Study: Little-Known Publishers Profitable

Study: Little-Known Publishers Profitable
Wed Apr 6, 2:04 PM ET
By HILLEL ITALIE, AP National Writer

NEW YORK - Unless you live in Boys Town, Neb., or work in education or family services, you likely haven't heard of Boys Town Press, the publishing arm of the youth care organization founded by Father Flanagan and made famous by the Spencer Tracy movie.

Boys Town Press, an 11-year-old company that publishes parenting and educational materials, generated sales of $1.7 million last year, a fraction of what Random House, Inc., Scholastic, Inc., and other billion-dollar companies bring in.

Boys Town may appear an industry exception, but a new study says it's more the rule. In a report issued Wednesday, the Book Industry Study Group says there are thousands of such publishers, earning between $1 million and $50 million on their own, but adding up to an estimated $11 billion market.

"For several years, we knew there was a segment of book industry activity that was not being covered by traditional research," said Jeff Abraham, executive director of the study group, a nonprofit research and policy organization funded by publishers, booksellers and others in the industry.

Abraham said that traditional studies released by the study group, the Association of American Publishers and others assume that the solid majority of book sales comes from the larger organizations, with the top 50 making at least $20 billion out of a $28 billion market. Wednesday's report, titled "Under the Radar," asserts that the industry is both larger and less concentrated than previously believed.

"We've been seeing signs for a long time, especially with the rise of the internet," said Kent Sturgis, president of the Publishers Marketing Association, which represents thousands of independent publishers. "It used to be New York publishers were gatekeepers of what got into print. Technology has democratized book publishing."

Abraham acknowledged that one problem for his organization was finding out just how many publishers are out there. The study group worked with R.R. Bowker, which compiles industry statistics, and sent inquiries to more than 85,000 companies. Around 3,200 responded, Abraham said, allowing the study group to make projections with a high level of confidence.
The report was prepared by InfoTrends/CAP Ventures, a market research and strategic consulting firm.

Like Boys Town, "under the radar" publishers sell to specialized audiences and rely at least partly on outlets besides bookstore. Boys Town, for example, sells mostly through its Web site and direct mail marketing.

In White River Junction, Vt., Margo Baldwin runs Chelsea Green Publishers, a 20-year old company that focuses on environmental and political titles. Baldwin's books sell in stores and through local political organizations. Chelsea Green generated $3.7 million last year, and even published a best seller, George Lakoff's "Don't Think of an Elephant."
Baldwin credits the rise of Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com with helping publishing houses such as hers.

"The online retailers have significantly altered the industry because they allow small publishers to have their books alongside the books by the big publishers, at least in a virtual retail slot," she said. "Before that, if you couldn't get into a traditional store, you had no distribution channel."
Another publisher, Burt Levy, is a race car driver who in 1994 self-published a novel about the sport, "The Last Open Road," taking out a second mortgage to cover costs. Levy was eventually signed by St. Martin's Press, but said the book never reached the race car fans he was convinced would buy it. Instead, "Open Road" was stocked with general fiction, "between Doris Lessing and Sinclair Lewis."

So Levy bought back the rights to "Open Road" and for his next novel, "Montezuma's Ferrari." He returned to self-publishing, selling his book at racing events and car museum gift shops. He now has written a trilogy of racing novels, with total sales just above $1 million.
"We never did do as well in bookstores, as we did in the niche markets," said Levy, who is based in Oak Park, Ill.

"I'm not surprised to learn that there are so many publishers like me. I think the key is that some books fit into areas that the big publishers just don't get to. In the end, you just need to do what you're good at."
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Pros offer tips on landing a literary agent

This is a follow up to Shawn's post. A must read article on landing a literary agent. We all know it's possible because Shawn landed one. Only after a book is polished is the time to submit. We should look at Shawn as an example. When she submitted "All My Tomorrows" before it was really in tip top shape, it took her six months or longer to find an agent, who turned out to be too green. We all know Shawn's been revising that book, and in the mean time, submitted "My Highland Love," which took her far less time in order to snare an agent and an excellent one at that. This is how we learn. Take the experience and run with it.
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By Cathie Beck, Special To The News February 6, 2004

So here it is, already February, and even though you finally wrapped up that labor of love and hate - your book - you're stuck fast in the thinking stages of sending it to literary agents.
Though you swore you'd do it just as soon as that ball dropped on Times Square New Year's Eve, the truth is: You're just one of god-knows-how-many thousands of writers yet to crack the book-publishing code. And besides, without an "in," no powerful agent would ever talk to you, let alone read your book - right?

