Jane Dystel on when to submit to publishers

So many of my clients ask me when the right time is to submit their proposals to publishers. Are there times of year when things quiet down? Is there a perfect time to submit a first novel, a self help book, or a proposal for a wonderful memoir? Here are a few thoughts.

There used to be a time some years ago when things really did quiet down in the summer, and I would advise that very few (at least multiple) submissions go out then because it was so difficult to get a group of publishers who were not out on vacation. I don’t believe that any more. Certainly it is more difficult to get a group of twenty editors that are all in their offices at the same time during June, July and August, but the business is so competitive that I now consider the summer almost as busy as other times of year. Because summer is a time for beach reading, I do tend to submit material that I feel is “lighter” – romance, commercial fiction, thrillers, mysteries – books of that sort.

Right after Labor Day is “back to school” in so many ways. Everyone has returned from vacation, and it is a very active and competitive time for multiple submissions. This is one of the best times of year to get an editor’s attention – and we do try to take advantage of this. This selling period, though, is relatively short. In mid November, things really slow down in anticipation of Thanksgiving, most company’s sales meetings and the Christmas and New Years holidays. At this time of year, I tend to submit option titles, but many fewer multiple submissions.

I have always found the first four months of the year to be the busiest and most productive in terms of sales. I work towards getting my clients’ proposals ready for submission at that time – self help at the very beginning of the year, important fiction and non fiction afterwards. This period slows right around Memorial Day and BEA (that’s the big national book expo for the uninitiated) and then picks up again with the summer reading submissions.

Of course all that I have said here can be altered for the sure fire bestseller which can be sent out anytime. I have sold books for 7 figures during the dog days of summer, and I remember one Christmas period when I sold over 10 books.

Having guidelines, though, does help my clients to know the ebb and flow of the submission process; these also help us in advising them on what to do when.

Lauren Abramo's thoughts about writers conferences

So Jim McCarthy talked to you all last year about writers’ conferences, but with conference season in full swing it seems like a good time to come back to it!

I’ve been to two writers’ conferences so far this year (the Writers’ League of Texas conference in Austin and was at The Writers’ Institute in Madison), and it looks like that’ll probably it for me till 2009. It’s a light year for me, but between all the agents here we have attended or will attend nearly 20 conferences in 2008—that’s a lot of weekends away and extra reading material!

While we’re never hurting for new submissions to read, we’ve been pretty successful finding new clients at conferences. Off the top of my head, I can tell you our own Tom DeWolf, Richelle Mead, and Suzanne Selfors all first met people at the agency at the Pacific Northwest Writers Association (PNWA) conference. Just this year, Michael Bourret met Jill Alexander at The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) conference—and her book then sold to an editor she met at the same conference! And Jim McCarthy and I are both going out to editors soon with projects from writers we met at conferences.

Of course, the truth is, we don’t sign someone up from every conference we attend. There’s no magic number, no quota. If we love it and believe we can sell it, we’re taking it on. Likewise, if it’s not right for us—much as we really enjoy meeting writers face-to-face in a business that increasingly involves bonding with our computer screens—that face time isn’t going to change our minds. As always, what it comes down to is what’s on the page.

Knowing we may not find any new clients, we still find it worth it to go to conferences each year. For one, free travel is one of life’s great joys. We also enjoy the opportunity to meet with other agents and with editors—it’s truly strange how many people live a couple stops away from me on the train whom I’ve only ever spent time with while halfway across the country!

All that aside, though, we really appreciate the opportunity to share what we know about the business with authors who are eager for the information (hence this blog, really). An author who understands how things work in publishing is good for all the rest of us in the business. When we go to conferences, we sit on panels, do Q&As, answer general questions in pitch sessions and at luncheons, and attempt to help writers figure out just what it means when you take the work you’ve done for you and try to turn it into something others will read. And not only that, but we learn from what we hear, too. It can be really edifying to sit on a panel with a book reviewer or publicist and hear their take on the questions we know from the agents’ and editors’ sides.

And why should you go? Well, if you’re wondering how to get started, how things work, and what to do next, a writers’ conference just might be the help you need. If you have a completed novel or nonfiction proposal ready to shop, by all means take advantage of the pitch session opportunity that a writers’ conference provides. Don’t go expecting a ton of feedback or a detailed critique —it’s hard to tell much of anything from a pitch—but consider it an opportunity to capture our attention more easily than you might in the slush pile.

But more than that, go to learn. Go to attend workshops and panels. Go to meet agents, editors and other industry professionals (and learn that we’re not nearly as scary as you might think). Go to network with other writers in your area.

And don’t feel like you absolutely need to attend one. Plenty of authors are published each year who’ve never attended a conference, so while it can certainly be helpful, it’s not a must.

So to those of you who attended conferences for the first time this year, what did you think? Would you go back and would you encourage your fellow DGLM blog readers to try it out?

Michael Bourret asks, "What's in an advance?"

If there’s any topic in publishing that’s the most controversial, it has to be the advance. For those not in the know, in the most basic terms, this is the money the publisher pays an author for the right to publish his book. The advance is paid “against royalties,” meaning that an author must “earn out” his advance through book sales before he starts making money above and beyond the advance. That said, you do not have to pay the publisher back should you not earn out your advance (despite what you may read elsewhere on the internet).

Now, let’s be honest: we all like to make money, and I’m sure we’d all be happy if all books had million dollar advances, but those super-sized advances are rare. Advances (for first books) range from the nonexistent (literally zero dollars) to several million (for certain public figures), and they can fall anywhere in between.

I think what’s most of interest to authors, though, is how publishers decide what to pay. Generally, they do a P&L (profit and loss statement), where editors enter all sorts of information: the projected trim size, price point, royalty rate, and estimated first year sales based on comparative titles and their performance. By doing a little bit of math, they figure out what they think they can pay as an advance that will be earned out. Then they offer you less than that. That way, if you have any sort of leverage, they’ll have room to raise their offer while still being in their comfort zone. At many houses, the sales and marketing departments review the P&Ls and add their two cents. They can quickly kill any house interest if they don’t think the book works – after all, they have to sell it. But they can also up the numbers based on what they think they can do with a project.

