The world of
publishing
Lecturer: Sergio Pinzon

This case study explores the world of publishing and
examines how a new product in this industry reaches the
customer. While many publishers spend enormous sums of
money promoting their bestsellers, sometimes little money,
if any, is spent investing in the new publishing products and
talents of tomorrow, that is, new authors. In effect some
publishers are simply printing books without the necessary
promotion.
Introduction

Introduction
• This case illustrates that in this relatively
straightforward new product there are many
factors, some very surprising, that influence
the success or not of a new book. The role of
the publisher, the role of the agent, the role of
the retailer, the role of the buyer, the role of
the critic – all influence success in this industry.
While all publishers would like to have the next
Harry Potter, this case illustrates that this is
unlikely to happen if they do not invest in new
product development today.

• A book is published in the hope and
expectation that it will sell thousands maybe
even millions of copies for the author and
publisher. Yet, despite the best efforts of many
publishers, some books defy expectations and
flop. Consider Anthea Turner’s autobiography.
Despite all the media hype, it sold just 451
copies in its first week and was soon piled high
in the discount ‘remainder’ bookshops (Kean,
2001). Publishers are not eager to discuss such
disappointing stories, yet the Waterstones
bookseller suggests that 15 per cent of all
books are returned to the publisher. In fact
most books do not sell. In 2001 116,000 new
titles were launched in the UK, that is, about
2000 new titles a week! As we have seen, even
celebrity status is no guarantee of success,
although it is usually a substantial help.
The hope and
expectation

Success depends on
many things
• Success depends on many things including whether or not your
publisher is willing to pay up to £10,000 to book retailers in order to
have a book displayed at the front of the shop. Or even paying a retail
chain up to £6,000 to have a book selected as ‘read of the week’. This
may all sound unfair and devious – welcome to the modern world of
publishing, where the looks of the author count almost as much as
the writing. Daunta Kean (Kean, 2001) argued that most books in the
bestseller lists were there due to at least some money changing
hands between retailers and publishers and by authors working hard
to promote themselves. It should come as no surprise to the student
of business that the role of the retailer is as important in books as it is
in other consumer products. In many ways a novel is just another
consumer product, a combination of product and service.

Success depends on
many things
• The world of publishing continues to be an exciting and
profitable business. Sales continue to grow and more and
more books are published each year.. Yet few books make
any significant amount of money for the author or the
publisher. So why are so many more books being published?
The answer, of course, is that you only need one great out
of a hundred or even a thousand new authors to justify the
publisher’s speculation.

The journey from
manuscript to
published book
• The journey from manuscript to published book Once the
author, especially a new or unknown author, has completed a
manuscript, the key task is to get it published. This is
extremely difficult, as many prospective writers will tell you.
Thousands of manuscripts land on the desks of publishers and
agents every week. Most are ‘binned’ or returned to the
author. Agents and publishers reject manuscripts that later
turn out to be best-selling novels, but they will argue that this
is the nature of the business. This, of course, is of little help to
the author whose novel has been rejected for the fifth time.
‘Don’t give up’, the agent will say, ‘Harry Potter was rejected
by several publishers.’ Most publishers will only work through
agents and will not communicate directly with authors.

The journey from
manuscript to published
book
• This is because the agents understand the business and sometimes
know the individual commissioning editors. The publishers view the
agents as helpful in weeding out the ‘rubbish’ leaving the editors with
the better manuscripts to consider. The author–agent relationship is a
business partnership. The specifics of the partnership will vary
depending on the nature of the work in question, the author’s needs,
and the agent’s policies and practices. In general, though, an agent will
review his client’s work and advise on quality and potential
marketability and the possible strategy for securing its publication. For
that work, the agent receives a commission (usually 15 per cent) against
the author’s advance and all subsequent income relevant to the sold
product. But even the best agent cannot sell inferior work. The
commissioning editor is the buyer, and, as a rule, an author gets only
one chance per editor. After an editor reads whatever is put before him
or her, some deep, perhaps indelible impression is formed.

