The Day After Valentine's Day - or No Love Lost

There is an excellent review of Theater of The Stars by N.M. Kelby at Bookslut.The review ends with a short history of this novel and what has happened to it since its publication in July 2003.

"The book became buried despite great reviews," writes Kelby, and that was that. No support, no marketing or PR and the book becomes buried. She believes it will probably be taken out of print and with no paperback date in view, she seems to be correct. The irony is that more than anything else this is a book about peace in the context of war, which is generally when the most stirring accounts of peace are realized. It will however, barring a miracle, "soon fade away from the landscape."

"Look how badly they treated Kelby," I said to a very wise man in the publishing biz who I happen to be having lunch with last week.

"No. You -- authors -- have it all wrong. You all keep thinking it's about your publisher or your agent loving you or not loving you. But it shouldn't be about you. It should be about your book and nothing but your book."

It was a provocative statement and I've been thinking about it but most of all I've been thinking about why it sounded so shocking when he said it.

Because he was telling me a hard truth as he saw it about authors and the publishing business as if I was grown up enough to hear it.

And that's just something that most of us rarely hear.

Very few editors, publishers, or publicists ever tell authors what is really going on. (I haven't checked with her but that article made it sound like Kelby's publisher's never told her what was happening to her book.)

Authors probably have less control over their own careers than any group of professionals but it takes us years to understand that. Long past the time it would have benefited us to know it. Most of us go into the dark the minute our agents negotiate our first sale and stay there the rest of our careers.

So we don't find out when our book has been all but abandoned pre-publication. Or that there was poor sell in. Or that the coop's been scrapped. We're somehow not entitled to be told what is about to happen and get prepared.

The non-communication is more than emotionally scarring, it is unfair to us professionally.

It infantalizes us.

An author who just finished taking my buzz class today told me her editor wouldn't give her the last name of a sales rep who did something lovely for her last book. "Just write to her and give it to me and I'll get it to her," she offered.

When the author asked why she couldn’t just sent it herself, the editor said: "We can't have our authors communicating with sales reps."

I've heard stories like that over and over.

Authors on one side of the moon. Sales and marketing on the other.

Why?

Because all authors are immature and don't know how to behave?

Or because there isn't room for all of us?

We can't all dance with the head of sales. We can't all have lunch with the publicist. We can't all pick up the phone and call someone in marketing.

No one at the publishing house would get their job done, right? Because for every one of them there are hundreds of us.

I know that when editors buy books, they do so with all good intentions. And I also know that stuff happens and certainly a certain number of books are destined to sink before they have a shot at swimming.

But is it also what my wise friend said taken to the next step?

Was he still not telling me the whole truth?

Do you get to a point where you can only care about the books that succeed? Do you have to stop caring about how many books fail as long as there are a certain number of books that succeed? Is that the only way you can do your job? Or the only way you have time to do it?

The truth.

You think we can't handle the truth?

Maybe. Maybe not.

Could Kelby have done something to save her book?

We won't ever know unless you try.

Comments

[Ray Rhamey]

MJ,

In regard to your wise man's statement that it should all be about the book, I read this statement online made by a book publisher's publicist regarding promoting a book: "It's not about the book. It's all about the author."

When you have two opposing views such as this within, potentially, the same firm, no wonder things go in circles.

Ray Rhamey
Flogging the Quill

[M.J. Rose]

You're missing the point a bit. Yes, PR is about the author, because how else can you promote a novel? Strategies of publishing may involve making the public feel that the author is what it's all about, but that public and perception and reality are distinct. There's a difference between what a publisher says to the media, what they say to the author and his agent, and what's at the heart of matter.

[Jenny Bent]

There was an article on a similiar topic in Poets and Writers maybe about a year ago, and I wrote a letter to the editor commenting on it, and I think I used the exact same word as you: "infantalize." I'm an agent, and it drives me crazy the way publishers really do try to hide information from authors--there's a certain perception that they "can't handle the truth," so we don't tell them when the print run is low, when the sales reps aren't responding, when there's a bad kirkus. The fact is, when you treat people like babies, they act like babies. Giving them information, even when it's bad news, empowers them. Low print run? OK, not great, but not the end of the world either. There's always another printing down the road if an author works hard enough to promote his or her book. But if you don't have any information, if you're kept in the dark, how can you sucessfully handle the situation? How can you best know how to promote your book if you don't have all the facts? I have a section on my site, "WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU'RE GETTING PUBLISHED" and I try to be as honest as possible about the whole process: many authors don't realize that their book can be deemed a failure in house before it even hits the book stores, but it certainly (and often) can. I'm just really glad you wrote about this, and that Poets and Writers wrote about this, because it's a huge pet peeve of mine. Please, please, let's stop treating authors like small children, and then complaining when they "act up." I'd act up too if I slaved for years to write a book and then was consistently lied to, or at least left out of the publication process. A little information and honesty go a long, long way.

[Katharine Weber]

I believe that P & W article was written by a certain MJ Rose.

Taking a devil's advocate stance just for a quick moment before I scurry back over to the author side of the room, I do think it needs to be said that there are some authors who need to stop acting like children.

Yes, the entire publishing situation and atmosphere as described by MJ and others is indeed deplorable. But what do some authors do that contributes to the problem rather than the solution? Let's be honest. We all know (and publicicts really, really know) horror stories of badly behaved, egomaniacal author behavior. We can;t pretend that doesn't exist. Should it drive the publishers into an adversarial stance with their own authors? Absolutely not. Does it hurt all of us? Absolutely yes.

[JoAnn]

Infantile Authors?

Did these same people write something with enough depth, nuance, humor, mystery, etc plus continuity and resolution to make a sale in a very tough market? This makes them, what, too juvenile to understand or respond to problems?

Duh! We do all the above but once we write "the end" our intellect slips back into shadow?

Oh, silly me, maybe we are likely to become EMOTIONAL because we are ARTISTS and you never know what one of those strange beings might do!

Enough already. It's a business. We know that. Give us the courtesy of exposure to the reality and we just might, with our strange but creative little minds, come up with a solution to a problem.

JoAnn Chartier

[Cece]

Having worked for a large publishing house in NYC, it often frustrated me that there was a ranking system of lead and lesser titles. Yes, it made sense, that resources were devoted to those with the best chance for success. Except, the books that were chosen had a gimmicky title, but were invariably mediocre. Of course, if any author managed to succeed through the adversity, then the doors to sales and marketing were opened. It seems that getting published is no longer enough. It's the author with the marketing plan that is given the chance to succeed.