What We’re About
The Publishing Contrarian is not about literature or book reviews. It is a freewheeling, often irreverent, unique forum created specifically for the exchange of ideas, comments and news about what’s going on in all aspects of publishing today.
The Publishing Contrarian welcomes comments from readers. Published comments may be edited for length and clarity. We regret that because of the large volume of comments received, we are unable to acknowledge unpublished comments.
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The Wicked Witch of Publishing (TM), Lynne W. Scanlon, the voice of The Publishing Contrarian, has been a publisher and executive in the publishing business for over twenty years. She is also an author of three nonfiction books with sales in excess of 600,000 copies. Publishing houses include HarperCollins, St. Martin’s Press and Berkley Books.
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February 26th, 2006 at 9:57 am
Hi Lynne,
You have your work cut out for you.
The more I blog, the more I realize that the major publishers may be just as out of touch with what is going on among readers as newspapers are. It has to do, I think, with what is called in philosophy essentialism: Insofar as they actually pay attention to what is going on, they do so in order to fit what they notice into pre-set categories. What doesn’t fit, gets ignored.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing: Frank Wilson is The Philadelphia Inquirer’s book review editor. He writes an “Editor’s Choice” column each Sunday in the book section. He also has an excellent blog!
February 28th, 2006 at 11:41 am
More debate about this business of ours is good, but I respectfully disagree with Frank. I’m not saying we are infallible, but publishers, large and small, are striving every day to truly sell every book possible to every reader, and in both the established and new ways. We’re reaching out online, putting authors in touch with reading groups (the most powerful change in the last 10 years of publishing), experimenting with book formats, working with anyone who has a new tool or idea to sell more books (Above the Treeline could be the next big thing, and so much more. I see only energy, passion and innovation every day, here at HarperCollins and at other publishing houses.
Note from the Wicked Witch: Carl Lennertz is the author of the 2004 book Cursed by a Happy Childhood and the vice president of marketing for HarperCollins Publishing. He has a terrific blog called Publishing Insider.
February 28th, 2006 at 1:07 pm
Here’s a question from an author: in my experience editors bust a gut to help a writer produce good work; then publicists bust another gut to achieve some sort of media interest in the book; throughout all this the author busts a gut doing his/her best. That’s a lot of guts being busted. Right: the question is, if a writer has some indication that s/he is not thoroughly and irredeemably bad (good reviews, prizes, kudos of one kind or another) yet fails to make an impact in terms of sales, at what point should s/he consider that enough is enough and try alternative routes to reach an audience? From the perspective of someone in the book business, when do you reckon a writer should consider mainstream publishing to be a lost cause?
Note from the Wicked Witch: Just trying to figure out which John Barlow this is? Is it the writer (former lyricist for the Grateful Dead) and rancher in Wyoming? Is it the writer and recording artist in Nashville? Is it the writer from the UK now living in Spain. Waiting to hear back….
February 28th, 2006 at 4:57 pm
I’m sure what Carl says is true — at least about HarperCollins. What I was thinking of was the immense amount of copycat books that come into my office. There’s the entire genre of Bush-bashing books. Come on guys: he’s only got a couple of more years in office. Get over it. They all say the same damned thing, usually badly. I review none of them. Then there are the memoirs by people who have barely lived yet. Then all the books about some catastrophe that’s going to happen .. unless we read this book and follow the author’s advice. Like newspapers, publishers print too much that purports to predict the future. On the other hand, what do I know? The Da Vinci Code is still on the best-seller lists (I think) and it’s as bad a book as I’ve ever read.
March 1st, 2006 at 1:41 am
I linked on Saturday and I forgot to stop back and say welcome to the blog ‘o sphere! Insight and debate on publishing should see you gain a significant number of regular readers. You may wish to check out metaxucafe a new litblog/book/publishing venue run by Bud Parr.
http://metaxucafe.com/
Note from Wicked Witch of Publishing: Steve’s unpublished book Sand Storm was reviewed in blogcritics.org in January 2006: “…a 24-esque, stomach-clench of a story…” His blog promises to contain author & book news, as well as the “occasional diatribe, rant and tirade.” My type of guy!
March 1st, 2006 at 7:15 am
Damn that Wyoming cattle rancher, and that Grammy-winning s.o.b from Nashville! Yes, I am the THIRD most famous John Barlow, author of two books that a few smart people in publishing liked [www.johnbarlow.net ]
My comment, a little frivolous in tone, has a serious (and wildly self-indulgent) point; there is a moment when a ‘promising’ writer, having not broken through, stops being promising? That moment seems to come more quickly than it used to. Is there a point at which it is no longer worth while - statistically - plugging away at mainstream publishing?
Well, good to read a blog from an industry insider,
Best wishes
John Barlow 3rd
Note from the Wicked Witch: John, too funny! (See John’s previous comment.) John’s books: Intoxicated (pub date March 2006!), Los Ramones and Eating Mammals (won The Paris Review Discovery Prize in 2002).
