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january 2013

Vol . 31 no. 1

Selling Backlist

Which marketing moves work best

How Much for 10,000 Copies?


The nonretail sales alternative

The School Market

How the AR hurdle hurts

Powerful Publishers

Five habits that help them get that way

Make your covers effective online

Thumbnail Tactics

Gone Today, Here Tomorrow

Returns norms and options

Whats different, whats better, whats worse

Now That I Work for Me

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In This Issue
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January 2013 | Vol. 31 No. 1 IBPA Independent (ISSN 1058-4102, formerly PMA Newsletter ) is published monthly by Independent Book Publishers Association. Periodicals Postage paid at Manhattan Beach, CA 90266, and at additional mailing offices. HEADQUARTERS Independent Book Publishers Association 1020 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Suite 204 Manhattan Beach, CA 90266 Phone: 310/546-1818 Fax: 310/546-3939 Email: info@ibpa-online.org Web site: www.ibpa-online.org OFFICERS and DIRECTORS Steve Mettee, The Write Thought, Board Chair Davida G. Breier, Johns Hopkins University Press Roy Carlisle, The Independent Institute Rana DiOrio, Little Pickle Press Tom Doherty, Cardinal Publishers Group / Blue River Press Kelly Gallagher, Ingram Content Group Peter Goodman, Stone Bridge Press Deltina Hay, Dalton Publishing MaryAnn F. Kohl, Bright Ring Publishing, Inc. Dr. Haki Madhubuti, Third World Press John Mutter, Shelf Awareness Christopher Robbins, Familius Janice Schnell, Ingram Content Group Carlene Sippola, Whole Person Associates, Immediate Past Board Chair Stephanie Stewart, Academy of Learning Florrie Binford Kichler, President Terry Nathan, Executive Director/Secretary Lisa Krebs Magno, Assistant Director ADVISORS Jonathan Kirsch, Law Offices of Jonathan Kirsch, General Counsel Lloyd Jassin, Law Offices of Lloyd Jassin, Counsel Hal Jaffe, Bay Sherman Craig, LLP, Accountant IBPA INDEPENDENT STAFF Judith Appelbaum, Editor Linda Carlson, Reporter Judith Stein, Copy Editor Darlene Swanson, Van-garde Imagery, Inc., Design and Production Chris Kahn, Advertising Sales Editor contact: judithappelbaum@aol.com Published by Independent Book Publishers Association. Independent Book Publishers Association cannot and does not guarantee any specific results to participants in IBPA marketing programs. Copyright 2013 by Independent Book Publishers Association. No portion of this publication may be reprinted without express written consent of IBPA. The writings contained within the pages of this publication do not necessarily reflect opinions of IBPA.

Five Habits of Powerful Publishers

28 IBPA Marketing Opportunities 30 Demystifying Returns


by Janice Schnell. Answers to questions Ingram gets from both seasoned publishers and startups.

by Florrie Binford Kichler. How to thrive when todays rules are likely to land in tomorrows recycle bin.

Up Against Barriers for Childrens Books

by Linda Salisbury. Whats going on when award-winning books praised by kids, parents, and teachers are locked out of schools? by Cathi Stevenson. Design dos and donts for covers that can stimulate sales online.

33 What Publishers Websites Can Do, Part 3

10 Covers That Work Well Online

12 The Own-Your-OwnBusiness Alternative

Contributions by Len Barot, Jim Horan, Jacqueline Church Simonds, Georgia McBride, Patricia Fry, Joel Friedlander, Sid Grosvenor, Robert Manni, Tom Doherty, Cathi Bosco, MaryAnn F. Kohl, John Burns, Brett Cohen. The final roundup in our series on Website features and functions. by Karen Bellenir. How to handle the challenges of InDesign updates.

38 More Help with Workflow 41 Spotlight 45 Classified Mart 46 Advertiser Index

by Christopher Robbins. Which is bettergrowing somebody elses publishing company to $26 million, or starting one from scratch?

15 Comparing Two Major Marketing Strategies

by Brian Jud. Theres traditional book marketing, and then theres the kind that lets you sell thousands of copies nonreturnable.

19 How Backlist Makes the Bottom Line Better


by Linda Carlson. Tactics for profiting from titles that arent New, New, New!

The next Language of Publishing installment will appear in our next issue, and installments will keep running every other month until were through Z.

IBPA AFFILIATES
Author U of Denver, CO, authoru.org Bay Area Independent Publishers Association, baipa.org Book Publishers Northwest, bpnw.org Colorado Independent Publishers Association, cipabooks.com Connecticut Authors & Publishers Association, aboutcapa.com Florida Publishers Association, FLbookpub.org Great Lakes Independent Publishers Association, glipa@tm.net Greater New York Independent Publishers Association, gnyipa@blogspot.com Hawaii Book Publishers Association, hawaiibooks.org Independent Publishers of New England, ipne.org MidAtlantic Book Publishers Association, midatlanticbookpublishers.com

Midwest Independent Publishers Association, mipa.org Minnesota Book Publishers Roundtable, publishersroundtable.org New Mexico Book Association, nmbook.org Northern California Publishers and Authors Association, norcalpa.org Northwest Association of Book Publishers, nwabp.org Organization of Book Publishers of Ontario, ontariobooks.ca Publishers and Writers of San Diego, publisherswriters.org Publishers Association of Los Angeles, pa-la.org Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network, spawn.org (online only) St. Louis Publishers Association, stlouispublishers.org Upper Peninsula Publishers and Authors Association, uppaa.org
Visit the IBPA website at www.ibpa-online.org |

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to IBPA Independent, 1020 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Suite 204, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266.

Presidents Post
by Florrie Binford Kichler, President, IBPA

Five Habits of Powerful Publishers


If I asked 10 publishers to describe their biggest challenge in the industry today, I would bet my last digital file that 10 out of 10 would say it is keeping up with the relentless pace of change. Change is unceasing, and we all want to know whats going to happen in the futurewhich nowadays isnt measured in years but in months, weeks, days, and even hours. There seem to be as many opinions about the future of publishing as there are people breathing. Print will never go away; print is dead. Bookstores are irrelevant; bookstores are critical to the culture. And I could go on. So how does a publisher cope in an unstable environment where the only constant is that todays rules often land in tomorrows recycle bin? From my own experience both as a publisher and as president of IBPA, Ive learned that five basic habits will help you survive and thrive in this crazy industry no matter what the future brings.
PowErFuL PuBLIShEr hABIT #1: Do whAT You LovE

but I bet it would be hard to find anybody who says their primary motive for becoming a publisher was to make lots of money. My guess is that you began publishing because you were passionate about an issue or a topic or a story, and you felt compelled to communicate a message or a narrative that would resonate with readers. Of course we all need money to fuel our businesses and our livesthats a given. But if you dont love what you do, the money, the message or story, and your own motivation will suffer. Readers are smarttheyll recognize instantly if your hearts not in it, which is why your heart needs to be at the core of everything you publish. A key requirement for success is passion for your product. But passion alone will get you nowhere without . . .
PowErFuL PuBLIShEr hABIT #2: PrEPArE

Im a brand-new publisher, and I was wondering if I could ask you a question. Of course, thats what were here for. Whats your question? I have 2,000 books in my garage. Now what do I do? Whether its 2,000 books in your garage, a POD file at a printer, or an e-book file on your hard drive, waiting to create and implement a marketing plan for a book until its available for sale will always mean starting way too late. Now that so little upfront investment is required to make a book available in print or in digital formats, the temptation to worry about that business/ marketing plan and budget later is almost irresistible. Resist it. Whether you upload a Word file to Smashwords, submit your properly formatted manuscript to Kindle Direct Publishing, choose a digital printer to supply your book via print-ondemand, place a print order for thousands of copies, or do some combination of those things, you must have:

Before POD, short-run digital printing, and e-books came on the scene, the IBPA office often received phone calls that went something like this: Good morning, IBPA. How may I help you?

I know each of you has a different story about your publishing journey,
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| IBPA Independent | December 2012

Presidents Post

a business plan with a road map detailing how you intend to grow and where the money will come from to fund that growth a marketing plan that spells out how your targeted readers will discover and purchase your book

Amazon press release feed (amazon.com; scroll down and click on Press Releases) LinkedIn groups and Facebook pages about the publishing industry (linkedin.com and facebook.com) Digital Book World newsletter (digitalbookworld.com) Tools of Change newsletter (toc.oreilly.com) Publishing Perspectives (publishingperspectives.com) Publishing Business Today newsletter (bookbusinessmag.com)

PowErFuL PuBLIShEr hABIT #3: MAnAgE METADATA

Metadata sounds scary and geeky, but it is nothing more than the information that travels with your book wherever it is, online and offat a minimum, the ISBN, title, author, page count, binding, publisher, and publication date. Pretty basic facts, but if any of them are incorrect, the consequences will be negative both for the discoverability of your title online and for your books sales (see Metadata Really Helps, April). Check your metadata at the major online retailers at least once a month. I cant tell you the number of times Ive found errors in the information about my companys booksincorrect ISBNs, the wrong cover showing up for a title, or no cover showing up at all.
PowErFuL PuBLIShEr hABIT #4: LEArn

Learning also means looking aheadand by that I mean continually educating yourself about whats new and whats next. But in looking ahead dont overlook what you need to be doing now, which is producing the best nonfiction or fiction that you are capable of and getting it out to those readers who are hungry for information and entertainment. Which brings me to:
PowErFuL PuBLIShEr hABIT #5: rEMEMBEr ThE rEADEr

I dont mean just go to an occasional IBPA Webinar or attend Publishing University once a year, although Webinars, inperson conferences, and trade shows are invaluable learning opportunities. Given the speed of change, learning has to mean staying up to date on industry trends and happenings, and that means read, read, read. These are a few of the musts on my Read list: IBPA Independent (ibpa-online.org) Shelf Awareness (shelfawareness.com) Publishers Weekly, print, and PW Daily (publishersweekly.com) ForeWord Reviews (forewordreviews.com) Publishers Lunch, free and paid editions (lunch.publishersmarketplace.com) Bookselling This Week, news from indie bookstores (news.bookweb.org) The Shatzkin Files, by Mike Shatzkin (idealog.com) Seths Blog, by Seth Godin (sethgodin.typepad.com)

Whether or not book industry change continues to accelerate in the years to come is anybodys guess. But I suggest to you that something will stay constant in the foreseeable future readers. Regardless of whether they read online or offline, in a book or on a screen, readers will always be looking for a good story, a useful piece of advice, or inspiration to make their lives better and their corners of the world better places. As you go through your daily tasks, trying to figure out file conversions or your next Twitter post or how to promote your book on Pinterest, never forget that the market youre trying to reach is made up of real peoplereaders. Reach them successfully and provide them with outstanding content, and you will build an enduring publishing program. In my opinion, theres never been a better time to be an independent publisher. Our strength lies in our creativity, our innovation, and our passion. Add the five Powerful Publisher Habits to the mix, and there will be no stopping you in your publishing journey.
Follow Florrie and IBPA on Twitter at twitter.com/ibpa, and on IBPAs blog at ibpablog. wordpress.com. Join Independent Book Publishers AssociationIBPA group on LinkedIn (linkedin.com).

Visit the IBPA website at www.ibpa-online.org

Up Against Barriers for Children's Books


by Linda Salisbury
Independent publishers and self-publishers, especially of childrens books, can often be identified by lumpy heads and bruised egos. Weve been bumping into walls and closed doors for years: newspapers that wont review books (regardless of quality) that arent produced by well-known houses; libraries that purchase through bundled contracts rather than at local or regional discretion; school book fairs open only to Scholastics products; schools that buy and recommend only books that come through the Renaissance Learning (Accelerated Reader [AR]) program; and even the national chains. But we learn to take our lumps and doggedly look for ways around the obstacles, especially ways that create interest, build credibility, and generate publicity and sales. For example, at Tabby House, we search out relevant columnists and freelancers to send announcements of our new books, and we present school or library programs. ThE AwArDS APProAch One of the most fulfilling ways, for me, entails winning meaningful awards, even if these awards so far havent unlocked doors to key national markets. Awards sell books. And they show youngsters that medals are not just for athletics. Books win golds too. I do a lot of hand-selling, so Im in constant contact with readers and buyers. They look at, touch, and relate to award-winner stickers on my books, and Im proud to say that each of my 10 childrens titles has been a winner (16 awards so far). Sometimes people impulsively purchase one book rather than another on the basis of which has received the most awards. Three of the books in my Bailey Fish Adventure series received top honors (silver or bronze) from the Moonbeam Childrens Book Awards; two received the gold in juvenile fiction from the Presidents Book Awards sponsored by the Florida Publishers Association. One, a multiple award-winner, also placed first in the Virginia Press Womens Association contest (that one doesnt offer stickers, so we made our own). And still others have received finalist awards from Eric Hoffer and ForeWord, or silver medals from FPA. Each time a book wins or is honored, I, and usually the contest organizers, generate press releases; I post to

Readers and buyers look at, touch, and relate to awardwinner stickers on my books.
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Childrens Books

my Web site (lindasalisburyauthor.com) and my Facebook author page; I tweet (not my strong suit); and I affix stickers to covers (even if cover designers dont want their art plastered over). Independent bookstores, gift shops, and other retail outlets value the stickers and ask that they be added to books in stock. And at festivals, shows, farmers markets anywhere we can hand-sell books for a greater profitTabby House has a table many weekends, and the award stickers sell books there too.

If you picked D, you were correct, and your AR candy is in the mail. On the surface, programs such as Renaissance Learning (founded in 1986) appear to be a great way to motivate children to read more and to let teachers easily ascertain whether a student has actually read a particular book. About 40,000 school districts (including some overseas) are involved with the Renaissance Learning Accelerated Reader Enterprise program for grades K12, purchasing software and quizzes designed to determine reading level, set practice goals, personalize practice, assess achievement, and provide instant feedback.

