The Life of the Book Reviewer, In Pictures

The Book Publicity Blog collected pictures of the over-flowing bookshelves, desks, and floors, of book reviewers. Many authors, especially those who have newly self-published, think that book reviewers are just waiting to receive a copy of their book

The idea to collect the images was inspired by Murderati blogger and reviewer Tess Gerritsen's post about Why the hell won't they review my book."

 

The truth of the matter is that there are thousands more books to be reviewed than book reviewers can possibly review—even if they wanted to review them all, and the sad truth is that a rather large percentage of the books in question are really rather wretched. 

You can read about the project to collect picures of reviewer's shelves, and see the Flickr stream of the photos

The Dallas Morning News book room

This is the Dallas Morning News>/cite> Book Room, after the reviewer failed to shelve books "for a few weeks."

SUBJECT: OUR MARKETING PLAN

This is a New Yorker piece by . It's painfully funny in that a-little-too-close-to-the-bone way:

Let me introduce myself. My name is Gineen Klein, and I’ve been brought on as an intern to replace the promotion department here at Propensity Books. First, let me say that I absolutely love “Clancy the Doofus Beagle: A Love Story” and have some excellent ideas for promotion.

 

To start: Do you blog? If not, get in touch with Kris and Christopher from our online department, although at this point I think only Christopher is left. I’ll be out of the office from tomorrow until Monday, but when I get back I’ll ask him if he spoke to you. We use CopyBuoy via Hoster Broaster, because it streams really easily into a Plaxo/LinkedIn yak-fest meld. When you register, click “Endless,” and under “Contacts” just list everyone you’ve ever met. It would be great if you could post at least six hundred words every day until further notice.

Read more of Subject: Our Marketing Plan

 

 

What it costs for a best-selling e-book: $12.99

Contrary to popular belief, the costs of creating an e-book and a hardcover edition are similar. About 10 percent of hardcover costs go to printing, binding and shipping. Publishers set a retail price for an e-book, and selling agents such as Amazon.com and Apple receive a flat percentage of that retail price. These estimates are based on sales of 75,000. Expenses for a book include one-time costs such as editing and marketing. Many e-books lose money for publishers; e-books that sell millions of copies offset losses from less popular books. - Andrew Schneider

 

COST TO PUBLISHER $9.09

Author royalties $2.27

Editing/digitizing 0.28

Marketing1.00

Overhead 3.18

Operating profit 2.36

COST TO RETAILER $3.90

Overhead .50

Digital rights management .10

Pre-tax operating profit 3.30

Price to consumer $12.99

 

Washington Post Saturday, February 5, 2011

From here.

 

Anna Genoese on Demystifying Publishing

See her site here.

Follow the Rules (download PDF)
If you don't follow the rules of the playground, we won't let you play in our sandbox. (February 2006)

Genre as a Marketing Category (download PDF)
Publishers and editors do not think about genre the same way authors do. Here's an explanation. (March 2006)

How to do a Castoff (download PDF)
A step-by-step guide to getting an accurate character count -- and how to estimate how long your manuscript will be as a bound book! (March 2006)

How to Find an Agent (download PDF)
The basic steps to take to find an agent to represent your work. (April 2010)

Manuscript Formatting: Beyond 101 (download PDF)
What to do after you've put your manuscript in 12 point Courier New, double-spaced, with one-inch margins. (April 2010)

On Unsolicited Submissions (download PDF)
Unsolicited submissions are not junk mail. (March 2010)

Pitch Sessions: What they are & how to do it (download PDF)
Everythiing you need to know about pitching your book to an editor, and more! (February 2006)

Profit & Loss/Profitability & Liability : How Books Make (or Don't Make) Money (download PDF)
A basic outline of what happens when an editor buys a book and wants to publish it. This is very much a basic look at publishing and publishing finance, with some explanation of terms commonly used by the marketing and sales departments. (April 2006)

Publishing is Hard (download PDF)
Writing is an art, but publishing is a business -- and here are a few basic suggestions on how to navigate that business. Complete with explanations of various departments within a publishing company, and how they all work together to make your book. (March 2006)

Rejection Letters (download PDF)
Can't interpret your rejection letter? Here's a walkthrough of a real rejection letter, and what it probably means. (August 2006)

Selling Books with GLBTQ Characters (download PDF)
Having trouble selling your "gay" book to mainstream publishers? Here are some thoughts on why. (June 2006)

Submission (download PDF)
A look at submission guidelines -- what they mean, how to read them, how to find them, and much encouraging to follow them. (March 2006)

Things Authors Should Do (download PDF)
A list, written by two editors who are also published authors. (March 2010)