Competitive bidding situations can certainly affect the limits that publishers have, but even then, they have a maximum advance calculated. No matter the enthusiasm or excitement about a book, the advance offered is a business decision.

But what, you ask, is a good advance? “Good advance” means different things to different people. Some authors want the largest advance possible, thinking it will mean instant superstardom. But as many writers can attest, a big advance doesn’t necessarily mean big sales. So, some people think a good advance is a modest advance, since this means that it is more likely that the advance will be earned out. And, a publishing career is based on expectations. If you’ve received a million dollar advance and sell 20,000 copies, you’re a failure. Selling that next book suddenly looks a whole lot harder. If you receive a $5,000 advance and sell 20,000 copies, the publisher will be clamoring for your next one – and you’ll be asking for more than $5,000!

The idea most people have is that the books with the biggest advances that get the most attention from the publisher, and books with small advances can languish with no support. That’s true to an extent. But it’s certainly not always the case. Publishers won’t throw good money after bad – if the book’s not working, it’s not working. And a smaller book showing some traction may get more support later in the process.

And now, with publishers like Vanguard, HarperStudio, Berrett-Kohler, and others, getting no advance may be a good thing! These publishers work on a model where little or no money is paid in advance in order to share better royalty percentages and more marketing dollars with the author. It’s not for everyone, but when it works, it can actually be the most lucrative in the long run.

So what’s the best advance? Provided you want a career, it’s the one you can earn out. Which might be big and might be small, but if the publisher’s expectations are met, then all is well.

Miriam Goderich discovers children's books

I like to think of myself as a fairly well read person. I even enjoy mocking my younger colleagues when they haven’t heard of, much less read, some obscure Victorian author whose praises I’m singing for whatever reason (yes, we’re that kind of office). But there is one literary category that I am woefully ignorant of and which makes them – the mock-ees – feel very superior: children’s books.

Because my earliest years were spent in foreign lands, by the time I got to the U.S., I had not read a single of the classic children’s books that are as much a part of American kids’ experience as frosted flakes and mac & cheese. Closing in on nine years of age by the time my parents and I arrived on these shores, I preferred comic books or more grown-up book fare. So, I missed out on those foundational reading blocks. When, in college, my friends waxed nostalgic about Ferdinand the Bull, Curious George, or Eeyore (everyone, it seems, strongly identified with Eeyore) I just nodded and pretended to know what they were talking about. When they mentioned Corduroy, I thought, “how much fun can a book about fabric swatches be?” and turned back to whatever Russian novel I was engrossed in at the time.

Many years passed in blissful ignorance of children’s books. Then, my son was born. And, I didn’t have a clue what to read to him – Notes from the Underground didn’t seem appropriate bedtime reading, somehow. Happily, lots of wonderful people sent him the classic board books. Along with him, I was introduced to Goodnight Moon, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and The Runaway Bunny. And, despite the brain numbing repetitiveness (we went through at least two copies of Goodnight Moon) I found that these stories held up remarkably well. They were still charming the 150^th time you read them out loud with the exact same inflection all the way through.

But then, my son and I both started getting bored with the limited selection. We wanted more narrative, more suspense, more drama. So, again, I was at a loss. I asked around and Lauren Abramo and Jim McCarthy gave me a list of their favorites. I also started looking at lists on Amazon for suggestions and finally became acquainted with some of those books my friends mentioned lovingly all those years ago. Turns out Corduroy is a bear – who knew? Ferdinand is a very cool, pacifist bull. Eeyore is quite the existential donkey. Harold and his purple crayon are delightfully hallucinogenic. And, Caps for Sale is really funny – especially if you use just the right tone when reprimanding the monkeys.

Of course, my colleagues here always knew about this treasure trove of literature and some, like Michael Bourret have been extremely successful in the children’s and YA markets. As for me, the experience of reading to my kid is made even more delightful by the fact that I’m discovering great books.

What are your favorite children’s books? (I still need lots of recommendations.)

Jim McCarthy on what makes a memoir publishable

Listen, there are a whole lot of memoirs out there--memoirs of abuse, addiction, recovery, disease, divorce, religion, race, parenting, and just about anything else. Lots of them are great. And lots of them aren’t. But what makes a memoir publishable?

Since it came out a few weeks back, Barbara Walters’ autobiography has sold about a jillion copies. Give or take. I bought one. I ripped through that bad boy like it was a Harry Potter novel and I didn’t want anyone to give away the end. I DVR’ed all of Baba’s press appearances and saved them for after I finished the whole tome. Why? Let’s face it: Babs isn’t the best writer in the universe, but you know what? She doesn’t need to be. Sure, she repeats herself a bit here and there, and she’s a bit overly straightforward. Did that slow me down? Please. This was a book I cancelled plans for. Barbara Walters is one of a very few people who could write their memoirs in Pig Latin, and it wouldn’t matter. The woman has led such an astonishingly fascinating life that once she starts dishing, there’s just nothing better.

Most people, of course, haven’t led quite as fascinating lives, so they need to try a little harder. Memoirs almost always work best when two particular things are going for them: the story being told is incredibly unique, but also, the author is someone you are able to relate to on some level. Take one of my favorite memoirs of the past few years, Jeannette Walls’ THE GLASS CASTLE. Walls grew up with vagabond parents roaming the country before ending up in a shack in Appalachia that she eventually left to move on her own to New York and support herself through college. Other than eventually ending up at a university in Manhattan and, uh, having parents, my story and Walls’ bear essentially zero resemblance. But she writes with such grace and accessibility. More importantly, she can work her narrative from two sides: she is able to step far enough away to look at her own life with impressive clarity, acknowledging how it will be perceived by readers. But she also is able to recall (and express) the emotions of those years, the connections to her family, and how she made it through some really tough times.

