Booksellers from coast to coast like craft cozies (traditional mysteries with a craft or hobby focus) and find them popular with their customers.

“Cozies in general, and those where the reader learns something new, are big for us and have been over 18 years. I have long been a supporter of the paperback original mystery books and these often fall into that column. I always thought that publishers were willing to take more risks in this category but the publishing landscape has changed. Still, it is a big favorite among women for whom reading is their principal form of entertainment and often they enjoy a craft or two,” says Mary Alice Gorman of Mystery Lovers Bookshop in Oakmont, PA.

“In our store we have two different kinds of mystery shoppers. One is going for a ‘pop’ mystery thriller like James Patterson or Vince Flynn, but the other wants to give something new a chance,” explains Brent Humphreys, book team leader at Davis Kidd Booksellers in Nashville TN. “These are some of our more loyal customers; they play a more critical part of an independent booksellers’ customer base. This type of person who comes for a specific read, whereas someone who buys the ‘pop’ mysteries is more of an impulse buyer. In other words, cozies drive traffic to our store.”

Craft cozy authors are a regular feature of many writers’ conferences, where they are popular panelists, appealing to fans of all ages and sexes. This year at Malice Domestic, the Killer Hobbies blog sisters appeared as a panel to discuss “the hobbies that drove them to murder.” (http://killerhobbies.blogspot.com) Among the authors’ many revelations came the admission that they take their crafts very seriously. “We’ve all seen how hobbies can heal,” said Camille Minichino (aka “Margaret Grace”) author of Mayhem in Miniature, one in a series of books about dollhouses. “Working on a favorite pastime can help people through times of stress, build bridges between the generations, and bring joy to life.”

Jim Huang of The Mystery Company in Carmel, IN, likes craft cozies enough to spotlight them this fall at Bouchercon. The huge fan conference will include an ongoing craft room where authors will demonstrate crafts all day and invite attendees to try their hand at a new hobby. “Crafts have brought generations of women together," Jim said, "The craft room may be new to the convention experience, but the familiar ritual of working together on a project will help readers and writers to connect in a comfortable environment."

Bringing generations together is another special feature of craft cozies. Many of our books are “clean” enough for parents to share with their teens. Our genre maintains a taboo on explicit sex, shocking violence, gore and other staples of more mainstream mysteries. In short, we’re called “cozies” because we offer a cozy reading experience.

“I think it’s only natural that crafts and cozy mysteries have found a successful coupling, all in the word cozy,” explains Jessica Faust of BookEnds, LLC, A Literary Agency. “The crafts that seem to resonate most with readers are those that are the most cozy—anything relating to yarn or needlework for example, or any craft that can be done in that same cushy chair in front of the fire. The rise in popularity of knitting among not just crafters, but anyone and everyone made the knitting mysteries a natural hook and that’s ultimately what publishers are looking for, a craft that transcends the crafting community and extends to anyone looking to take up a new hobby or learn a new skill.”
            
Ah, so the authors of cozies have two missions: We must teach a new skill and write a good story. Next week I’ll share with you some of the ongoing industry research that a successful craft cozy demands.

Posted by: Joanna Campbell Slan

Something memorable happened to me years ago in a bookstore in the ocean resort of East Hampton, NY. No, it wasn’t meeting Peter Matthiessen (a founder of The Paris Review and recipient of the National Book Award for The Snow Leopard) rearranging the display of his amazing trilogy Killing Mr. Watson, Lost Man’s River and Bone by Bone. Nor was it bumping into Billy Joel in the addictions section. I encountered what I think is that rare bird, a “handseller.” Why so memorable? Because if that’s what it was, I haven’t seen one since.

It was summer and I decided to read as many books as I could about the Vietnam War while rotating in the sun at Georgica Beach. I’d pushed through Winston Groom’s Forrest Gump and Better Times Than These, John Del Vecchio’s The 13th Valley, Philip Caputo’s A Rumor of War, Tim O’Brien’s Going After Cacciato, Michael Herr’s Dispatches, and was searching the local bookstore for Francis Fitzgerald’s Fire in the Lake. At some point a young woman, who had been sorting and shelving books when I walked in, turned to me and offered to help. When I mentioned Fire in the Lake, she knew immediately that the bookstore didn’t have a copy. After we chatted briefly about the books in which I was interested, she offered to order Fire in the Lake or any other book I thought I might like to read on the subject of Vietnam, and she made some recommendations about additional titles. I told her not to bother to order Fire in the Lake. I thought I’d just pick up a copy at the B&N on Fifth Avenue and 17th Street in New York City.

