A few weeks ago I was contacted by a magazine whose target readership is independent publishers much like Central Avenue. They were writing an article on generative AI and its applications in publishing. As someone who uses it for work, I shared my thoughts with them, and the article should come out later this summer....
Category: Editorial
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Finding That Energy
It’s already been a month since 2023 got started? Wow, the time has just flown. Well, Happy New Year and Happy Year of the Rabbit! Last week, I got to sit in on a 2022 recap by NPD, a market research firm that runs Bookscan, the tool used by the publishing industry to measure book...
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The Paths to Success Are All Different
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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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,...
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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...
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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...