Wrong, says "Seven-Figure Molly."

That's Molly Friedrich of the New York Aaron Priest Literary Agency, an agent who represents Frank McCourt (Angela's Ashes) and Jane Smiley (Moo), among other prominent authors.
"It's such a myth that access to agents is difficult," she says. "It's just not true. I'm easy to get to. If anyone writes a thoughtful, intelligent query letter, I'd probably phone her. Any agent would. Here's another thing: Anybody good will get published."

So how does an unknown get the attention of the desired agent? How can you land that exacting, successful representative who falls madly in love with your work, exhaustively pitches it and strikes the dream deal for your novel, your how-to book, your memoir?
It's not as tough as you might think.

We polled more than two-dozen agents, and they agree with Friedrich: With some diligent homework and the perfect query letter, you're bound to catch someone's eye eventually.
Today, for procrastinators everywhere, a few insider tips from the pros:

• Know your agent before writing a query letter.

"Authors should be doing their homework," says Sandra Dijkstra, who has been hailed by the Los Angeles Times as "the most powerful literary agent on the West Coast."

"Before they write the letter to us, they should check the acknowledgment pages of similar works to theirs. Look in the books you love and compare them to your book - who is the agent being acknowledged?"

Choose an agent who has represented similar works in the past.
Richard Pine, of Arthur Pine Associates Inc. in New York, takes Dijkstra's recommendations up a notch.

Pine represents some of the highest-profile authors today, including spiritual guru Wayne W. Dyer and The South Beach Diet author Arthur Agatston. He suggests that authors get to know personal, as well as professional, details about any agent they're considering.

"There are a lot of agents out there," he says. "So it's the author's job to figure out who these people are. Do research. . . .

"Agents have special interests based upon where they grew up," he adds, "where they went to school, what they do in their free time, who they know, where they travel, and the most obvious, what kinds of books they represent. Then, if you have a sci-fi novel, you won't work really hard on getting an agent who doesn't represent science-fiction," says Pine.

" . . . You have to approach agents in a way that's interesting to the agent."

• Be succinct

Big-time agents receive hundreds of queries a week. Don't waste their time.
It's all about delivering a one-page, three-paragraph, magical piece of paper. Agents note that the first paragraph should compellingly distill your book; the second, explain how your book is distinctive; and the third, wrap everything up in a way that convinces the agent that no one but you can write this book.

Ted Weinstein, former music critic for National Public Radio's All Things Considered and owner of Ted Weinstein Literary Management in San Francisco, notes: "There's a scene in a movie where the guy says, 'You had me at hello.' I've represented an author simply because her one-page query caught me just like that line from the movie."

Quit while you're ahead. Keep it short.

• Don't sound cocky.

Being confident is one thing. Believing you're of literary-classic caliber is quite another.
"I once got a letter that said, 'I think James Joyce writes a lot like me,' " recalls Suzanne Gluck, co-head of the William Morris Literary Agency's worldwide literary department.
Gluck chuckles even now at the recollection.

"Believe me," she says, "that sort of claim creates an office giggle for the rest of the day. . . .

"It's difficult to take seriously the writer who makes inappropriate comparisons of their work to contemporary and classic literature - who over-reach."

• Prove you're not a novice.

"I can tell in the first 100 words whether a writer can write," says Pine. "So your query cannot sound impersonal, amateurish or ill-prepared. I can't tell you the number of times people have written to me and said something like, 'I've written a fictional novel.' I know that person is not for me. Write a smart personal letter."

• Show respect - for an agent's time and intelligence.

"I don't like people to show up my office and just want to meet me. You have to wait your turn," says literary agent Elyse Cheney, who works with Sanford J. Greenburger Associates in New York. "I also don't like queries that have gimmicks going on."

Cheney recalls one writer who sent an umbrella with the query, because the book's opening scene took place in the rain. "That doesn't work," Cheney says.