The risk with all memoirs is how self-indulgent they can become. I was actually shocked into laughter recently when I saw an ad billing Augusten Burroughs’ THE WOLF AT THE DOOR as “His first memoir in five years!” Really? Five whole years?! How have we made it so far without more personal stories about a guy who…um…what has he done again? Considering Burroughs also writes personal essays for one of the lad magazines and has pumped out about three or four other memoirs about his first forty or so years on earth, it’s particularly distressing that he is only now working his way around to the topic of his father. If he keeps churning out memoirs as fast as he does, I’ll keep an eye out for his incisive take on a grandparent or cousin in five more years.

Of course, Augusten gets to keep writing memoirs because people keep buying his books. I personally don’t understand why. James Frey seems to write with more credibility. But what can you do? The first Burroughs memoir, RUNNING WITH SCISSORS, worked because it was a fascinating story, well-contained, and fabulously written. I still didn’t like it, but that’s irrelevant.

So remember: it’s not enough to just be talented, and it’s not enough to just be interesting. If you want to write a memoir, be both. And be relatable. And make sure you can find enough distance from your own life to write objectively. No pressure…

Memoirs really are just about the toughest things to do well. Which just makes it that much more thrilling when they work. Some of my favorites include Lily Burana’s STRIP CITY; Josh Kilmer-Purcell’s I AM NOT MYSELF THESE DAYS; Jean-Dominique Bauby’s devastating THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY; Ann Marlowe’s HOW TO STOP TIME; and Paul Monette’s BECOMING A MAN. I’d include a list of my least favorite (I’m looking at you, Dave Eggers), but why start a fight?

Any of you out there working on memoirs? Have any favorites to recommend?

Jane Dystel on publishers that think outside the box

A number of our blog posts over the past months have dealt with agents and authors thinking outside the box as they pursue their book projects. Today, I would like to discuss what I hope is the beginning of a trend on the publishing side: Publishers dealing with authors in non-traditional ways whereby ultimately both Publisher and author establish a more lucrative and satisfying relationship.

A number of years ago, I heard of a CDS Books which had been founded as a distribution company but which, after a number of successful years in business had begun a publishing program of one or two books a season. They had a very unusual business model: CDS would not pay any advances to their authors; what they would do however was to “buy” only North American book publishing rights and pay a royalty beginning at 20% and escalating up to 35%. They would also commit to spending a minimum of six figures for promotion, publicity and advertising. They allowed the author to retain serial, book club, audio, video, multimedia, electronic and all translation rights so that he or she could sell these rights themselves.

One of our new clients whose sales had been falling due to a lack of attention on his previous publisher’s and agent’s part agreed with me that being published by CDS might well be an interesting and successful experience. As it turns out, we were correct. That author has enjoyed increased sales of his last two books in all arenas. Since he was first published by this company, it has been sold, and its two founders have gone off to pursue other ventures. Now known as Vanguard Press, the company is beginning to publish more books and my one fear is that it will morph into a traditional publishing organization and will stop paying as much attention as it has in the past to each individual author and book – thereby losing its distinctive advantages in the marketplace.

And now another company is being formed, this time as a division of HarperCollins. Bob Miller has left Hyperion, after almost twenty years as founder and President, to start up an as yet unnamed “publishing studio” at HarperCollins. He will begin this new gig with a very exciting business model. It is a bit different from the Vanguard model, but it is still distinctive and shares an “out of the box” philosophy.

In this case the author will receive an advance of no more than $100,000.00 for book rights which will almost always include the author selling many of the traditional rights – book, serialization, book club, audio, foreign and translation rights. The royalty on book sales however will be 50% of the profits. This will enable the author to ultimately earn far more money than he or she might have with even a significantly higher advance and a standard 10%, 12.5% and 15% royalty rate.

Admittedly, neither of these formulas will work for every author; many require money up front in order to finish their books; others believe that the success of their books is tied to the size of the advance they receive (I am not a believer in this theory having seen it disproved too many times).

I urge all authors, however, to consider these new “out of the box” publishing formulas for their books; I, for one, hope that more of my colleagues on the publishing side will strike out with adaptations of these new and creative business models.

Adina Kahn advises on the do's and don'ts of pitch sessions

Recently I attended the Maryland Writers’ Association Conference and met some wonderful aspiring authors. One thing many writers take advantage of at conferences is the agent pitch session, where you have the opportunity to discuss your material, gain advice and ask if they’d be willing to accept a submission. The only problem is that in many cases you have only ten minutes to explain to the agent who you are, what your project is about, and why your book will undoubtedly be a success. The following are some recommendations on how to make the most of your ten minutes with an agent:

Don’t bury the lead. Don’t hold off on boasting about how you’re considered an expert in your field, or about the awards you’ve won, or how well your recent interview with Ann Curry went. Agents often have back-to-back meetings scheduled and we meet a lot of people at these conferences, so you want to make sure you share all the information you have that would make you stand out from the crowd before your time is up.

Practice reciting a succinct synopsis of your work. You should not take this valuable time to share every single plot point or divulge information about each minor character in your novel. If your story is too complex to explain in less than ten minutes, then agents will lose confidence that they will in turn be able to convey to editors what the story is about. Same goes for non-fiction: your idea should not be so convoluted as to make it impossible to express what you’re writing about.

Do your research. It’s a good idea to know a little bit about the agent you’ll be meeting with before your pitch session. There’s no point in wasting your time talking about your self-help book if the agent you’re meeting with only represents fiction. It’s also a good idea to know what books their agency has represented in the past. I was impressed at the conference I attended at how many people had taken the time to check out our website before meeting with me.

Ask questions. Most conferences will have a variety of panels, lectures, and seminars to choose from that are aimed at guiding you through every stage of publication. But not everyone gets called on at the panels, and not every subject can be covered in the lectures, so you will most likely have some questions that will remain unanswered. Now is your chance to get these questions answered so don’t be shy!

Relax. If an agent has taken the time to attend a conference that means that they are eager to meet new authors and share their insider knowledge about the publishing industry. We are not there to criticize your work, we are there to give you honest and helpful answers and feedback.

Well, I guess my ten minutes is up. Do any of you have additional tips to share about attending pitch sessions with agents?