Award-winning childrens books praised by kids, parents, and teachers may not be allowed on the shelves of school libraries.
Award mentions also let the public know that a book has been recognized by independent judgeswho are often otherwise hard-to-reach librarians or booksellers. In short, awards build credibility for books and their authors that directly translates to sales. ThE Ar oBSTAcLE As word of an award reaches the public, it may help you get the attention of schools and, occasionally, librarians, but awards are not likely to help you deal with the closed doors of organizations, such as Renaissance Learning (purveyor of the Accelerated Reader system), that have a tight grip on many school systems. So, heres a quiz, and depending on how well you answer, you may get a prize. Youve written or published award-winning childrens books praised by kids, parents, and teachers, but they are not read in schools, including schools in districts where you are invited to present programs. In fact, your books may not even be allowed on the shelves of school libraries. Question #1: Why? A. Your books are too controversial. B. You publish paperbacks. C. You havent dumbed-down vocabulary. D. Your titles arent included in AR reading-management programs.

The award winning Treasure in Sugars Book Barn includes this drawing of a small building that Sugar got permission to fix up as a used bookstore.

Obviously, if your book is not part of the program, a district that has invested heavily in the Renaissance Learning software may be reluctant to buy the book for library or classroom use. And acceptance is where the difficulties begin for small presses. Look at some of the criteria: multiple positive reviews from national publications such as School Library Journal, Horn Book, Library Media Connection, YOYA, and Booklist national awards inclusion on state recommended reading lists, among others popular authors inclusion in continuing popular series such as Magic Tree House or Harry Potter
Visit the IBPA website at www.ibpa-online.org |

Childrens Books

recommendations from a number of different schools across the nation I think most independent book publishers would agree that it would be tough to meet those criteriaenough of them, at least, to add up to AR acceptanceregardless of how worthy the book. Question #2: Why does this matter? Because of: reaching your market reaching your market reaching your market your bottom line
Another award winner, The Thief at Keswick Inn features a surprise bequest, pictured here, from an elderly woman encountered earlier in the Bailey Fish Adventure series.

If you answered All the above, you are correct. The school market is potentially huge for publishers of childrens books. We would like our biographies, fiction, histories, animal stories, picture books, and more to be available to schoolchildren everywhere. But numerous schools and districts have tied into the reading-management programs that essentially exclude anything the programs havent accepted. As a result, students may not read anything but the AR-accepted books that they get points for reading. Holly Moulder, a White Pelican Press award-winning author, is a former teacher. She told me she used AR in the classroom to get an idea of comprehension and for book reports, and she said it did help motivate some kids to read. But she also said: I did see teachers demand that students read only AR books, which to me was ridiculous. Worse still was that some teachers demanded that the students read only those books in their predetermined AR range. Unfortunately, that isnt unusual. Several years ago I was invited to a southwest Florida school to talk about my award-wining Bailey Fish Adventure series with its target age group. Tabby House had prepared AR quizzes and developed reading levels for these books, almost all of which have references to that area.
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At the end of the first session of lively discussion, a student asked the librarian where the books were shelved. The librarian pointed to a shelf, but then said that the books (reading level, grade five) were too difficult for this child, a bright third-grader. What? I was astonished. I know that my books have been read and discussed elsewhere in classrooms from second to sixth grades Even six-year-olds have been hooked on the series.

AR doesnt cultivate a love of reading; it focuses kids on points and rewards. Does that bother you?
I confronted the librarian after she made similar remarks in my next session and her response was, Well, kids would ask about the AR levels when they asked whether they should read the books. I said it would be better if kids were encouraged to read what interested them instead of being arbitrarily limited. Im sure I did not change her views. Another school librarian once emailed me because her schools IT department couldnt locate the AR questions Tabby House had provided. I need to input the tests in our system for our students so they will continue to read the series. If they cant take the tests, Im afraid they will not be motivated to continue to read the series, said the librarian. AR obviously doesnt work to cultivate a love of reading; it works to focus kids on points and rewards.

Childrens Books

Does that bother you? It troubles me as a reader and an author as well as a publisher. Theoretically, teachers and media specialists and other publishers can create their own Accelerated Reader tests for books that are not part of the Renaissance Learning program, just as we did. Developing multiple-choice questions is the simple part. Determining the reading level requires using a formula that involves counting words, sentences, and syllables to come up with numbers and establishing grade levels from intersections on a graph. But developing the questions is not always sufficient. Weve discovered that some schools dont know how to integrate these questions into the software purchased from Renaissance Learning, or they are suspicious of books not listed by the giant reading-management program. Recently, an American child living in China contacted me about my books. She loves the series, and relates to the characters and their family situations. Coincidentally, her parents are teaching in an international school that uses AR, so I asked her mother about how the program works there. She replied that students are given the Renaissance Learning STAR test; their points goals are set for a year; they do most reading of books in the program at home; tests are given during free time; and a child gets rewards such as a hat or a pin for reaching a certain percentage of the goals. So what has happened for three years now, the teachermother added, is that after the AR testing and recording start, students only want to read books that we have put an AR sticker on because they want to get points for almost every book they read. She strongly urged that I try to get my books on the Accelerated Reader list. But despite awards and much success, my books dont cross the Renaissance Learning acceptance threshold. Ive tried.

for each book determined by word count and interest level. I havent tried to work with these programs yet because schools so far have only inquired about AR. But reliance on either AR or Scholastic programs instead of encouragement of reading whatever captures childrens interest makes me weary and discouraged about the state of education and reading. Theres no easy answer. Thankfully, I know kids drag parents to our booth to buy another book and another; and I hear from parents and grandparents about what my books have meant to particular children and families. Thats my bottom line. Of course, I applaud programs that stimulate youngsters to read. My argument is with the stranglehold reading-management companies have on school districts, which makes it so hard to get books from independent publishers accepted on their merits and into the lives of more children who would love reading them.
Linda Salisbury is the author of 16 books, including 10 for children, and senior editor at Tabby House in central Virginia. A retired journalist who freelances, she can be reached through lindasalisburyauthor.com or at lgsalisbury@gmail.com.
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Some color combinations create visual vibration, making it difficult to look at the image. Other colors dont offer enough contrast, so its difficult to discern words.

A book cover that focuses on the title and is designed with high contrast and a clear font will create an optimal thumbnail.

Dont use your title to frame a big picture of nothing. This image offers nothing to the reader, and the title is too small to read.

Script fonts should be used carefully or not at all if you want online sales and need your thumbnail cover to stand out. Never use all uppercase script fonts; theyre nearly impossible to read.

Covers That Work Well Online


According to BookStatsthe statistical survey published jointly by the Association of American Publishers and the Book Industry Study Grouptwo noteworthy things happened within the book industry during 2011: e-books became the top-selling format for adult fiction, and revenue from online sales of both electronic and print books nearly doubled. Its probably not news to publishers that more people are buying books online. Add the fact that many people look for books and read reviews on the Internet before heading out to brickand-mortar stores to make purchases, and it becomes obvious that a books online presence is very important. Arguably, few groups are as dependent
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by Cathi Stevenson
might not mean much to your bottom line. Otherwise, you would be reckless to ignore the necessity for a cover that reproduces well enough at thumbnail size to have a positive impact on sales. DESIgn DoS AnD DonTS Many things can be done to ensure that a thumbnail will work to promote a book. Clear text and strong use of color and contrast can help. So can avoiding covers with small graphic details that no one will be able to see online. Covers that are mostly image should be considered cautiously or, for some genres, avoided altogether. For instance, a particular image may not tell prospective readers a significant amount about the content of a business book. And many self-help books

on Internet sales as smaller publishers and self-publishers. Printing books is expensive, and so are storing, shipping, and accepting returned books. It makes perfect sense for smaller businesses to make use of print-ondemand technology and sell their products in electronic formats. Unfortunately, that interferes with the power of a cover to sell a book in the traditional way. Online, covers offer no chance for customers to handle and experience raised lettering, varnished images, and textured paper. And since some sites display covers as thumbnails that are 0.75 inches wide or even smaller, images and wording can be difficult to discern. If your name is Stephen King, that

Thumbnail Covers

result of combining colors that make it difficult, if not impossible, for a reader to keep looking at an image. Many articles on the Internet explain this phenomenon and offer examples that will help you avoid it. Font choice is an important consideration, too. The cleaner and crisper the font, the easier it will be to read. Avoid ornate script fonts, unless youre using them for just one word or letter. A common amateur mistake is using script fonts in all uppercase. These are rarely readable. Whatever cover design youre considering, make sure you test it as a thumbnail before you commit to it.
You can still have a bit of fun with design even when youre keeping a cover simple and focusing on the title. A minimalist cover such as this depends on the online description to tell readers what the book is about. Its possible to find a balance between easy readability and graphic impact. For some genres, including childrens books, eyecatching graphics are important.

work well with covers that use only text and color or text and a generic background image that doesnt stand on its own but does enhance the text.

Online shoppers dont necessarily need to be able to read the subtitle and strapline (often just a line or two of text from the book, or a brief review) on a thumbnail, but somethingthe title, a single word, a colorshould grab their attention so that they will click on the image and read more about the book.
Cathi Stevenson is a writer and book cover designer with more than three decades of experience. To learn more: bookcoverexpress.com and ebookcoverexpress.com.

Make sure you test your cover design as a thumbnail before you commit to it.
A big starry sky, with the title crammed up at the top and the authors name crammed down at the bottom, isnt likely to capture readers interest when its minimized. Neither is a cover cluttered with graphics that form no cohesive message. When creating covers for books available online, its often a good idea to focus on the title and make that the dominant part of the cover design, particularly for nonfiction. This doesnt mean the cover cant still be fun and interesting; it just means you have to use the graphic elements wisely. Simple things, like contrast, can be used to advantage, but keep the intended audience in mind. For example, if youre hoping to engage baby-boomers, you need to remember that as people age, it gets more difficult for them to discern color. This is probably not a factor if youre publishing books for a teenaged audience, but of course that audience has its own preferences. Visual vibration is another design issue to be aware of; its the

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11

The

Own-Your-OwnBusiness Alternative
by Christopher Robbins

After 17 years running someone elses publishing business, I resigned my position as CEO, threw caution to the wind, and launched my own publishing house, where Ive been working day in and day out for almost a year. Now Ive been giving some thought to the question of which is better working for someone else or being on my own as a publisher. STArTIng wITh SquASh I had the nerve to go out on my own partly because Im no stranger to entrepreneurship. By pulling my red wagon around our suburban Utah neighborhood when I was a kid, I sold more zucchini from our family garden than the local grocery store sold from its bins. My pitch was, How do you know if you dont have any friends? You have to buy your own zucchini. I sold by the bakers dozen and my customers liked having a young boy named Christopher Robbins as their friend (being named after a storybook character had its advantages). As an adult in the 1990s, I launched two publishing businesses, both unsuccessful. The first one died when my partner died.
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The second was a brilliant digital-only publishing company that provided fiction via serial email deliveries. We called it Novelocity and our tagline was Your Daily Serial. It died after I focused 100 percent of my energy on getting venture capital (remember, this was the 90s), flying in Lear Jets to New York where young Internet firms competed to build us a Web site for $5 million, on average. While they were offering us plates of exotic cheeses, we were dreaming of being millionaires.

We flew home watching the Dow Jones and NASDAQ plummet, wiping out fortunes. And we were left owning a company with no content and no money. Stupid. Having been disappointed twice as an entrepreneur and having a young family, I decided to focus all my energy on building someone elses publishing business. With colleagues at the company that I joined, I worked, strategized, worked, strategized, worked and got lucky every year through 2008. We grew 20 to 35 percent a year, paid off loans, built backlist, added infrastructure, warehouses, and office space, had bestsellers, and believed we were smart. It was fantastic. We made serious money, growing from under $2 million to $26 million by betting on the housing and textbook markets. Then the housing bubble of 2008 killed both markets. I had left the company vulnerable, and that decision was a job killer, a spirit killer, and a mission killer. While the company could and did go on, decisions that I had made or helped to make took a tremendous toll, and it was time for me to go.

In any venture, you need to see a destination out on the horizon that has form and structure and color.
In March of 2000, as my partner and I were sitting in our chief investors boardroom, about to pick up a check for the first major investment, the CEO got a call. The market was crashing. Our check came off the table, literally.

Owning Your Business

oBSErvATIonS FroM ExPErIEncE My experiences so far lead me to believe that running your own company isnt necessarily better than working for somebody elses. Each has its pros and cons. But there are significant differences, and I do have some observations about vision, workload, risk vs. rewards, education, immediacy, and impact on family life.

and, if you are married (as I am) and have kids (as I do, nine of them), you have to have time to talk to them, at the very least, or you can work your way out of the family pretty quick. Andforgive the preachingI believe that no success can compensate for failure in the home. When I was running someone elses company, I often put in the same number of hours, taking redeyes to New York to work all day and catching a flight back that night, only to start again the next day somewhere else. The objective was the same: ensuring cash flow. As in my entrepreneurial startup, I had sales to manage, accounting to get done, vendors to pacify, reps to inspire, personnel to manage. But there was a major difference. An established company has existing cash flow and a basic infrastructure. Starting with something is better than starting with nothing.

Starting with something is better than starting with nothing.


