Friday, June 25, 2010
Laura Fitzgerald
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Laura Fitzgerald
Buzz words are problematic. While the phrases are easy to recite, they tend to also propagate misinformation in their simplicity. Some processes and organizations are just too complex to be boil down to a handful of words or titles that will paint an accurate picture.
Nothing drives me battier than the terminology "The Big Six", a phrase used often to refer to the six major trade houses in the USA: Random House, Macmillan, Penguin Group, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, and Harper Collins. I've always felt that this misnomer leads readers to think of the publishing industry as smaller than it is.
"The Big Six," it reduces a publisher like Random House to one of only six publishers. It addresses none of the variety or diversity of Random House as a collected whole. Here is the Wikipedia entry for Random House, listing all of it's domestic and international imprints: Wiki Divisions and Imprints. I stopped counting at a dozen, but there are many, many more. Every imprint is different and unique in pursuing their own publishing goals and opinion of excellence.
Another thing that bothers me about the use of "The Big Six" is how it undervalues the roll small presses play in the publishing field. Why is it only ever the actions of "The Big Six" that appear to be shaping the industry? Digital technologies are leveling the playing field through e-publishing and advancements in print production and efficiency. Every day, small and independent presses are making decisions that will affect their markets, authors, contracts, accounts, and consumers. These decisions in turn create ripples in the community, slowly fanning out to affect a larger surface area.
Finally, and this observation may only be the result of the blog posts that I have read, I see the phrase "The Big Six" used frequently enough to imply that there is some secret society among publishers. And it boggles my mind every time. There are anti-trust laws in this country to prevent collusion between corporate powers against any one industry, retailer, or consumer group. I'm not naive, people in this industry do talk with one another, but there is no roundtable secret meeting between publishing execs at which they decide how as one, they're going to move and position themselves around one another. This is a highly competitive market, with low margins, and an abundance of goods. It benefits the large corporations to be closed lipped with one another.
I doubt it bugs very many people, but there it is. I've said my peace.
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Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Laura Fitzgerald
Yesterday, I came across a short series of tweets by writer, Audrey Taylor, that address a chronic problem among many writers. She had the best anecdotal image I have ever seen for the problem of superfluous plot devices. Rather than retweeting, I felt it would be clearer as a blog post. Personal choice, but I've just never liked retweeting multiple inter-connected tweets. (And hey in a blog post I can make it purple, WIN)
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Laura Fitzgerald
One of the big gripes with traditional publishing these days is that due to the economic downturn, it is only a handful of books that receive -any- marketing at all. That if you aren't Stephen King, you can expect to go it alone. Here is the good news: that's not all that true! Most every book receives some marketing and publicity attention with few exception among all the major trade houses.
What is true is that only a few books receive money for some of the bigger things such as ads in The New York Times Book Review, and that's okay. It's only a certain kind of book that benefits from such things.
Every book receives at least three big things: review galleys, a place in catalog, and attention from your marketing department and sales force at major meetings. None of these are insignificant. The catalog is a hugely important sales tools that goes out to booksellers, libraries, and reviewers everywhere to pitch the upcoming season of books.
The thing you should also know is that it is never all or nothing. Between those big books that get those ads in USA Today and the ten city tours, there are a lot of other tiers. Some books get a lot more galleys and advertising perhaps in lieu of author appearances due to the budget or an author's schedule and travel restraints. Some books get a lot more of an online push with little to no print attention because that's just the best way to reach its target audience.
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Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Laura Fitzgerald