Stacey Glick chats about publicity (and the lack thereof)

The book business has come to rely on authors who can essentially sell their own books. Celebrities and previous bestsellers get top billing, and a large percentage of marketing and publicity dollars. Publishers have limited resources across the board and while they work very hard to implement smart, savvy PR campaigns for all of their books, the truth is there are just too many titles and too little manpower for all their projects to get enough attention.

So, when I’m signing up a new nonfiction author (fiction is another story when it comes to publicity), I generally tell them they should be prepared, and many of them have heard this elsewhere before they even get to me, for a minimal amount of support from their publisher when it comes to both marketing and publicity. I try to set the expectation level in a realistic way so that they are not disappointed or surprised later. Often, publicity departments are stretched to their limit, and new authors are assigned very junior publicists with limited experience. And the turnover is very high. I’ve had many authors go through two or three publicists in the course of one book campaign, which makes for a challenging and frustrating experience on so many levels.

I like to recommend early in the process that my authors consider putting away a piece of their advance, depending on what the numbers wind up looking like, to hire an outside publicist who can help them launch a full-scale promotional campaign before, during, and after the book’s publication. These publicists can be very expensive, several thousand dollars a month or more, but the key difference between them and those who work in house is that outside publicists work specifically for their client, so they are bound to get a lot more attention and support. Authors also have a chance to interview and research publicists who they feel are a good match, something that isn’t an option from the publisher, who assign publicists without discussing it with the author first. There are a number of ways to approach hiring an outside publicist, and I like to suggest my client do some preliminary research first on what kinds of pr firms might fit with their particular type of book. I also think it’s a good idea to speak with your editor or publicist (if one has already been assigned) to see if they can recommend some outside publicists who they have worked well with and who have had successful campaigns launched. If the author decides they are able to support this type of endeavor financially, and they feel they will be able to launch a stronger campaign with this kind of help, it can wind up being successful all around

There are exceptions to every rule, and I’m happy to say that I recently experienced a level of support from a publisher unparalleled to anything I’d seen before. The book is called THE ULTIMATE CHEAPSKATE’S ROADMAP TO TRUE RICHES by Jeff Yeager, and Broadway published it as a trade paperback original in late December. The author had made some previous appearances on the Today show where Matt Lauer had referred to him as their “resident cheapskate,” so he had some nice media experience already in his back pocket. Plus, his broad message of finding happiness by spending less money is one that hit at just the right time, in a down economy where people are not necessarily interesting in making more, but in focusing on how best to spend what they have. Jeff also happens to have a great voice, and uses a smart but humorous approach, which makes him and his message very accessible on a wide scale. Out of the gate, there were opportunities to help Jeff stand out from the vast array of competition, including an innovative book tour on a bike (he is currently on a brand new leg of that tour) that the author and Broadway developed. Broadway was able to capitalize on the positive publicity that resulted, and it’s now gone back to press several times with 47,000 copies in print. Plus, I just did a deal for his next book, THE CHEAPSKATE NEXT DOOR, which will extend the brand that Jeff and Broadway are working so hard to build.

It’s wonderful when the publisher is able to get behind a book in this way, but it’s not always possible. Authors have a very small window when their book is published in which to maximize opportunities for publicity and spread the word as widely as possible, so it’s critical to use every effort and resource available to both the publisher and the author to make for a successful book launch.

Chasya Milgrom answers FAQ's

We here at D & G get all sorts of interesting phone calls about matters big and small. Questions about what types of books we represent, which agent you should query if you have a sci-fi middle-grade space fantasy novel, questions about cover designs and copyrights, and…well, you get my drift. Occasionally, we pick up the phone and hear a first-time author say, “I’ve just finished my novel and I don’t really know what to do next.” It is to all those who have just put that last period on the last sentence in their novel that I dedicate this blog entry.

There are countless writers just starting to learn about getting an agent, writing a query, sending a submission, sending a 25 page sample vs. sending a manuscript, and everything else that comes along with getting their book published. Once the writing is done, you may feel like the hard part should be over, but the task of learning how to get your book published is a challenge in its own right. If you’ve stumbled upon our little blog, you are already at least aware that there is a lot more work ahead.

It can be confusing, but not to worry, it’s not difficult getting started – sometimes all you need is a gentle push in the right direction. First off, you’ll want to continue doing what you’re doing now – gathering information. You may want to take a trip to your local bookstore or go to Amazon.com and pick up a book on publishing. You also might want to comb the internet for sites and blogs (like us, for instance). The more you know, the better prepared you’ll be. Not all the information you will read and hear is accurate but, for the most part, learning the basics can be very useful and will make the process less confusing.

Another excellent way to gather information is to sign up for a writer’s conference. There you meet with editors and agents and can learn invaluable information firsthand. Often there are pitch sessions, during which you can speak face to face with an agent and pitch your book in person and panel discussions, where you can ask questions.

Once you have as much information you feel you need to get started, you’ll need a query letter that you’ll be sending to agents. There is a lot of information out there on query letters, but as our own Miriam Goderich has said in the past, there is no such thing as a perfect query letter. For more help on how to draft a query you can visit Miriam’s post on the topic.

Once you feel comfortable enough to begin the query process, you’ll have to gear up and do some more research. There are many agencies out there and they’ve all got different submission requirements. Some ask that you only send a query letter, some will ask for a query, synopsis and sample chapter. Many agencies are now accepting queries by email, whereas others will still ask that they be sent by mail only. You’ll also want to research which agents are interested in which genres. Online guides to agents and books such as the 2008 Guide to Literary Agents are helpful in that they offer information on all of the above. You can click here for a link to our submission guidelines. http://www.dystel.com/submit.html

Try to avoid common query mistakes. We’ve seen many a query that are addressed to us, but made out to another agent. In other words, taking the time to proofread your query is well spent.

Once you’ve made your submissions, be patient. Many agencies have a huge volume of submissions that they need to read through and it can sometimes take a while for them to get through them all.

And lastly, if at first you don’t succeed… well, don’t get discouraged too easily. Oftentimes what an agent chooses to represent comes down to a matter of taste. That doesn’t make you any less of a good writer, and you don’t want an agent who is not passionate about your work. The more excited about the project they are, the more effective an advocate they will be of you and your project.

