CraftFest Talk: What Editors Do After Your Book Is Perfect

Here are my notes on a second talk at CraftFest, part of the ThrillerFest conference put on by ITW. It was given by Neil Nyren, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of Putnam. The topic of his discussion was "What Editors Do After Your Book Is Perfect."

Nyren broke down into three main areas what your editor will do for you: Timing, Packaging and Marketing.

Timing:

• It's the responsibility of the editor to ensure that the book is published at the right time.
• A book must be published at the right time in order to be successful.
• For example: a lot of books by big name authors are released in September-November in order to capitalize on the Christmas buying season. As a result, many books are moved up to August or back to January to avoid the juggernauts.
• Timing affects how many books are likely to be bought, how much co-op space is available and how much review space is available.

Packaging:

• Packaging includes the book's size, title, jacket (including color, image, size and style of the author's name and the book's title, author photo, etc.), etc.
• The editor oversees all of these.
• (Note: Neil discussed this point using a lot of visual examples, showing different jacket covers and explaining the different aspects of them and why they were done that way. But you'll just have to trust me on that one, as I can't replicate what he said.)

Marketing:

• The marketing for an author can't be allowed to grow stale. The formula must be updated with every book. What you did last time isn't necessarily what you should do this time.
• Some considerations are things like: the book tour (bigger or smaller), the type of media opportunities that you pursue, the types of advertising, the outreach to online booksellers or B&M booksellers.
• If you did it one way last time, you should do it a different way this time.
• The goal is to make the author appear fresh; make it new/different each time.
• Co-op (co-operative advertising, where publishers pay bookstores to promote their books) is the great "hidden" cost of publishing. It is very expensive and it is also essential to the success of a book.

Further thoughts:

• The dark secret of publishing is that even the professionals are surprised every day. Great books fail while crap succeeds and there's no way to tell when that will happen. Conversely, some sure bestsellers flop while real art flourishes.
• Book sales are tepid. The current state of publishing is described by the quip: "Flat is the new up."

Advice to authors:

• Work with your editor. Your editor is your connection to the rest of the publishing company and you need to work on having a good relationship with him/her.
• Do your homework, learn the business. Educate yourself.
• Then ask questions. Inform yourself and always communicate with your editor.
• But don't be neurotic. Don't be a pain in the ass. And don't harass your beleaguered publicist.

What do you bring to the table? (factors that influence what a publisher can do for you and your book)

• Do you or the book have an interesting hook? (E.g., FBI agent, topical story)
• Do you have an in with a magazine or newspaper or book review editor or media people?
• Do you know any booksellers?
• Are you TV friendly?
• Are you outgoing and a good speaker?
• What's your sales history like?

(I know this is disjointed -- my notes weren't great and Neil's talk was complicated. But maybe you'll find some of this interesting.)

Comments

[I.J.Parker]

Hah! I had to learn all those nasty little bits the hard way. Notice that nowhere in that list does the editor think it's his job to actually edit the book. To an editor, the author writes and promotes, and the editor picks the cover and decides how much money the publisher will spend to make the book a success.
It occurs to me in context that not only the absence of cooperative promotion (paying bookstores to carry and display the book) but also the smaller size of the author's name on the cover may contribute to the uneven playing field out there.
Whatever happened to a sincere effort to promote all the books in the best manner possible?

[David J. Montgomery]

Good editors still edit -- and Neil is one of the good ones.

I want to add that he started off the talk by stating that he was going to discuss what happens AFTER the book is as good as it can be. I should have made that clear.

[David J. Montgomery]

"Whatever happened to a sincere effort to promote all the books in the best manner possible?"

This came up in discussion on another panel I attended. The scenario is impossible. Not every book can get co-op and advertising and tours and massive galley mailings and all the rest.

This is why I think that publishers should publish far fewer books than they currently do. If they significantly condensed their lists, they could do more to support each book.

Of course, this would mean that far fewer authors would ever see print. I don't think that's a bad thing, but aspiring writers might disagree.

[spyscribbler]

Thank you, David, really. I wish I could've gone! It's really generous of you to share.

Thanks!

[I.J.Parker]

Very glad to have that editing business cleared up. Apologies to all editors who still work on mss. (Your title made this clear. Sorry for the careless reading. To me the editing process is of paramount importance in the relationship)

And yes, I agree that far fewer books should be published.

[Sean Chercover]

Wish I could've been at that session, but I had a meeting. Thanks for reporting on it, dude.