In addition, "A lot of people start a query with questions that are supposed to be provocative. It's coy and uninteresting and trumped-up when a writer starts a query with questions like, 'Have you ever . . . ?' or 'What do you think it would feel like . . . ?' What the writer is doing is pumping up (their query) with the hopes that it will make what they're saying more interesting, but they don't need to do that. Just tell me what (the book) is (about)."

• Don't make technical mistakes.

Agents possess myriad idiosyncratic preferences - and expect you to follow them.
Research agents' Web sites and learn the details of contacting them - whether to use surface or e-mail, etc. Such particulars are often outlined under "submissions" on their sites.

Admonishes Cheney: "I really don't like e-mail queries at all. I want to receive them by (snail) mail, but everyone sends e-mails anyway. Check the agency's Web site," she says.

• Read.

"What really annoys me," says Cheney, "is that everyone wants to write a book, but they don't read.

"I remember a story someone once told me: 'A doctor sits down next to a man. When the doctor learns the man is a writer, the doc says, "Hey, I always wanted to write a book. I think I will." The writer says back, "Yeah, I always wanted to perform brain surgery. I think I'll try it." '

"That sort of illustrates the point: It's impossible to write books if you're not a devoted reader of good books."

• Nurture any possible connections.

"It's helpful to have been recommended to us," admits Dijkstra, though she stresses that a good query letter can be just as powerful.

Adds Weinstein, "I tell authors to attend a lot of writers conferences. It's like speed dating with agents - you get to pitch the agents and see if they want to see your proposal."

• Don't lose hope.

There's plenty of room for the writer who takes the query letter seriously, says Dijkstra. So there's no time like the present to start taking your New Year's resolution seriously.

"We read everything that comes in," says the agent - a comment that should encourage even the most reticent of writers. "And we read it with great care.

Cathie Beck is a Denver short story writer and journalist. She is currently shopping her own manuscript, "Cheap Cabernet," to agents.

Character Building Workshop - Writers' Village University

Character Building Workshop
Your story people will never be the same.

Web Mystery Magazine Spring 2005, Volume II, issue 4

Welcome to Spring 2005: Volume II, Issue 4

Web Mystery Magazine is extremely proud to present this issue, featuring non-fiction articles and columns by experts in a variety of fields, from forensics to private investigations to historical fiction to pulp fiction history, as well as original short mystery fiction by writers both established and new.

Bookmouth.com

Simple Things You Can Do To Get The Word Out
About Your Independent Project

The Internet Review of Science Fiction

The Internet Review of Science Fiction is a forum for the serious exploration of the literature of the fantastic. IROSF publishes intelligent articles, essays, interviews, reviews, and criticism to illuminate the most interesting and important work in the genres of science fiction and fantasy.

WritersServices 2004

This is a great website for writers.

Foetry Speaks!

This Week’s Column:

FOETRY SPEAKS!

... a MobyLives guest column

by Anonymous


Editor's note: Recent news items in the MobyLives news digest about the website Foetry.com, and its accusations that certain literary prize competitions are corrupt, have generated some of the most heated mail this site has ever received. Remarkably, most of that mail—even the majority that applauded Foetry—was, by request, off the record.

Seeking light amidst the heat, MobyLives has asked Foetry.com to explain itself, and in particular to address concerns about the anonymity of whomever is behind it. Foetry agreed . . . on the condition of anonymity. While MobyLives does not favor the use of anonymous sources, there are times when, because of threat to the source, they are justified. The proprietor of Foetry.com satisfied the proprietor of MobyLives that this was such a case.

28 March 2005 — According to Whitman, "The maker of poems settles justice, reality, immortality." How will the poets writing and publishing today be remembered?

Foetry.com launched on April 1st of 2004 to expose the status quo in American poetry publication: many books published are winners of contests that are often large–scale fraud operations. Judges select their friends, students, and lovers from pools of manuscripts numbering in the hundreds or thousands, accompanied by an entry fee, usually around $20–$25. Some of the competitions are sponsored by university presses, such as the Iowa Poetry Prize and the University of Georgia Contemporary Poetry Series.

