Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.

This week we’ve talked about a few of the ways the publisher-author relationship can go askew. It’s not that anyone intended that to occur; it’s just that life looks very different from inside the publishing house and outside the publishing house.

As someone who has worked within publishing houses for more than a decade, I understand the dynamics of what happens when an author: oversteps boundaries; doesn’t believe in boundaries; or, at the opposite end of the spectrum, believes being silent despite disappointment makes the relationship work (not!).

What should you do if you find you’ve not realized where the boundaries were?First, being honest with everyone involved should go a long way toward clearing the air. Once a relationship develops problems, it’s weird how everyone offended closes up (or discusses the problem among themselves but not with the offender). So giving people permission to admit you’ve been driving them crazy is a good first step.

Of course, you have to be ready not to be defensive when they agree that, yes, you have been a pain to deal with.

Second, talk about how the relationship went wrong for you. There really are two sides to this story (at least two sides; lots of people are involved in publishing your book). It’s good for staff at the publishing house to think about how the inciting incident(s) looked from your side of the fence.

Third, come up with a plan to resolve the problem. Just acknowledging that all did not go well is not the same as finding a solution. That solution needs to be dreamed up with the publishing personnel, the author, and the agent. Once the plan is agreed to, then the agent can oversee its implementation and that the plan is followed up on.

In many ways, your relationship with your publisher is like any other relationship. Apply good relational principles, and you’re likely to come out looking better than ever to your publisher.

Have you or someone you know had communication problems with his or her publisher? How were they resolved?

Or were they swept under the carpet?

What ultimately happened?

Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.

Let’s say your relationship with your publisher has gone swimmingly through the editorial process. Your editor got you, and you got your editor. What a team!

Now your manuscript has been polished into a gleaming specimen, and it’s turned over to marketing where…no one seems to even know who you are. What to do, what to do…

First, I would suggest you be sure to bring your agent onto the scene to nose around and try to find what the disconnect might be. Hopefully that will solve the problem, and soon you’re at work with a marketing dream team.

But sometimes the agent can’t figure out why there’s a disconnect either. That means it’s time to begin your own marketing campaign–not to sell your book to readers but to sell you and your book to the marketing team.

Authors seldom seem to think of this as the solution, but if you know how to work at marketing your book and contributing to what the publisher has to offer, let the right folks know that you’re plugging away right along with them.

I took on a new client earlier this year who had published five books. One of my first tasks was to sit down with the editor and the head of marketing to find out what they thought of my client’s marketing skills. They thought she sucked at it.

Oops. So I asked the author what she had done to promote her last book. Wow, it was impressive. From calling on local bookstores and asking them to carry her book to online zany book contests that brought a good response, my client was out there, working every marketing angle I could think of.

“Sandy,” I asked, “how much of what you did was communicated to the marketing team?”

“Well, none I guess,” she responded. “I just thought they’d check my blog or my website and see what I was doing.”

Hello! Since when does a publishing team have time to regularly check what each author is doing to promote his or her book?

I gave my client an assignment: Every week, just drop a friendly email to her editor and the person in marketing who was running her campaign. List (no paragraphs with tons to read, but a list the reader could just scan) everything she had done in the past week to market her book.

What a change has occurred. The publisher is no longer grumbling that Sandy doesn’t contribute to the marketing of her books. Instead, the publisher is stepping up what is being done for Sandy because they realize she’s investing her own time and money.

So what’s the lesson to be learned from my client? You are the most important participant in your marketing. Put together a marketing plan for your next book and tell your publisher what that plan is. Then go for it!

Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.

As I was saying in my blog post yesterday, you can communicate not only inappropriate items to your publisher but, in addition, you can communicate too often. I’m in the middle of straightening out a publisher-author fracas because the publisher is just plain weary of hearing from the author. Every day, apparently, the author had new questions to ask about marketing/publicity, when the next contract might be offered, how the last manuscript turned in was received, etc.

