Borders Ward - National Writer's Association Talk

 

May 5, 2009 - Writers are very important to publishers. Without them there would be no publishers. What publishers have that authors don’t, are the ability to turn a manuscript into a book and the knowledge that goes into fine tuning, designing a manuscript and positioning it correctly in the literary market place.

 

Those who have heard me speak before are familiar with my usual opening quip about publishing ? for a publisher, publishing a book is like going on a blind date. You don’t know how it will turn out and much of the time you regret it ?Applying this adage to authors, the first part is the same but the second part is definitely not. No author ever regrets writing a book even if it doesn’t get published. There is the artistic joy of having created and in the case of fiction you learn a lot about yourself by writing your story.

 

Mutual does both concept titles i.e. we created the idea and then assembled a team to do them, and author generated books which represent our most important titles. Author generated books are also the most fun as we don’t know what the mail – US Post Office or digital mail – will bring. They represent our bread and butter and our best selling authors have usually published several books with Mutual.

 

Mutual gets about 150 inquiries a year out of which we will seriously consider about 15 and publish about 10. We try to respond to every submission including the manuscripts we reject. Assuming one hour to receive, examine, and write a letter, that’s 150 hours. If we read the manuscript in its entirety it’s a few more hours. All total, we spend at least 500 hours, or 12 weeks annually, looking at manuscripts. Sometimes we get behind in responding to inquiries particularly when we get busy trying to meet printing deadlines.

 

We seldom tell a writer why we specially rejected their manuscript. The rejection note usually says something to the effect of being overloaded with similar titles, not doing that genre anymore, etc.  The reason we don’t get specific is that by critiquing we end up in a time consuming dialogue unfortunately we are not in a position to show how writing can be improved. We would also inadvertently get committed to looking at revised versions even though experience tells us that manuscripts generally are not fixable.

 

Book publishing is changing rapidly. More books will be printed and distributed digitally. There will be fewer big publishers and more medium sized ones. No one knows what will happen to book reviews on printed pages as there are fewer or smaller daily papers. The internet is not necessarily a good gatekeeper of telling readers what to read.

  

Author publishing, a higher level of self publishing, is growing. It use to be that everyone had a business card, then a web page. Now everyone wants to author a book telling either their personal, family or business story or something that can be considered for a movie script. Some self published books eventually become trade books once the author proves it can sell. (In some cases the author starts their own publishing company.) Mutual is exploring starting an Author Publishing Division to assist Authors who are not necessarily committed to offering their book to the trade but want a quality product for private circulation.

 

Let me try to anticipate some questions.

 

1. What determines if an ms gets accepted?

     a) It has to be extremely well-written

     b) Topic must be significant

     c) Sales expectations must be there

     d) There are no serious Copyright / privacy, ethic violations

     Note: If a manuscript is outstanding, we usually waive sales expectations.

 

2. What is the process?

     a) We initially review a few chapters, synopsis or query to weed out terrible ones.

     b) If “overnight” review receives a decent grade, we request entire ms.

     c) The entire manuscript is sent out for a reader’s report which is a critical short review

         for publisher’s eyes only.

     d) Final review by all Mutual parties involved ? production, editorial, marketing

 

3. How long does it take?

     Depends on work that has to be done ? fine tuning, copyediting, proofing

        Printing takes about 3-4 months.

        Graphics 3-5 months.

        All can be speeded up or slowed down.

 

4. What grabs a publisher most?

     Quality of writing.

     Recommendation by highly qualified people.

     Author’s ability or ideas to help sell book or get reviews.

 

5. What advice for writers?

     Write well. Join writing groups, take courses, read.

     If you have the money, hire a coach.

 

6. Is getting an agent a good idea?

     Not necessarily for regional publishing where publishers are usually accessible. On the

     other hand, agents know business side so it’s easier to talk turkey.

     Also, negotiations are impersonal.

 

7. How to approach a mainland publisher?

     Here it is best to have an agent as they get overwhelmed with queries. It may be that

     a presentation in book form will draw attention i.e. a bound print on demand copy of

     galleys. Publisher may think if you went to that much trouble, there is something

     special about your manuscript.

 

Closing Remarks

     * Publishers make mistakes passing up good manuscripts and publishing books that

        don’t sell or get trashed by reviews.

     * You have the most difficult job in the world.