Vision. I believe that any venture requires a vision. And I really do mean a visionyou need to see a destination somewhere out on the horizon. And it has to have form and structure and color so you can see it clearly and want to get there regardless of the obstacles. When I was CEO of somebody elses company, I had a vision of what I wanted the company to be. I saw it clearly, and, while I didnt know how to make it come true, I knew we would if we kept moving forward. What I didnt anticipate was that as I got closer and closer to my vision, we were getting farther and farther from the founders vision. Thats a big problem. And while we worked to adapt and find commonality, eventually vision became a point of friction. Owning your own company gives you control over your vision. But it can also lead you to delude yourself into believing that you are otherwise in control. The customer is in control, and the customer can decide to fire you at any time by simply not purchasing your product. This means that your vision must agree with and deliver on the needs and wants of your market. Workload. Ive never been a nine-to-five guy, and of course Im not going to be one in my current startup mode. Further, my eyes are always bigger than my stomach. The company Ive been creating from scratch went from having no titles to having 70 under contract and 20 published, plus full interactive crowd sourcing and a social mediaenriched Web site in six months. Its crazy. I spend 12 to 14 hours a day working on this new company. I hear about people spending 18 hours a day on ventures, and Im not sure how thats possible, since you have to eat something, take a shower, use the restroom, sleep, get dressed,

Some people believe that working for someone else involves little risk. I think that is a delusion.
Risk vs. reward. Some people believe that working for someone else involves little risk. I think that is another delusion. There is always risk. You can be fired, laid off, outsourced; the company can intend to keep up with changing conditions but fail to do that, or it can be sold, or the market can shift . . . Risk is inherent in life. And working for someone else can provide tremendous rewards. You can focus on a specific job, believing that your colleagues are focusing on their jobs so that the entire organization is functional. My definition of teamwork is individuals executing assigned responsibility, which can deliver many benefits beyond a paycheck, including less stress and more peace of mind. Working for myself has forced me to be much more appreciative of all those people I used to work with, who helped my employers company succeed. I appreciate the editors for their skill with words, the publicity department for their phone calls and emails, the receptionist who screened calls and kept paper in the copier. You get the idea. Working for yourself wakes you up to the realization that a company is dependent on the skills of many. Education. This was unexpected, but I have learned
Visit the IBPA website at www.ibpa-online.org |

13

Owning Your Business

more about publishing, technology, my own capacity, and business this year than I learned in the previous five years, and Ive rediscovered my love of learning. Having knowledge and growth as unintended consequences of entrepreneurship is a fantastic benefit. The first time I figured out how to grab a script and import it into InDesign so that I could create an automatic index based on some key words, I was as excited as a little kid. And when I figured out how to create wireframes for Web sites I thought I was the cats meow.

that Id be able to manage my business and family responsibilities without letting either get in the way of the other. I was wrong. Entrepreneurship can be overwhelming at times, as a book must get to the printer on that day or that file must be uploaded then or that partner must hear back from us immediately. This has an impact on family. My wife, after spending the last 20 years raising children, is involved, which is exciting for both of us (working with your spouse has its own advantages and disadvantages, but thats for a different article). Recently, though, one of my sons said that I should find some more money so Mom wouldnt have to be at the computer. Ouch! Each day, I have to make choices about what is more importantthe business or the family. Our entire family has had to counsel together about how to manage competing claims on time. In the end, the family has to win, because the enterprise is a means, not an end.

Having knowledge and growth as unintended consequences of entrepreneurship is fantastic.


Immediacy. Entrepreneurs, business managers, CEOs, and the like are not patient people. We want it yesterday. One of the most interesting aspects of running my own company is how fast I can create positive change. If I want a contract written, I write it. If I want a book acquired, I acquire it. If I want a new Web page created, I create it. If I want a book edited differently, I edit it. If I want a distribution partner, I pick up the phone. If I want a different printer, I call one. The only roadblock is managing all the things I want to get done in one day. When I was somebody elses CEO, we focused on multiplying the effects of individuals efforts by setting objectives and delegating. This works really well when everyone is tuned to the same notes, everyone is reading the same score, everyone is playing in tune, and what everyone is playing sells tickets. But managing that symphony can often lead to concordia discors so that nothing gets done or things take way too long. I am convinced that most companies run way too fat and that, instead of becoming more organized, they allow entropy to enter and slow things down. Having a very young and nimble company lets me pivot quickly and get it done now rather than wait for the meeting, discussion, or handwringing to end. At some point, Im either going to burn out or get more help. Then, the objective will be to maintain the entrepreneurial, full-speed mentality, but with better systems to protect the organization. Ive seen it done. Impact on family life. I came to my new venture believing
14
| IBPA Independent | December 2012

Each day, I have to make choices about what is more important the business or the family.
Understanding that no solution can be perfect and that the family is the first priority is helpful. I know I have to temper my enthusiasm and not believe that Im championing some all-important cause with the company. Its a means. Its a means. Its a means . . . MY guIDIng PrIncIPLES now So, is it better to be an entrepreneur or an intrepreneur? Having had both experiences, I think both are great, with different benefits. In addition, Im more appreciative of and inspired by people who launch companies and succeed, and Im more appreciative of people who make existing companies succeed. What Ive learned through both kinds of roles is that action is better than inaction. Decide and move forward. Put one foot in front of another, and dont fear taking that next step. While the vision is there and is a destination, the journey is the destination too.
Christopher Robbins is the founder of Familius.com, a company focused on helping families be happy. He can be reached at Christopher@familius.com.

For More Profitable Publishing, Compare Two Major Marketing Strategies


by Brian Jud
Did you ever wonder why our business is described as the book-publishing industry and not the book-selling industry? In 2011 Bowker issued new ISBNs at the rate of more than 1,400 per day, reflecting the industry focus on publishing more books as the strategy for increasing sales. However, you may find that it is more lucrative to publish fewer books and sell more copies of them. One way to implement this strategy is to sell your books to people where they spend their working days instead of waiting for them to decide to visit physical or online retail outlets. This means selling in large, nonreturnable quantities to professional buyers in companies, associations, schools, and the armed services. The dissimilarities between traditional retail book marketing and nonretail marketing are defined in the accompanying chart so you can use the information to craft new sales efforts, sell more books, and increase your revenue and profits.
Brian Jud, the author of How to Make Real Money Selling Books, now offers commissionbased sales of nonfiction, fiction, and childrens titles to buyers in special markets. For more information: P. O. Box 715, Avon, CT 06001-0715; 860/675-1344; fax 860/ 673-7650; brianjud@bookmarketing.com; premiumbookcompany.com; twitter.com/bookmarketing.

Traditional Retail Marketing


Books are sold to retailers, often via distributors and wholesalers, to resell off the shelves in chain, niche, or independent bookstores in physical locations and/or online. Publishers rely on distribution companies to move product to bookstores, and then promote books so readers will go to the stores to buy (achieving sell-through). Publishers emphasis is on publishing books. A stream of frontlist titles is deemed necessary for new revenue. Production may be hurried to meet trading partners imposed deadlines, or to reach a self-imposed goal of titles to be published annually. Bookstore buyers seek increased store traffic, inventory turns, and profit per square foot. They choose books primarily because the books meet marketing, rather than literary, criteria.

Nonretail Marketing
Buyers in corporations, associations, the armed services, and/or schools purchase books from publishers in large, nonreturnable quantities. The books are used or given away, not resold. There are no intermediaries; publishers sell directly to prospective buyers (achieving sell-to).

Overview

Publishers Selling Strategy

Title Churn

Publishers emphasis is on selling books. The main criterion is relevance of the content to the needs of the buyer. The concepts of frontlist and backlist are irrelevant as long as the content is current and applicable. Professional buyers seek books to use for education and training and as promotional items, with a view toward increasing sales, revenue, and profits.

Buyers Purchasing Criteria

Visit the IBPA website at www.ibpa-online.org

15

Marketing Strategies

Traditional Retail Marketing


Retailers depend on individual readers, who purchase nonfiction to satisfy their needs for information and fiction according to their individual tastes, and who may also buy books as gifts. End-user buyers are consumers who are generally widely dispersed and differentiated by a number of sketchily defined factors. Decisions about which books to publish are often based largely on the quality of manuscript.

Nonretail Marketing
Professional buyers purchase books because they can use the books to reach their goals (increase sales, motivate and train employees, increase membership, educate students). Buyers are professionals in well-defined industry, geographic, or demographic segments.

Traditional Retail Marketing


Prices must be competitive because consumers can compare them on physical and virtual shelves. The wide variety of books available on a specific topic often creates a price ceiling. Distribution fees and the high unit costs of small print runs may force prices to a point where they are not competitive. Publishers must rely in part on uncontrollable reviews and publicity to deliver their messages. Blogging and social networking can communicate to large segments of consumers. Advertising is usually cost-prohibitive. An authors name recognition is important for sales, and it is difficult for an unknown author to penetrate the system. The authors involvement with promotion is also important for sales. Retailers and distributors focus on the short term since they need to show sales results quickly. Books have short lives because retailers want title churn, and publishers cede control to retailers, who get to decide whether sales are sufficient to maintain market presence.

Nonretail Marketing
The selling price is negotiated and is typically based on the quantity purchased. With no direct comparison of prices of competitive titles nearby on a shelf, more value-based pricing is possible.

Buyers Goals

Pricing Flexibility

Concentration of Buyers

Publishers Acquisition Decisions

Decisions about which books to publish are marketing decisions, based upon the need for the content among buyers in a target market. Acquisition unit costs are lower because of discounts on large-quantity purchases. Costs are also lower because there is no need for shelf space, books are not returned, and bulkshipping discounts lower transportation expenses. To sell 10,000 books, you need to sell those 10,000 books to one person. Content is formatted in customized ways to meet the needs of buyers. Formats can include booklet, DVD, or audiobook as well as traditional print and e-book. Availability is controlled since buyers give books to employees, customers, students, or members. Costs of sales are lower because larger quantities are sold to fewer customers; promotion is more targeted and efficient; and there are no upfront distribution fees (except perhaps for sales groups, and they can represent books on a commission basis).

Promotion

Buyers Acquisition Decisions

Retailers acquisition costs are higher because of distribution and setup fees as well as costs related to displaying books and periodically rotating product assortment. Returns further increase costs. To sell 10,000 books you need to sell one book to each of 10,000 people. Content is provided in standard print and electronic book formats.

The concentration of buyers permits pinpoint accuracy in targeted direct marketing. Communication is controlled through two-way interaction with interested buyers at trade shows and other locations. The authors topic credibility is more important than name recognition, since books are purchased because of what their content can accomplish.

Authors Impact on Sales

Purchasing Quantities

Product Forms

Time Frames and Lifespans

Availability of Books

Books are broadly available, particularly through Internet retailers. Costs are high because of the need to sell small quantities of books to many different customers. Publishers pay the shipping charges; spend money and time on returned books which must be restocked or discarded; and must pay for promotion, which can be expensive. Sales are dependent on uncontrollable factors, such as the skills of distributors salespeople, the position of books on a shelf, and the existence of positive publicity.
| December 2012

Publishers must focus on long-term results because projects using books can take a year or more to plan and implement. Titles have longer lives because copyright dates are much less important than applicability of content to buyers needs. Publishers have more control and can extend a titles growth stage by selling to new markets and buyers and finding new uses for the content. Book sales are stable or increase during economic downturns because companies use books to increase their revenue. There are fewer seasonal variations, which helps level publishers income.

Seasonality

Book sales decrease during slow economic periods and increase during holiday and gift-giving periods.

Publishers Selling Costs

Sales Opportunities

Sales follow from oneon-one meetings with prospective buyers where publishers can personally deliver intended sales messages consistently, and close sales directly.

nExT STEPS For nonrETAIL SALES If nonretail sales as outlined here appeal to you and youd like guidance on pursuing them, search Brian Jud at ibpa-online.org for earlier articles about targeting, approaching, and dealing with specific prospects. Advice from Jud on negotiating large-quantity nonretail sales will appear in the next issue of the Independent.

16

IBPA Independent

Marketing Strategies

Traditional Retail Marketing


Payment for books sold may be received 90 to 120 days from the shipping date, or later. Money due to a publisher may be held in escrow by the distributor to cover potential returns. Unsold books can be and routinely are returned, in any condition. The return rate can exceed 30 percent of sales. Profits may be reduced because of distribution discounts ranging from 55 to 70 percent of list price, because of the costs of shipping small quantities of books to many different locations, and because printing books in small quantities can result in high unit costs. Personal relationships are with people in the distribution channel (suppliers, distributors, retailers), not with the consumer who willor wontbe the ultimate buyer. Personal relationships are short-term, limited by the lifespan of a book as traditional channels view it.

Nonretail Marketing
Payment (including shipping charges) is typically made in full to the publisher within 30 days of the receipt of books. Other terms may be negotiated.

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Copyright and trademark matters, Rights and permissions, Manuscript vetting, Negotiation and drafting of contracts, Sales and acquisitions, and Other transactions.

Cash Flow

Sales to buyers are usually nonreturnable.

Returns

Potential for Profitability

There are no distribution discounts, since books are sold directly to buyers. Buyers usually pay shipping charges. Large quantities may be printed economically via offset. And promotional expenses may be minimized because of the concentration of targeted prospects. Personal relationships are with the people who make or influence ultimate purchasing decisions.

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Tel. (310) 785-1200 Fax (310) 286-9573 Email: jk@jonathankirsch.com

Relationships

Duration of Relationships

Personal relationships are longer-term, lasting for as long as a publisher can continue providing quality content that meets buyers needs, and creating opportunities for recurring revenue.

