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Re: Multicultural publishing
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From: Norma Jean Sawicki <nsawicki_at_nyc.rr.com>
Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2014 20:10:17 -0500
What can be done depends on whether or not the company deemed the move(s) a problem, and if it was company wide. In that case, a publisher often takes a variety of different steps to play catch up.
The great unknown here is the answer to a question that is none of our business…Journey of Dreams did not sell well. What does that mean in terms of actual sales? Reviews in certain publications…School Library Journal, for instance, have sales value in the institutional market that cannot be pinpointed accurately but can be ball parked. A starred review, for instance, is cause for great celebration…Depending on the editor and his/her relationship with a writer, writers are sometimes educated in terms of expectations…or, by the writer's agent.
There was a time in publishing when a colleague from another house could say, x book did not sell well, or x book sold well…and one would know approximately what that meant in terms of actual sales. It was true when the institutional market dominated sales for hardcover children's books which is no longer true today…today there is a strong retail market, a gift market, etc…Also, not all publishers have the same expectations…in one house, a book that sells 5,000 copies in one year may be regarded as failure…at another house, one would not jump for joy but it would be regarded as ok. Writers, too, have expectations..some are realistic, some are not…
Not the answer you may have hoped for but the best I can do with the information on hand…Norma Jean
On Feb 13, 2014, at 6:13 PM, Lyn Miller-Lachmann wrote:
Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2014 20:10:17 -0500
What can be done depends on whether or not the company deemed the move(s) a problem, and if it was company wide. In that case, a publisher often takes a variety of different steps to play catch up.
The great unknown here is the answer to a question that is none of our business…Journey of Dreams did not sell well. What does that mean in terms of actual sales? Reviews in certain publications…School Library Journal, for instance, have sales value in the institutional market that cannot be pinpointed accurately but can be ball parked. A starred review, for instance, is cause for great celebration…Depending on the editor and his/her relationship with a writer, writers are sometimes educated in terms of expectations…or, by the writer's agent.
There was a time in publishing when a colleague from another house could say, x book did not sell well, or x book sold well…and one would know approximately what that meant in terms of actual sales. It was true when the institutional market dominated sales for hardcover children's books which is no longer true today…today there is a strong retail market, a gift market, etc…Also, not all publishers have the same expectations…in one house, a book that sells 5,000 copies in one year may be regarded as failure…at another house, one would not jump for joy but it would be regarded as ok. Writers, too, have expectations..some are realistic, some are not…
Not the answer you may have hoped for but the best I can do with the information on hand…Norma Jean
On Feb 13, 2014, at 6:13 PM, Lyn Miller-Lachmann wrote:
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Received on Thu 13 Feb 2014 07:10:37 PM CST