As soon as Foetry.com was launched, the defenses began. "What if the manuscript really was the best one?" "This is how it's always been." "You should spend less time whining and more time writing." "You're just bitter that you didn't win."

We hear the same arguments regularly and none are convincing. When is it ever acceptable to cheat? Have we really come to the point that universities sponsor "open" competitions that are funded by thousands of hopeful victims? When Jorie Graham, a Harvard professor, selects the manuscript of her own husband and colleague, Peter Sacks, out of hundreds of entries, why are people angry at us instead of them? Does academic integrity apply only to students and not to professors?

When these poets publish their "winning" books, more awards, readings, and teaching posts follow. The judges bestow prizes to the writing they helped to shape, that they influenced, in contests subsidized by entrants on a crooked playing field. In an exchange on "Ambition and Greatness" in a recent issue of the journal Poetry, Daisy Fried says, " . . . when the only aim is getting an A+ in reproducing teachers' revolutions, it's unlikely to lead anywhere but mediocrity."

Any judge can easily recognize the writing of poets they have taught, or work they know intimately, in a blind reading; removing the names from manuscripts is not enough. It's a poor excuse and every good reader knows that. Contests must prohibit entries from poets where a conflict of interest is a possibility. Screeners and judges must recuse themselves when writing is recognized as that of a personal associate.

Foetry.com is under attack by two groups of people. One is the poets who have benefited from the unscrupulous behaviors we discuss, and their defensive friends. The second is made up of those who hope to advance their writing by defending illicit activities; after all, one day it may happen for them — if their poetry cannot stand on merit, perhaps it will be affirmed through connections at the right cocktail party or by sucking up this week at the Associated Writing Programs annual conference.

In addition to our webpages that detail the illicit — some say illegal — selections of various contests, and the judges who made the choices, Foetry.com provides a discussion forum area. Most of the more than eight hundred members of the forum are anonymous, as are the site administrators. We are tired of the people who use that as a way to discredit what we are doing. Their hope is that people will forget the real issue if they say we are cowards, or that they have no way to defend themselves. The people complaining about anonymity are the ones who have something to hide. Do we refuse to read every article in the newspaper that quotes a source speaking on condition of anonymity?

Lately, it has become clear why anonymity is important. Our forum includes stories of blacklisting by Brown University professors. A website called Whoisfoetry divulges the "true" identities of some of our site members and solicits tips for our outing. The University of Georgia released the name of the person who requested records of the judges and their selections on our behalf. Recently, through insinuation, another forum member has been victimized on a professor's personal website as retaliation for our work, though he was not involved; in fact, he had not even posted on our site. He has been victimized by foets on grant panels before and was recently threatened again.

We are not afraid; our work is just beginning. Some presses have adopted the so–called Jorie Graham rule, a moniker created because the Macarthur genius and Pulitzer winner has chosen her students and lovers as "prizewinning poets" so many times. In general, the rule says no friends or former students of the judge are eligible, but even with that important guideline in place, some publishers are violating their own rules. The University of Georgia finally added a statement of Academic Integrity to the contest page, and soon after announced winners of the latest round. One, Susan Maxwell, is a current student in the PhD program at the University of Denver, where series editor for the George prize, Bin Ramke, teaches. Every party should be ashamed, from Georgia, which allowed that to happen again, to Bin Ramke, to Susan Maxwell, whose work is affirmed only through fraud.

One of our Foetry Forum regulars, Vermeer expresses the frustrations of our visitors:

I know the poets I love (Neruda, Blas de Otero, Lorca, Angel Gonzalez, Brodsky, Bei Dao, Yannis Ritsos, Vasko Popa, Nâzim Hikmet) have always seemed heroic to me. They stood up to political regimes. They wrote when their lives were threatened. Lorca was dragged into an olive grove and assassinated. Ritsos and Hikmet were thrown in prison. But they continued to stand up against the oppressors, the thieves of liberty and freedom of expression. And they helped change the world to be a better place, they confronted the word and created art that transformed. And here in America the brave writers of the MFA programs and non–MFA programs can't get a little backbone and stand up and say enough is enough with these rigged contests and self dealing awards? Stop this pathetic self–dealing and stealing? STOP STEALING! It is utterly outrageous and pathetic. We can't do that?

