I wanted to talk about success. Historically, (in the book business anyway), the success of a book was defined by the number of sales in its first few months. A title needed to come out strong having accumulated lots of pre-orders and a slew of publicity. The graph of sales over time peaked high and...
Category: Editorial
Post
On Publishing & Selling Poetry
Of late, the book selling industry is seeing some shifts in where the growth is, and happily the growth has been in independent bookstores! Central Avenue is a proud supporter of Binc (a charitable organization that supports booksellers) and I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many independent booksellers over the years. However, there have been...
Post
A Publisher’s View on Rejection
In January, Central Avenue opened up for poetry submissions from unagented writers. I’ve done this in the past and was able to bring in a handful of new-to-me and fantastic writers. So, with the view of making sure Central Avenue continues to publish great books, I did it again. I was completely overwhelmed with the...
Post
How Can We Support Writers – From The Publisher
Publishing books is a tough gig. It’s a roller coaster of Everest-highs of getting a bestseller to Marianas Trench-lows of variable cash flow or lost deals. I weather those ups and downs much better than when I first started, mainly because I now have so many books to worry about that my brain and heart...
Post
A Look at the Publishing Process – From the Publisher
In large companies, employees have pretty specific jobs: legal, sales, production, etc. In small businesses, there are just a few people who wear many hats, and we have to find a way to fit so many tasks into a week. The past year, I’ve been working with a few colleagues on some webinars designed to...
Post
2021 Was Our Best Year Yet – From the Publisher
As the year winds down, I want to take this opportunity to send out a few thank yous. I’ll keep it short: First, to all the authors and editors I get to work with. We published 15 books this year – a record for Central Avenue. I live vicariously through you and your talent. Second,...
Post
About Backlist and Bestsellers – From the Publisher
Recently I was speaking with a Central Avenue author who has written a bestselling book. I thanked them for what they’ve done. What did they do, you ask? Well, they enabled new authors to get published. It was a bit of a surreal experience for both the author and me. After all, we both know...
Post
Why Libraries are Important – From the Publisher
I sometimes get comments from authors who are surprised to learn that they make money when libraries support their books, so it made me think that perhaps I should spend a few hundred words talking about libraries. I’d like to preface this by first saying that I am not an expert on them — at...