About three weeks later, I walked back into BookHampton. This same woman was sitting at the cash register. When she saw me, she lit up, reached under the counter, pulled out a book and waved it at me. You guessed it: Fire in the Lake! She hadn’t known my name. She hadn’t known if I’d ever be back in the store, but she had special ordered this book and reserved it for me: “Save for tall woman with great tan.” I bought the book. Handseller?

Before I switched over to the business side of publishing, I’d just finished my third nonfiction book and completed a 16-city tour organized by St. Martin’s Press. No matter how tired and disoriented I was on this tour—running from TV show to radio station to local newspaper to airport—I managed to locate the local bookstores and do what every other author does: sneak around, look for my titles, and turn them cover face out. (Guilty, as charged!) Not once during that entire process did anyone ever walk up to me and offer to help me find a book.

Lo, these many years later, I can honestly say my experience in quaint BookHampton remains unique, unless you want to count the time I stumbled across a shelf filled with employee recommended books in Barnes & Noble on Sixth Avenue in New York City. Each book had a brief, handwritten synopsis and a few personal comments about why this book was so liked by the employee. I bought Mikal Gilmore’s Shot in the Heart through the recommendation of what I’ll describe as a variation of handseller. Shot in the Heart was a gripping book and a real page turner. It was written by Gary Gilmore’s younger brother. You remember Gary Gilmore? He requested a firing squad for his execution…and he got just what he asked for. Last time I looked, that shelf was gone.

Wandering a bookstore, clearly looking like I am browsing for something appealing, should bring a handseller trotting over. (I’d even welcome a recommendation for another book at point-of-sale.) I’m just not sure what one looks like because sightings are as rare as those of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker in Arkansas. I’ve heard they exist, but the sightings are suspect. I don’t come across them in the independent bookstores and I certainly never see them in the bookstores like Barnes & Noble or Borders. In fact, I have to track those guys down and wrestle them to the floor if I want help, then it’s: “Let me check the computer to see if we have it…. Next customer.”

Actually, come to think of it, I was a handseller once! I was nosing through the display of new fiction titles at B&N alongside two women about my age who were trying to figure out what to buy for one of their mothers. I reached for Isabel Allende’s Daughter of Fortune and said, “My mother just loved this book.” Sold!

My personal experience leads me to believe that handsellers are on the endangered species list, and very close to extinction.

Posted by: Lynne Scanlon

I've been howling for years about the spinelessness of the US book publishing industry when it comes to "returns" from bookstores. US books are not "sold" to bookstores; US books are essentially on consignment at US bookstores.

My nonfiction books have sold in excess of 600,000 (count 'em) copies. Yet, that is a bogus figure because, according to industry statistics, 40% of my books that were "sold" to bookstores were actually returned by the bookstores. In other words my books have shipped a lot more than 600,000 copies!

I have a "reversal of rights" for all my now long-out-of-print books, yet for years my publishers (HarperCollins, St. Martin's Press, Berkley Books) kept accepting copies back from the bookstores.

"Reserve against returns," that nasty little clause in contracts to which authors have to agree, assures that even moderately successful writers will have to keep eating rice out of the back of the cabinets while knowing that the publishing house is holding back cold hard cash.

Why can't the US be more like New Zealand?

Richard Charkin, former CEO of Macmillan Limited London, visited New Zealand bookstores, and when he returned to the UK, he wrote in his blog:

"When a bookshop orders a book, the responsibility for selling it is theirs. If it does not sell, the cost of the mistake belongs to the bookseller not to the author."

"Are there millions of unsold books washing around New Zealand bookshops? No. Booksellers have had to develop a sense of their market and they have - New Zealand booksellers are the best in the world and they sell the most books per head in the English-speaking world."

What's the message here?

Are publishers so intimidated by the major chains like Barnes & Noble, Booksamillion, and Borders Books and the independent bookstores that publishers can't find the spine to say: Too late! You bought 'em. You keep 'em. You sell 'em.

What does the vendor contract say about the date after which books may not be returned? Who is looking the other way when these books are allowed in the back door of the distribution centers?

