquiring a book: researching the book's market and demographics, acquisition, subsidiary rights, LCCN/CIP data, editing, copyediting, fact-checking, proofreading, cover design, typesetting, pre-publication reviews, (which trade journals require be submitted 4-6 MONTHS PRIOR TO PUBLICATION), copyright registration, contacting libraries, schools, universities, and chain and independent bookstore buyers, press releases, marketing and promotions, post-publication reviews (usually 2-3 month turnaround time), more marketing and promotions, literary award submissions.
Clearly, all of these steps take time to accomplish, and to do right. The shortest I've ever heard of a commercially pubbed book being released, from acquisition to publication, is 6 months. But that's atypical. A year to 18 months is typical in commercial publishing. And, btw, the NYTBR requires review submissions 4 months prior to publication date. Donadio neglected to mention that little tidbit of info in her article.
Additionally, Nov thru Feb have been proven to be the worst time of year to release a book sales-wise. So, we just knocked another 4 months off the calendar.
The publishing industry comes with loads of quirks, but there is a method to the madness. And everyone in publishing, including the almighty NYTBR, plays a role in the method as well as the madness. |
Troy
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Troy
Post Number: 1092
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 06, 2008 - 12:49 am: |
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Chris Urban_scribe's count is the number most often quoted. That equates to about 2 new books being published every 5 minutes. Or about 4,000 a month. There ain't that much "pacing" in the world Chris. There are simply too many books.
Urban_scribe, the article states that "hot political titles" are often published in a matter of weeks, so we know it can be done.
I bet it did not take Free Press very long to turn around of Shelby Steele’s silly book A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited about Obama And Why He Can’t Win (http://www.aalbc.com/authors/shelby_steele.htm). It is obvious the intent of this book was to sway opinion against Obama. So in this case it was important to get it out as soon as possible.
I know of case where a major house told an agent, in the fall of 2007, that they could publish a client’s book in 2009. However, another (smaller) publisher got the book out in 4 months – and the hardcover product was very well done.
The delays have to do with the decisions being made about the allocation of resources -- not technology.
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Urban_scribe
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Urban_scribe
Post Number: 645
Registered: 05-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 06, 2008 - 08:33 am: |
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Troy, give me a NON-FICTION manuscript today, I can have it pubbed by the end of this month. No joke. It will be well-edited, the page layout will be professional, and the cover design will be appealing. But, and this is a big but, it won't receive the best marketing and promotions, I won't be able to submit it for pre-publication review consideration, it's quite likely the LoC may reject my application for CiP data, (so it'll be extremely difficult to garner library shelf placement; at public libraries as well as school and university libraries). Because I can forget about those sales venues, I'm going to have to pour loads of money into advertisement to get the reading public's attention. And I'll have to throw one helluva launch party to get the industry's attention. I will certainly need to call in a few favors from friends in the industry to help spread the word about this book.
I agree with you that technology is not at fault here. Hell, I know how to make a paperback book my damn self - by hand! I can put together a 400-page pbk in about 15 minutes right in my living room. If I can do that, imagine what a machine can do. Be that as it may, the publishing process itself, as I outlined in my previous post, can't be overlooked. And, as you mentioned, resources. Technology itself isn't the concern here. It's the publishing process itself as well as allocating resources and manpower to reduce investment risks and at the same time garner enough media and readership to recoup said investment.
Also, bear in mind that Non-Fiction is far easier (and quicker) to publish than fiction because those books cover a specific topic of interest and have a built-in audience. Non-Fiction reports facts, statistics, firsthand accounts, documented history, and the like. The key to pubbing non-fic is to strike while the iron's hot. Unless it's a self-help book or instruction manual, non-fic needs to be timely. Novels are a whole different ball of wax.
So when one speaks of technology, one is speaking of printing, not publishing. |
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