Last month I asked editors what they considered to be their responsibilites to writers and readers, and now it's the writers turn. Authors, let me know what you think the editor's responsibilities are to you, and to the intended audience.

I will discuss what you have to say in next week's newsletter, so contact me by the 11th. Either post to the comments section here or email me at nsswmATfwpubsDOTcom. If you agree with what any of the editor's said, then tell me that, too.

I look forward to hearing what you have to say.

A while ago I saw this article that mentions sales reps speed dating with booksellers (similar to the speed pitching writers do to agents/editors at some conferences), and that coupled with my recent influx of magazines got me thinking about how books get into bookstores. 

Most writers know they need to sale their book to an agent or editor and to readers, but don’t realize there’s more to the selling process than that. Getting your book into stores can be a lot like getting your book published in the first place. Publishers have to give great pitches and hope someone takes this wonderful book they’ve produced. They have a book that they know is great, and they just have to convince the buyer to order it in good quantities. Also, the publisher gets to try and convince the buyer to feature the book in some way.

Sales and marketing spend a lot time building a rapport with buyers. Reps need to know what the buyers want and require, and buyers need to trust that when the reps say something is excellent it truly is.

Reps go into meetings armed with a couple different things. One is some sort of form that has all the basic information for a book (title, author name and bio, book description, price point, release date). Frequently they’ll bring in sales or market data to support their arguments. Covers, if already designed, are brought to the table. For some books, BLADS are made. BLAD stands for Basic Layout And Design. A BLAD is basically a 6-12 page pamphlet with the book cover and a sample of the interior. It gives buyers an idea of what the book is going to look like when it’s done. This is more important for nonfiction books, children’s books and graphic novels than adult fiction.

The sales reps use these tools and their knowledge of the market to convince buyers to order copies of the book, and to agree to promote it in some way.

My previous ignorance has gotten me thinking. What are some of the aspects of book publishing you didn’t even think about for ages? Or, what part of the mysterious process do you want to know more about? If I don’t know, I do know who to ask.

It never ceases to amaze me that no matter how many people read through a book before publication, things always slip through the cracks. For example, the address listed in NSSWM 2008 for the Southwest Writers Contests is correct, but the one for their conference is wrong. Thanks to Southwest Writers for letting us know.

Just to be clear, the address for Southwest Writers (the contests and conference) is 3721 Morris NE Ste A, Albuquerque NM 87111.

Mistakes like that can be maddening, even though we do everything we can to prevent them. I'm sure you've had the experience of discovering "they're" instead of "their" or "an" instead of "and" while reading. One of my favorite typos is in my dad's old edition of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonrider's of Pern (which I borrowed almost 15 years ago and he is never getting back), where the name of the main protagonist is spelled incorrectly. I remember reading that as a teenager and scoffing at the ineptitude of the editor who let that slip by. I decided I would become an editor and one day work on Anne McCaffrey's books, and I would NEVER be so careless as to let a typo like that get through.

Ah, the conceit of youth. I didn't realize then how much editors have to do in a day. Most editors are actively working on 3-7 books at a time (that's not including the ones in the early stages or already sent out to production), plus working on other things, like finding new books. An editor does a lot more than look for typos.

Anyway, it's not purely the editor's fault; the books don't just go through them. A basic editorial process has the manuscript go from the author to the editor, back to the author for any changes, returned to the editor, then on to the copy-editor, then to the editor again. Next the manuscript it passed to the book designer (to get the manuscript formatted), then back to the editor, sent out for proofs, back to the editor, and then to the editor's supervisor for final approval before getting sent to the printer. Of course, some presses and books have more, or less, editorial review than others, but you get the picture.

This isn't for excuse mistakes, because they're not fine to have, but just to show that no matter how diligent we are things are missed. Hopefully it's a rare thing.

I know we’ve all had a time when we looked at the cover for the latest novel in our favorite series and realized that the main character depicted on the cover doesn’t look like the character described in the book. How do these things happen? And who decides on the cover anyway?

Sometimes the development of cover art is a glorious thing that fills the author with glee, other times it's a tragedy over which they have no control. Science fiction author Tobias Buckell is so excited about his newest cover that he recently posted the progression of cover images for his book, The Sly Mongoose. In his case, Buckell sent his editor a scene that he thought would make good cover art. His editor forwarded the scene to the artist, and the series of sketches were made. Voila, we have a cover.

The process of designing a cover varies from publisher to publisher and across genres, but here’s a breakdown of how covers are developed.

First the art director or executive editor chooses an illustrator or designer. Some publishers work entirely in-house, while others have a list of freelance illustrators or use a combination of in-house and freelance work.  The author, editor, sales and marketing compiles a small packet of information detailing what the book is about (including a writing excerpt), the tone of the book and the basic feel they want for the cover and gives it to the illustrator/designer.

The designer goes away and comes up with a couple different options. The editorial team looks at the covers and decides which one they like best and make suggestions for improvement. The designer goes back and revises the chosen cover. Once the editorial team approves the cover, it is presented to a larger committee that includes sales and marketing personnel, who then give the final approval for the cover, or send the designer back once again for revisions.

Sometimes this process is very quick and the first design is perfect and few revisions are necessary, while other times the designer goes through 5-6 major revisions before finding a concept that works, and then the designer gets to fiddle with details for weeks.

The author usually gets to see the cover either just before or after the final approval. This is where the agony comes in. Sometimes the cover looks nothing like you expected. At this point, unless the cover is ridiculously off (there's a huge dog on the cover and no dog in the entire book), there's not much to be done and you just have to trust your publisher. Fortunetly, the Buckell experience of glee is much more common.

That's your basic “how covers are made.” One exception to this outline is when the illustrator/designer reads the whole book and works with the author to develop the cover before ever sending it on to editorial/sales/marketing. However, this generally happens when you work with the Stephen King or Margaret Atwood of cover art.

What are your experiences with the cover development process at your publisher? Does anyone have an experience where they hated the cover and then grew to love it?