I remember calling my editor and asking why in the world my books were being returned years after they had shipped. The answer I got was "that's the way it is."

Stop it! Stop it and bookstores will pick books more judiciously. Stop it and the publishing industry will begin a long-needed self-correction.

As an author, I'd much rather know a royalty due is a royalty paid. As a publisher, I'd much rather know a sale is a sale.

Posted by: Lynne Scanlon

I hate to admit it, but graphic novels can be a problem.

The librarians of Marshall, Missouri, know the problem too well. “Does this community want our public library to continue to use tax dollars to purchase pornography?” Marshall resident Louise Mills asked the city council in October of 2006. She was referring to two award-winning graphic novels: Blankets, Craig Thompson’s tale of first love and sexual awakening, and Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, Alison Bechdel’s memories of (among other things) her father’s homosexuality and her own. The library pulled the books from its shelves and didn’t return them until March of 2007. The controversy led the library’s board of directors to create a new set of standards for selecting books.

More scary was the Gordon Lee arrest. Lee’s a comics retailer in Rome, Georgia. For Halloween 2004, Lee didn’t give out candy; he gave out comic books. Unfortunately, he accidentally gave one boy a copy of Alternative Comics #2. The issue included a story featuring Pablo Picasso in the nude. Lee tried to apologize, but the cops charged him with distributing obscene material to a minor. The resulting controversy and trials slogged on until April 2008, when Judge Larry Salmon agreed to dismiss the case.

How can you avoid problems like these, especially if you’re not a deep-dyed expert in all things comics?

Librarians experienced in these things suggest treating graphic novels like any other books. “One of the biggest ways that librarians can reduce the problems is to have graphic novels in the appropriate areas, by age,” says Nick Smith of southern California’s Pasadena Public Library. Los Angeles County Librarian Margaret Donnellan Todd explains, “The graphic novels in the children's collection are evaluated for the collection using our criteria for our children's materials. Young adult graphic novels are catalogued and shelved in the sections identified as Teen or Young Teen. These books are evaluated to meet our criteria for those age groups. Adult graphic novels are catalogued in our adult collection and meet our collection criteria for the adult collection.”

“You don't have to have read every book that comes into your collection,” Nick Smith adds, “but you should have general guidelines on why you purchase things, and what sources you use to learn about them.” ForeWord reviews graphic novels, for instance, and so does Library Journal. Diamond Comics Distributors, which dominates the delivery of comics to shops, has a number of resources for librarians. Bill Schanes, Diamond’s vice president of purchasing, recommends the Bookshelf section of Diamond’s website. In particular, check out Bookshelf’s Graphic Novels for Your Library page.

Some of the best sources of information are your local comics retailers. A few, like Nancy McCann of southern California’s Comics Unlimited, have even been librarians themselves. You can find the nearest retailers by calling the Comic Shop Locator Service (CSLS) at 888-COMIC BOOK (888-266-4226), visiting the CSLS web page, or using the master list of comic book stores.
 
If you can’t find a local shop that suits you, worry not. The Comic Book Industry Alliance, a group of retailers and other comics professionals, has a number of members willing to advise librarians nearby or far away. Among them:

• Rick Lowell of Maine’s Casablanca Comics: comics@casablancacomics.com or 207-780-1676.
• Gail Burt of southern California’s Metropolis Comics: metrohero@gmail.com or 562-263-0277.
• Mick Galuski of Toy Soldier Games and Comics in Amesbury, Massachusetts: galuski@gmail.com or 978-388-2512.

In addition, says Gary Dills of Virginia’s Phoenix Comics, “We are currently working with our local librarians to build a resource for reviews and content warnings for teachers and librarians. This site will feature reviews by librarians, teachers, and consumers with ways that the material has been used in the classroom and how often they are checked out of the library.”

To play it as safe as possible, some librarians buy their graphic novels directly from the stores. Phil Boyle of Florida’s Coliseum of Comics retail chain says, “We offered libraries the option to return any book before they put it on the floor if they felt it was not something they were comfortable with. We had many take us up on the offer and we exchanged the books for items that were appropriate.”

So relax. You don’t have to face an angry city council meeting or wake up to find a warrant for your arrest.
 
And a good thing, too. In the words of Joan Kramer, coordinating field librarian for the Los Angeles Unified School District, “All I can tell you is, graphic novels are here to stay.”