That is what we want. If the contests are to continue, if taxpayers are to support the National Endowment for the Arts, which funds many of the sham presses, then we insist that people stop stealing. We are watching.



This commentary was written by the editor of Foetry.com who wished to remain anonymous.


©2005 Foetry.com

KRT Wire | 03/25/2005 | Schiavo case results in threats, prompting calls for calm

Posted on Fri, Mar. 25, 2005

Schiavo case results in threats, prompting calls for calm

BY HELEN KENNEDY

New York Daily News


TAMPA, Fla. - (KRT) - As Terri Schiavo weakens and legal options peter out, tension here is intensifying.

Some pro-life activists are making ugly threats, making up "Wanted" posters for lawmakers and handing out the home addresses of judges who rejected legal appeals to keep Schiavo alive.

"I am afraid," said state Sen. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami, who has received numerous death threats by phone and mail because she voted against a measure to reinsert Schiavo's feeding tube. "We're talking about the sanctity of life, and (they're) threatening my life."

The nine Republican lawmakers who voted against the measure showed up on anonymous "Wanted" posters that appeared in the state capitol in Tallahassee. State Sen. Nancy Argenziano said one of the "un-Christian" voice mails she's received wished stomach cancer on her.

Guards have been posted outside the politicians' offices.

Police won't discuss their security measures, but Michael Schiavo and Judge George Greer, who has consistently upheld Schiavo's requests to end his wife's life, are under around-the-clock protection and staying out of sight. Both have been the targets of a flood of fury, branding them corrupt and abusive murderers who are flouting God.

"Various law enforcement agencies are aware of the emotions in this case and have taken appropriate actions," said Wayne Shelor, spokesman for the police in Clearwater, Fla., where Michael Schiavo lives.

Popular right-wing Web sites have had to post prominent warnings against threats of violence on their discussion boards after calls for the armed "liberation" of Terri Schiavo from her hospice and comments suggesting that if her husband were taken out of the picture, guardianship would revert to her parents, who want to keep her alive.

People on Schiavo's street in Clearwater have received anonymous postcards saying: "Your neighbor Michael Schiavo is trying to murder his wife."

Gov. Jeb Bush was alarmed enough to call for calm.

"There have been some reports that people are making threatening declarations if this process doesn't go their way," he said. "I urge all who want to help Terri Schiavo to honor her by remaining calm and acting peacefully, even though we are all very distressed by what's happening."

"Even though we may disagree with the courts," he added, "there is no justification for violent acts."

---

(New York Daily News correspondent Richard Sisk contributed to this report.)

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© 2005, New York Daily News.

Visit the Daily News online at http://www.nydailynews.com

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.






Schiavo case results in threats, prompting calls for calm

BY HELEN KENNEDY

New York Daily News


TAMPA, Fla. - (KRT) - As Terri Schiavo weakens and legal options peter out, tension here is intensifying.
Some pro-life activists are making ugly threats, making up 'Wanted' posters for lawmakers and handing out the home addresses of judges who rejected legal appeals to keep Schiavo alive.
'I am afraid,' said state Sen. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami, who has received numerous death threats by phone and mail because she voted against a measure to reinsert Schiavo's feeding tube. 'We're talking about the sanctity of life, and (they're) threatening my life.'
The nine Republican lawmakers who voted against the measure showed up on anonymous 'Wanted' posters that appeared in the state capitol in Tallahassee. State Sen. Nancy Argenziano said one of the 'un-Christian' voice mails she's received wished stomach cancer on her.
Guards have been posted outside the politicians' offices.
Police won't discuss their security measures, but Michael Schiavo and Judge George Greer, who has consistently upheld Schiavo's requests to end his wife's life, are under around-the-clock protection and staying out of sight. Both have been the targets of a flood of fury, branding them corrupt and abusive murderers who are flouting God.
'Various law enforcement agencies are aware of the emotions in this case and have taken appropriate actions,' said Wayne Shelor, spokesman for the police in Clearwater, Fla., where Michael Schiavo lives.
Popular right-wing Web sites have had to post prominent warnings against threats of vi"

Guardian Unlimited Books | News | Belittled women

Belittled women

The editors of a prestigious collection of new writing say most of the submissions from women were dull, 'disappointingly domestic' and 'depressed as hell'. AL Kennedy asks why we are so obsessed with an author's gender, Yvonne Roberts suggests that women writers do lack ambition, and Jane Rogers argues that some of the best fiction is domestic

The Globe and Mail: Novel way to rebel against your parents

So, if your natural mother or father is just a horror and not a horror writer, can you file a court petition and adopt a famous novelist that will help your career?

