Your questions about publishing...answered honestly!
A post that answers some recent reader questions from you all...
Hello everyone, I hope you are all having a good week. This week I wanted to take the time to answer some questions that I have had on social media in response to this newsletter - thank you to everyone who wrote in, and I hope these answers are useful. Please feel free to ask more questions via DM or in the comments, and I will do another Q+A round-up soon! If anything isn’t clear, just pop a note in the comments and I can try to elaborate…
Can you talk about the rationale behind offering debuts two-book deals please? I much prefer one-book deals but I know I’m in the minority!
Interestingly, we’ve been having some similar conversations in-house recently about offering more one-book deals, as the market is quite challenging at present, and a little unpredictable. But the rationale behind two-book deals is that it provides security for the author, and allows us a chance to start building someone up into a potential brand, rather than immediately being out of contract quite quickly. If you deliver your edited book within a few months of signing the contract, you are then out of contract very fast, and often a publisher might want to wait to see how the book performs sales-wise before committing to a second book, which can then leave the author in a weird scenario where they aren’t sure whether to start writing a second book or not. So I’ve usually preferred to do two-book deals for my authors as I think it gives them more of a chance, and gives us more of a chance to see how things go and work on building them longer-term before running the risk of losing them, or having to have recontract discussions when we don’t have much data to go on. Sometimes, publishers do multi-book deals, especially now with the fast-paced romance publishing that is going on, but we are thinking about more one-book deals too (particularly for IP). Do feel free to have these chats with your agents / editors as it’s important to do what works for you as an author as well as listen to what might be best for your publisher. A lot of it depends on your financial situation and overall goals - some authors prefer the flexibility of one-book deals but others prefer to have a couple of years of security under contract.
I’d be interested in hearing about how the rights get split between different English-languages publishers, and how the editors from all sides interact. From a Canadian perspective, it’s always been a bit random which version we get, but lately it seems like we’re increasingly included with the US rights (and if there’s no US deal, we still can’t count on getting the UK version any more).
So typically, UK and Commonwealth rights include territories such as Australia and New Zealand and Export territories such as South Africa and India. Canada can be excluded or included, depending on what the agent is offering. Your contract should have a list of all the territories included. Europe can be exclusive or non-exclusive for a UK publisher, too. There are multiple ways of dealing with the US - if we as a publisher buy World All Languages, including America, then we will initially try to sell the US rights to a sister company, then if that doesn’t work, our rights team will send them out to other US publishers, and if nobody bites we will usually ask the author and agent if they are happy to go with our distribution model (i.e. we make the books available in the US but they don’t have separate editors). Most big publishers have similar options available. A lot of the time, agencies choose to sell US rights separately, with Canadian rights, but it can depend on the editors who are interested and the stage you are at as a writer. It can be hard to sell in the US (lots of UK authors don’t) and the US often buy one book at a time, and can sometimes skip a book and pick up another one later down the line if they prefer the idea. In an ideal scenario you’d have a global publishing team so that the editors can share a vision and assets and work in a really joined-up way. Financially, it can sometimes be better for an agent to sell US rights separately and whip up more interest, but it can also be really fruitful for you to sell the rights to a UK publisher and let them do that, as you then have the benefit of in-house contacts (e.g. I am friendly with Hachette US editors and we can sometimes work together closely to do global deals for authors). So it really depends! Occasionally, you might have a separate Canadian editorial team (this happened a fair bit when I was at HarperCollins) but some publishers don’t have this. So it can be a little bit different each time, but again, it’s best to talk the options through with an agent and think about what you want. I am always pro distribution if you don’t get a traditional US deal because at least it gets the book out there (this was the case for my first three books as an author, and then the second two sold to William Morrow), and we can always put the books into Amazon deals etc as well and drive traction digitally. In my current role I work with lots of US editors from other companies, so a book might be with us in the UK and Penguin Random House in the US (for example) - in those cases, I work editorially with the US editors (e.g. we both read at the same time, share notes and combine the notes into one document for the author, as I think that’s easier than an author receiving two sets of notes), and we share marketing and PR plans to help create buzz, but the books usually have different jackets. If I buy a book from an American agent or publisher, we might pick up US files, meaning America does the edits and we take their production pages. It really does vary each time. I like to stay relatively involved as an editor, and it can be really fun seeing how the US approach things versus the UK - especially in rom-coms where readers can expect different things! A strong US publication can help our Export markets so I always want to ensure I am on top of what’s happening in the US, then I feed that information to our sales reps and Australian teams, etc. The US buzz is important to those markets.