Posted by: David Seidman

While Jules Verne was pretty good at predicting the future, I usually dismiss modern-day prognosticators. They don’t seem to get it right when it comes to politics, stocks, or bestsellers. On the other hand, since this is my blog—and I’m not going to write about politics, stocks, or bestsellers—what the hell. We live in an age of technological wonders. It seems that breakthroughs in the field of digital electronics occur every selling season like clockwork. I have now discovered that the television I currently have hooked up to cable at my home will shortly need another electronic gizmo to work. All of this has got me thinking about where the book publishing business will be in about twenty years. I use the period of twenty years because that usually connotes the space between generations.

As a baby boomer, I grew up reading books printed on paper—not unlike the last hundreds of generations before me. However, I now find myself living in the “digital” age—an age in which I keep missing all those seminars on “Publishing in the Digital Age.” I know it’s coming, but I don’t think it’s just around the corner. Let me tell you why.

When I was growing up, I used to listen to AM stations—that is, until FM started playing rock ’n roll (in stereo, no less!). From there, it was on to 8-track players (and some really interesting wardrobe choices) and then cassette tapes. This was followed by CDs, which were followed by  MP3 players, iPods and downloads—and this was all happening just in my car. And you wonder why the music business is in such a mess.

As my generation grew up, music was such an integral part of our lives that we were always looking for that perfect sound. If the equipment we were listening to became obsolete in a few years—or until the car’s lease was up—that was perfectly okay; we’d accept the change and move on. As a generation, we were trained to accept change in order to keep up with the latest musical-producing device.

Yet as much as our musical equipment changed, books remained an unchanged product, allowing only for the development of “books-on-tape.” My generation and then Generation X simply did not have any other choices to select from. Today, however, things have changed. We have e-books, downloads, and handheld reading devices; none of which seem to excite my generation and the X-ers. Of course, paying $299 to $399 for a device that needs to be constantly recharged, is easily broken, lost, or stolen also doesn’t seem like a big plus. The fact is that the generations not raised on GameBoy is not likely to give up their paper books now or perhaps even later—unless the technology begins to encompass a whole lot more than books and drops its price to below $99.

On the other hand, the younger generation out there who were raised on electronic games may absolutely embrace these advancements. However, since they still need to graduate high school and get jobs (good luck to them.), we will not see any dramatic acceptance of these products for at least the next ten years. I therefore predict that our use of traditional paperbound books will continue to remain steady for as long as the Boomers and the Gen X-ers continue to buy books.

What will change dramatically over the next few years, in my opinion, is how that “paper” book will be produced and delivered to its readers. This will change the publishing industry as we know it and impact greatly on retailers of all printed matter. Am I starting to sound like Nostradamus yet? With the development of digital printing a few years back, the printing industry went through a great deal of change and upheaval trying to keep up with the new emerging technologies. Today, we have POD (print-on-demand) presses that can produce one book at a time. This has produced an enormous amount of new books to become available (if not actually sold) online. And as this technology is refined, the machines producing the books will become smaller and more sophisticated. What we will have is a single machine capable of printing and collating the interior text in black and white; printing a color cover; and binding the interior to the cover to produce one commercial-looking, single bound paperback. And that future is already here in the form of the Espresso Book Machine, a complete one-stop printer capable of storing thousands of titles in its memory bank—and that will eventually change everything.

While the bookstore still has its share of bestsellers and perennial backlist titles on its shelves, it will also have several machines capable of printing almost every book ever published in any language requested. Should any of the bookstores’ shelved stock sell out, the manager simply prints out what’s ever needed. Libraries will have the machines available for its patrons--as will supermarkets, health food stores, drug stores, toy shops, or any other retailers that cater to any niche market(s). Publishers themselves will have these machines to produce review copies whenever needed.

The economic model for publishers should improve as well. As a book is electronically purchased, a percentage will be paid directly into a publisher’s and/or author’s account. While this amount may be smaller than the traditional revenue made, the savings for the publishers will more than offset the smaller profit.  No longer will publishers have to spend money maintaining stocked inventory, warehousing, or shipping. Nor will they have to contend with returns, damaged books, or overstocks. The system of distribution will become completely electronic. No book will ever be out of stock. For the first time, smaller independent publishers will be able to compete with mega-publishers on an even playing fair.