March 6th, 2006 at 10:50 pm
It would appear to me that everyone “who counts” in the publishing world is quite in touch with what the public will buy. How else could “Walter the Farting Dog” have led the charts for so long and James Frey continue to sell like hot cakes?
You’ve taken on an impressive menu, Your Contrariness, and I look forward to reading more.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing: Andrew is a retired California highway patrolman turned freelance journalist and author. His collection of stories, The Swan — Tales of the Sacramento Valley, was published in 2004. He has also written seventeen reviews for Amazon.com. His wife and he publish an e-zine called The Woman’s Corner Magazine.
March 7th, 2006 at 5:28 pm
Hi Lynne:
Coming from the founding team at one of Silicon Valley’s early search engines (yes, we had a serious IPO in 2000) and a dedicated Web evangelist, I am a proponent of creating a two-step “Indie” publishing-industry option that uses the Web as a launching platform for new authors of both quality fiction and non-fiction with the will as well as the financial resources and committment (similar to emerging filmmakers at a Sundance or Telluride).
Step One will be to publish (via a Lulu or Booksurge or an iuniverse) and market the title on Amazon to generate a serious sales track record seeded by their personal blog and website and text ads on Google, Yahoo, MSN and targeted blogs. This will allow an emerging author to build their reader base and word-of-mouth within a sensible and flexible timeline vs the 3-6 week sales window current with the major retail chains.
Step Two would be for the author to engage with major publishers for standard retail distribution worldwide. A sucessful Amazon-based sales record and marketing campaign will provide the emerging author with the traction to negotiate a truly serious contract. The great and very real benefit to the traditional publisher will be a huge reduction in risk with a marketing platform solidly in place. You can visit the Indie Option at work at http://www.awomanfromcairo.com.
March 8th, 2006 at 11:06 am
Val’s suggestion requires a big transition in thinking on the part of an author, and a real hands-on marketing approach that goes well beyond what writers/authors think they have to do to get published. Val’s approach, which I support, may also be well beyond the capability and financial resources of most authors. Still, for those of us who can, I vote “yes.”
I do need clarification on what “standard retail distribution” means relative to the contract between publishing house and author. Once the hard work is done by the author, what would that contract look like, Val?
March 8th, 2006 at 1:36 pm
Lynne, I view book publishing via the “Indie” option with the same committment and possible upside and risk as would an emerging Indie filmmaker trying to breakout at Sundance or Toronto film festivals. In short, if you believe in the value of your current and future work, you’ll mortgage the house to get there. If you’re not one of the choosen top two or three titles a house pushes each season, I’m convinced you’re far better off taking control of your destiny using the Amazon/Indie option.
As far what the contract would look like, with most of the risk squeezed out with an established sales record and global word of mouth awareness, it would include a significantly higher royalty rate with and keep the Indie author’s marketing infrastructure in place or grant the option of final approval on cover, website, blog, etc.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing: Trot over to the http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7-2073717,00.html for some more info re lulu.com.
March 21st, 2006 at 10:17 am
I’ve enjoyed looking through your site, which is full of excellent tips and insights. It’s great to have these kinds of places for genuine chats about what goes on behind the scenes. Keep up the good work. I’m putting a link to your site on my blog, if you don’t mind.
March 31st, 2006 at 6:39 pm
Hi Lynne,
Thanks for the great site! This is one of the few places I’ve found that actually addresses people working in different realms of the publishing industry. I’ve really enjoyed looking through it.
I also know of a book that might be of interest to your readers. It’s called Book Publishing 1, and is published by the Canadian Centre for Studies in Publishing (CCSP) Press. It is a collection of concise articles dealing with various aspects of the industry, including author-editor relations, purchasing, promotion, and title aquisition. Check out the CCSP Press website at http://ccsppress.com
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing: LK is a student in the Master of Publishing Program at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, BC, Canada. The book she referenced contains articles written by graduates and faculty members of the MPub Program. Price of the book: $39.95.
April 6th, 2006 at 3:31 pm
Hi Lynne,
I too appreciate the fact that your blog deals with different realms of the publishing industry. My goal is to give emerging authors who are using new outlets for publishing, a chance to be heard. While the typical audio book is out of reach for most new authors, I’ve found a way to make it more affordable (as well as offering other inexpensive means for book promotion via podcasts and audio “teasers” for authors’ websites.) I hope if you find my site link useful you’ll share it with your bloggers. This is my first blog posting so apologies if I’ve overstepped in any way.
April 20th, 2006 at 5:37 pm
Can’t tell you how good it is to know that there are people out there who understand what the un-published, (or should that be un-washed!) are going through. I am not alone!! Many great insights and tips - thank you.