sections:
Neil Glass argues every book needs to be published differently.
Every time I’ve had a book published, I’ve found the experience of dealing with publishers deeply frustrating. I’m quite sure that publishers felt exactly the same way about working with me. One explanation could be that I am an extremely unpleasant and uncooperative person. I would prefer to believe a simplistic prejudice that the problems stem from the fact that many commissioning editors, desk editors, PR and production people are middle-class university graduates who view their jobs as almost part-time creative hobbies rather than a way of making a living. A frequent criticism I have heard of publishers is that they are staffed by people who simply don’t live in the real world – where you have to make money to survive. But having talked with other writers who have had similar frustrations working with publishers, I think I’ve finally begun to understand why many publishers and writers fail to communicate even though they both speak the same language.
Many people working in publishing, particularly those at the middle levels, see all books as ‘books’. By this I mean they sincerely believe that it is important that every book is written to a certain quality and according to generally-accepted rules around structure and style. This also tends to result in most books going through a similar four to six month standard production process of desk-editing, proofing, printing and distribution.
However to an outsider like myself, some books are like biscuits – they may be topical and so have a short shelf-life. Here the challenge is to get an appropriate book out to the market quickly while it is still fresh and not spend an inordinate amount of time fiddling around trying to perfect the style and structure. Other books, for example more literary novels, may be like bikes – something the reader will enjoy in a different way to a biscuit, care for more, keep for longer and have higher expectations around writing quality and structure. Clearly with these books, it is right to work more intensively on getting the contents right. Publishers need to have a differentiated approach for how they bring each book to market – some should be quick and dirty, others slow and careful, others polished to perfection or whatever.
I am sure commissioning editors have clear views of whether each book they buy is more like a biscuit or a bike. But too often this clarity gets lost in a form of Chinese whispers as the book moves from commissioning editor to desk editor to freelance editor and from commissioning editor to production manager to production assistant. So, for example, whereas a commissioning editor may have intended a current affairs book to move rapidly from typescript to the shops, by the time the book reaches the freelance editor and production assistant, this clarity around the importance of flexibility and speed is too often lost and every book ends up being treated in a similar way. I believe this is the cause of many unnecessary ‘misunderstandings’ between writers and publishers. So next time you’re producing a book, please get all the people involved to ask one simple question - ‘is it more like a biscuit or a bicycle?’ Because once you’ve all answered that question, this will give everybody a shared view of the book and get everyone working on it in the appropriate way for that book, rather than the same way for every book.
Neil Glass has had eight books published:
- three novels under the pen-name Neil Martin
- two management textbooks under the name Neil Glass
- three current affairs books under the name David Craig
subscribe to agency's newsletter
Andrew Lownie writes a monthly newsletter, which includes details of the Agency's latest news as well as advice for authors. If you would like to receive this free newsletter, please enter your email address in the box below.
0 Comments: