2003-2004 DWL MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS

For those of you who have not renewed your membership for 2003-2004, this will be the last newsletter that you receive through the post.  It will still be available to the general public on the website. 

Below is a list of 2002-2003 members who have not renewed for 2003-2004.  If you wish to renew and have not had the opportunity to do so, please contact Joni Latham or Joe Marino.

Rae Nell Causseaux
 Jackye Havenhill
Frances Henk
Florence McClain
Diana Milam
Joyce Prince

The Publishing Boom

The Macintosh computer, with its user-friendly manner and ease of use for graphics, created an explosion. It opened up a new field, desktop publishing, and made it easy for anyone so inclined to produce a manuscript and present it in camera-ready copy for a printer. Immediately the number of publishers burgeoned. The trade journal, Publishers Weekly, reported that approximately 5,000 new publishers emerge each year (while a similar number disappears).

Who are these new publishers? People who wanted to get their books produced. Many of them will give up the project after their first book. Some will produce others; some will even become small publishing houses. Understanding that the bulk of the publishers in this country are mid-size or smaller presses is important for A. A. in the search for a publisher.

Not only have computers made production of a manuscript for publication much easier, they make it possible for a publishing company to operate with very few people. Answering machines and voice mail reduce the need for receptionists and secretaries. Day-to-day business can be handled by one or two people. The small publisher may wear many hats. A large publisher may have as few as 15 employees.

The competition is horrendous. R. R. Bowker, as the American agency that manages the International Standard Book Numbering, which records such things, identifies over 5,000 publishers in this country. In the past few years, each year has seen well over 46,000 new titles produced. (New titles, however, may include revised editions. A revised edition is technically considered a new book.)

Approximately 85 percent of the titles come from some fifteen publishers. Many of these publishers have imprints, or sub-divisions, created to deal with particular subject areas. A. A. should pay attention to what areas publishers deal with. Don't send (don't even ask!) a publisher a manuscript for a short story collection if the publisher's catalog contains only non-fiction materials.

Writers on the hunt for a publisher may go down the listings of publishers in the Yellow Pages and send letters to whomever they find. This is horribly inefficient. First, it shows a complete lack of understanding about how to look for an appropriate publisher. Second, it wastes time. Such a phone call or letter is much like a wrong number. The author has taken up somebody's time, broken their concentration, whatever, to no useful purpose.

Not Just in New York

While the publishing industry is centered in New York, publishing is important in other parts of the country. Illinois and Minnesota follow New York in publishing. (In Illinois, textbooks are a major product.) Areas with clusters of small to mid-size publishers include the Upper Midwest (including Minnesota and Illinois, but extending beyond), the Rocky Mountain region, the Pacific Northwest, California, and the South.

These smaller (that is, not the 15 percent largest) publish on an astonishing array of fields. Many presses come into being as niche presses. The literary writer will find presses that take only the work of new writers, presses specializing in mystery, and so on. The non-fiction presses often started because nobody had published material in a particular field where a need for such material existed. Organizations or institutions, such as medical or health-related, or religious groups, established presses to create and disseminate materials they had developed--self-help, religion, specific health issues, and so on. A large number of the small presses are individuals who decided they would publish independently.

Finding the Fuel

Money and how to get it are factors in how a publishing house is set up. Some, particularly presses that specialize in literary publishing, are classified as non-profit companies. Much of their funding comes from grants, and the size and availability affects the number of manuscripts acquired. Usually, a grant will cover a single press-run for a book. (A press run is the number of copies produced at a time, or run, by the printer.) Then there are the not-for-profit publishers, whose name describes their role.

The for-profit publishers have the avowed intent of making money. This is easier said than done. It means that manuscripts acquired are expected to produce a return that will not only cover the costs of acquiring the manuscript (the writer gets paid!), production, promotion and distribution expenses, but will bring in enough to reward the publisher for doing the book and some royalties for the writer. The acquisition of a manuscript, then, is something of an act of faith. Each manuscript is acquired with the expectation that it will carry its own weight and then some, as in the long run, many do not meet the expectations.

The small presses typically have few employees. Overhead is lower, and so it takes the sale of a smaller number of a title to cover expenses. Example: with a small house, on a fairly typical print run of 3,000, the break-even point may come after 1,500 copies are sold. A larger house may need to sell half of a run of 15,000 copies to break even.

The flip side of that coin is that the smaller company usually has smaller financial resources. It will publish fewer books, using proceeds from one to start another.

These are important factors for Aspiring Author getting published. We will discuss others further in upcoming articles.

© 1996 Patricia J. Bell all rights reserved

E-mail: PatJBell@aol.com

Please also visit our Web site for more information on publishing. Cat's-paw Press
9561 Woodridge Circle
Eden Prairie, MN 55347

PATRICIA J. BELL is author of the Benjamin Franklin Award winnning The Prepublishing Handbook: What you should know before you publish your first book, with Foreword by Dan Poynter and the Midwest Book Achievement Award winning Roughing It Elegantly: A Practical guide to canoe camping

Or call 800/431-1579 to order either book