People still want books; Ive got the numbers to prove it. . . . They are lined up outside most mornings when we open our doors, because, I think, they have learned through this journey weve all been on that the lowest price does not always represent the best value. Parnassus Books creates jobs in our community and contributes to the tax base. Weve made a place where children can learn and play, where they can think those two things are one and the same. We have a piano. We have two part-time store dogs. We have authors who come and read; you can ask them questions, and they will sign your book. The business model may be antiquated, but its the one I like, and so far its the one thats working.
from The Bookstore Strikes Back by Ann Patchett, http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine

Visit the IBPA website at www.ibpa-online.org

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How Backlist Makes the Bottom Line Better


by Linda Carlson
Still thinking about New Years resolutions? Think backlist promotion. Backlist is the backbone of a publishers business, as one IBPA member emphasized, and much can be done to generate sales from last yearsand last decadestitles. When I polled publishers recently, I learned that those most successful with backlist sales promote them using almost all the same techniques they use for frontlist: author appearances exhibits and conferences email traditional media Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and other social media niche market promotion is that you can continue to promote your books when major publishers are too busy with their new books, Award Press founder Elliott Katz reminds us. Before we talk how-tos for backlist promotion, lets define backlist success. At White Cloud Press, two backlist titlesone issued in 1999 and the other in 2002have each sold nearly 100,000 copies. At Chelsea Green, 8 of the 20 top-selling titles in terms of unit sales are backlist; if youre counting gross revenue, its 11 of the top 20. At Parenting Press, a 2000 hardback picture book has been the top-selling title every year since 2002, with sales far exceeding 100,000 in 2004 alone. The board book edition of the same title has been the #2 seller every year since it was introduced in 2005. BuILDIng BLockS For BAckLIST SuccESS Author appearances. At White Cloud, Yin Yoga: Principles and Practices is in its 10th anniversary edition and nearing 100,000 copies sold since 2002, mostly thanks to author Paul Grilley, who tours giving workshops 150180 days each year. Steve Scholl, publisher at this Ashland, OR, publisher, also credits Grilley and his partner, Suzee Grilley, for their vigorous social media marketing. White Cloud supports Grilleys appearances with what Scholl calls old-fashioned media blitzing: press releases to our list of writers and yoga teachers, studios, magazines, and Websites to inform everybody about his schedule and provide information on yin yoga topics. Another White Cloud title that has nearly 100,000 in sales is Approaching the Quran: The Early Revelations, published in 1999 and acclaimed as an excellent introduction to and translation of the Quran. Its sales gather momentum with every controversy about Islam. The title became widely known in 2002, when the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill made it required reading for incoming freshmen and a conservative Christian group filed suit, claiming a public university was encouraging students
Visit the IBPA website at www.ibpa-online.org |

Other strategies include taking advantage of new editions and new titles in a series to promote backlist, and using giveaways and big price discounts. In general, what backlist promotion requires is time, and small publishers can often supply more of that than people in large companies. The advantage of independent publishing

19

Backlist

to convert to Islam. The case was thrown out as without merit, but it led to a national debate on teaching religion and especially on the teaching of Islam in public schools, Scholl recalls. The book was featured on the front page of every major newspaper in the country and on network and cable news. Our favorite story was the Daily Shows coverage. Since 2002 we have kept the book active through promotion during every public debate on Islam in America, and today especially with the rise of the Islamophobia industry.

acquired the rights to from W.W. Norton in 1996. In 2002 we updated and expanded the book, and reissued it at $49. Although this title sells only about 500 copies a year, the profit margin is what Pardey calls nice. Pardey also says her company keeps awareness of its titles high with a Website and blog that provides dozens of sailing tips, their speaking schedule, and posts from readers. And shes right: When I typed Pardey Books into Google, I saw 50 pages of references to its books and newsletters before I quit searching. Martingale, a Bothell, WA, quilt and craft book publisher, has always encouraged its authors to make appearances, and because many of those authors teach quilting, knitting, or other crafts, 80 percent of them do visit retail outlets, often fabric and yarn shops, for signings and often presentations. The company, founded in 1976 as That Patchwork Place, also has a huge exhibit at the twice-annual International Quilt Market in Houston, where two thirds of the titles on display are backlist. Martingale authors who present at this national show are invited to the publishers booth to meet shop owners and industry editors and sign complimentary copies of their books for them. Many Martingale authors tour extensivelysome with schedules approaching that of White Clouds Paul Grilleydoing demonstrations and conducting classes at shops, quilt shows, and sewing expos. When they keep Martingale marketing director Karen Johnson updated on their schedules, she tries to arrange book signings for them at the show bookstores and publicizes their appearances via Twitter and Facebook. Some Martingale authors are teaching through Craftsy (craftsy.com), a division of Denver startup Sympoz, which offers more than 100 online seminars and enrolled more than half a million attendees in its first two years. Some of its quilting programs have attracted more than 1,000 participants, Martingale authors report. Although Craftsy was not selling books as this was written, it does sell fabric and yarn, and authors are

Unlike White Cloud, which has more than 100 titles in print, Fun Adventure Wildlife Books is a one-person company operated by Dallas-area wildlife photographer Tim Ostermeyer, who uses images from his 25 years of shooting around the world for childrens books. He makes about 40 appearances a year at home-school and early childhood education conventions, balloon festivals, and library conferences, and that pays off. He has direct-sold more than 3,500 copies of his 2010 title, Snowballs Antarctic Adventures. Like all of his other books, its priced at $18.95. Another small publisher, Pardey Books in Arcata, CA, also relies on personal appearances for most of its sales. Our backlist definitely is the backbone of our publishing income, says Lin Pardey, who with husband Larry does an extensive promotional tour every other year, appearing at boat shows, yacht clubs, and adventure clubs. Six of our eleven titles earn at least $6,000 a year, she reports. Pardeys bestseller, Storm Tactics Handbook, was first issued in 1996 as a $19.95 paperback. It was updated twice before being redesigned in 2006, and repriced at $22.95. The book continues to sell approximately 2,400 print copies and 1,000 e-book copies a year, Pardey says, adding, A second title that stands out is Details of Classic Boat Construction, which we
20
| IBPA Independent | December 2012

Backlist

free to promote their books through their online bios and their sessions. Johnson also encourages the companys authors, most of them quilters, to lend the projects featured in their books for quilt store trunk shows. These shows involve trunks shipped to between 50 and 100 stores for three weeks of display at each retailer, sometimes with tie-in presentations and author appearances. Although they focus on projects in new books, Johnson points out that by the time they get to their last stops, the featured titles are backlist. Depending on local promotion, each trunk show stop can increase a titles sales in the host store by as much as 50 copies in a month.

At Chelsea Green, a third of the six-member communications team focuses on author events.
At Chelsea Green Publishing, headquartered in tiny White River Junction, VT, author appearances are considered so important that a third of the six-member communications team focuses on author events, alerting authors to professional association calls for conference proposals and helping some authors write their proposals for keynotes and breakout session presentations. Occasionally, either in person or via a conference call, a Chelsea Green staffer will work through a presentation with an author. We know conference organizers well, and we know what associations want from speakers, explains Shay Totten, communications director. Chelsea Green also helps authors arrange other speeches and events and helps negotiate fees and honorariums when thats appropriate. Also, the house often covers authors travel costs for presentations. Increased support for appearances is one of the changes Totten has seen in publishing recently. When he returned to Chelsea Green a year ago after a five-year stint in the media, he found a far greater focus on author appearancesand it shows in the numbers. In 2011, 110 active Chelsea Green authors made a total of 650 appearances; in 2012, the figure was nearly 800. At the much smaller Miami-based Piggy Press, publisher Pat Alvarado must depend on authors to do more. And
Visit the IBPA website at www.ibpa-online.org |

21

Backlist

some do: We have four or five authors who move mountains to sell their titles, and then there are a few who sit back and expect sales to appear as if by magic. One who doesnt wait for magic to create sales is ToddMichael St. Pierre, whom Alvarado describes as a mover and a shaker when it comes to promoting. Piggy Press has published 16 of his childrens books over the past four years, and he has outsold all its other authors combined, she says. Besides his own Website, Facebook and Twitter accounts, and Amazon author page, he makes hundreds of appearances each year. Between Halloween and Christmas alone, he did 14 signings.

These email offerings also promote PDFs of patterns excerpted from books that are at least a year old, which sell for $4.99 apiece. Johnson, who was hired in mid-2011 with a mandate to increase direct-to-consumer business, says the e-pattern sales are attracting many customers new to the company.

exclaims Totten, who believes too many publishers neglect their backlist because theyre busy chasing the next trend. By contrast, the Chelsea Green staff never takes its eyes off the backlist despite the work involved in promoting 35 new titles a year, all of them in both print and digital formats.

Media relations. Media relations is Common Sense 101,

list for its emails, which go out twice a month, each featuring books on a different topicfood and health, simple living, and green building, for example. Both frontlist and backlist titles are included.

Email. Chelsea Green uses its own 35,000-name contact

We recognize that a book may take two or three years to get a foothold, Totten says, explaining that many of the companys books become authoritative references that gain momentum in sales through word-of-mouth promotion. Besides turning older titles into top sellers, this can create a following for the author, and pent-up demand for the authors next title. As an example, Totten cites fermentation expert Sandor Katz, whose first book for Chelsea Green was published in 2003. By the time his next book came out in 2012, Katzs reputation was such that his Art of Fermentation made the New York Times bestseller list despite a $40 cover price, and got extensive coverage in feature sections too. Say this about Sandor Ellix Katz: the man knows how to get you revved up to eat bacteria, wrote a Times food critic in a 1,500-word story in September. The same month, Katz was described as one of the unlikely rock stars of the American food scene by the paper when he did an online Q&A that attracted 86 comments. Totten believes that most marketing involves relationship building, and his team works hard on that with the media. Its pretty simple, but it takes time, he says. To supplement the companys existing media database, the staff asks each newly contracted author what publications the author reads, and what publications the author would like to be published in. We have a greater emphasis on community and regional media than we did several years ago, Totten says, and sometimes its more effective in terms of publicity. Like many marketing managers, Totten reads the thrice-daily HARO newsletter (free at helpareporter.com) for leads on generating

Parenting Press emails often feature a new title along with several older titles for a certain market.
A similar approach is common at Seattle-based Parenting Press, whose emails often feature a new title along with several older titles appropriate for a certain market, such as special education teachers or bilingual school programs. When the California Department of Education approved Asi me siento yo, the Spanish edition of top-selling The Way I Feel, sales for the backlist picture book spiked as the press contacted Southern California bilingual and migrant program educators, reports Homer Henderson, operations manager. Last March, Martingale introduced a daily consumer email newsletter, Stitch This. A second newsletter, Shop Talk, is sent two or three times a week to specialty store owners. Chatty and informative, both include backlist titles.
22
| IBPA Independent | December 2012

Backlist

interviews with authors and reviews of books, and he often follows up on news articles by offering a relevant review copy to a reporter. Whenever possible, a handwritten note to the particular media person goes out with the review copy. Martingales Johnson also works to establish relationships with the media, although her focus is national. New titles are what she emphasizes when she meets with quilt and craft magazine editors twice yearly at Quilt Market. Theyre hungry for material, she says, and often what were launching can help determine a magazine theme in the next six or eight months. Sometimes, however, a backlist title will fit into a theme already on a publications editorial calendar, or a title will be backlist by the time its featured. When a story runs about an authors project, the brief accompanying bio may mention the designers most recent book for Martingale. Toronto publisher Elliott Katz, founder of Award Press, contacts media to remind editors and producers that the need for his books content didnt stop after the books launches. This, he says, is especially true for his Being the Strong Man a Woman Wants, which discusses how many men today are unsure of their roles in relationships. In the spring, when good weather invites people outdoors, and in the fall, when foliage turns vibrant, Katz promotes Great Country Walks Around Toronto and The Great Toronto Bicycling Guide. He also takes advantage of milestones: A few years ago it was the 25th anniversary of the publication of Great Country Walks Around Toronto, and my news release got the book covered in the Toronto Star, Canadas largestcirculation daily, and on the top two morning radio shows in Toronto, Katz remembers. For IBPA members who publish many authors, good media relations also involve frequent author-publisher discussions of publicity opportunities and possible promotions. At Chelsea Green, Totten says he usually supplements authors contacts with the events staff by touching base twice a week with authors such as Matthew Stein, whose When Technology Fails is in the top 10 in unit sales for the publisher.

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Backlist

Mbedzi Publishing in Dallas, says, Social networking takes a lot of time, and it is something that I definitely think works if you can garner enough likes and keep the interaction going on a daily basis. But you have to engage readers, and you have to engage them a lot, to produce results. A 140-character press release: that may be the easiest way to think about a tweet. At Chelsea Green, which has close to 20,000 followers on Twitter, staff members tweet as often as five times a day, with information about author appearances and promotional messages such as Dont let winter stop your #locavore mission. Learn #HowTo Grow Oyster Mushrooms Indoors: http://ow.ly/eJLOW. Chicago-based Sourcebooks has several staff members who post to Twitter, so it may provide as many as a half-dozen tweets a day for its 6,600 followers, announcing reviews, author appearances, and blog tours or commenting on publishing industry news. Publishers overwhelmed by the prospect of tweeting a couple of times a day, or even once a week, can use free tweetscheduling Websites such as Social Oomph (socialoomph. com), which allow you to write dozens of tweets at one time and schedule each one for delivery at a different date and hour. This means you can write the promotional messages for an author appearance as soon as its confirmed, confident that tweets will be posted at appropriate moments.

Marketwith Eva A. Larkin-Hawkins, author of Easy and Fun Free-Motion Quilting. Not going to the show? Dont miss our Quilt Market Recap on November 6 at Stitch This! Each post had a photo of a different author and her featured title, and each told when the online recap would be available. By last fall, Martingale had 33 Pinterest boards (i.e., topics), some with as many as 77 images. Carolyn Howard-Johnson of HowToDoItFrugally Publishing, Glendale, CA, is also active on Pinterest, and she tells other publishers and authors that if they pin one of her book covers, shell pin one of theirs.

At Sylvan Dell, Pinterest has definitely helped our backlist titles.


