Children’s Corner

Vantage has a stellar lineup of children’s books, both picture books and chapter books: often we will commission the illustrator, whether black and white line drawings or full color spreads. And our editors can also help make the text just so, in books that range from rhyming picture books to fantasy to tales that really make an impact. Here are two current winners to remind us how rewarding it can be to read with the children in our lives.

A Diamond in the Rough by George Anthony Fleming

A DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH, by George Anthony Fleming. The delightful story of a young princess named Sheryse who decides to plan a ball in order to find a suitable prince. While all of the royalty from kingdoms across the land have been invited to attend, the focus is on a young prince named Jason who learns to believe in himself as he risks life and limb finding his way to the gala. ISBN 978-0-533-16253-6, 154 Pages, $10.95.

Manny McMoose and His Chubby Caboose, by Kevin McMahon

MANNY MCMOOSE AND HIS CHUBBY CABOOSE, by Kevin McMahon. An endearing tale told in verse about one child’s efforts to thwart bullying and address his own obesity, reinforcing the virtues of healthy eating, exercise, and volunteerism among middle graders. ISBN 978-0-533-16352-6, 28 pages, $8.95.

Every Book Lives…

Our friends at independent publisher Melville House have a terrific series about the marketing campaign for their acclaimed bestseller, Hans Fallada’s Every Man Dies Alone. As publisher Dennis Johnson notes, it can be daunting to figure out what will be effective marketing for a novel, even without additional challenges:

How do you market a book written in a foreign language by an author who’s now dead, that was originally published 60 years ago, and has been overlooked by mainstream publishing ever since?

One takeaway about the contemporary bookselling market is the power of word of mouth and the importance of following up each reader’s enthusiasm. Melville House also used postcards, tee shirts, and cleverly designed advance reading copies to stir interest. And Toronto subway advertising – who knew? But it was individual bookseller and reader admiration for the book that really stoked sales and propelled the book toward the 50,000 copy mark.

Fruit of the Vine

The purview of self-publishing—and its impact—continues to expand. Jancis Robinson, a world-renowned wine authority, reports on several high-end self-published wine guides. Via self-publishing, author/connoisseurs are able to focus on a specific varietal or terroir. Some have gone to extraordinary lengths:

In charge of just about everything except the 180,000 words in the handsome, fully illustrated 350-page monograph on the wines of Vosne-Romanée, Pearl of the Côte, was Erica Meadows… What she had to do was ‘put together the entire team – and cover all the costs – from several artists, photographers (including taking one up in a helicopter for specific aerial views), mapmakers, book designers, copy editors, printing, computer programming for shopping cart and sales, indexing, book production manager, storage facilities, all fulfillment, etc’.

Clearly this intensive editorial is not for everyone (or everyone’s budget!) but it demonstrates that it is possible to publish books of the first rank outside of the major houses. At Vantage we got acquainted with another editor last week with specific expertise in this caliber of luxury volume, and we can confidently make your dream book a reality. Except maybe the helicopter…

Honest, Competent, and Trying Hard

Over the seven months that I’ve owned Vantage, we have been trying very hard to build on our great history in publishing to improve our program. So it’s nice to be reviewed and recognized by two sites that we really respect for their scrutiny of the self-publishing ecosystem.

In his Book Making blog, in a post titled “Wow: A refreshingly honest and competent pay-to-publish company,” Michael N. Marcus has some nice things to say about us. He concludes with:

“If you have the urge to get published, but don’t want to spend years chasing agents and publishers, or don’t want to become a publisher, you can get full service, good service, and first-class books from Vantage Press. Even if you don’t need Vantage yourself, you should not be reluctant to recommend the company to other writers who would benefit from Vantage’s experience, expertise and honesty.”

On the other side of the Atlantic, Mick Rooney’s Self-Publishing and Independent Publishing site has an in-depth review of Vantage. It is nice to get a 7.4/10 rating from someone who has been aware of Vantage for decades. Mick notes in his memoir:

“Even at the age of fifteen, I was already very familiar with those vanity publishing ads in the Sunday newspapers. I remember writing off to Vantage Press for their brochure — getting it a few days later in the post and spending many nights in bed browsing through it and dreaming away about my future life as a novelist. Around then, I started buying the Writers & Artists Yearbook and other books on writing and publishing. I came across writers like Peter Finch who dared to write about self-publishing at a time when it was frowned upon by the literary establishment.”

Authors considering self-publishing would do well to subscribe to both Michael and Mick’s feeds – beyond their critiques of Vantage and other programs, they are chock full of good advice for the independent author. And back here in New York, we are excited and working every day to make our authors’ books the best they can be and to add new capabilities and features—more on those in subsequent posts.  —David Lamb

It Takes a Village

Publishing Perspectives, a perceptive publishing industry newsletter, has a squib of a piece stemming from the SXSWi South by Southwest interactive festival in Austin last week. Taking its lead from the fact that the internet makes communication so facile, the piece poses a contorted question about what constitutes ‘authorship.’ The interesting thing is not the squib itself, but the comments, which resoundingly speak for the power of raw expression but also for the amount of effort it takes to create a powerful publication. Novelist Joni Rodgers says of her transformative experience (of being published by Random House):

Writing a book without an editor is like applying lipstick without a mirror; I suppose a few people can do it, but they never look as good as they think they do. The art of book design is something people don’t usually notice unless it’s done poorly, but a great design — from flap copy to font selection — makes a huge difference in the life of a book and the experience of the reader.

