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Two Publishing Stories
John Oakes (among other things the former editor of Four Walls Eight Windows) is at the Huffington Post talking about his new publishing venture, OR Books. “Imagine taking the guesswork out of publishing. Imagine a publisher printing only to fulfill orders, and with a minimum of waste; imagine further a system that sidesteps warehouses, wholesalers, and even–at least at the outset of a book’s life–bookstores and online retailers. This would be a process wherein the publisher focuses on developing ideas into workable manuscripts, carefully editing them–and, above all, devoting substantial resources to marketing the finished product. These tasks were once the exclusive province of publishers, but in the last twenty years or so, development and editing have increasingly fallen to agents, and marketing has become the responsibility of authors themselves.”
Jason Diamond, editor of Vol. 1, offers a Kaddish for Jewish Zines. “Beyond the pictures of Roseanne dressed like Hitler, and the ads showing a tefillin-wrapped arm with a needle plunging into the vein–which even as a non-observant Jew made me pretty uncomfortable–my time with Heeb has brought one incredibly positive change into my life: it’s helped me become comfortable with my place in the “Jewish world.”
Tags: Heeb, Jason Diamond, John Oakes, OR Books
Regarding the first story, it’s good to see someone taking full advantage of the POD system. It seems that what you excerpt could be a quote from Lulu or Booksurge or Bookmobile themselves. I think the real story is behind this quote:
‘Why aren’t you on Amazon? Why can’t we find you in my local store? How can you be “real” publishers and turn down these opportunities?’
Answer, according to OR Books, is to spend tens of thousands of dollars on marketing the title they have. Not a bad answer, for sure. (Though it is cheapened by that insidiously cloying title they do have. I wonder if it’s too late to do a book about Michael Jackson?)
Regarding the first story, it’s good to see someone taking full advantage of the POD system. It seems that what you excerpt could be a quote from Lulu or Booksurge or Bookmobile themselves. I think the real story is behind this quote:
‘Why aren’t you on Amazon? Why can’t we find you in my local store? How can you be “real” publishers and turn down these opportunities?’
Answer, according to OR Books, is to spend tens of thousands of dollars on marketing the title they have. Not a bad answer, for sure. (Though it is cheapened by that insidiously cloying title they do have. I wonder if it’s too late to do a book about Michael Jackson?)