Christopher Rice didn't have to go to those lengths. His mother is Anne Rice. He just had to eat all his vegetables and put his plate in the sink after each meal.

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Tuesday, March 22, 2005

The dust jacket of the U.S. author Christopher Rice's book, Light Before Day, due out in Canada from distributor H. B. Fenn this month, has not one but two blurbs comparing his writing to that of horror author Stephen King. It's a fine distinction to earn, if a little peculiar, since Rice is in fact deeply indebted to another horror writer -- his mother, Anne Rice, who is also mentioned on the back cover. But it's not yet known if such cross-pollinating promotion will be repeated when Stephen King's son Owen comes out with his first book, We're All in This Together, distributed by Raincoast Books in July. . .

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Hungry for more? Satiate your appetite with some take out news from www.globeandmail.com. Need directions? Click on the header link.

Tod Goldberg: Natural Selection

Please visit Tod Goldberg's site and read the ten things that irk him most about some prospective writing students' manuscripts.

I'll post one and two so that you can get an idea of what he's up against.

1. What's with people calling their books 'fictional novels?' Is there some other kind of novel I'm not aware of? In a related question..."

2. Don't you have to know, before you finish your book, if it is fiction or nonfiction? Here are two quotes taken directly from cover letters: "This novel is a memoir, I think. I probably won't know until I finish it." And: "This story is true, but I've changed some of the issues to dramatize it, but it is still nonfiction." Uh, no. If you change it to dramatize it, that makes it fiction. Just ask Jayson Blair. And further, why would you take a class on novel writing if you're writing true stories?

Guardian Unlimited Books | Special Reports | How to be a bestseller

Danuta Kean explains what makes a book a success

Saturday August 4, 2001
The Guardian

Imagine you're a bestselling author. How do you see yourself? A chick-lit star, posing for Hello! with celebrity friends at your glamorous book launch? Propping up the bar in Soho House, an ageing lit-lad making ironic observations to the arm-candy at your side? Whatever the fantasy, it is doubtful it involves days spent developing repetitive-strain industry in a book warehouse as you sign 1,000 books an hour, or weeks schlepping round the provincial bookshops of Britain meeting booksellers more interested in the famous footballer scheduled for a signing after you.
It is unlikely, too, that your fantasy involves your publisher passing up to £10,000 to chain booksellers and supermarkets so that they will consider displaying your book at the front of their branches. Or paying a chain £6,000 to choose your book as a Read of the Week, or shelling out £25,000 to guarantee its appearance in Christmas catalogues.

Most of the books in bestseller lists were propelled there by at least some money changing hands at retailers' head offices, and by writers working hard to promote themselves. We may have quaint fantasies about authors, but publishers labour under the same demands for profits as workers in any other business. Besides, with upwards of 120,000 new titles published every year, authors need all the help they can get to ensure their book ends up on the shelves of readers - as opposed to those of remainder bookshops.

Of course, there are books that make it without the aid of expensive marketing and publicity campaigns, but they are rare and becoming rarer. Even legendary word-of-mouth successes, such as Captain Corelli's Mandolin, received a hand up the charts from carefully orchestrated promotions. In Louis de Bernières's case, this involved careful thought about the cover, pre-publication proof copies being sent to opinion-formers, trade-press advertising and an extensive publicity tour.

This does not mean that the book is secondary to the splash made by the publisher. "The whole bestseller thing is 70% the book and 30% marketing. It is a very collaborative process," says Victoria Routledge, a former editor at Headline. Now a bestselling novelist herself, she is busy promoting her third book, ... And for Starters, published this week.