She goes on to cite PR people and copyeditors. Further on, a self-published author notes how diligent she has to be to make sure her book measures up to commercial offerings. Unlike the lead story, the comments celebrate the fact that authorship can be what the author makes of it, but also recognize that publishing a book is a multi-faceted affair that gains greatly through collaboration.

Foyles, Again

Sometimes, it seems, a full-service strategy works. The Guardian has an interesting story today about venerable British bookseller Foyles. The bookselling scene in the UK has been challenged by the recession and the availability of books at discount stores, but Foyles has found a way to thrive. Unlike its competitors Borders UK (liquidated) and Waterstones (slumping), both decimated by the vicious spiral of discounting leading to lower service standards, Foyles has taken the high road in the high street, and turned a profit last year even in the teeth of the recession. As Chief Executive Sam Husain says:

“It was just keeping our nerve,” says Husain. “One way a lot of customers look at it is that an author has put a lot of time and effort into a book, and so why would you want to commoditise it to that extent?”

Asked about the future, he is concerned about inroads online and digital competitors may make, but is confident that Foyles can adapt and prosper by adding more and better services and refining its ability to best serve its customers.

“It was just keeping our nerve,” says Husain. “One way a lot of customers look at it is that an author has put a lot of time and effort into a book, and so why would you want to commoditise it to that extent?”

The Companionable Book

There is a wonderful review in the Wall Street Journal today of what appears to be a wonderful book: The Oxford Companion to the Book. From our Vantage point, there is a lot to like about Norman Lebrecht’s sentiments, including: “Almost 30 years after writing my first book, I still have instant recall of the moment when I received the first bound copy.” And he expresses very well what our web site attempts to convey: “’The Oxford Companion to the Book’ is a monument to mankind’s most effective means of communication, one that is infinitely portable, transmissible, and treasurable, intimate and tactile in ways that none of its rivals can attain. Book is, was, always will be best.”

The offering from Oxford seems to be a fitting incarnation of its subject. It is a two-volume, slip-cased affair, and contains one million words. It evidently took a team of scholars 15 years to put together. The price certainly reflects the effort: $275.00! As a publisher that treasures the spirit  of the book, we’re trying to justify it as a business expense. If we can, we’ll bring further reports of its entries to this blog. And reveal how much it weighs…

English as a World Language

There are proficient English speakers around the world, which is a good thing. The spread of English internationally has certainly enriched the language. And I guess it’s a particularly good thing for our competitor Xlibris, judging by the fact that they are recruiting copy editors at their call center in the Philippines:

__________________________________________

Copy Editor
(Central Visayas – Mandaue City, Cebu, Philippines)

Requirements:

* Strong background in English grammar and English literature
* Above-average reading comprehension skills
* Prior experience in editing or writing for print media, in campus journalism (as staffer in school paper ), or in teaching English/Literature subjects in secondary or tertiary level students
* Computer literate (Word for Windows, Excel, Internet savvy)
* Has self-discipline and good work ethics

Xlibris Corporation
6/F TGU Tower (across i2 Bldg) Asia Town IT Park, Lahug Cebu City 6000.

_________________________________________

This is from http://callcenterjobs.com.ph/category/xlibris-corporation/ retrieved on January 31st. They are also looking for “Sales Quality Assurance & Communications Specialists” able to “Standardize key items of sales close,” whatever that means.

Just for the record, Vantage Press copy editors are based in the U.S., and if you want to ‘standardize key items of the sales close’ you are welcome to call us in New York at (212) 736-1767 and ask to speak to our president.

Slushie

The odds of having an un-agented manuscript accepted by a commercial publisher are known to be very, very small. And they don’t seem to be improving. The Wall Street Journal published an interesting survey of the waning days of the slush pile – in entertainment as well as publishing—a few days ago. In “The Death of the Slush Pile,” Katherine Rosman points out that it is simply uneconomical for large publishers to filter unsolicited submissions; agent Richard Curtis usefully comments on these economics as well and calculates that the odds of being selected have historically been on the order of 20,000 to 1. It is interesting to note that while economics have driven the decline of the slush pile at publishing houses, paranoia about inadvertently infringing ideas presented in unsolicited treatments has led to the pile’s extinction at entertainment companies.

Of course there are exceptions that prove the rule, and Rosman cites Judith Guest (“Ordinary People”), Stephenie Meyer, Philip Roth, and others. But as the commenters to the article make clear, an increasing number of people consider self-publishing and fee-based publishing very viable alternatives to letting a manuscript melt in the vestigial slush pile. At Vantage we’re always happy to consider your manuscript; click here for submissions.

Inaugurating the Vantage Press blog

Welcome to the Vantage Press blog. We are launching this in tandem with our new web site, www.vantagepress.com. Please have a look and comment here about what you like or dislike. We are not only updating our design and presentation, but also trying on the site to be crystal clear about our full-service approach to fee-based publishing, and our values. In this blog we’ll address topics of concern to all authors seeking to publish a book: copyright, the role of the editor, design and production values, promotion and publicity, distribution – and, of course, royalties. Please join us (subscribe at right) and most importantly give us feedback as we continue to offer top flight service to authors. You may also always email us at feedback@vantagepress.com.