And of course, as with the coming of the automobile and its impact on the horse carriage trade, there will be changes in the industry that rely on the old book publishing model. The need for distributors and wholesalers will be greatly reduced, as will the need for traditional book printers. Online booksellers will take a beating—unless Amazon chooses to buy Borders (but we’ll leave that for a future blog). And as these industries may devolve or evolve, new ones will emerge to meet the new economic models to come.

The fact is we are definitely living in a time of great change. However, we still have a long way to go to get to that future. And, of course, I could always be wrong. But hey, that’s what happens when you make predictions.  

Posted by: Rudy Shur

The first time I had met Len Riggio—well, maybe not so much met him as heard him—was in the early 1970s. I was the New York City field rep for the William C. Brown Publishing Company, a college textbook publisher. Len was the owner of the off-campus NYU bookstore. One of my tasks was to visit college bookstores and learn which titles had been adopted for various courses. To do this, I needed to schmooze store managers, and ask nicely if I could look through the textbooks on the store shelves. The books were usually arranged by department and course number so they were relatively easy to identify. As I walked into this particular bookstore, I noticed that there were no customers. I also noticed there were no salespeople. I was in downtown Manhattan in the middle of the afternoon, and the bookstore was devoid of people.

“Hello! Anyone here?” I called out.  No response. I proceeded to the back of the store. “Hello! Is anybody home? . . .” Nothing. I walked back to the middle of the store thinking this just wasn’t right. As I was about to repeat my hello, I heard some muffled noises coming from behind a large closed door to my right. I began thinking, Great, either I’ve just walked into a robbery in process or I’m on Candid Camera (yesterday’s version of Punked). Hoping for a possible shot on TV, I slowly opened the door . . . and was greeted with a barrage of expletives that floated up from a stairwell. Obviously something was going on in the basement below. As I called down to ask if the store was open, a man holding a big box of books appeared and began making his way up the stairs. “Look kid” (I was actually a kid then), he said, “we just had a flood in the basement, and I’m a little busy.” I told him I was with a publisher and asked if I could help. He handed over the box of books, pointed to a space against the wall, and told me to put it there. Then he turned immediately and headed back downstairs.

I took off my jacket, and waited at the top of the stairs for the guy to reappear. As I waited, all I could hear was the angry voice of some man barking out orders amidst a sea of colorful curses. As I was handed the second box, I asked the guy, “Who is that down there?” “That’s the owner,” he replied, “and I don’t think he’s too happy.” I stayed there for several more trips, and as I waited, I could hear the guy who was lugging the boxes repeatedly say to the owner, “Lenny. Relax!” Needless to say, Lenny did not relax.

Some time later, I learned that that bookstore had closed, and I figured I was never going to have the chance to meet Lenny. Shortly after, the original Barnes & Noble bookstore declared bankruptcy and all of its assets were up for auction. A Publishers Weekly article spelled out who had bought what: The name and titles of the Barnes & Noble publishing house had been purchased by Harper & Row, and the bookstore itself was bought by a group that was headed by a Mr. Leonard Riggio, the former owner of—you guessed it—the off-campus NYU bookstore. And the rest is history.

So what’s the point? After facing difficulties and setbacks in his own bookshop, Len Riggio took a bankrupt business and turned it into this country’s largest bookstore chain. The flood in his basement didn’t stop him, nor did the eventual closing of that bookstore. He had the vision, the energy, the experience, and the guts to do it again—and this time he did it right. So what does this have to do with independents in the book business? Plenty.

Over the years, I’ve heard indie publishers and bookstore owners actually admit that they love books, but hate marketing them. And they wonder why large corporate giants continue to beat their brains in. If independents intend to be successful in this business, they not only have to love books, they have to learn to embrace every aspect of marketing. If one strategy doesn’t work, try another. Learn from both your successes and failures. If you want to have a viable operation, look at what other successful entrepreneurs do--learn from them. Energy that is directed towards the right vision can make it happen, just like it happened for Len.