The publisher, weary of being barraged with emails, came to me and said, “We give up. We’ve tried to be responsive, but really, we can’t devote this amount of time to answering one author’s questions.”One of the great aspects of having an agent is that the publisher depends on the agent at such relationally-defining moments  to step in and sort through the mess. Because, trust me, the publisher and the author have very different views of how the communication misfired.

The sad truth is that some agents won’t try to sort through the tangle. He or she believes the agent’s job ends when the contract is signed. At our agency, we believe the agent’s job is never done, even when no more money is coming from a project. We want to oversee the author’s career, and that includes taking care of relationship snafus.

What can we learn from my client’s mistake? That the publisher does not appreciate hearing from authors too often. If an author sends a nonstop stream of e-mails, even if they’re to different people at the publishing house, that author soon becomes thought of as a problem.

The author is seen either as way too insecure (and needing too many assurances) or way too pushy (and hoping that being pushy will result in more marketing/publicity or editorial feedback). But the publisher will hold an author at arm’s length in such instances, and the publisher will always win because the author needs the publisher more than the publisher needs the author.

If you think you’re over-communicating, consult with your agent, or ask your editor if the in-house folks think they’re hearing too often from you. Let it be known that you want to be sensitive to how much communication should take place.

If you have lots of issues to clarify, collect them over several days, put them in categories (marketing, publicity, editorial issues) and then send emails targeted to the best person for each category.

Can you think of a time someone has over-communicated with you? (Like maybe your toddler…) How did you respond? What would have made the relationship work better at that point? How might that apply to an author’s relationship with her or his publisher?

Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.

Since most of us will be out grilling, watching parades, and oohing and ahhing over fireworks on our grand Independence Day, this blog post will remain up  through Tuesday. Just so no one misses out, you know.

I’ve been thinking about an author’s relationship with his or her publisher recently, and it occurred to me that some of my clients have learned how to successfully maintain that relationship the hard way. So, to save some of you from those faux paus, lean in and listen (er, read) carefully.

Once a writer signs a publishing contract, everyone involved is dizzy with happiness. The editor, the marketing people, the sales reps, the author, and the agent are all like teenagers who have just met the dreamiest person–who is going on a date with them! The future looks positively, giddily full of  promise.

Because the writer feels (rightly so) affirmed in his or her writing ability and in the marketability of the project, everyone at the publishing house is like a new best friend to dream about the future with.

That perception is right…almost.

The folks at the publishing house are not your new best friends…they’re your new best colleagues.

So what does that mean? Here are six ways authors can show themselves presumptuous in the relationship:

• Do not assume that what you say to one person stays with that person. (This is not Las Vegas.) Everyone at the publisher’s works daily with everyone else. Okay, that seems obvious, but think about the repercussions of, say, complaining to your editor that the person who wrote your back cover copy is lame-brained. Why, that  might be the individual the editor has lunch with almost every day. Hmm, your comment might not go over well.
• Do not deride any other books your publisher has chosen to produce. Okay, so you think some very-famous-but-can’t-write-his-way-out-of-a-paper-bag author shouldn’t have been given the chance to show off his lack of skills–let alone have a mega marketing budget. Here’s the thing: That author might well be providing just the infusion of cash the publisher needs to be able to produce your book, and to pay for employee’s salaries.
• Do not confess that you don’t read any books in the genre you’re writing in. You have just proclaimed that you’re writing with blinders on. That you don’t even particularly like your genre. Especially if you admit this to your editor, red flags will start snapping in the wind for her. Oh, oh, you don’t know the “rules” for your genre; how can you produce the best manuscript? Just how much work will she have to do to pull you from the brink of disaster?
• Do not assume your publishing house will understand that you missed your deadline because you received a bigger advance for another project after signing a contract with this house. This is not a “family affair”; you have acted unprofessionally.
• Do not divulge that your wild weekend left you debilitated on Monday and unable to work. Sure, you think the person you’re talking to on the phone or writing an email to might have experienced a similar weekend. But you don’t know. And just because they did doesn’t mean it’s okay for you to have gone and done likewise. That individual might be offended–and that surely can’t do your image any good. Unless, of course, your book is about what a bad boy or girl you are. (Now, that’s an unlikely scenario.)