I’m curious (if you’re open to sharing!), what percentage of your list is books that went to auction vs. books with preemptive offers vs. books where you were the only editor who offered?
Of my current list of 20 authors, three authors were pre-empted (by me I mean), four I think I was the only person offering (this includes IP though where I came up with the idea and gave it to an author), a few were authors who were already at Hodder when I joined (so I inherited them), two were won at auction (i.e. there were multiple offers) and one was a poach from another company. I hope that helps a bit! Personally I do quite like a pre-empt as I find auctions quite stressful, but it doesn’t always work and it isn’t always the best strategy for the publisher financially. It varies! But certainly, not every book reaches that stage and having only one or two editors keen is not unusual (or a problem).
Something that interests me is how to foster the skills to become a commissioning editor, and what those necessary skills are on the commissioning side of the job. For example, although every editor has to select projects that she can take to acquisitions and defend with some passion, I guess that as an editor you have sometimes to look past your own preferences to some extent to see a good business proposition. How do you look for the market potential in a piece of work, see how it could be developed to maximise that potential and generally weigh up business merits, artistic merits, changing public tastes and your own personal taste? To an outsider, it looks a forbidding trick to pull off!
To speak to my own journey, I studied English Literature and Language at university, then worked as a journalist, then got into publishing as an assistant and worked my way up. I completed proofreading, copy-editing, and many other courses as part of my career (i.e. they were provided by the company), and in terms of commissioning, you learn on the job. I shadowed more senior editors, watched how they did things, was shown email examples of their offers etc, and was present in editorial meetings so that I could see how it all worked. You begin to develop a sense of the market by immersing yourself in it - I have always read the Bookseller and visited supermarkets and bookshops to look at the shelves, I am obsessed with the Amazon charts and I am a huge reader. I read the bestseller charts, look at what is selling, and try to stay on top of the fiction market as a whole now (though I am particularly au fait with crime and thriller as historically that is where a lot of my publishing has been, though I love working across the commercial sphere now). You definitely do sometimes have to put on a ‘publisher hat’ rather than a ‘reader hat’ and if you see a good opportunity for the market, then I think it’s best to take it. The vision document form that most publishing houses use really helps with this - it forces editors to think objectively about the sales points, about who the readership is, and about why they want to buy the novel from a business perspective (so not just the passion pitch. Liking a book is not a good enough reason on its own to acquire it, in my personal point of view as a commercial editor). So a lot of it is listening to other editors in acquisitions, understanding the market, using consumer insight and market data to work out what readers are buying, in what quantities, and why, and then making informed decisions based on that. It’s also key for us to look outside just the UK, to talk to our export sales teams, and to think about all formats - for example, the hardback home opportunity might be small but there could be a big opportunity in Australia, or in audio, or both - you have to weight up the merit of the book, the hook, the author, and the current and future markets. It is quite a lot to think about, hence why we can’t buy everything we like, but it is something one develops with time and experience. And it’s key to listen to your colleagues and have robust discussions in acquisitions.
Can you talk a bit about the midlist from an editorial perspective? How do authors feel about midlist authors? Or how does an author make the midlist or level up from that? Lots of veteran crime writers say they didn’t break out until book 7, 8 or 9, and talk about how that wouldn’t happen now. I’m not convinced that’s the case, but would be good to have the editorial perspective…
For me, all of my authors get the same editorial experience. I love editing and working with authors and you never know when a book is going to take off, so I certainly don’t put less effort into ‘midlist’ books editorially. Yes, midlist novels might not get as much spend as big brands or break-out debuts, but the midlist is vital for all publishers, and those authors are very important to us. It’s important to me that I publish commercial fiction of a high quality and that readers will want to pick up, so editorially I follow the same process, no matter what we’ve paid for the book. You can read about what that process actually is here.