As a book publisher, I can’t tell you how many of my authors have had signings at bookstores that turned out to be disasters--embarrassments for them, and a loss of potential sales for the bookstores. Yes, putting up a poster telling customers about an upcoming book signing is a good start, but for most bookstores, it’s also the only marketing they will do. Typically, bookstore owners are thinking “Hey, shouldn’t marketing be the job of the publisher and author?” Perhaps it is, but shouldn’t driving more customers into the store be an owner’s top priority? Do you think it’s a coincidence that the most successful indie bookstores also have the biggest turnouts for a majority of their book signings? And not just for big-name authors! Even their lesser-known authors draw sizeable crowds. Again, with proper marketing, they make it happen--all it takes is energy and vision.

Now I don’t claim to be the smartest business person in the book business, but as an independent publisher, I have always tried to learn from those who failed (avoiding the pitfalls that brought them down) and from those who have succeeded (borrowing their good ideas). As an indie in the book industry, if you intend to stay in business during today’s down-turned economy, you should always remember that no matter how flooded your basement gets, you must never allow it to drown your dreams.

Posted by: Rudy Shur

Warning — May Cause Nightmares.

Book industry numbers are cold-sweat terrifying for publishers and authors alike. According to Nielsen Bookscan, 3,000 books are published per day in the United States alone (as reported on www.deadlyprose.com). ForeWord can review at most a few thousand per year. Publishers report an average of 2,100 submissions per year, totaling 132 million submissions. Just under one percent are accepted for publication.

In the face of these staggering odds, is there any hope for authors and publishers?

The Majority of Books Sell Fewer than 99 Copies
Of the 1.2 million titles tracked by Bookscan in 2006, only 2.1% sold more than 5,000 books, 16.6% sold fewer than 1,000, and a terrifying 79.6% sold fewer than 99 copies. The 99 copies are no doubt the reason only one percent of authors’ submissions make it through the arduous publisher-review process.

This is all the stuff of wake-in-a-sweat nightmares: 63,000 publishers vie for readers with their wonderful author lists (according to Dan Poynter’s ParaPublishing.com).

The terror is no less for authors: only six conglomerate publishers publish fewer and fewer debut authors and less and less fiction. Then the real horror story commences as a book makes it into distribution. The bestseller dreams of authors and publishers are splashed with the cold water of real numbers.

Negative or Naïve?
Am I being negative or naïve? Perhaps both. The naïve part of the equation is my firm belief there are ways to break through these barriers to success. Kunati  was founded with this goal in mind, and has proven it can work.

Heather Shaw touched on one important element of the success formula in her insightful Blog on book covers. When competing with 1.2 million titles, first impressions (impact) and credibility are vital. These are the twin functions of a cover.

What Works for Selling Books?
Websites, book videos and novel trailers, author critique groups, social marketing, author Blog tours, old-fashioned but still-important book signings, and publicity are the proven methods for marketing. I hope to focus on these in future Publisher Insider Blogs in a more how-to format.

Innovation begins with a study of what works. Read every Blog in the ForeWord archive and every article in the magazine. Visit the sites of successful publishers—the innovative publishers who lead with new ideas such as novel trailers, Blog touring, online publicity. (hint, hint, Kunati). Read every page on sites from innovative publishers.

Getting Noticed is the Primary Goal
My message is simple. With these horrifying numbers, being noticed is almost the only thing that matters—for both authors and publishers. Many authors are creative, even brilliant, yet if they can’t market their “author brand” no publisher is interested.

The publisher faces an epic battle analogous to a Tolkien quest to get attention in the marketplace. The publisher must build the authors’ brands, edit the manuscripts for the market, arrange distribution, obtain reviews from magazines (which choose from millions), then sell to wholesalers, retailers and finally readers.

The Retailer
How does a retailer choose which titles to carry? The average retailer chooses to stock a few thousand copies per year, far less than 1% of the titles available—similar in numbers to the reviews published annually by ForeWord. That’s not a coincidence.

Publisher and author success relies on buzz, which is a combination of review exposure, social networking, book cover designs, author activities such as Blogs and signings (the two types of touring, virtual and tangible). The last part of the equation is wonderful content.

Innovative Authors Look Beyond Good Prose
With the knowledge that more than 80% of books published are going to fail, how can a publisher risk taking on new, unproven property? How can an author convince a publisher to take them on?