By the way, my clients haven’t fallen off of all of these cliffs, but I have seen other authors do so. Even if some of these scenarios seem far-fetched, I assure you they are not.

Ultimately, remember this: You have entered into a professional relationship. And while writing is a highly personal experience and many people at the publishing house will learn lots about you as they work with you, every one of them will always protect the publishing house over you. Always.

What errors have you seen other writers commit in relationships with publishing staff?

Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.

As the publishing industry experiences a sea change brought on by the Internet, e-readers, and the fluctuating economy,  I’ve observed that one segment of authors is especially feeling the affects of these changes.

Oh, sure, all categories of authors–those who consistently have significant sales; those who are mid-list; those who are newbies–have seen a dip in income and in sales figures. But in this risk-averse environment, publishers still are eager to sign up and to keep publishing the authors who are pretty much guaranteed to write books that will have strong performances.

Who can blame the publishers? They’re working hard to right their tipped sailboats, which were blown over by the recession. Why take a chance when you’re off-balance? Or when it’s hard to see what future winds will blow in your direction?

But publishers understand that producing books is a business of chance. If they don’t invest in the future, they’re nowhere. So debut authors still can create a buzz in a publishing house. It’s like discovering you’re pregnant (and you want to be). Who knows what wonderful things await this baby? The sky’s the limit!

Unfortunately, that leaves the mid-list author to take the majority of the hit when publishers downsize their publishing lists. That means authors who have been writing for 5, 10, even 15 years and have honed their craft and built a bit of a following, are considered the biggest risk of all. Why?

Because their low sales figures are trailing behind them like toilet paper stuck to their shoe soles. Sales reps know that, when they present these authors’ new projects, book buyers will say, “I’ve never sold more than a couple of copies for that author; so, with my limited shelf space, I’m going to pass.”

That’s a tough reality to know how to respond to.

So what’s a mid-list author to do?

• Talk to your agent. Brainstorm ideas with your agent about how to keep the wind in your career’s sails. And tell your agent how much money you need to make each year to keep writing. A few weeks ago I had this discussion with one of my clients, whom we’ll call Bob. Then I picked up the phone and called an editor at Bob’s publishing house. I explained that Bob might have to quit writing to make more money to support his family. The editor, who had been considering asking if Bob would co-author a project with a new writer who had a built-in audience, immediately presented the co-authoring idea to everyone involved. Within weeks, I had a new contract and an infusion of cash for Bob. Now, I hasten to add, no agent can pull that rabbit out of the hat on a regular basis. We don’t do magic. But if you just sit and stew, you certainly can’t resolve your concerns. Talk to your agent!
• Be open to writing work-for-hire. Yup, I know you didn’t sign up for that. I know you love writing whatever your creative muse bids you to. Why not think of work-for-hire as if it were a day job? When you started to write, if your family was dependent on your income, you had no choice but to take a day job and spend your early-morning, late-night, holiday , and vacation hours writing. Sometimes those projects are connected to a person or organization that has the ability to sell large quantities of books. If your name is attached to several successful ventures, you’re more likely to look like a winner worth backing to both publishers and to book buyers.
• Meet your deadlines. Publishers are using missed deadline as a contractually-acceptable reason to end a publishing relationship. Don’t play with fire! If you have a contract, do everything within your power, to fulfill the obligations you’ve agreed to.
• Think about a name change. I’ve never gone this route with a client, but with publishing as fickle as it presently is, I’m considering it.  If you’re a strong writer, but your numbers are lackluster, changing your byline gives you the new start you might be needing.
• Use your imagination to connect with readers and to keep your sales trajectory going up. Publishers look for upward movement; they don’t need to see sales figures increase by tens of thousands in one, grand leap.