Lauren Abramo judges books by their covers

Supposedly, you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. But honestly, what else are covers for but to help us judge? If you’ve never read an author before, your best friend didn’t recommend their book, and you haven’t read about their new title somewhere or seen it on the Today show, how do you know if it’s worth your time? Or whether to even pick it up? With all the books out there, you need some way to narrow down what’s worth a further look—after all, you can’t read the first few pages of every book out there before you make a choice. So you end up judging books by their covers. Everyone does. Especially with all the money publishers spend on co-op (special placement on tables, end caps, and face-out shelves), we’re all paying at least some attention to what’s on the surface.

Designing the right cover can be one of the most difficult parts of the publishing process. Virtually no authors have as much control over the cover as they want or as we’d want for them. We go out of our way to get cover consultation for our clients whenever possible, but even then, publishers are clear about the fact that a right of consultation and a right of approval are not the same thing. We advocate strongly for our clients when they hate their covers or take serious issue with an aspect of them, and we truly believe that publishers need to take authors’ ideas and thoughts into account and should work to find a cover that both sides can get behind.

The good news is that they usually do. No, you’re not necessarily going to have the cover of your dreams, but publishers want authors to be happy, so that if Oprah and the New York Times bestseller list come a-knockin’ the author doesn’t run to the competition. Cover design is subjective. However much an author might loathe a cover, the publisher never intentionally designs a bad one. Their objective is always to create a cover that will sell books.

The authors’ and publishers’ objectives are not at odds (everyone wants more readers and more money!), but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the cover the sales team thinks will sell the book is going to gel with the author’s vision of what their baby will look like once it’s on the shelf. As with everything else in publishing, an author who brings a few ideas, a ton of patience, and a lot of flexibility to the table is the most likely to have a good experience.

Besides, cover design is so subjective that it’s pretty easy to disagree. I love healthy debate (as long as we all agree in the end that I'm right) and love even more a good thoroughly unscientific poll, so for fun, here are some book covers, and below, here’s what we thought of them (we meaning me, plus Jim McCarthy, Michael Bourret, and our intern Anni, who were kind of enough to participate in my IM poll). Take a look at the covers, rate them as L-O-V-E; like; meh; dislike; or, as Michael so elegantly put it for one, U-G-L-Y, you ain’t got no alibi. Then scroll down to what we thought, and tell us if we’re crazy or right on the money. And tell us what we left out—which covers do you love so much you wish your words were bound in them or hate so much you wish your poor retinas had never been subjected to them?

Of course, except where otherwise noted, we really are trying to judge the covers here and not the content--I've definitely loved books with covers I've hated and vice versa. And we know people worked hard on these and thought even the ones that we loathe were really working, so we're certainly aware of the fact that it's just a matter of opinion. We're nothing if not an opinionated bunch. It's a lot like when we argue over which actors are hot (like Jake Gyllenhaal) and which look like basset hounds (not Jake Gyllenhaal, no matter how many times Miriam says it).

1. Joshua Ferris’s THEN WE CAME TO THE END in hardcover -- 2 loves and 2 likes on this one. Definitely one of my favorite covers of last year and probably my favorite book in the last year as well.
2. Joshua Ferris’s THEN WE CAME TO THE END in paperback -- We all liked it, but not as much as the original. For me at least, it was disappointing to see it changed.
3. Tom McCarthy’s REMAINDER -- We're split on this one. I'd read this one first and had no thoughts on the cover (beyond that it's a pretty blue color), and Anni was similarly non-plussed, but Jim and Michael were all over the hate for it. And I know Adina, who read it for book club and didn't like it nearly as much as I did, was similarly annoyed by it. I'll grant you that the cover doesn't necessarily make sense--is it a reflection in water, and if so, why are the words not reversed?--but I still don't understand the hatred.
   
4. Junot Diaz’s THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO -- Covering the spectrum on this one, Jim's indifferent, Michael likes it, Anni dislikes it, and I really can't stand it. The whole time I was reading it, the cover irked me, though I'm not sure there's any good reason why.
   
5. Jonathan Safran Foer’s EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED -- I can actually remember hating this cover the first time I saw it, when I was working at Barnes & Noble in college. Nothing about it works for me, and I find it aesthetically unpleasant, but not enough to be interesting. Michael and Jim eventually settled at "meh" when they tried to take their feelings about the book itself out of the equation, though Jim admitted that maybe he'd be able to like the cover if he didn't so hate the contents. Anni likes it and was surprised that I felt so strongly.
   
6. Dana Spiotta’s EAT THE DOCUMENT in hardcover -- Someone must have liked this cover, but it wasn't any of us. It gives a sense of the content, so it's got that going for it, but it's extremely awkward to look at. Was there really nothing other than this woman's braless chest and high-waisted jeans that would let readers know what to expect?
   
7. Dana Spiotta’s EAT THE DOCUMENT in paperback -- Apparently there was, because the paperback cover is very different. I think it loses the sense of time that the original conveys, but is vastly superior--yet we're all pretty indifferent to the cover itself. As Jim said, "At least the paperback doesn't make me want to avert my eyes."
8. Don DeLillo’s FALLING MAN -- 3 loves and a dislike on this one. Anni thinks it's too boring and the words get lost in the image. The rest of us are big fans.
9. Philip Roth’s EXIT GHOST -- This one's interesting: Jim and I dislike, Michael hates it, and Anni likes it. The three of us who came down negative all had the same objection--it's the cover to the wrong book as far as we're concerned and a pretty boring effort.
10. Denis Johnson’s TREE OF SMOKE -- Jim and Anni like it, Michael loves it, and I...really don't. Denis Johnson is among my favorite authors, and though I haven't tackled this one yet, I'm sad to admit I just don't like the way it looks. It doesn't make me want to buy it. I think I'm definitely in the minority on that one, though. (And I didn't actually need the cover to sell me on the fact that I want to read this one.)
    