The journey from manuscript
to published book: the editor
• This corresponds to quality management issues in other industries. If
the author has written a second-rate book, and if the agent has not
vetted it beforehand, the editor is likely not only to reject the work but to
also refuse to see anything else from that author in future. T. Colgan
(1996), senior editor, Berkley Publishing, offers some frank advice on the
role of a commissioning editor. There are many reasons why
commissioning editors reject a manuscript and here are the most
common ones:
• The editor. All people have likes and dislikes, and editors are no
different. Most editors have deep-seated ideas about what their
readers are looking for that go far beyond what the actual numbers
show. That is why many editors insist on staying with an author after
several bad outings or why they push to take on a talented new
author in a category that is on the wane.

The journey from
manuscript to published
book: the market
• The market. This is the trickiest
consideration to gauge. It is not as
simple as looking at the numbers. It is
true, this will give you a pretty good
idea of the market today, but when an
editor buys a book he or she needs to
be thinking about the market up to
two years from now. After all, it is
going to take the author six months to
a year to finish his or her work. Once
he or she delivers, it is going to be
about a year before you can get the
book in the schedule.

• The house. ‘Thank you for submitting your
material, but, unfortunately, this is not right
for our list.’ List in this instance refers to a
publisher’s portfolio of products. Anyone
who’s ever received a rejection letter is
familiar with that sentence or something
similar. Sure, a lot of times, it’s just code for:
‘Your manuscript stinks!’ But there are plenty
of times when it means just what it says. They
may already have a mystery series that is
similar to yours, or you may be writing in an
area that is not one of their fortes. Each
publishing house has its own strengths and
weaknesses. Some publishing houses do well
with true crime while others will not touch it.
Some have great success with cosy mysteries,
and others find them utter failures.
The journey from
manuscript to published
book: the house

The journey from
manuscript to published
book: the author
• The author. You should write because
you want to, and you should write what
you want to. Let the market take care
of itself. Attempting to pattern yourself
after a successful author is an almost
certain way to strangle your own voice
and collect an impressive number of
rejection slips.

The publisher and the
contract
At the initial stage of acceptance the publisher is as much
interested with the looks of the author as with the writing.
This may sound surprising but good looks can help with
sales, especially if the author is young (O’Grady, 2001). Once
another commissioning editor has read the manuscript, the
original commissioning editor tries to convince other
departments that they should make an offer to the agent.
The agent will discuss this offer with the author, but royalties
for first books are usually standard at between 7–15 per cent
of the net price of the book. Any advance, which is taken out
of future royalties, is also negotiated. Most first-time authors
are simply relieved to get their work published. The
negotiations do not end here. For there are foreign and film
rights to be discussed. If applicable, and they are usually not,
these will produce more revenues. Clearly the agent will
want to retain these rights but frequently these are signed
over to the publisher.

Drafts, revisions
and presentation
The editor assigned to any book will work closely with the author once the contract has
been signed. The original manuscript may need months or even years of reworking. This is a
good example of the iterative process of new product development. Also the new word-
processing software facilitates this process. Other editors may also make suggestions for
changes to the plot or scenes or how the story could be improved. A co-editor will also be
involved checking the details, facts and consistency. Eventually it will be typeset and
checked again for correctness, grammar, etc. Advanced proofs may even be sent to
reviewers or trade buyers, in the hope of an advance order. This brings us to the next stage:
the book jacket. The designers are briefed – they may even go so far as to read a chapter!
Within a few weeks, several cover ideas are submitted before a design is chosen, usually by
a combination of the editor and the marketing department. The author has little if any
input. The size of the final book is almost as important as the design of the jacket cover. For
in the publishing industry size really does matter.