There are certain musts in an author presentation, and in our evaluation of the author:
• Is the query well-written? An author who doesn’t polish a query until it becomes the choicest morsel of prose ever written has no chance at all.
• Is the idea compelling? Yes, tell us the comparables (claims of being the next Da Vinci Code or Harry Potter are overused though!), but what’s the UNIQUE aspect—the high concept. No matter how small, there must be one.
• The sample chapters? Same story. If those three chapters aren’t pure masterpiece, the editor will tend to move on.
• Did they read the submission guidelines on the website? One mistake here disqualifies most authors. Take the time to study your prospective publisher.

Innovative Publishers Look Beyond Agents
Unlike many publishers, Kunati accepts un-agented submissions by email. How can we do this, given the awful odds against a new author’s success?

We certainly acquire agented manuscripts, but the creative-process required for an author to pitch a manuscript is clearest sign of ambition, drive and creativity. We believe in the un-agented submission. It allows the author to prove they can develop their author “brand.” Other things we look for:
• Is the author realistic about his/her prospects?
• Is the author able to work with the publisher at making the book as marketable as possible? Considering the numbers, this might be the most important of all.
• These days, we also look for authors who are savvy about online marketing, blogging, MySpace and social marketing, and who are not shy about public appearances. Some writers are notoriously shy, preferring to hide behind their keyboard.

Successfully Marketing Books Require a Publisher-Author Partnership.
The truth is, only bestselling authors receive major publishing support in marketing. A publisher’s first duty is to market to the trade. That’s a big job. Stores stock thousands out of the millions of titles. Just getting the books into distribution is monumental. Trade ads, reviews, advance reading copies, publicity, great book covers, strong web presence, book trailers—these all help. Even the big conglomerate publishers typically stop there. There’s not much in the way of marketing dollars left for end-reader marketing for 90% of authors. Hand-selling from retailers and buzz becomes the key to success.

Hand-selling and Buzz
Book selling is still very much a word-of-mouth business. Readers don’t always respond to what we think they will. Social marketing, in all its aspects, it the true secret of any book’s success. Books can become bestsellers when just one influential person finds it and starts buzzing (Oprah will do.)  Social marketing involves building a broad network of friends.

Ultimately, the true secret to publishing success is a strong partnership between authors and publishers, working together to create buzz. This is a big topic, and the subject of next week’s Blog.

Posted by: Derek Armstrong

Fifteen years ago, Barnes & Noble revolutionized book-selling with the creation of its superstores, of which there are now more than 600 nationwide. Customers, even those in Gotham City, were agog! Soaring spaces, couches, coffee, confections at the checkout counter. You can lie on the floor, troll 100,000 titles, drink a latte… how good does life get? (Granted, superstores were modeled on leading independent stores like The Tattered Cover in Denver. And why not?)

Unfortunately, magnificent as the stores are, the total sale of books in the US continues its decade-long stagnation. Something had to give, and smaller independent bookstores started to drop like flies. This situation went public with the release of Warner Brothers’ picture “You’ve Got Mail” in which Tom Hanks played some version of L,S, or E, and the ever adorable Meg Ryan personified the beleaguered bookstore owner, who then sleeps with the enemy.

For a decade, the horizon for independent stores was increasingly dark, but over the last few years, a new day seems to be dawning. Strangely enough, this has at first blush nothing to do with the publishing industry itself. Rather, melting ice caps, mad cow’s disease, fatal pharmaceuticals, predation by box stores, have curiously combined to create a growing revolution in social attitudes.

Back to the Sixties, to the whole earth catalogue to “The Greening of America.” It now appears that “small,” “independent,” “sustainable,” “LOCAL” are becoming watchwords of a increasingly worried citizenry looking for a more stable and safer world for themselves and especially their children and grandchildren. As the amazing CEO of Stonybrook farms, Gary Hirschberg (Hirschberg charmingly means “cherry mountain” in German) pointed out in his solution-rich presentation about our environmental problems at the winter conference of the American Bookseller Association (independent stores) last week in Louisville, KY (gasp, breathe)… 2050 is here! Our kids and grandkids are going to be there, and we have both the responsibility and the means to make sure the earth returns to being happy and habitable half way through this century.

And, according to Avin Domnitz, CEO of the ABA, this presents an enormous opportunity for independent bookstores to be leaders in their communities! To gather together the local drug store, hardware store, grocery, et. al. into a unified voice for a civil and sustainable way of life. Avin was equally great, a spontaneous speech redolent of the campaign trail, which had listeners at the edge of their seats.

Posted by: Jim Lichtenberg