Bookplanet: clueless authors

From The Book Standard:

Enough About Me #12: In Which the Author Learns About Overworked Publicists and Nasty and Often Unrealistic Authors by Adam Langer

A lot of the more vocal authors are not all that savvy about the business end of publishing. “The thing about authors,” my publicist friend said bluntly, “is that some of them just don’t get it.” Her remark intrigued me, but, unfortunately, she was called into a marketing meeting before I had the chance to ask what she meant by saying that some authors just don’t get it. Which is why I’ve spent the past couple of days e-mailing publicists and editors, asking them if her statement is true, whether there are aspects of the publishing industry about which authors are ignorant, and further, whether publishers should be educating authors better on certain areas of the industry. Basically, everyone I spoke to agreed that many authors often don’t get it, particularly with regard to publicity, which always seems to shoulder much of the blame for a book’s failure to perform to the author’s expectations.

“Most authors don't have a realistic basis of just how serious the competition for publicity is,” remarked the publicity director of a major literary imprint, who asked to remain anonymous. “Most reviewers at major media get, on average, 300 books a week. The amount of books produced has increased while the amount of book coverage (not to mention sales) has decreased. Most authors desperately want their books to sell and would like to make livings by writing and publishing, but the sad reality is that probably 5% of authors in print are able to do that. Who do they blame? The publicists. We're the caboose on the train and as a result become the scapegoat for just about everything.”

“Some things we can control; others we can't,” says Nicholas Latimer, director of publicity at Knopf. “There are an infinite number of variables that go into the success—or failure—of a book: competition, news events, conflicts of interest with a reviewer or interviewer, production problems with galleys or finished copies.”

“Publicity is the end of the line,” says Jennifer Gilmore, publicity director for Harcourt Books. “An author (and editor for that matter) does everything he or she can to make the book the best it can be. And if it "fails"—by not selling, not being reviewed, not being noticed—the first instinct, and a completely natural one, is to blame publicity.” Gilmore is in the unusual positon, for a publicist, of being a writer herself: She’s the author of Golden Country, the tentative title of a novel that will be published by Scribner next year. “It is not always our fault. Though your publicist may have not gotten your book to one of the 250 contacts you've provided (a changed address is often the problem here), it does not mean we are sitting on our asses eating foie gras while your book is languishing in the marketplace, waiting to be returned.”

One of the major culprits behind unrealistic author expectations, says Gene Taft, assistant publisher and director of publicity for PublicAffairs, is America’s celebrity obsession, which leads authors to think that they, too, are entitled to lavish book tours, signings and appearances on Good Morning America.

“Where else do you find young kids jumping on buses with $25 dollars in their pockets, traveling hundreds or even thousands of miles to be discovered by the movie industry, with no acting experience beyond a dream? Or where else do you find 20-, 30- or even 40-year-olds toiling away in mediocre bands, hoping to be discovered by a record label?” Taft asks. “The book industry and our talent, authors, are no exception to this.”

“They think they should get on Oprah, but their book is about the economy of Japan,” says Lissa Warren. “They've written a book on massage for dogs and think it should be reviewed in the New York Times Book Review. They think they should hit USA Today's bestseller list but their book is on a niche topic—like rose gardens in Arizona—and the print run is only 2,000 copies.”

What authors fail to realize, publicists say, is that even relatively successful authors have trouble reaching any level of national or international celebrity. Bloomsbury’s Deb Shapiro cites as evidence the fact that even bestselling author Alexander McCall Smith is a tough sell for national media.

“[Smith has] one of the most devoted and loyal fan bases ever, yet every morning show turned him down because he's ‘not a celebrity.’ ” Shapiro says. “If it's difficult to get a well-known, beloved author on the circuit, you can see how difficult it would be to get such a slot for a lesser known or unknown author.”

“The authors who really ‘get’ the media,” says Lynn Goldberg, of Goldberg McDuffie Communications, ”know that Oprah mainly covers celebrities and women’s and relationship issues, and inspiring human interest stories; that news-driven programs like Today, GMA and CNN cover just that—breaking news, news-you-can-use, and top newsmakers—and rarely cover fiction; that Terry Gross likes the arts and has very eclectic tastes; and that the New York Times Book Review will most likely not review any book with some variation of ‘10 Steps to Self-Improvement.’ ”

“The best experiences I've had with authors are when they realize that we are a team,” says Simon & Schuster’s Erin Cox. “Authors often compare their experiences to that of their peers and feel jealous of media their peers are getting, which isn't necessarily anything the publicist can do anything about. Each book is a unique publishing experience. Two books by the same author won't always get the same publicity, two books on the same subject won't always get the same publicity, and definitely two books—one fiction, one nonfiction—will NOT get the same publicity.”

So, what can publishers do to educate their authors? Gillian Berchowitz, assistant director and senior editor at Ohio University Press, says that it would be useful for authors to meet with a publisher’s marketing department, so that they have a realistic assessment of the publisher’s expectations for their book, and to understand clearly what their role should and shouldn’t be when it comes to participating in the marketing process. Gene Taft, of PublicAffairs, says that authors shouldn’t worry about going on book tours, particularly in this era “when you can reach local media from anywhere, not just face to face.” Deb Shapiro says that editors should talk frankly to their authors about the print runs of their books in order to manage author expectations in advance. All of which should help to make authors more knowledgeable.

On the other hand, a well-informed author might not be so desirable either, according to Jennifer Gilmore. “An educated author isn’t always the best thing,” the novelist and publicist says. “She knows what can happen when galleys are late. She knows what it means when her publicist says, ‘I'll let you know as soon as I hear anything.’ I myself will try and bear this in mind when my turn comes and I have to sit on my hands, and simply let my novel that took me six years to write, go.”

Lastly, among the folks I talked to, there is one point of agreement: Authors should please stop bugging their publicists about booking them on Oprah.