My special bulletin board for this, Books by Friends, is separate from my Recommended Books board, she explains. That way I can pin at willand ethicallywithout necessarily recommending a book. And I often suggest to those who subscribe to my blog and my newsletter that they use the same method to help out their fellow authors. Pinterest has definitely helped our backlist titles, and we have seen an increase in single title online orders, reports Heather Williams, who handles public relations for the Mount Pleasant, SC, publisher Sylvan Dell. After checking with company accountants for sales figures attributable to this social media channel, Williams expressed both surprise and enthusiasm. Williams created Pinterest boards for Newton and Me, a title published in early 2010, in September 2012. Between September 15 and October 30 of that year, she reports, sales of Newton and Me increased 64 percent over the average of previous months sales, and by Halloween we were sold out of the paperback. I dont know if there are any other factors in these numbers, but I will be paying much more attention to our Pinterest boards. Williamss emphasis on providing creative classroom ideas on Pinterest may have helped boost sales of this backlist title. Teachers have definitely taken note of the Sylvan Dell board,

Award Press reminds media that the need for its books content didnt stop after the books launches.
Another way to save time involves tying your Facebook and Twitter accounts together. Cynthia Reeser, the publisher at Aqueous Books in New Orleans, explains: I never use Twitter directly, but everything I post to the Aqueous Books Facebook page feeds directly to the Twitter account. I normally post to the page one to three times per weekannouncements of books available for preorder; praise in the form of blurbs, reviews, interviews, or reviews; new cover art, author events, and so on. Martingale is among the publishers using messages that are both promotional and informational on Facebook pages. Right before the International Quilt Market last fall, for example, the company had posts such as Well be at Quilt
24
| IBPA Independent | December 2012

Backlist

she says, explaining that her account page shows who is repinning and what boards people have pinned an item to. Many of our repins and new followers are using teaching boards: physics unit, science ideas, classroom ideas, and so on, Williams notes. At Bamboo Forest Publishing in Orlando, Leonard Kinsey posts to YouTube each week to promote a 2011 publication, The Dark Side of Disney (youtube.com/darksidedisney). Google Analytics data shows that these videos drive a significant amount of traffic to my site, and they also seem to drive sales, says Kinsey, who sold more than 30,000 copies (print and digital) in the books first 15 months. During the first month of the books second year, there were more than 20,500 views of the videos, and YouTube sent 310 viewers directly to darksideofdisney.com. That represented more than a third of the direct referrals to Bamboo Forests Website for the book, higher than the six-month average. In total that month, Kinsey sold 900 e-books and 136 paperbacks.

For gift stores, craft shops, schools, and catalogs, backlist is a meaningless term.
Specialty markets. Gift stores, craft shops, schools, and catalogs are all good examples of channels where backlist is a meaningless term. These retailers dont care about pub date. They focus on whether a book will sell to their customers.
White Clouds Approaching the Quran: The Early Revelations has been used in 300,000 colleges, and Parenting Press is among the many publishers pursuing special education teachers, who constitute a market for its Self-Calming Cards, created in 2004. At Martingale, theres a national sales manager who works with Ingram and other major wholesalers as well as with JoAnn Fabrics, Michaels Stores, and other specialty retailers for both new and backlist titles. The dump bin in-store displays that the company makes available to specialty retail outlets include a cross-section of titles. And some special market promotions include extra discounts. For example, Martingales twice-annual Stock Up Sale offers independent retailers as much as 55 percent off cover price on backlist titles vs. the 40 or 45 percent more typical in that market.

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Backlist

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Co-op style promotion. Publishers also encourage

independent bookstores and specialty retailers to promote backlist with rewards for displays and events. For instance, Martingales Samples Sell program offers retailers a free copy of a book that is featured in a display with a sample from the book. And Parenting Press offers a free copy of the picture book The Way I Feel to any store or library that displays the book and promotes the Fish Lips Face Photo Contest, which asks kids to imitate the face on the book cover.

Describing backlist titles in promotion for new titles is a tactic that costs nothing.
Giveaways and discounts. Publishers are holding sales for backlist titles, sometimes using newer options such as the Kindle Select Program through Amazon.com, as well as giveaways and discounts. Will Aebi of Ibea Publishing in Salem, SC, released A Pius Wake in 2006 and reports: Now that I have it on Amazon as a paperback and for the Kindle, Im using the Kindle edition to reintroduce the title to the marketplace with a five-day giveaway. Then I use Amazon Author Central to show the cover of the book and the first few pages, to further encourage people to get the book or buy other titles.
In the first four days of an autumn promotion on Kindle, 79 U.S. readers requested copies of A Pius Wake (compared to none in the previous six months); in the United Kingdom the giveaway count for the promotion was 70. With more than 140 backlist titles, Bitingduck Press in Pasadena, CA, uses Facebook and Twitter to advertise such specials as the 99-cent deal on the e-book Writing Fiction and Poetry, which editor in chief Jay Nadeau says raised the sales from nothing to about 30 per month. Another promotion, for The Classic Star Trek Trivia Book, involved reissuing the backlist title in print in time for last summers Shore Leave 34 sci-fi convention, which resulted in more than 100 sales.

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Promoting backlist through frontlist. Seattle self-

publisher Trish Weenolsen, hard at work on the fourth in her Rubythroat Press series of American historical novels, which launched in 2009, notes the value of describing backlist titles in promotion for new titles, a tactic that costs nothing. Every time I publish a new novel, all the others get featured in press releases, on the Website, and in the occasional book

26

IBPA Independent

December 2012

Backlist

review, she says, adding: Thats one way to keep the backlist alive, publish another in the series! New editions of old titles also provide a PR opp. Parenting Press has used the publication of the board and Spanish editions of The Way I Feel to promote the 2000 original, and when a companion title, The Way I Act, was issued in 2011, the two hardbacks were offered as a package at a discount. At Pardey Books, promotion of the new digital edition of Details of Classic Boat Construction clearly sparked new interest in the hardcover edition. Interestingly, when we made this large-format title with more than 600 diagrams and photos available as an e-book, sales of the hardcover edition increased about 15 percent, says Lin Pardey.
Linda Carlson (info@lindacarlson.com) writes for the Independent from Seattle, where she continues to promote her 2003 history from University of Washington Press, Company Towns of the Pacific Northwest.

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MARKETING OPPORTUNITIES

IBPA DIRECT MAIL PROGRAMS


FOR IBPA MEMBERS ONLY REGISTER ONLINE AT www.ibpa-online.org, USE FORM BELOW OR CALL 310/546-1818

LIBRARY MAILINGS
Public Library Deadlines January 31 March 31 May 31 K12 Library Deadlines March 15, 2013 September 15, 2013 College, Jr. College & University Library Deadlines March 15 June 15

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The Library Mailings are separated into 3 categories: Public Libraries mailed bi-monthly to 3,900 libraries; K12 Libraries (Kindergarten12th Grade) mailed twice a year to 4,000 libraries; College & University Libraries mailed quarterly to 3,200 libraries. The library mailings contain flyers which publishers provide and are grouped with other flyers and mailed in a large envelope with a cover letter from IBPA. The flyers must be a standard 8 x 11 unfolded sheet. Participants are included and will receive a complete copy to track deliverability time. It is suggested that publishers avoid offers that are time-sensitive. Programs mail 3rd Class Bulk mail. Approximate delivery time of program is 3045 days after deadline date.

See www.ibpa-online.org for more information. After registering for the library mailing program, you will receive mailing instruction for your flyers. ABOUT THE COOPERATIVE CATALOG MAILINGS

COOPERATIVE CATALOGS
Books for Review Deadlines January 15 April 15 Bookstore Mailing Deadlines January 31 April 30 Target Market Mailing Deadlines Autobiography/Biography/Memoirs . . . . . . . . . . . . . .January 15 Health/Wellness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . January 30 Crafts/Hobby/How-To. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . February 15 Travel/Adventure & Sports/Recreation . . . . . . . . . . . February 28 New Age/Metaphysical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . March 15 Parenting/Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . March 30 Psychology/Self-Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . April 30 Fiction/Poetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . April 30

IBPA designs this newsletter-type, full color catalog, featuring your front cover, along with a 100-word description of your book. All members will receive a copy of the program as soon as it mails. Programs mail 3rd Class Bulk. Approximate delivery time is 3045 days after deadline date. BOOKS FOR REVIEW mails quarterly to approximately 3,000 book reviewers at newspapers, magazines, Web sites, blogs, radio and television shows. BOOKSTORE MAILING mails every quarter to 3,400 independent bookstore and chain buyers across the U.S. TARGET MARKET MAILING mails to 3,000 genre-specific reviewers; 3,400 genre-specific book-buyers; and 3,900 genre-specific acquisition librarians. Total print run is 10,300.

See www.ibpa-online.org for more information. After registering for the cooperative catalogs you will receive the information needed to participate.

Check programs you wish to participate in, include registration form and appropriate fee(s). It is possible that a mailing you register for may be changed or rescheduled. Send or fax to IBPA 1020 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Suite 204, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266 310/546-1818 Fax 310/546-3939 Email info@ibpa-online.org

LIBRARY MAILINGS: Check month(s) above Public Library Amount Due . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $


$215 general program; 3,900 unfolded flyers required

COOPERATIVE CATALOGS: Check month(s) above Books for Review Amount Due . . . . . . . . . .$
$210 per title per program I wish to display titles. titles. titles

K-12 Library Amount Due. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $


$215 per program; 4,000 unfolded flyers required

Bookstore Mailing Amount Due . . . . . . . . .$


$230 per title per program I wish to display

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$215 per program; 3,200 unfolded flyers required
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28

IBPA Independent

December 2012

MARKETING OPPORTUNITIES
BookExpo (BEA) 2013

IBPA STAFFED EXHIBITS

VISIT www.ibpa-online.org FOR MORE INFORMATION

5/30/2013 - 6/1/2013 Jacob Javitz Center, New York, NY BookExpo has moved into the weekend for 2013: Thurs - Sat. IBPA has again secured a good location on the show floor. If you want to get your title in front of bookstore buyers, a select library crowd, radio and television show producers, magazine editors, catalogers and other premium buyers, AND a select grouping of foreign rights licensing agents, this is the show where you should display your book. If you are interested in having your individual title(s) displayed at the IBPA booth and represented by IBPA staff, you can sign up at this time. We will need one copy of your title for this show. As always, if possible, its a good idea to attend the shows at which your title is displayed. IBPA can secure a discounted or FREE (Displaying Author) ticket to this show if you decide to attend. That information will be sent with your title registration. Reservations are being taken for multiple booths, a full booth, or a shared booth within the IBPA complex of booths on the floor. Full booth (10 x 10): $3,950 (Deposit at reservation: $1,975); Shared booth (5 x 10): $1,975 (Deposit at reservation: $987.50); Individual title: $125 DEADLINE for booths: First come, first served; DEADLINE Individual titles: April 15, 2013

American Library Association Annual Conference 2013


6/28/2013 - 7/1/2013 McCormick Place, Chicago, IL This annual ALA show attracts all types of librarians...from the public, private and school sector across the country and throughout the world. IBPA has a small block of booths reserved for this show, and if you would prefer to have a full booth or share a booth with another IBPA member, now is the time you should sign up for this event. If you would prefer to display your title or titles within the IBPA staffed complex, where titles are displayed face-out in specific genre with a special catalog developed for this show for the librarians, the cost per title is $125.00. Its always a good idea to attend a book show if you can and IBPA can arrange for badges for those who request them in advance of the show. There will also be an opportunity to do a book signing or demonstration at this show. If your book does well at libraries, this is one show you will not want to miss. This is a great show for most IBPA members titles. Public, academic, foreign and corporate librarians attend this show annually and its the largest librarian show in the nation. We will need one copy of your title for this show. Cost for Full booth $2,500.00 (12 payment $1,250.00); Cost for Shared booth: $1,250.00 (12 payment $625.00); Cost for individual title: $125.00. We will need a 12 payment for booths at this time. DEADLINE for Booths: First come, first served.DEADLINE for Individual titles: April 15, 2013

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IBPA partners with Ingram to offer you TWO opportunities to help sell more books and gain access to Ingrams wholesale system for single-book (or more) publishers.

1. THE INDEPENDENT VOICE * Deadlines: 30 days in advance of the mailing (e.g. the deadline for the March/April 2012 mailing would be February 1). 2. ADVANCE MAGAZINE* Deadlines: 90 days in advance of publication (e.g. deadline for the June issue is March 1st. June issue mails in late April.)
*Your title(s) must be listed with Ingram and in the iPage system in order to participate in this program. For more information about these programs and how to join the Ingram Wholesale Distribution program, please see https://www.ibpa-online.org/programs/ingramprogram.aspx.