I “get” why publishers are reluctant to continue relationships with stalled mid-list authors. I really do. But I also feel sad for the industry as a whole that many fine, deeply-invested writers are having to make difficult decisions about their careers. I would hope that more publishers would step forward and do something significant to help like the publisher who instituted a plan to keep Bob writing. After all, it isn’t just Bob who has invested years in his writing; so has his publisher.

What are your thoughts about the fluctuations publishing is experiencing? What are you or your friends doing to keep your writing financially viable?

Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.

The ultimate decision-maker in whether to offer a contract has changed over the past few years. Having done my share of presentations at publishing committees, I soon learned that, really, anyone can scuttle a project by vociferously offering negatives opinions about it. By the time that individual is through questioning the feasibility of making money on the book (which is the bottomline), the tide is likely to have turned against the project. But one individual on the committee has the power to sway others to his or her opinion more effectively than anyone else.

But before we dip into that pool of water, let me say that publishing committees are as unpredictable as the stock market. Sometimes the committee just isn’t in the mood to say yes. That can happen because:

• the committee has been meeting for three hours, and everyone is tired;
• the committee just said yes to several projects in a row and is realizing the book lineup is filling fast, leaving no space for unforeseen exciting opportunities;
• a general dyspeptic mood has settled on the crowd and nothing looks good, exciting, or new;
• truly nothing presented is especially good, exciting, or new.

Pretty crazy, huh? But it’s true.

Now, back to that one person (or group of individuals, depending on how large the committee is) who has the biggest say over which projects will receive a contract offer.  To put who that person is in context, let me start out by telling you who is on the committee (slight variations occur from house to house). Usually the committee consists of the vice president of editorial, the editorial director, editors who step into the meeting only long enough to present their projects (sometimes all the nonfiction editors will come in together or all the fiction editors), the vice president of marketing, and the head of the sales team. Some publishers have additional executives, the number-crunchers who will run the profit and loss statements on the potential projects, and assorted managers in marketing and sales.

The power to nix a project used to rest in marketing. If marketing didn’t see the uniqueness of the project or didn’t think they could launch a successful marketing/publicity campaign, then the project wasn’t going to get the thumbs up.

While marketing still has a major say, the real decision-makers are the individuals representing the sales team at the meeting. Yup, the sales reps are choosing what you and I read.

This shift occurred because, the committee reasoned, the sales reps are the ones who receive feedback from bookstore buyers and the buyers at the box stores. Who would know better how significant a buy-in the book would receive? Plus, if the sales team couldn’t figure out how to present a project in the few minutes (or seconds) they had to catch a buyer’s interest, then the book wasn’t  going to garner good numbers. If the sales team wasn’t confident they could sell the book into big venues, then the book wouldn’t be published.

The discussion around the table can be positive and moving toward a yes, but if the sales manager says the team won’t be able to sell the book, no argument can be mustered to change the course of events.

Now, here’s the question: Do you think it’s right for a committee to function this way? If not, what could be done about it? (I figure if BP is accepting suggestions from everyone for the oil spill, we should collect suggestions for publishers.)

Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.

So, if editors don’t have time to edit, which was the point of my last post, what do they do?

Foremost for you, an editor acts as an author’s in-house advocate. If some scuttlebutt ramps up in-house that the book you’re contracted to write is going to come in late, or has been completed but is rumored not to be what everyone hoped, your editor jumps into the fray to correct misconceptions, cover for you till you get your act together, and be your book’s in-house cheerleader. That’s why it can be deadly for your book if your editor leaves before your book is released: It just lost its major cheerleader.You might not realize it, but your editor is also the manager of your project. Every step of the publishing process is overseen by your editor. So if the creative staff come up with a cover you don’t like, your editor is the in-house person who speaks on your behalf. If the title is, in your opinion, all wrong, it’s your editor who conveys that thought to everyone else involved in the packaging process. (Often your agent will be threaded into the conversation as well and can be more insistent than you might be about the need for change.)