11. Michael Chabon’s THE YIDDISH POLICEMAN’S UNION -- Jim dislikes it, Michael likes it, Anni immediately hated it but then decided it's so unattractive she likes it, and I think this cover made me not want to read the book. I love Kavalier and Clay, so I was pretty excited for this book to come out, but the cover turned me off in a big way.
    
12. Amy Bloom’s AWAY -- Wow do Jim and Michael hate this cover. In fact, when I suggested that I needed to find at least one more that I disliked to poll them on, Jim shot me the link to this. I've seen it before and been totally ambivalent, but apparently it got a pretty big reaction from them. Anni's on board with that, but not as ferociously.

And which book inspired Michael's most amusing ire? Keith Donohue's THE STOLEN CHILD.

I have to say, I liked this cover when I first saw it, or at least found it interesting, but it's actually grown less attractive to me over time to the point that I now vehemently dislike it. Jim's no fan either. (I seem to have forgotten to poll Anni on this one, but I think Michael's hate was strong enough to cover two.)

So what do you think of these? And which amazing and horrendous covers did we leave out?

Michael Bourret: The long and enduring saga of the paperless-book.

The title is pretty lofty, considering that I actually have no interest in rehashing the much hashed history of the e-book. I will say that I remember electronic publishing being the talk of the town when I first started working in publishing about 8 years ago. At the time, I think the Rocket was the machine that was going to change our lives. The Rocket can now be used as an oddly shaped, plastic paperweight.

I am here, instead, to extol the virtues of the e-book and the e-book reader. Or possibly not. I haven’t decided yet. I have a Sony e-reader that I got back in October and have used nearly every day since then--not to read the latest bestsellers, but rather to review manuscripts. Though I’d wanted one for a while, I’d been reluctant to take the plunge. They’re rather expensive pieces of equipment that one can’t even play with before purchasing. But as I packed for a trip to visit my parents in Florida I realized that 1) I couldn’t fit all the manuscripts I wanted to take into one bag, and 2) even if I could fit them all, said bag would never fit in the overhead luggage racks or under the seat in front of me. It was time.

To say that my life has changed isn’t really an exaggeration. It made my job much easier and made my bag much lighter! I can now go to a conference without a suitcase full of manuscripts. It also makes for much easier subway reading, and while that’s cut into my Us Weekly time, I think I’ll survive. An added bonus is that using one is less wasteful of both resources and money. I can’t imagine how many trees I alone am saving by not having manuscripts printed.

But what about reading books on it? Honestly, I haven’t done it yet. I once tried to download a book for our bookclub (David Ellis’s Eye of the Beholder, which I recommend), but was given, instead, Eye of the Beholder by Shari Shattuck. I tried for weeks, through the atrocious online process, to get the right book to no avail. Finally, my credit card company took care of it. That experience put me off downloads for a few months, but I ordered my new bookclub pick recently. It seems that the Kindle is better suited for downloading books, what with the “Whispernet,” and all, though I can’t confirm because they’re such rare animals. Thus far, I haven’t enjoyed the browsing and buying experience for e-books, and it’s something I don’t even really like doing online. I’ll stick to the bookstore for now, thanks.

Which brings me to my other problem: I like books. Like everyone who writes about this topic, I have to lament the possible demise of the physical book. If Marshall McLuhan was right, and the medium is the message, what does that say about e-books? Are they really books? Part of my love of books as a child had to do with the physicality of the object, not just the words on the page. I can’t imagine my apartment without the wall of books (not to mention table and chairs covered with books, or all the books lurking beneath the furniture). Accumulating digital files just isn’t as impressive. When people come over, and I want to show off my authors and their work, will I soon have to pull out my reader so friends can ooh and ahh about the number of files I have? Somehow, that’s not so fulfilling...

But, I don’t worry. Physical books aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. The cost of the e-reader is too high for the average consumer, and I think they’ll only appeal the most avid book buyers – like those of us in publishing. I do think that e-books will become a larger part of the publishing business as time goes on, especially for text books, business books, romance, mysteries, and other mass market fiction. And maybe with remote delivery, as on the Kindle, e-readers could bring back the serialized novel in a bigger way. Something like that could even increase physical book sales.

But what do you think? I’d love to hear some other opinions about e-books and e-readers and Kindles and such. Oh, and check out this news, just released this past weekend: “Penguin to launch ebooks alongside regular releases."

Miriam Goderich chats about collaboration

Book collaborations are like marriages. When they’re good, marriages are happy unions full of mutual respect, in which both parties work together as a team to create successful projects. As Tolstoy might say (if he were around and blogging), however, no one wants to read about good collaborations. They simply just work.

Bad collaborations are another animal altogether. Each is unique in the set of circumstances that converge to make for a miserable experience for all parties involved and, like bad marriages with children involved, there is often huge collateral damage. Having spent the better part of the last week trying to negotiate among the parties of several collaborations gone sour, I thought it might be a good time to talk about what can be done to prevent metaphorical (or even literal) bloodshed once you’ve decided to write a book with your husband, sister, best friend, co-worker, or even someone you were introduced to by your agent in the hopes that you’d end up with a proposal she could sell for high six figures:

1. If you’re seriously thinking about collaborating with someone you live with (and presumably love) or are related to (and presumably love) or have been friends with for years (and presumably love), think twice, or a dozen times. Unless you have the kind of relationship that can withstand the pressures of deadlines, your own secret knowledge that you are a better writer than the other person, their idiosyncratic work habits, or fragile egos unable to take exacting criticism, this is a recipe for disaster. If you’re thinking of collaborating with a total stranger, interview them thoroughly to make sure your styles and work ethic are compatible.

2. Be clear on your role before you sign the collaboration agreement. Are you the writer who is taking an expert’s ideas and communicating them in lucid, readable prose? If so, the lead person on the project is the one with the ideas. S/he is the “Author” and you are the “writer.” Simply put, you need to check your ego at the door because while your collaborator may be a total diva, madman, and/or generally unpleasant person, without them and their idea/story, there would be no book.