FOR IBPA MEMBERS ONLY REGISTER ONLINE AT www.ibpa-online.org, USE FORM BELOW OR CALL 310/546-1818 STAFFED EXHIBITS Book Expo (BEA) 2013
Full Booth: $3,950 Shared Booth: $1,975 Individual Title: $125 ( ( ( ) ..................... $ ) ..................... $ ) ..................... $

Check programs you wish to participate in, include registration form and appropriate fee(s). Send or fax to IBPA 1020 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Suite 204, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266 310/546-1818 Fax 310/546-3939 Email: info@ibpa-online.org
COMPANY ADDRESS CITY, STATE, ZIP PHONE EMAIL/WEB SITE CONTACT PERSON FAX

American Library Association Annual Conference 2013


Full Booth: $2,500 Shared Booth: $1,250 Individual Title: $125 ( ( ( ) ..................... $ ) ..................... $ ) ..................... $

IBPA/INGRAM PROGRAM VOICE $350 per title ( ). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$

I wish to subscribe for bi-monthly issues beg. 10% Discount for 3 or more runs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ I wish to subscribe for monthly issues beg. 10% Discount for 3 or more runs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$

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29

BOARD MEMBERS MEMO

Demystifying Returns
by Janice Schnell
Publishers are artists. It might sound odd to use that term, but every day publishers bring new ideas and experiences to the world through written words. This is a true art form. Of course, in addition to being artists, publishers must be savvy business people. As a publisher, you have to be informed about the business aspects of your trade. Some of the business questions I receive from both seasoned and novice publishers involve returns. Not a glamorous topic, but one that its very important to understand when you want to succeed in the world of publishing. I hope what follows will inform and clear away some of the haze surrounding the practice of returns. whAT rETurnS Do Basically, the return provision allows booksellers to purchase inventory and, after a period of time, return it to the publisher if the inventory has not sold and they feel it will not sell. everything now, booksellers need agility in terms of stocking strategy to remain relevant. In other words, when book retailers have the option to send books back, they free up room; they free up money for something new; and they keep the doors open. Most booksellers rely on a talented buying team whose job it is to balance anticipated demand with available funds to get the most bang for their buck when ordering, but this is not a perfect science. whErE rETurnS go Booksellers return books to the vendor of record, which means any supplier that a retailer has an ordering relationship with, whether its a publisher or a distributor or a wholesaler. A publisher whose books are available to a retailer through any of these relationships could see returns come through any of these channels, since retailers are not required to return books to the vendor they purchased them from. For example, a retailer might buy 50 copies of a title from a publisher. After six months the retailer might have 25 copies left and decide to return them. When the title is also available to the retailer from a wholesaler, the retailer might find it easier to return it through the wholesaler in a larger shipment containing other returns. The wholesaler would then either return the books to its inventory or

Retailers are not required to return books to the vendor they purchased them from.
Return options give stores flexibility so they can keep inventory current, maximize value from shelf space, and have the books their customers want. In a world where consumers want
30
| IBPA Independent | December 2012

Board Members Memo

return them to the publisher, depending on its sell-through and inventory policies. how ThE FInAncIALS work When returns go to the publisher, regardless of whether retailers or wholesalers send them, the publisher must reimburse its trading partner for the inventory. Because the risk is evident when selling a title as returnable, publishers typically set up reserve accounts for returns. A reserve account for a title, consisting of a designated percentage of the funds from its sales, is put aside exclusively to pay for any future returns. The most important takeaway from my advice is probably this: If you are selling your books as returnable, it is wise to have a reserve account in place.

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Returned books are often damaged so that you probably cant put them back into inventory.
rESELLIng rETurnS Returned books have usually been touched by a lot of hands, having started out in a box from the printer headed to a warehouse, gone on to a retailer directly or through a wholesaler, and then gone back to a warehouse or wholesaler. Throughout those journeys, books are often damaged. Damage does not always mean you cannot sell the books, but you probably wont be able to put them back into inventory. You can work with a remainders company to sell the hurts at a discount, or you can sell them yourself through your Website. And you can also donate gently damaged books to literacy groups or other charitable organizations. SELLIng BookS nonrETurnABLE You can sell a title as nonreturnable. That said, if you are counting on sales through brick-and-mortar stores, you will likely encounter resistance. Most physical bookstores require a standard trade discount and buy only titles that are returnable. As a result, most wholesalers and distributors require that titles be returnable; otherwise they will not purchase inventory. Sometimes publishers decide to make a title nonreturnable at some point after publication. This entails notifying retailers as well as notifying wholesalers and distributors, who are required to notify their retail partners, and giving the retailers a window of time to return their inventory. As a result, it is

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Board Members Memo

possible that returns will continue even after a title goes out of print or becomes nonreturnable for any other reason. MInIMIzIng rETurnS A primary factor in the success of a new title is marketing. Putting a title into retail space is not going to generate sales if its likely readers are not aware of the book. By taking advantage of relatively new technology, some publishers now launch books using print-on-demand for hundreds or perhaps dozens of copies instead of ordering thousands of copies printed by offset.

to Ingram and Baker & Taylor, the two largest U.S. wholesalers, as well as to Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Lightning Source also has wholesale distribution programs that reach the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, and Brazil. If you are focused only on generating online sales, and not planning to sell through physical stores, you can set titles up at Lightning Source as nonreturnable. Both Lightning Source and CreateSpace offer options for color, black-and-white, softcover, and hardcover manufacturing. Print-on-demand helps Amazon and Lightning Source because it lets them show titles as available without the necessity for investing in physical inventory and warehouse space. And the technology helps publishers, both because returns from online sales are typically lower, and because startup costs are lower too, with no investment in speculative printing. There are other ways of minimizing returns (for specifics, see the three-part IBPA Roundtable that began with Controlling Returns: Yes, We Can in our May 2010 issue and continued in the June and July issues). And pursuing three of the broad goals you probably always pursue will help: get outstanding content; process it professionally; and market it well.
Janice Schnell is a content acquisition account executive for Ingram Content Group whose book publishing expertise includes knowledge of offset and print-on-demand book manufacturing and distribution and digital content solutions for publishers. A member of the IBPA board, she can be reached at Janice.schnell@ingramcontent.com.

It is possible that returns will continue even after a title goes out of print.
Potential partners for print-on-demand include CreateSpace, which has a print-on-demand program that makes books available on Amazon sites domestically and internationally with no physical inventory on hand, and Ingrams Lightning Source, which has a print-on-demand wholesale distribution program that lets publishers make their titles available

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IBPA Independent

December 2012

What Publishers Websites Can Do, Part 3


In this final installment of our series on Websites many uses, two leitmotifs seem especially clear one that might be summed up as Set Smart Goals, and one that amounts to Link Lots of Ways. Its useful, of course, to know what cool things you can make a site do and what pages are standard on publishers sites. But IBPA members testify that its even more useful to know what you want your site to accomplish. As members reports show, defining those goals means focusing on the same questions that other aspects of marketing raise: Who is this for? What do they want and need? What do I want them to do? How does what I want relate to what they want, and how can I make sure they understand that what Im offering is what theyre eager to have? As for linking lots of ways, see below and the earlier installments of this series (which ran in November and December). Like goals that members set, links that they devise, use, and recommend are designed to provide value for particular populations, and they come in a wide variety, including internal, social media, and subject-based. Many thanks to everybody who shared hard-won Website wisdom on these themes and others. Judith Appelbaum

links to our blog and to individual author blogs and Facebook pages, and a calendar of events.

To generate sales, we provide reviews and author bios, give visitors ways to find content similar to content they previously purchased, and make our entire list of 350 titles accessible. Our readers find out about new content via digital networking that starts with our site. Some 20 percent of our print and digital sales are direct to readers via our integrated Web store. Len Barot Bold Strokes Books, Inc boldstrokesbooks.com SEvEn LESSonS LEArnED Websites . . . cant live with them, or without them. Briefly, here is what I have learned over the last 15 years or so: 1. Have to have one! Has to capture the attention of the visitor in less than 10 seconds or they will leave! 2. A poorly done Website will kill
Visit the IBPA website at www.ibpa-online.org |

DoIng TrIPLE DuTY Our site is an information center, a marketing tool, and a sales venue. We consider it our first line of contact with readers and potential new authors, and its definitely an essential marketing tool, since most of our readership accesses content online. To supply informationand customer servicewe offer contact information, an e-book FAQ designed to

help readers who are new to digital content choose what formats to order for their devices, material about local bookstores that carry our titles, and tip sheets, plus guidelines and FAQs for authors who want to submit their work to us. To use the site for marketing, we provide links to a free monthly electronic newsletter that features author interviews and updates on new releases,

33

IBPA Roundtable

business; the site is an instant reflection of the business, owner, management team, entrepreneur. So many entrepreneurs sites are done poorly, and yet the owners of the sites are proud of them (and dont know why they dont get business). 3. At best, a well-done site confirms for prospects that your company is worth pursuing further. 4. You can sell books on your site, but sales on our site amount to only 5 percent of what we sell on Amazon and through our direct marketing and selling efforts. (public speaking, workshops, associations, universities, etc.). 5. A Website is just one aspect of marketing, and not the primary one. Dont put all of your eggs in one basket. 6. People will come to a Website to learn your products and services, might buy if the price point is less than $50 . . . otherwise they will want to talk to someone.

For instance, a book about abuse has a Website that lists dozens of help organizations. A book about pirates was linked to the authors evaluation of pirate films throughout history (she is a film reviewer by day). She also linked those movies available on Amazon to our site and got associate commissions from the sales.

Our information pages became their own draws for Google searches, attracting people who hadnt known about the related books (at each site, the book is always at the top of the page and/or featured as a resource in the body of information). For nonfiction especially, weve found this a handy tool. Jacqueline Church Simonds Beagle Bay, Inc. beaglebay.com onE For EAch IMPorTAnT AuDIEncE Month9Books, which publishes speculative fiction for teens and tweens, uses two separate Websites that link to each other. Our trade site is designed to help partners and potential partners learn about our titles, view our rights guide, and contact the appropriate people about sales, permissions, and so on. It also lets reviewers and bloggers sign up to be added to our database. And it includes information about our mission statement and beliefs, company news, and our publication calendar.

Our consumer site features strong calls to action, especially calls to buy. Content about our titles has links to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Indiebound. Visitors can watch book trailers, read interviews with our authors and staff, and even read first-chapter previews from titles not yet released. Bloggers and reviewers can access Blogger Central to find everything they need to conduct an interview, participate in a blog tour, and so on, from files only they can download and information available only to them. This site also has a list of staff with job descriptions, an events page with flyers that readers can print and hand out or bring to an event for autographing, and a link to the Month9Book merchandise store.

Serving different populations, both sites help us build our mailing list and drive product awareness, and we aim to keep both up and running with continually fresh content and crosspromotion. Georgia McBride Month9Books Month9books.com Month9Booksblog.com FrEEBIES PAY oFF Because I believe that the old adage You must give in order to receive applies to authors and publishers Websites, I offer a free e-booklet on my site as a way to collect names and email addresses of potential customers and clients. I also use my Websites as resource

7. For most small businesses, less is more. Most Websites have far too much blah blah blah. Jim Horan The One Page Business Plan Company onepagebusinessplan.com how connEcTIonS hELP We discovered that we could add value to our Website by connecting information pages with our books.
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| IBPA Independent | December 2012

IBPA Roundtable

centers. Once I have attracted a client or customer to one of my sites, that person has the opportunity to learn about me, my services, and the books I offer. They can find out where I am speaking next, as well. And I offer a daily blog for authors, a large resource list, and tons of articles on publishing and book promotion. Statistics show that I am drawing more traffic since I began offering the free e-booklets. And my mailing list has grown tremendously. Patricia Fry Matilija Press matilijapress.com, patriciafry.com gETTIng (AnD gIvIng) InForMATIon Readers comments on my blog are an outstanding source of information about my market, and we also use reader surveys with inexpensive tools like surveymonkey.com to get actionable market information direct from the source. Virtually all complaints come through comments, so we can address them transparently, in full view of the community, and I think that adds quite a bit to the trust readers have in what they read at the site. Offering free information products online has let me grow a sizable email list quickly. My blog is a perfect tool for generating prepublication buzz for books (and other products). And just this month we added what amounts to a store for books, guides, and training programs to the site. Joel Friedlander Marin Bookworks TheBookDesigner.com FrIEnDS BEYonD FAcEBook Ive had a Website for many years that helped me sell many thousands of dollars worth of homes and lots, and I have written hundreds of articles for it. As a new indie author/publisher working on my first major book, Im excited to have a way to give back by sharing the ways my site has helped my business. We all want customers, so how do we get them? Just like we

get new friends. Be available, be respectful, be helpful, be forthcoming, and most of all, just be friendly. Easy to say, but how do we do this via a Website? Offer something of value in exchange for visitors contact information and tell them you respect their privacy. Be easy to contact (toll-free numbers, email addresses, forums for questions and comments). Be sure to reply to everyone promptly and politely. Stay in touch on a predictable basis that people can count on (say, once a week with something of value to them). Be interesting, be topical. Tie your content to news items, holidays, celebrity events. Entice people to access your sites content with intriguing headlines. Then deliver the goods in each article, tidbit, audio, or video. Soon, youll develop a following of friends who know, like, and trust you. Guess what? Friends buy stuff from friends they know, like, and trust. Remember the Tupperware parties? Using the Word Press Platform (which even a novice can handle), Ive built a list of over 700 devoted client friends who love me, but tell me when they dont, so I can do better. Many of them have become in-person friends and clients to our mutual advantage. More and more of my sales are the result of referrals. Friends help friends. In closing I want to thank IBPA for its wonderful site. I truly feel like a kid who has found a new candy store to explore. Sid Grosvenor Chapala Club ChapalaClub.com To BuILD A BrAnD My Website is built around my blog, Life, Love and the Pursuit of Happiness, in support of my novel, The Guys Guys Guide to Love. Our goal is to build the Guys Guy brand, starting with this first book in a trilogy. The site features a synopsis of the novel, author info, media coverage including interviews and reviews, promotional videos and our YouTube channel (with each video crafted to drive home specific information about our brand), our Facebook pages, contests, TV appearances, signings,
Visit the IBPA website at www.ibpa-online.org |