Your editor not only troubleshoots areas you might not be pleased with in the book’s development, but also offers his or her opinions on cover, back cover copy, title, interior design, font, etc. When I was an in-house editor, I was the person who initially made title and cover suggestions, and sometimes I rewrote back cover copy and catalog copy. Now, at some houses, editors aren’t allowed that kind of leeway, but no one at the publisher’s knows your project better than the editor–and no one has as close of a relationship with the author as the editor. It pays to keep your editor happy!

In addition to these tasks, the editor often (this will vary from publishing  house to publishing house) is simultaneously:

• acquiring new projects; reading potential proposals and manuscripts;
• traveling to writers conferences;
• meeting with key authors to brainstorm ideas;
• editing at least one manuscript but probably more;
• attending brainstorming sessions on titles;
• giving input on cover designs;
• looking at catalog copy;
• reading back cover copy;
• attending the requisite business meetings;
• presenting projects to the editorial committee, the publishing committee and often the sales reps…

Let’s see, what have I left out?

So if your editor doesn’t answer your phone calls right away, or doesn’t have time to give you feedback for five rewrites, you can see why. Today’s editor is stretched thin. Especially since the layoffs that occurred over the last few years. While the number of projects have been cut back, the layoffs meant everyone who remained had to take on more projects and more responsibilities.

Now, seriously, can you think of other tasks I’ve forgotten?

Out of the tasks an editor accomplishes, what surprises you?

What do you wish editors knew about the writing life? (Some editors read our blogs, so, go ahead, shout out your thoughts.)

What do you appreciate most about an editor you’ve worked with?

Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.

Because Memorial Day is a day of remembrance, I thought it would be interesting to think back to what publishing was like in, say, the 1980s. (Yes, that era  is so dead.) The other day, my assistant, Michelle, asked me how an editor’s role has changed since then. Some of my responses surprised her; so I thought it might be  helpful to you all to “listen in” to how I answered Michelle.

I’m going to start out by writing about the changes from the perspective of the author because, back in the ’80s, I morphed back and forth from editing to writing books. To set the stage, let me tell you the title of my first book: But Can She Type? In the book I examined unique qualities that I believed women brought to leadership positions in business.

The very title of the book shouts out one major change since the ’80s. Yes, I wrote the manuscript on a typewriter. It was electric and had a correction ribbon, but still…I have to say, typing a book is a major discourager to all wannabes.

I think we all would guess that technology has made a major difference in publishing, but my project portrays another change that has taken place. My publishing experience involved five major rewrites of the manuscript after it was contracted. Yes, five.

But Can She Type was published by InterVarsity Press, which takes each manuscript through a fairly rigorous process. If I remember correctly, the first round of rewrites involved my reviewing the critiques and suggestions of three reviewers who had a special interest in my topic, were college professors, etc. I also had what seemed like reams of comments from my in-house editor. Juggling so many perspectives on the manuscript felt like corralling five rambunctious toddlers.

After that major round of making changes, under my editor’s watchful eye, I painstakingly tightened, clarified, illuminated, excised, revamped and generally wrestled the manuscript to the ground through for four more rounds. I don’t think the manuscript was bad to begin with, or IVP never would have offered me a contract, but the publisher had a strong commitment to making a manuscript reach its potential.

I was sick of the book by the time it was all over. (Remember, I had to retype the manuscript with each round.)

So here are the questions my experience raises:

• When was the last time an editor had the luxury of grinding through five revisions with an author?
• Would a publisher today invest in five rewrites from a first-time author?
• Would the author be willing to rewrite five times?

I think the only question to garner a yes might be the last one.

Editors’ schedules are as tight as pickles stuffed in a jar. If the editor can’t move a manuscript onto the copy editor by a certain date, other projects the editor is supposed to be working on logjam. And then publication dates have to be moved; ads are run, but no books are available; publicity is scheduled that becomes meaningless; and sales reps have a title in the catalog that the publisher can’t deliver.

