bookpublishing

Tomorrow I attend my first BookExpo America (BEA) at the Javits Center in New York, NY. I’m super psyched because most of the year I spent assuming I wouldn’t be invited to attend. But last minute some tickets freed up and so to BEA I go. I’m not entirely sure what to expect except for a lot of freebies. I’m looking forward to checking out what my company’s competitors are doing in sports and outdoor recreation in particular. But mostly I just want to get a general feel of the current publishing atmosphere, and hopefully check out some of the talks. Anything about social media and new media sounds pretty interesting to me right now.

If you do plan on being at BEA and want to meet up, I’ve got a pretty free schedule! DM me at twitter.com/jesshaberman and I’ll do my best to coordinate. I’ll be live Tweeting as much as I can, so keep an eye out for my updates. You can also search for the #bea09 hashtag for a constant stream of BEA updates from tweeters all over.

So with the current state of things and some tough decisions being made in publishing houses across the country, people have to stay focused on their work (which for a lot of people is more work than they are used to doing). That’s the primary reason why I haven’t been able to update this blog as often as I would wish. There is a lot of really interesting stuff going on in publishing now too, including the #AmazonFail situation over Easter weekend, the rising popularity of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith and my personal excitement about his upcoming book, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. There are plenty of things going on in my own life that I’d love to delve into… like how I watched Twilight and liked the movie a whole lot better than the book (for shame!), or how I’m halfway through The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz and loving it.

Alas, the free time I do have I dedicate mostly to Twitter. However, I do encourage you to follow me there, at http://twitter.com/JessHaberman , since I often update my status with fun tidbits about publishing. Like how yesterday I had to ask an author “What is the freezing point of goat semen?” and today realized that we almost published an author’s second book before his first book because it had been sent to 3-4 printers in China before one of them stayed in business long enough to print it. Funny how those things work.

So when you need publishing info right away, Twitter is your best bet. If you’re not on Twitter yet, try it out. You won’t believe how simple it is to use and enjoy, even if you only spend a few minutes a day using it.  I’ve met a ton of awesome people and it’s the first place I learn about the newest trends and biggest news stories. I mean, #AmazonFail wouldn’t have been half as big a deal without Twitter. Consider that!

Allan Mott at Bookgasm.com wrote a clever and amusing list titled 50 Reasons Why No One Wants to Publish Your First Book. Most are so outrageous that there’s no question why a particular book idea wouldn’t be considered by any publisher. I especially love when around #29 (”Everyone who attempts to load a copy of the manuscript onto their Kindle is found dead three hours later) they begin to delve into the realm of extremely ridiculous. But others, like #27 (”You know the talented creative writing professor who told you your work showed so much creativity and promise? Turns out what he really meant was that he wanted you to blow him.”) may not be far from the truth, at least for someone out there. Check out the rest of them via the link above.

Mott’s poignant and somewhat harsh advice comes on the heels of a trend sweeping Twitter nation: Queryfail. Begun by Tweeting literary agents under the leadership of @Colleen_Lindsay, a FinePrint Literary Management agent, Queryfail resulted from agents’ frustration with authors who have a lot of difficulty adhering to submission guidelines. This is (in my opinion at least) a humorous yet informative way to instruct potential authors how NOT to query. Real author submissions are posted on Twitter (but authors remain anonymous) followed by the #queryfail hash tag. Queryfail Tweets were becoming so popular, they became part of an entire event–queryfail day occurs every Thursday. Here is an example of failure queries:

• “My book is differentiated from Twilight because the vampires have wings, and are half-breed angels”
• “My book is about a friendship based upon mutual vomiting practices in high school”
• “Easily the boldest novel so far written in this fresh century of ours”
• “My credentials for writing this book include: A divine mandate to speak the word of God”
• “43 years of toiling within my own mind have come to an end with this manuscript!”

The list above was collected in this UK Guardian article, which also admires Queryfail as a “hilarious, and educational, read. I particularly like the tautological ‘This is my first attempt at writing a fictional novel,’ and the wonderful typo of ’she mustard her power,’ but I’m bemused as to why ‘This book is The Notebook meets The Lord of the Rings‘ was passed over.”

Despite best intentions, it wasn’t long before a wave of backlash rolled in. Agents spoke out against it and authors began boycotting agents who participate in Queryfail. Reported on GalleyCat : Curtis Brown agent Nathan Bransford decided not to participate, declaring “positivity week” on his blog instead. His post generated more than 200 comments. Here’s an excerpt: “in these tough times people definitely could use some more positivity, so consider this a humble request to go out and spread it … everyone who is thinking of querying me that you do not have to fear becoming blog/Twitter fodder. Ever. Never ever. Not when you’re querying, and not when you’re a client.”

Colleen Lindsay, a FinePrint Literary Management agent, responded: “The idea wasn’t to mock but to educate. We were pointing out mistakes that people make over and over again in their queries, as well as those queries that were clearly sent out without any regard to spelling, grammar or typos. We used no personal identifiers of any sort, and didn’t mention names or titles of books.”

It seems that there is just as much support for Queryfail as there is uproar. Agent Elaine Spencer explains that Queryfail is simply a “tough love” approach to author submissions, not unlike the reaction bad performances get from bad-boy judges/hosts Simon Cowell (American Idol) and Chef Gordon Ramsay (Hell’s Kitchen). I agree completely. Since when was making fun of people’s bad performances unpopular these days — you have seen American Idol, right? In my opinion many of the harsh reactions are deserved; these submissions don’t follow guidelines or are mass-mailings without attempting to hide it. If the author can’t make a real effort, why should an agent take it seriously? For those submissions that do follow guidelines, the agents who participate clearly state that they always respond with constructive criticism–that is, as soon as they wade through an inbox of 500+ submissions. If this is the way agents blow off steam in the meantime, who is it really hurting?

A previously unpublished J. R. Tolkien novel, titled The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, as been acquired by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt according to Publishers Weekly:

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has acquired a previously unpublished work by J.R.R. Tolkien, written while Tolkien was a professor at Oxford during the 1920s and ’30s, before he wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The house will publish The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún in the U.S. and worldwide on May 5. The publication will mark the first extensive retelling in English narrative verse of the epic Norse tales of Sigúrd the Völsung and The Fall of the Niflungs. The book will include an introduction by Tolkien, drawn from one of his lectures on Norse literature, with commentary, notes on the poems by Christopher Tolkien. Ken Carpenter acquired U.S. hard and soft rights for HMH from HarperCollins UK.

Jackpot! I bet this book will do really well… There are a heck of a lot of Tolkien fans out there! I’m not really a big fan myself, but this story sounds even more interesting than Lord of the Rings! I’ll definitely be curious to see how it goes. Who knows, maybe there will be a movie to follow?

Well, this is, after all, a career blog and I think getting an HR professional’s advice about how to renegotiate a raise in this economic climate could be very useful. Publishers are struggling with terrible sales numbers and many are forced to layoff workers. HarperCollins, for instance, reported a 25% decrease in sales last quarter and from the sound of things from my Twitter friends, they are laying workers off today. Best of luck to everyone–I wish nobody had to get that kind of news.

There are some publishers, however, that are maintaining sales and some are adjusting as well as can be expected in these hard times. For those people whose jobs are more-or-less secure whose companies haven’t begun a salary freeze, you might be wondering what you can do to get the best salary increase possible. Terry Haberman, also a Today.com blogger at CareerMysteries.today.com, wrote a great article with some very useful advice. Terry has been a human resources director for more than 25 years with corporations large and small, including ExxonMobil and Black & Decker. She also happens to be my mom!

You can find her article over at Suite101. Check it out, and I hope it helps you find some financial stability in your career.