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IBPA Roundtable

book clubs, photos, reviews, Guys Guy favorite sites, a link to our Blog Talk Radio/Guys Guy radio broadcasts, ongoing contributions to ABC Radio on Slacker.com, more than 70 weekly blog posts and guest posts on other sites on all things Guys Guy, links to our Twitter feed, and more. We will begin selling new Guys Guy products very soon, including Amazon singles and a nonfiction Guys Guys Guide. Robert Manni Author of The Guys Guys Guide to Love RobertManni.com PLAYIng A SMALL PArT Although we dont generally discount books sold through our site so that we dont compete with our customers, and although all our books sell for less elsewhere through our trading partners, we still get a few orders a week. When we discount on the site, it is usually for a special promotion to the member base and an organization that somehow relates to a book. The customer is contacted by the organization and directed to our site for the special offer, like a member discount, or a free book with purchase. Overall, sales through our site represent about 1 percent of our billing. Tom Doherty Cardinal Publishers Group Cardinalpub.com InTErrELATED AcTIonS As a professional illustrator, I wanted to be able to manage an online portfolio myself. I did not have the budget to hire programmers and designers to create and update my site, so I used WordPress (which is open source, meaning owned by the citizens of the world and constantly improved and developed by all of us). A mentor (technology guru and generous teacher Jerry Turk) helped me become an expert WordPress Web designer. Now, a few years later we build,
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| IBPA Independent | December 2012

teach, and design sites for others and share developing resources as they become available. Exciting stuff! Technology is fluid and publishing to the Web is also fluid, especially with blog-based content-management systems. Of course, its important to create and manage Websites so that they will engage audiences and draw them to your books, images, products, videos, and expertise. But creating and managing Websites should also involve evaluation of business objectives, plans, and development. Our slogan is, Its how the world sees you! We favor effortless interaction with social media; for example, as new content is added to our sites, it is automatically shared as images and links on Facebook pages, profiles, Google+, LinkedInyou name it. Also, we favor blogging; adding an email newsletter like MailChimp or Constant Contact; synchronizing everything on the site with social media, e-commerce, and beautiful dynamic image presentation; and using Google Analytics and other free site-traffic monitors to understand traffic, clicks, geographical locations, and so much more about who is looking at what (without getting swamped by the details). Cathi Bosco C and D Studios CandDStudios.com, CBCmascots.com, bethekite.com MuLTIPurPoSE now AnD STILL ExPAnDIng My Website is the way people find me, my books, and the services I offer. According to Google Analytics, the parts of the site that are clicked on most often and responsible for the longest visits are, in order, the parts that feature: free art ideas from my more than 20 books book sales and e-book sales connections for hiring me to do keynotes, presentations, workshops, and articles, and for arranging interviews sign-up for my mailing list, which offers a free monthly

IBPA Roundtable

newsletter full of art ideas, and always a free book giveaway to list members I use my site is to announce new books and special events, to share handouts for my workshops, to allow downloads of articles I have written, and for just about anything else you can think of. Selling books is a primary function, and e-book sales have taken off for me through the site. I will soon be adding a section offering my services as an agent to authors in my area of expertise. MaryAnn F. Kohl Bright Ring Publishing, Inc. brightring.com ThE hAPPY BIrThDAY BEnEFIT (AMong oThErS) I sell one series of readaloud novels for kids aged 5 to 10, and I use my Website to get information about people in my market directly from them, to sell my books, to build my mailing list, and more. We use PayPal to process the credit card sales. Its inexpensive, and the impeccable records are accessible 24 hours a day. I see many advantages to having my customers deal directly with me instead of channeling sales through a distributor or online booksellers. Because I create the shipping labels, physical addresses as well as e-mail address become part of our databank (and phone numbers are easy to get if I need them). Also, I have a way to collect information about birthdays, so when a child with one of my books has a birthday, the main character, Pengey Penguin, sends the child an e-birthday card with a reminder about Pengeys Fan Club and the like. This type of correspondence generates sales, but its just as important because it endears Pengey and the life lessons his adventures teach. Along with our books, we sell T-shirts, badge buttons, and colorized reproductions of the illustrations in the books. Its nice for parents and grandparents to have those extra items, especially when there are several kids in the house. And after they read about Pengey and his pals and his adventures, many of our customers cant resist getting the T-shirts. They help our bottom line a lot.

In the six years weve been in business, we have had precisely two complaints (we responded quickly) and many little letters of thanks. We are proud of our customer service and proud that our customers talk to their friends about is. That, plus the fact that we have a genuinely good first novel for kids, tends to perpetuate sales. John Burns San Francisco Story Works pengey.com DEFInED goALS BrIng DEFInITE rEwArDS When we relaunched QuirkBooks.com in 2011, we had a few goals in mind:. Create an entertaining and informational content experience that matches what our books offer. We have done this through original blog posts (A Guide to Pairing Your Comics & Beer), original videos, book-derived content, bonus content not found in the books, author Q&As, and more. Aggregate and communicate with our fans. Quirk publishes across many categories. While the people in our markets have some similar characteristics, they may also have diverse interests. With the sites launch, we introduced communities for our pop-culture audience (Planet Quirk), cooking/crafting audience (Homemade Quirk), and parent audience (Raising Quirk). These communities offer a more narrow focus while still drawing from the full range of Quirks content base. Showcase our books and drive consumers to retail stores. We do not sell books directly on our site. We are in the business of creating and delivering strikingly unconventional books and content. Thats what we do well. We choose to stay away from the logistics of sales, fulfillment, and distribution. Also, we want consumers to choose where they buy, so we and offer links to all the major retailers, including Indiebound, via our Buy Local button. Measurements show increases in social media activity, traffic to our site, and click-throughs to retailers. Brett Cohen Quirk Books quirkbooks.com

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37

FEEDBACK
MorE hELP wITh workFLow Creating a Workable Book-Publishing Workflow, by Susan Daffron (November), included some excellent advice about how to use styles to efficiently format text for multiple platforms, and it talked about importing Word styles into InDesign. The author mentioned that her company uses InDesign from Adobes CS3 software bundle. Our company provides editorial, production, and project management services to publishers, and when we upgraded to CS6the current version of this software, which includes some changes in functionality that have a dramatic effect on how styles are importedwe experienced significantly reduced productivity and increased frustration. For others who might be using the newer software, heres what we learned about the challenge and how to work around it. As the article mentioned, when using CS3 it is possible to use bold and italics in Word files, and these text attributes (known as local formatting) will be retained when styles are imported and mapped to styles in InDesign. When Word styles are mapped to their appropriate InDesign counterparts by the same process in CS6 (and CS5), all features of the Word style are retained as local formatting. This includes items such as font, font size, paragraph spacing, and even hyphenation and justification. Unless styles are initially designed differently from what was required in CS3, the newer versions of InDesign will apply all these elements as local overrides to the InDesign style. Heres an example: Suppose your author produces a manuscript in Word using a style Regular, where Regular appears in the font Times New Roman, is not justified, and has hyphenation turned off. In addition, lets suppose your author uses italics to introduce key terms. In CS3, you could import this text into InDesign and have the Regular style appear in the font Palatino, with justified

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IBPA Independent

December 2012

Feedback

text, and with hyphenation turned on. The italics that had been applied within the text would be retained as local overrides, with the result that the words would still be italicized. In CS5 and CS6, when this same text is imported and mapped to the style Regular, everything is retained as a local override: the wrong font, the incorrect justification, the lack of hyphenation, and the application of italics. These local overrides can be turned off (so that you get the correct font, etc.), but this is an all-or-nothing proposition. Turning the overrides off means that any applied text attributes (bold, italic, superscript, etc.) will disappear too. These types of items then have to be manually reapplied on an individual basis throughout the entire manuscript. After spending a considerable amount of time reading online forums where others discussed this problem and after doing some experimenting with our files, we learned that this can be fixed by changing the way styles are built and defined. In the past, it was possible to use a basic style and create other styles based on it. For example, you could have a style called Regular that would define the way regular text would appear. If you had another style for indented text, you could call it Indented and base it on Regular with just the indent being different. The advantage to using styles that are built on one another is that you can make global changes to common elements simply by adjusting the underlying style. For example, if you want to change the text of a book from Palatino to Bookman, all you have to do is change the base style and the adjustment flows through to other styles built on it. But when styles are created by building on and modifying other styles, the newer versions of InDesign are unable to distinguish true local formatting (such as bold, italic, and

superscript) from changes that are intended to differentiate one style from another (such as font size, indenting, and paragraph spacing). The solution is to modify or build all styles so that they are based on No Style in Word and No Paragraph Style in InDesign. Although this solution means that universal changes cannot later be made to a single base style (each style has to be changed individually if such alterations are needed), it does solve the problem of retaining only intended, true local formatting. In our experience, the process of applying global changes to multiple style definitions is much more manageable than the process of trying to identify each instance of a missing text attribute. Additionally, we have discovered that the importing process works best if Word files are created in the .docx format (rather than the older .doc format). Karen Bellenir, Editorial Director Wordwright, LLC wordwrightllc.com

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December 2012

SPoTLIghT
ShowcASIng ThE STInkY SErIES Two segments of a new CNN Headline News show, Making It in America, featured Britt Menzies, author of the Raven Tree Press StinkyKids series, when its third title, StinkyKids Have a Heart, launched in the fall. Introduced in 2011, the hardbound picture books use characters created by Menzies in 2006 for T-shirts, which led to dolls in 2009. Last spring StinkyKids: The Musical, using plots from the books, debuted to sellout crowds in New York City and was recognized as Best Family Show by the Off Broadway Alliance. A Raven Tree newsletter report on the CNN show said in part: Host Vinnie Politan shares what it takes to be a successful mompreneur and [how] creator, Menzies, fits into all four categories of success. Show segmentsone 3:38 minutes long and the other 3:29 longare on YouTube (youtu.be/83-gy-swaX0 and youtu.be/9-nUQDMQBvw). MAjor MEDIA covEr cookBook Got allergies? Get to the Square One Website and take a look at its cookbook by a duo who call themselves the Double Energy Twins and were featured in the Los Angeles Times in October. Characterizing Shari and Judi Zucker as the dynamo twins, the paper noted that their latest book, The Ultimate Allergy-Free Snack Cookbook, is designed to help kids eat right. The month before, the twins had appeared on the Today show, where they showed hosts Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb how to make an allergy-free pizza. And, if you dont mind us punning, there was nothing cheesy about the orders that wholesalers immediately placed: 3,500! The books Amazon ranking shot up from around 35,000 to as high as 900 that week in the All Books category, and into the top 10 in the Food Allergies category. Plus, the authors Website received nearly 1,000 clicks within hours of the television appearance. The same month, back-to-school features in regional and niche publications such as the Stroudsburg, PA, Pocono Record and Better Nutrition Magazine featured recipes from the book and reminders of the high percentage of children who have food allergies. Earlier in the year, a brief summary of the book in Newsday explained, The Zucker twins, Californians trained in physiology and nutrition, published their first book about snacks in 1984, at age 16. Their guide is useful for parents who want to protect their kids from allergic reactionsand avoid junk food, too. Publishers Weekly called the Zuckers insight into dealing with allergies . . . a welcome resource. nonSMokIng SAnTA STorIES If Pamela McColl at Grafton and Scratch Publishers has her way, Santa Claus may or may not still be snacking as he recovers from the holidays, but hell toss the pipe. She got lots of media attention in the autumn and holiday season (225 Web site mentions from just the first press release) for her revision of the Clement Moore classic, A Visit from St. Nicholas. Antismoking advocate McColl edited out the references to Claus smoking in her Twas the Night Before Christmas, which led to comments from media including the Dallas News health blog (which noted that her Santa also shows he cares about the arctic polar bears by wearing fake, not
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41

Spotlight

real fur) and the entertainment editor of the Vancouver, BC, Star, who quoted an email to McColl signed by The Chief Elf, Snowman Factory (The pipe goes with Santaits a tradition and Im tired of traditions being changed. So, for the recordyou can put that in your pipe and smoke it). McColl credits IBPA with contributing to her success, explaining, I started by getting advice from IBPA and I did what they recommended andbingohere we are. And where is she? She sold out her first and second print runs in English and was into a third printing by Halloween, and she now has 50,000 hardcover copies and 15,000 paperback copies in print, plus 7,500 hardcover copies in Spanish and 3,000 in French. TYIng In wITh A TIMELY ToPIc October is Bullying Prevention Awareness Month, and this past autumn that meant major media and teen retail visibility for Wild Onion Press, which specializes in books about children with physical differences. Wild Onion published The First Day Speech by Isabelle Hadala in August. Now 14, the author was born with ectodermal dysplasia, a genetic condition that keeps hands and toes from forming properly. Her picture book is based on the speech she made the first day of each academic year in elementary school, when she explained her condition and told classmates to look her over and then get over it. On Labor Day, NBCs Today show featured Hadala in a three-minute story that was later picked up by television stations in Florida, where she lives (video.today.msnbc.msn.com/ today/48884764#48884764). In October, she was invited to New Yorks WPIX to be the guest weather forecaster (wpix.com/news/morningnews/wpix-friday-forecaster-izzyhadala,0,4936464.story) in conjunction with appearances she was making for teen fashion company Aeropostale about the costs of bullying. Aeropostale had contacted Wild Onion to invite Hadala to serve as one of its Teen Ambassadors in the STOMP OUT Bullying program. The company has sent the eighth grader to speak in several middle schools. Wild Onion publisher Shelley Mickle reports that 200 copies of The First Day Speech were sold in the week following the Today show publicity.