That 30% of marketing includes in-house promotion. It is easy to spot publishers' lead titles before they appear in catalogues or on the sides of buses: the giveaway is what's known as the "in-house buzz". Without that, a book will not be a bestseller. "If you can make it work in-house big-time, you can make it work outside big-time," says Geoff Duffield, group marketing director at Orion, which publishes the biggest-selling author in the UK, Maeve Binchy. Duffield recalls the buzz at HarperCollins when the manuscript for Arundhati Roy's Booker-winner The God of Small Things came up for auction. "There was such energy in-house about that book when it came along. Immediately everyone read it, we felt that we were going to get this book whatever it took." It took a £150,000 advance, which led to blanket press coverage and enabled publicists to promote Roy to journalists when the book was published.

It also gave the trade early warning that the high advance would be matched by an equally impressive marketing budget: in-house buzz means that an author's book will receive support from sales, publicity and marketing departments. The energy generated by this buzz is aimed directly at key people in the trade, particularly book-buyers in major chains, who are wooed with corporate hospitality ranging from intimate dinners with authors to day trips. Recently buyers, including some from WHSmith, Books Etc and Waterstone's, were treated to a "Generation Game Day" hosted by Pan Macmillan, during which they played spin the plate and ice the cake under the gaze of Bruce Forsyth, whose autobiography Macmillan publishes this autumn. Faber took a group of booksellers to Damien Hirst's studio to meet the artist and Gordon Burn; their book On the Way to Work is published in October.

There is a temptation for would-be authors to think they can follow some formula to be a bestseller. But any literary agent will tell you that the notorious slush-pile of unsolicited manuscripts cluttering up a corner of the office is rich in novels mistakenly inspired by a scan along the bestseller shelves. Forget it, says agent Carole Blake of Blake Friedman. "If a writer sets out to fill a gap in the market they are in danger of writing something that'll hold no one, but if they have something they feel totally passionate about, then they stand some chance of being a bestseller."

If there is a key to bestselling success, it is that authors should be original and engage readers' emotions. Some might dismiss this after looking at the flood of me-too titles that follow in the wake of an original success, such as the hundreds of narrative non-fiction books published after Dava Sobel's Longitude, but what publishers are looking for are original voices.

Take crime fiction: the novels by Morse creator Colin Dexter and the much darker works of Ian Rankin both sell vast numbers in a very crowded market. Alan Samson, editorial director at Little, Brown, says publishers look for "star quality". That's what he found in crime writer Patricia Cornwell. "When we signed her up 20 years ago, the model for female crime writers was Sara Paretsky, but this author wrote about a woman doing ghastly things - it was really innovative."

Readers want to be engaged on an emotional level, be it by the suffering of Dave Pelzer's misery-fest memoirs, starting with A Child Called It, or through humour, as with McCarthy's Bar, by comedian and broadcaster Pete McCarthy, which knocked Pelzer off the number-one spot. It was a point driven home to McCarthy over lunch with publishers. "They said that if you can make people laugh out loud when they read your book, it will sell in large numbers, because few people can do that."

But fulfilling that brief was not enough in itself to take McCarthy's Bar to number one. Strong word-of-mouth was created through a clutch of good reviews and, most importantly, an author tour that took McCarthy from Cleethorpes to Tasmania, performing his act to small audiences in bookshops. He admits he found it depressing at first, but was quickly cheered when the 50 customers present would buy 80 copies of the book.

It is a rule that the authors who work hard as part of the publishing team are the most successful. This usually means going out on the road twice a year, doing author events and local and regional media to promote the hardback and paperback publication of their books. This is how Iain Banks, Terry Pratchett, Jilly Cooper and Maeve Binchy built up their huge - and loyal - fan bases.

That is the kind of hard work that pays for the mansion and the membership of Soho House, or makes you famous enough for Hello! to take an interest. As Carole Blake says: "Authors who want to have a career need to be professional about it. It is a business these days, and you do it a massive disservice as a writer if you don't take it seriously."


• Danuta Kean is news editor of The Bookseller.

Writer's Digest Book Expo - New York, NY

An exclusive insider's perspective on the business, as well as the art of authorship

Wednesday, June 1, 2005, from 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, in New York City is the site of this year's conference, which is an official event of BookExpo America, the publishing world's biggest U.S. trade show, and the only event associated with the BEA that is open to the general public.