If the partnership is an equal one – e.g., you’ve jointly developed an idea for a series about an Elvis impersonator from outer space – then, you must have the wherewithal to make your case at every stage of the process with conviction and respect but also to take on equal responsibility for workload, meeting deadlines, and making the appropriate representations about the work to your publisher. In this scenario, your belief that your partner is a hack while you’re a closet Hemingway is only going to cause trouble. If you wanted to show the world how brilliant you are all by yourself…you’d write your own book by yourself. This is a team effort and compromise is of the essence.

3. Work out the money terms, who the copyright holder will be, and how the cover credit will read before you even send your proposal out to agents. For one, the agent you sign with will need all of this information in order to negotiate your contract with a publisher and ultimately to pay you both. But, also, knowing that this stuff has been agreed to from the outset will mean that no one can change the significant terms once it looks like the book is going to be a huge bestseller with George Clooney trying to option the film rights. Again, less bloodshed will ensue.

4. Once the book is sold and the excitement has died down, the battle with the blank page begins and that’s where a lot of collaborations can fall apart. Now, there’s a looming deadline, money that will have to be returned if a satisfactory manuscript isn’t produced, and the dawning conviction that your writing partner, who is never up before noon, and doesn’t return phone calls, just isn’t as good a writer as you thought s/he was and will doom the book to the remainder bin within six months of publication. In other words, the honeymoon is over. It’s time to hone your patience, negotiation, and sportsmanship skills. Take a deep breath, list the reasons you respect your collaborator, give him/her the benefit of the doubt, and involve your agent as soon as you’ve determined that the project is in jeopardy. Keep the whining to a minimum.

5. If the person you’re collaborating with turns out to be (a) totally irresponsible and uncooperative, (b) morally/ethically suspect, or (c) psychologically abusive beyond the pale, cut your losses. If they won’t relinquish their rights to the project voluntarily, offer to buy him/her out or walk away yourself.

After reading this, you’re all probably thinking, “What a downer!” but in fact, most collaborations really do go smoothly, friends are made or kept, and result in good or even great books being published. It’s the bad ones, though, as blogger Leo would say, that teach us about ourselves and the business. What are your collaboration horror stories.

Jim McCarthy's reading process

Choosing what projects to take on can be a tricky thing. Given the number of manuscripts I usually have waiting to be read and how few of those I’ll actually be able to work on, I start each one assuming that I’ll be passing on it. For about 50 pages, I keep an eye out for the specific reasons I’ll be rejecting. I’m looking for overwrought writing, character inconsistency, sloppy plotting, and/or any reason to put the pages down and move on to something else.

Let’s say I pass page 50 and haven’t found a reason to definitely say no. I hit my optimistic reading phase and for the next 100 or so pages, I’m thinking, “Hook me!” I’ve invested just enough time that I won’t be upset if I end up deciding to pass, but I’m starting to think, “Hey, this could be my next new client.”

At page 150, my mood shifts entirely to, “Don’t let me down now.” Pessimism sneaks back in a bit. Even if I like this, I start to wonder, can I sell it? This is where I bust out the super handy trick that Jane taught me when I was starting out: if you can think of five editors you know who this could be right for, then it’s probably worth a shot. I ride the manuscript out keeping that in mind and also thinking about the competition. What similar books have done well? Are there too many similar books? Does this read like what’s working now, or does it read like what might be working a year from now when it would come out?

Of course, every so often, a manuscript comes along that shuttles my reading rules right out the window. And that is what I live for.

Let’s flash back to last summer. I drag a bag of manuscripts up to my roof, yank out the first one, open to the first page, read the first paragraph…and stop. It sounds so corny and over the top to say that you were hooked on something from the first page except that when it happens, it’s transporting. I read until the sun went down, and the next morning, I handed the manuscript to a colleague.

“Read a page and tell me if I’m crazy,” I requested. “I mean—this is really as good as I think it is, right?”

I fell so head over heels for the novel that I actually wanted confirmation I hadn’t just lost my mind. I felt stupidly luck to even have the project in hand. When the first page was read, I got the affirmation I needed: “It’s really that good.”

“Crap. Who else has this?” Luckily for me, though other agents did have and did want to represent the novel, its author, in her infinite wisdom, decided to work with me. THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH by Carrie Ryan is an astonishing novel for the young adult market that blends the literary and the commercial, stunning writing with rich characters and brilliant plotting. I eagerly look forward to its publication by Delacorte next spring.

The point I always come back to is that people who work in publishing do so because they’re readers. Yes, I read with an eye toward market and potential profit. This is a business, and when you work on commission, you can bet that there’s always an eye on the bottom line. The most thrilling part of the job, though, is playing some role in ushering a book you feel passionately about into another reader’s hands.

At the delightful (and not just because you can gamble there) Las Vegas Writers’ Conference last year, someone asked a panel I sat on, “Would you rather have something come across your desk that has great writing or a great plot?” It’s an unanswerable question. Because I’m not looking for pieces of a good book. I’m looking for the whole package, or for someone who inspires me to believe in their ability to create the whole package.

In responses to rejection letters, understandably upset writers sometimes ask, “Who are you to judge me? What right do you have to say who’s good enough?” All I can answer is that I’m a reader. I’m an audience. And I want you to win me over as much as you want me to be won. It can’t happen always, but we hope it happens enough.

Lauren Abramo on subrights

I recently received an email from one of our blog readers asking for a post on what authors should expect of their agents where sub rights are concerned to follow up on my most recent post [imbed link: http://dglm.blogspot.com/2007/10/lauren-abramo-explains-subrights.html].

So how do we decide which rights to market for which books? It’s not unlike how we decide which projects to represent in the first place. We have to know the various markets and understand how, if at all, our clients’ work fits in. If you don’t have a relationship with any periodical publishers and there are no exciting secrets revealed in your book, chances are that serial’s not going to be a hot commodity. Likewise, cookbooks don’t generally make good audio books, and business books aren’t likely to become movies. It’s not doing anyone any favors if we try to push books we know don’t make sense in a particular market, so we don’t, just as we wouldn’t try to sell a true crime book to a science fiction publisher.

Once we’ve made a deal, then the agent and I, as the agency’s sub rights director, start to plan for which rights we’ll actively try to market for that book, and when we’ll plan to do that. The agent on the book talks to me about which rights they think have the most potential and helps to coordinate and get the info I need to try to sell them.