The ship is run much more tightly today, and leeway to work to make the manuscript everything it could be seldom exists–even if you’re a best-selling author. Actually, especially if you’re a best-selling author because the publisher is counting on your book to bring in the necessary funds to support the company’s structure. So the publisher’s commitment is to release the best-selling author’s title as quickly as possible to start the infusion of cash.

That’s part of the reason publishers are creating books of 500-some pages. Who has the time to hone the piece into the sharply focused book it could have been?

Now, my questions to you are: How many times have you rewritten your work in progress? What keeps you going? (I had a contract to nudge me forward–with the advance already spent, of course.)

Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.

I’ve spouted a number of opinions about how a writer can break out from the pack this week. I could have added so much more, including:

–the importance of knowing what’s happening in publishing. Not just in your genre, but also in the broader industry. Read professional blogs and publications that give industry trends. It helps you to know what the current climate is in publishing, and that will inherently inform your writing.

–pay attention to authors who suddenly break out. Study what they and/or their publisher did that made a difference.

–know who the leading authors are in your genre. Read them. Even if you think their writing isn’t as good as yours, set that aside and ask yourself why they’ve succeeded. Is it some marketing angle? Is it some type of appeal to readers?

–don’t assume that you are the first one to come up with your latest idea. There’s nothing new under the sun. From the get-go, think about how to go deep with your topic, go in a surprise direction with your characters (if you write fiction). And really study places like Amazon to see what’s already published so you can steer in a different direction.

What one thing can you do differently that will help you to break out?

Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.

Last week I spent most of my time working with clients in preparing proposals for submission to editors. As I interacted with various clients, I observed a truth I’ve seen time and time again–each of us has a preconceived notion about our projects that can make us intractable on certain points. And that inability to see a project with fresh eyes can keep us from finding a publisher for our work.

Two cases in point:

1. A client has a stunning idea with much potential. Tied to a key event in our country’s history, a book on this topic could make a significant contribution to the nation’s conversation. Yes, really. But the author is  convinced a publishing committee will understand the importance of such a book and therefore doesn’t  need to read the first two chapters of the book that set up the project’s importance. Instead, the author is submitting chapters starting with #3. May I just say that I have no confidence in an entire team at a publishing house “getting it”? My hope is that enough editors will ask for the first chapters to make my point. Wouldn’t it just be smarter to write those chapters?

2. Another client has a strong idea for a project, but the competition is stiff. I’m trying to get her to understand that she needs to more tightly focus her idea so it clearly is differentiated from books by well-known authors who have written on the same topic. But she’s so intent on her perception of her proposal that she can’t hear what I’m saying. It’s like deciding to open an ice cream shop but refusing to recognize that the three already established ice cream shops in town present a major roadblock to your success. Maybe you need to add clowns and free balloons to differentiate your shop. Whatever you choose, be smart about it; make your project stand out from a field crowded with celebs.

So what’s with this inability to listen? We all have blindsides, but these authors aren’t grasping that I’m pointing out significant issues that can make or break their next projects. It’s rather like the emperor who has no clothes. Plenty of folks will pretend right along with you that you’re regally garbed. And it can be dangerous to point out the, uh, naked truth, but somebody has to do it; wouldn’t you rather it be an astute critiquer or your agent–or even your mother–than an editor who chooses not to take your project to committee or a publishing committee that gives your project the thumbs down?

If you want to break out, you have to have a discerning ear: Whom should you listen to? Is it worth forcing yourself to put the brakes on your enthusiasm and refine your project? Or is the “naysayer” wrong, and you should barrel ahead full steam?

I’d say in the two examples I’ve just given that I’m not asking either writer to rethink an idea but to more thoroughly think about the idea. To take it to the next level. Now, that’s what makes a project one likely to break out–or break into a publishing.