In just three short years, the BEA/Writer's Digest Books Writer's Conference has become one of the premier writing conferences in the country, with its wide variety of programming that includes workshops by leading authors, editors, agents and other industry professionals. Attendees can:

* Meet editors, authors, and agents. Hear what they're really buying and how to get work accepted
* Attend specific workshops, taught by industry professionals, that will help them get their writing published. Breakout sessions include workshops on fiction and non-fiction writing, magazine writing, mystery writing, proposals, e-queries and more
* Pitch their book and get instant feedback


One of the major highlights of the conference is the "Instant Pitch Session." One of the largest assembled gatherings of agents and editors will be at the conference to listen to book pitches and give instant feedback and solid advice. Conference attendees will find out how to find the right agent and what editors are buying. They will participate in Breakout Sessions, learning how to write effective queries and synopsis; create non-fiction book proposals; and package a book's marketing plan. They will pitch their own book proposals to the editors and agents on the panels and get instant feedback.

Registration can be made on-line at www.bookexpoamerica.com/writersconference. Registration fee is $169, which includes a free one-year subscription, or renewal, to Writer's Digest magazine!


Speakers


Authors, agents and other industry professionals confirmed for the conference are:

* Jonathan Karp, Senior Vice President, Editor-in-Chief of the Random House imprints within the Random House Publishing Group. He has edited some of the most widely read books of our time, including the #1 bestsellers, Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand and What Should I Do With My Life? by Po Bronson. He has also edited such writers as Mario Puzo, Molly Ivins, Kenneth Pollack, Susan Orlean, Mark Winegardner, and Christopher Buckley. Karp wrote the book and lyrics for the musical How to Save the World and Find True Love in 90 Minutes, which premiered in August 2004 at The New York International Fringe Festival.

* Noah Lukeman, President of Lukeman Literary Management Ltd, which he founded in 1996. His clients include winners of the Pulitzer Prize, American Book Award, Pushcart Prize and O. Henry Award, finalists for the National Book Award finalists, Edgar Award, and multiple New York Times bestsellers. He is the author of The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide to Staying out of the Rejection Pile and The Plot Thickens: 8 Ways to Bring Fiction to Life

* Heather Sellers, author of Page After Page (Writer's Digest Books). Ms. Sellers is an award-winning writer and professor who has taught writing workshops for the past twenty years and the director of the creative writing program at Hope College. She is the author of Drinking Girls and Their Dresses and Georgia Under Water, which was selected by Barnes & Noble for the 2001 “Discover Great New Writers” series. She is also the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in fiction. Her children's book, Cubby and Spike: Ice Cream Island Adventure, was published in the fall of 2004

* Michael Cader, president of Cader Books and the popular purveyor of publishing news with his daily email newsletter, Publishers Lunch

* Donald Maass, president of the Donald Maass Literary Agency in New York. Don is also the author of Writing the Breakout Novel (Writer's Digest Books).

* John Warner, is the editor of McSweeney’s Internet Tendency (www.mcsweeneys.net) and the co-author of My First Presidentiary: A Scrapbook by George W. Bush, which was a Washington Post paperback best seller for seven weeks, including one week at No. 1. His book, Sleeping with Oprah and Other Routes to Achieving Fame, Fortune and a #1 New York Times bestseller, will be published by Writer's Digest Books this fall.

* Jane Friedman, Executive Editor of Writer's Digest Books

* Lauren Mosko, editor of Novel & Short Stories Writer's Market

* Kristin D. Godsey, editor of Writer's Digest magazine, will also be among the panelists and moderators at the conference.

* Other authors in attendance include Elaura Niles, Some Writers Deserve to Starve; Robert Masello, Robert's Rules of Writing; Eric Maisel, A Writer's Paris; Nancy Kress, Write Great Fiction: Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint; and many others. The most anticipated writing conference of the year comes to the center of the publishing world – New York City – in 2005, when the BookExpo America/Writer's Digest Books Writer's Conference once again will present a full-day of programming designed to help writers improve their craft and get published.


The Writer's Digest Bookstore will be on-site with signings scheduled throughout the day and Writer's Digest Books' best-selling titles available.