MoThEr MAkES nEwS Bitingduck Press has been in the headlines in print and online with two features in national publications. Would you hire your mom? These entrepreneurs did is how USA Today started a story in August that included coverage of Jay Nadeau, editor-in-chief at the Altadena, CA, press. Nadeau employed her mom, Marie, a few months after launching the publishing company, the story says. Marie founded a skin-care-focused firm, so Jay thought she could help in areas such as marketing and public relations. But as a crush of books came in, Jay asked her mom to take a stab at reviewing and editingand was surprised to learn that she was talented. You think you know everything about your mom, but you dont, Jay says. I always knew that she read a lot, but I didnt know she was so skilled as an editor. ABC News picked up the story, now archived at abcne ws . g o.com / Bu s ine s s / h ire - mom - e nt re p re ne urs / story?id=17038613#.UJPo_YbheMo. The same month, Questions and Answers with Jay Nadeau ran in PhysicsToday.com, a print and online publication of the American Institute of Physics, which introduced the publisher as the biologist turned theoretical physicist, turned experimental neuroscientist, turned biophysicist who is now moonlighting as an independent book publisher. Bitingduck, which describes its publications as about science, mathematics, and the lives of scientists, will launch such titles as Hedwig Kohn: A Passion for Physics this spring. Its fall releases included the second edition of a title long out of print, The Yoga Facelift. wInnIng worDS Owl Presss Albert Flynn DeSilver reports several recent reviews for his Beamish Boy. The Memoir Journal blogged, It is harsh while at the same time poetic. It breaks your heart one moment and then sends your spirit soaring the next. It is one of the rare books that when finished I believe I will feel I am a better person for having read it. And, it has made me laugh out loud. Kirkus had earlier described

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IBPA Independent

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Spotlight

the book as A beautifully written memoir of awakening and self-acceptance. And Publishers Weekly wrote, DeSilvers seesawing journey from drug and alcohol addiction to recovery all filled with epiphanies and backsliding, clarity and bewildermentwill keep readers committed to his story. Allen A. Knolls The Ice Maiden Cometh Not was reviewed by Publishers Weekly, which wrote, Noir by way of Wodehouse, Boyles light concoction will most appeal to readers looking for whimsy rather than mystery. Booklists starred review commented, Theres a real mystery to be solved here, but the greater pleasure for readers is listening to [hero] Gils quirky voice and meeting [author] Boyles cast of weird and wonderful characters.

Also recently reviewed in Publishers Weekly: Aqueous Books The Natural Order of Things, a collection of interwoven stories that got a starred review. From the same publisher, Glowing in the Dark appeals to readers We drawn to theyour needs review declared. finish! cover all weird, PWs from start to Poisoned Pens The Llama of Death: A Gunn Zoo Mystery, described as an appealingyour needs cozy. We cover
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Spotlight is compiled by Linda Carlson (lindacarlson.com), who welcomes members news of unusual special sales, licensing deals, significant media coups in the last month, movie and television options, and other achievements at linda@ibpa-online.org. The focus of this column is as much on how you accomplish something as on what you accomplish, so specific how-tos are important. For her other monthly articles in the Independent, Linda often emails members to ask about their experiences. To ensure you receive these messages, check that you have her email address in your address book. Please submit your news for Spotlight in the text of your email (no attachments) and remember to include: your name and title the name of your press as it appears in the IBPA membership directory your email address URLs for the archived editions of any media stories youre telling us about

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Spotlight

Sourcebookss The Officer Breaks the Rules, about a feisty Navy nurses feminine wiles. Sourcebooks Casablancas The Wicked Wedding of Miss Ellie Vyne, a romantic farce, and Waking Up with a Rake, an alluring read complete with an outspoken female protagonist and a hint of mystery. Chicago Review Presss Mary Wells: The Tumultuous Life of Motowns First Superstar, called an excellent and fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the artists who made Motown Records a massive success. Berrett-Koehlers Hungry Start-up Strategy: Creating New Ventures with Limited Resources and Unlimited Vision, praised for avoiding buzzwords and for providing guidance on gaining the edge necessary to compete and thrive in business. C & T Publishings Barbara Brackmans Civil War Sampler: 50 Quilt Blocks with Stories from History, described as gloriously honoring the Civil War without bellicosity and offering vignettes of American womens history.

rx For rEAL rEvIEwS PW recently published an opinion piece by Penny C. Sansevieri on its Soapbox pageKeeping It Real: The Danger in Fake Reviewsin which the online marketing consultant offers six recommendations for authors who want exposure that may lead to legitimate reviews. AcTIon rE A FIrST novEL Allworth Press founder and publisher Tad Crawford has a debut novel published by Arcade Publishing, A Floating Life, which Kirkus called odd, offbeat and strangely shimmering in its print and online reviews. Other publicity includes an online review in Booklist; Crawfords guest blog in Shelf Awareness for Readers on what inspired him; and an excerpt posted by 2paragraphs.com, which, Crawford notes, is a site devoted to pithy presentations of current topics. Arcade which also published five novels by Mo Yan, winner of a 2012 Nobel Prizehas sold translation rights in A Floating Life to Bertrand Brasilia for a Portuguese edition in Brazil.

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IBPA Independent

December 2012

CLASSIFIEDS
EDITING
BOOK EDITING Specializing in final edit and polish. Editing award-winning books in nonfiction, dramatic nonfiction, and fiction. Copyediting, line editing, content editing. Gain clarity and readability. Avoid confusion and mistakes. Add impact. Call Ron for quick response and free sample edit. Toll free 866-502-0414. ron@rkedit.com. www.rkedit.com COPY EDITING You need a copy editor with 40 years experience. Smart publishers choose the professional: Ive edited 124 books for 91 IBPA publishers in 17 years. Retired newspaper editor, flawless speller, know grammar and usage completely. My rates are no higher than others. FREE SAMPLE editing of 10 pages of your manuscript. Bob Juran: 503-520-1801 AN EYE FOR DETAILS Editorial Servicescontent/copy-editing, writing, proofreading. Specializing in nonfiction manuscripts, magazines, newsletters, directories. Call Sharon at PeopleSpeak, 949-581-6190, pplspeak@att.net INDExER@LIGhTSPEED.NET (661-823-0814), Bruce Tracy, Ph.D., Indexing Services. Please request samples. Rush jobs no problem. ARE YOU LOOKING FOR CRISP, TIMELY, COST-EFFECTIVE editing and/or proofreading? Your words will sing. Nonfiction, fiction, childrens books, and dissertations. Free sample edit. Columbia University School of Journalism grad. LSC Editing, Lynne Curry, 626716-6027. lynne.curry@gmail.com. Youll be pleasantly surprised. PROOFREADING, COPYEDITING, creative writing. Call Sharon, 714-437-1370; www.redline-editing.com. PROOFREADING Walter Peters, 323-887-7296, waltproof@yahoo.com BOOK EDITING: Copyediting, Manuscript Evaluation/ Development, Layout Proofing. Specialists - Self-Help, Health, Spirituality. Clients include Dan Poynter. Contact Robin: quinnrobin@aol.com / 310-838-7098. ww.writingandediting.biz. Award-winning firm. Good pricing. BOOK EDITING & REVISIONS Experienced freelancer helps shape stories for Christian and inspirational writers. Most recent book edits: health, memoir and relationships. kenwalker33@cs.com, KenWalkerWriter.com, 304-525-3343. CONSULTING Nonfiction book marketing, promoting, distributing. Dan Poynter, 805-968-7277. ParaPub.com AFFORDABLE LEGAL SERVICES Protect and develop your publishing assets through contacts, licensing, acquisitions, copyrights and trademarks. Work with an attorney who knows your business as well as the law. Call Lloyd Rich, (303) 388-5215 or email rich@publishingattorney.com hIGh QUALITY BOOK PRINTING Whether you are looking at your first book to get printed or are a publishing company looking for better pricing, you have come to the right place. Gasch Printing specializes in high quality book printing and provides you with the personal service you need to make this book a success and the pricing to make it affordable. Contact us today at (301) 3620700 or visit us at www.gaschprinting.com. PUB-FORUM Where over 500 publishers talk shop FREE! Get the inside scoop on printers, distributors, marketing ideas. See http://www.pub-forum.net. BOOK CONSULTING Editing, production, publicity, distribution. WarwickAssociates.net PUBLIShING IN SPANISh? We deliver world-class translation, formatting, and audio voice-overs for publishers worldwide on-time and on-budget...since 1988. www.RanchoPark.com 919.942.9493 ibpa@ranchopark.com
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GENERAL PUBLISHING SERVICES

BOOK/AUThOR PUBLICITY Tailor-made campaigns for small and independent authors and publishers of non-fiction titles. Handling national, regional, and local campaigns. Specialize in cookbooks, travel, parenting, gardening, home how-to, consumer health, childrens books and general lifestyle books. 40+ years book publicity experience. Contact kate@ksbpromotions, 616-676-0758. ONLINE AND TRADITIONAL book promotion. All trade categories. Contact Stacey Miller at S.J. Miller Communications, 888-7770884; 781-986-0732 in Massachusetts sjmiller@bookpr.com. Website: www.bookpr.com

Publish in Spanish!
Expand your Markets Increase your Revenue!
The 2010 census reports there are 51.6 million Hispanics in the United States, with a purchasing power expected to reach $1.5 trillion by 2015, which would rank that demographic as the 13th largest economy in the world! Hispanics are the fastest growing ethnic group in the U.S. We can help you reach this important U.S. market for your books-in-print, e-books and audio books with our expert Spanish language translation, editing, proofreading, typesetting, printing and voice-over services.

a recent project

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Need other language versions? Our pleasure...


We provide all of our services in all major languages.

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T ranslations for Publications...since 1988

Visit the IBPA website at www.ibpa-online.org

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CLASSIFIEDS (continued)
ShORT RUN BOOK PRINTING AND BINDING SERVICES State-ofthe-art equipment. Over 3000 customers since 2004. No set up fees. No minimum quantity requirements even for hard cover books. Visit our website at www. Book1One.com or call us at 585-458-2101. RECOGNIZED LEGAL ExPERTISE Attorney with over 30 years experience: listed in Best Lawyers in America, Super Lawyers, and Martindale-Hubbell directory (highest rating for skill and ethics); representation for all aspects of publishing law, including copyright, trademark, contracts, and defamation. Lawrence R. Jordan, Jaffe, Raitt, Heuer & Weiss, P.C., 201 S. Main St., Ste. 300, Ann Arbor, MI 48104; Call 734-222-4776; ljordan@jaffelaw.com E-BOOK CONVERSION | DISTRIBUTION | SELL DIRECT We provide small and mid-sized publishers personalized, high-quality, e-book services and consulting. Whether one book or dozens we help you plan for success. Contact David for a free consultation: (877) SELLBOX, www.sellbox.com WANT TO BUILD BUZZ about your book? Sponsor a giveaway and get your book in front of thousands of readers for only $100. Visit www.freebooksy.com/book-giveaways or contact ricci@ freebooksy.com. TELESALES. We follow-up and close: textbook adoptions, advertising sales, surveys, market research, review copies for endorsement and special sales, book signing events and more! Call Robin Bartlett at 201-660-7396; rbbartlett@aol.com. COMPLETE, PROFESSIONAL DESIGN SERVICES including book covers, interiors, and promotional materials. Fast, flexible schedules available. admin@sixpennygraphics.com WE LOVE BOOKS AND IT ShOWS IN OUR WORK Seasoned husband-and-wife freelance team. 20+ yrs experience. Exclusively Apple Mac and Adobe Creative Suite tools. Can convert Quark. We do page layout, art programs, cover design and much more. Excellent quality, accuracy, consistency, reliability. Call us at 727-667-1818. www.van-garde.com PROFESSIONAL BOOK DESIGN for Authors and Publishers. Book Cover & Interior Design, Typesetting, & eBook Production. We offer our clients creativity, reliability, and the personalized attention that is needed to make your next book stand out from the rest. VMC Art & Design, LLC www.vmc-artdesign.com 201-760-1345 info@vmc-artdesign.com EYEBALL-GRABBING BOOK TITLES and back cover copy sell more books. Tap 30 years of marketing, copywriting and publishing experience for titles and cover copy that sing. www.titletailor.com
360 Digital Books Book Partners Book One BookMasters, Inc. C-M Books, Cushing-Malloy, Inc. Color House Graphics, Inc. Beaconstar Digital Printing Cypress House Digital Book World Edwards Brothers Malloy The Fisher Company ForeWord Magazine Halo Publishing International Hercules Freight Company iPRO Business Systems Klemfarb.com KSB Promotions, Inc. Law Offices of Jonathan Kirsch Lewis Printing Company McNaughton & Gunn, Inc. Nautilus Books Awards 21 17 9 2 39 32 32 23 47 26 11 Back Cover 25 46 46 18 39 17 38 40 31 44 27 40 23 45 11 43 18 25 45 18 31 23 25 27 43

DESIGN

Youre Invited to Write for the Independent


Our monthly publication is a great place to share the wealth of experience. If you have a how-to or a how-I story to tell that would help other members, please contact Judith Appelbaum, editor, at judithappelbaum@aol.com. FYI: Independent articles generally run 800 to 1,500 words (if you have more to say, we might do a series). Artwork is welcome if it enhances some point or points that the article makes. And the pieces that work best for us are those with lots of usable information, supported by specifics.

Next Generation Inde Book Awards OReilly-Tools of Change Conference Pollock Printing Company Publishers Assistant Rancho Park Publishing The Roberts Group Rose Printing Co. Separacolor International, Inc. Sheridan Books, Inc. Smith Publicity, Inc. Thomson-Shore Total Printing Services Tu-Vets Printing Corporation Van-garde Imagery, Inc. Wood, Herron & Evans, L.L.P. YouDo PR.com

BOOK COVER & INTERIOR DESIGN, brochures, postcards, typesetting, prepress and ebook conversion including uploading to iBookstore, Amazon Kindle, Nook and Sony. Making your book look professional. On-time delivery. Call Pam, at Opus 1 Design, 800-590-7778. (Los Angeles Based), pamOpus1@aol.com, www.Opus1design.com. EYE-POPPING BOOK COVERS! Creative Text Design for awardwinning authors. Over 20 years experience as a publishing professional. All credit cards accepted. Competitive rates. 310-450-0018; dotti@dotdesign.net; AlbertineBookDesign.com GET NOTICED With Professional Book Cover and Interior Design Services by Jaad.www.jaadbookdesign.com info@ jaadbookdesign.com Phone: 507.696.1198.

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IBPA Independent

December 2012

IBPA INDEPENDENT 1020 MANHATTAN BEACH BLVD., SUITE 204 MANHATTAN BEACH, CALIFORNIA 90266 www.ibpa-online.org

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www.forewordreviews.com

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