With foreign rights, we maintain a rights list that tells our co-agents which books we control the rights to. It tells them about the book and keeps them up to date on which territories we’ve sold in. Every few months and several weeks before each major international rights fair, our co-agents receive this updated list so they can share it with their editorial contacts. In addition, we give them a highlight list, with titles that have just recently sold or that have received renewed attention—maybe because the author’s platform has dramatically changed or because a film adaptation is being released. And we get in touch about individual titles as well—when galleys come in, for example, or when we find out about an article that suggests a country might be newly interested in a topic that one of our past books covers. That means we’re not only talking to our co-agents about our new books, but about all our books, and foreign deals can be made long after initial book publication. A very sizeable chunk of our foreign rights income last year was for books published in the 90s.

Now that’s not going to work with all rights—rare is the audio book that’s released after the initial publication of a book, since audio publishers need to capitalize on the publisher’s publicity for the launch. And first serial rights are actually moot once the book is published by definition. With audio and first serial, you’ve really only got that limited timeframe prior to publication to make a sale—and sometimes short publication schedules can be a hindrance here, since audio and serial publishers need to make their decisions and do the work to publish after manuscripts are done but before the book publishes. If the schedule allows for a shot at these and we believe the book makes sense for those rights, we’ll get it in the right hands.

Film and television rights are a bit more complicated in some ways. We do use co-agents for some of our projects, usually those that we expect will be most likely to catch the attention of Hollywood. Other books—those our co-agents aren’t getting excited about or which we believe will not get the attention they deserve amidst bigger, flashier books—we often deal with ourselves. We meet regularly with producers and managers who come to visit New York and stop by the office to discuss our client list. We hear what they’re looking for and pitch the books that fit that need—regardless of when they were published. And throughout the year, they check in with us to ask about what we’ve got, to update us on what new kind of project they’re looking for, to tell us they’ve just heard X network is looking for the next Y, and do we have anything? While the book-to-film options you’re most likely to hear about are for the big buzz books that have just sold at auction or the current bestsellers, we probably do more deals a year for older titles than for the brand new ones.

Our faithful reader’s last question really speaks to more than just sub rights: Is it logical for the client to ask what has been done on behalf of the work? When it comes to the agent/client relationship, each is different and we let our clients lead the way on that for the most part, but it’s our belief that an author always has the right to ask questions. Part of the reason we’re writing this blog is to answer the questions our clients and other writers may not realize they can or should be asking. We always share the good news right away and wait on the bad news till its decision time or we’re asking for an update. When our clients ask how things are going, they may not hear what they want to hear, but they always have the right to hear it.

Keep in mind, though, that one of the great things about sub rights is that, at least for foreign and film/TV rights, it’s never really the end of the line. Things might be quiet for large periods of time, but we’re still selling rights to books that have been on the shelves—and in some cases, even on the shelves and already off them—years down the line.

Jane Dystel rings in the new

This last year, 2007, was the most successful Dystel & Goderich Literary Management has ever enjoyed. We had a number of bestsellers including Dr. Robin Smith’s LIES AT THE ALTAR, JOY BAUER’S FOOD CURES and Barack Obama’s DREAMS FROM MY FATHER. And we had huge successes with David Morrell’s SCAVENGER, Lidia Bastianich’s LIDIA’S ITALY, Jacqueline Carey’s KUSHIEL’S JUSTICE, Michael Weinreb’s THE KINGS OF NEW YORK, and Michael Tucker’s LIVING IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE.

Now it is time to look forward to the exciting titles our clients will be publishing in the coming months.

Mary Doria Russell has a wonderful new novel titled DREAMERS OF THE DAY, the story of a bookish spinster who travels to Egypt after losing her family to the Great Influenza and who is swept up in the drama of post-World War I politics through her friendship with Lawrence of Arabia and her spirited acquaintance with legendary figures such as Winston Churchill. Her own bittersweet romance is set against the machinations of these great men whose actions during this period would have serious, if not tragic, repercussions for the Middle East as we know it today.

David Wood, a splendid travel writer and avid golfer will publish AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 ROUNDS about playing his favorite game in exotic and outrageous locations throughout the globe. This is a unique and entertaining read even for those who are not golfers.

Then there is financial guru Michael Farr’s A MILLION IS NOT ENOUGH about how much money each of us needs in order to retire comfortably and how to achieve that goal. Certainly, this is an area of huge interest for the baby boomer demographic.

From Lynne Rosetto Kasper and her MPR producer Sally Swift we’ll see THE SPLENDID TABLE GUIDE TO HOW TO EAT SUPPER based on content from the enormously popular national public radio show The Splendid Table. Long awaited, this new book is bound to be a bestseller.

Jacqueline Carey’s latest fantasy novel will debut in the spring and her huge cult readership will be all over it. KUSHIEL’S MERCY is the final adventure of Imriel de la Courcel. It brings an unforgettable end to the second of Jacqueline’s celebrated trilogies set in the brilliantly realized world of Terre d’Ange.

Well-known actress and author Adrienne Barbeau and bestselling author Michael Scott have an enormously entertaining novel entitled VAMPYRES OF HOLLYWOOD about, well, vampires in Hollywood and a murder mystery involving one of the most (in)famous of their clan, a beautiful and legendary actress.

Journalist and author Gregg Zachary’s latest is a memoir titled MARRIED TO AFRICA about his romance and marriage to Chizo, his spirited Nigerian wife, and their cross-cultural adventures as newlyweds in the San Francisco area. It is an incredible, often funny, sometimes poignant story of love, romance, and race relations.

And, in the fall, bestselling thriller author David Morrell’s THE SPY WHO CAME FOR CHRISTMAS will reinvent the Christmas novel with a taut, suspenseful, action-packed and ultimately heartwarming tale of good and evil. This is truly one of his best and most original works.

Along the way, I am hoping for more surprises – which is what keeps all of us happily plugging away in this serendipitous business: New authors, new ideas and new successes. All in all, 2008 looks to me to be a very promising year.