Drafts, revisions
and presentation

Retailers
The number of book retailers has decreased over the past 20 years, yet
the number of sales of books has increased. The market is now
dominated by a few very large retailers; WH Smith and Waterstones
handle 25 per cent of all book sales; book clubs account for a further 16
per cent (Amazon.com, an Internet bookseller, has had a significant
impact on this industry). In addition, the multiples are now stocking
and selling a narrow range of the best-selling books at discounted
prices. The big retailers, like any other retailer, have to concentrate on
books that will sell, whereas the specialist bookshops, frequently
owned and operated by people for interest rather than profit, would be
willing to stock a wider variety but cannot compete with the multiples
who stock only best-selling titles. To become a bestseller a book needs
to be available in the large retail outlets, and it needs to be visible in
these outlets. Publishers will go to great lengths to secure shelf space
for a book they wish to promote.

Retailers
This includes entertaining the retail buyers with extravagant ‘business trips’,
for example to the Wimbledon tennis championships or to a Formula One
motor race, to try to influence the buyer’s decision. According to Oliver
Burkeman (2001) one year Collins bought all the available space in WH Smith
for back-to-school dictionaries and sales of Oxford University Press
dictionaries plummeted. High sales depend on shelf space: some publishers
have argued that a bestseller is 70 per cent the book and 30 per cent the
marketing. The other major influence on the success of a book is the role
played by ‘critics’ in the media. If a book receives the praise of one of the
mainstream newspaper book critics this will have an enormous positive
influence on sales, similarly from a radio book critic or even better a
television book critic. The key issue here is getting the book in front of the
critic and getting them to read it. Once again publishers will use some of the
tactics used with buyers to try to further their cause.

The truth is sometimes painful and difficult to accept, but
most authors do not earn very much money from their
writing. A Society of Authors report stated that half of all
writers earn less than the minimum wage (Kean, 2001). This
may simply be due to the fact that what is written is not very
good or not wanted, but the evidence seems to suggest that
publishers are contributing to the problem. What is of concern
is that increasingly publishers are selecting fewer books to
promote, for without promotion a book is being only printed.
Promotion is an integral part of publishing. Indeed, most
dictionaries define publishing as ‘to make widely known’.
Printing a book and leaving it piled high in a warehouse is not
making it widely known. Printing is only part of the activity of
publishing. It is understandable that all publishers have limited
promotional budgets, but to decide not to invest any
promotion at all in a book is deceiving the author.
Final thoughts

If authors were aware that little if any effort was being
targeted at his or her book they would surely be better
advised to move to another publisher or to get it printed
themselves. The future of publishing depends on new authors.
To be innovative, publishers need to nurture and find new
talent. This is effectively the research and development (R&D)
of publishing. Without this activity publishers will soon find
they have no new products to sell. Supporting a best-selling
author is fine and necessary but so is uncovering tomorrow’s
authors. The case highlights that the big retailers who,
understandably, adopt a short-term market-pull approach
increasingly dominate the market. This leads to fewer titles
being promoted and made available (despite an increasing
number of titles being printed) and stifles innovation.
Consumers are not always able to communicate their needs;
frequently consumers do not know whether they are going to
enjoy a story about a child and his wizard-like powers until
they have read it.
Final thoughts

ANSWER THE FOLLOWING IN CLASS
• What are some of the corporate obstacles that must be overcome to publish
innovative and successful books?
• Identify five key elements on which the publisher house should concentrate
to develop a strong corporate innovation strategy that attracts successful
books
• Discuss all the factors that influence the sale and success of a new book. Also,
weigh the amount of influence you feel these factors have on a book’s
success. Do not limit your discussion to the case study
• Discuss the new forms of how publishers try to invest in new products/author
• Discuss the role of the Internet to support book sales, publishing and
marketing
• Explain the creative process behind publishing a new book (concept, package
and process)
• What role does an editor play in shaping creativity when writing a book?
• What steps can a writer take to become more creative in their own work?