The midlist is important because it brings in consistent, regular, solid money for a publishing house. Sometimes, it can feel as though the midlist is too large, and that does make me worry, and can lead to hard decisions (deciding to stop publishing authors, for example). My own view on it is that we should only have as many authors as we can properly care for, and I don’t want to spread myself so thinly that my authors never hear from me or feel lost. It is true that not every book can have a huge campaign, but if your books are profitable, well-written, commercially successful to a level and you’re great to work with, I’ll want to keep working with you and building you! I do think that some writers take time to build and it is still true that authors break out later in their careers; I’ve seen this happen time and time again. Putting in the leg-work with independent bookshops and libraries can make a difference here, and I’ve written here about what authors can do for themselves in this respect. Sometimes, an author can be midlist for years and then have a big hit with a very hooky book or a change of direction, or name. Sometimes moving publishing house can help - you might be seen as midlist somewhere but given a higher priority slot somewhere else (because the shape of that new publisher’s list will probably be slightly different). And remember, midlist is NOT a dirty word! If we lost all of our midlist in one fell swoop there would be quite a hole in the budget! There is so much to be said for publishing consistently and growing over time, honestly. In reality, the vast majority of books end up being ‘midlist’ - there will be your key brands, some debuts that may or may not work, some books that really don’t sell and that we are then unable to continue with - and the rest will fall somewhere in the middle, where the sales are decent but not yet stratospheric, but there is a core readership and a clear market for what you are writing. And there’s nothing wrong with that at all!
Do you have any tips for initial meetings with editors on Zoom? Apart from be yourself!
Well, do be yourself, but also: ask questions! Write a list of questions beforehand and think about what YOU want to get out of the meeting. Be open-minded, listen (and take notes if you want to - it’s always hard to remember important meetings afterwards because your adrenaline is high!) and ask for clarity if there are things you don’t understand. Ask the editor where they would see your book being positioned in the market, what they think the main routes to market (sales channels) are, what kind of cover they would envisage, and how they like to work editorially. Ask about timescales and communication, if you want to, and anything you’re feeling anxious about. Be positive and professional, and present yourself as someone who is happy to do editorial work (I mean, don’t lie if you’re not, but hopefully you are!), who understands that they would be joining a publishing team, and who can put trust in the editor (we always want to feel this, it can be really difficult if an author is too distrusting or controlling). And remember, editors are just people! We’re on your side and if we’re having Zooms with you, we’re keen on your writing! So be honest, be kind, and keep an open mind. Oh, and trust your gut! Well done for getting to the meetings stage, how exciting. Good luck to the person who asked this question.
Can you explain the difference between commercial / upmarket / literary in a book and what it means on the retailer side (as in, are there more opportunities for promotion or prizes)?
The easiest way to understand this, I think, is to think of commercial fiction as being plot-driven, and literary fiction as being more style-driven. Commercial fiction often tends to sell in higher volumes, through different types of retailers, and literary fiction tends to win more prizes (there are some prizes for commercial fiction e.g. the Nero Prize, and genre-specific prizes such as the Crime Writers’ Association awards, but most of the bigger prizes - the Booker etc, tend to attract literary fiction). If you win a big, mainstream prize, your sales usually increase. Promotion wise, the same options are available on Amazon and other ebook retailers (Kindle deals, Apple deals, etc, though Apple tend to have more genre-specific promotions), and Waterstones now have their Thriller of the Month, Book of the Month, SFF Book of the Month, Non-Fiction Book of the Month, etc. These can be very effective for driving sales. Richard and Judy is still running in the UK and that tends to be a promotion (publishers pay a lot for this) aimed at commercial fiction, and some of the book clubs tend to go for upmarket commercial fiction (e.g. Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place, Radio 2 Book Club, etc). In the US, book clubs such as Jenna and Reese Witherspoon are huge and can have a really big impact. They tend to choose upmarket commercial fiction, I’d say. Upmarket commercial fiction means fiction that might appeal to a more broad, traditional book-reading audience, who read a lot of fiction and want something that has potentially more meaty book-club themes, slightly elevated writing, or strong characterisation. Very commercial fiction tends to work well in ebook, and be fast-paced, hooky, and occasionally trope-y (i.e. it fulfils the demands of the genre very well). There’s room for all of it, in my opinion! Anything that gets people reading is a good thing.
I hope this is helpful and thank you again for reading. And happy writing to those of you who are!
Phoebe x
Really interesting to read, especially point 1, as this is a a conversation lots of authors are having at the moment. Two-book deals do offer security to authors... but not necessarily financial security because publishers insist on joint accounting. So you can earn out on the first but if the second doesn't do as well the author is left in a royalties deficit. Why do publishers insist on JA?
An interesting behind-the-scenes look; thank you!