AUTHORS GUILD Summer 2017 BULLETIN
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AUTHORS GUILD Summer 2017 BULLETIN The ABCs of Self Publishing and Self-Promotion: A Book, a Strategy and a Platform Symposium: What Every Writer Needs to Know About Defamation New Authors Guild President James Gleick Wants to Know What’s on Your Mind Exiles and Artists, Literature and Migration How Much Is the Backlist Worth? by Richard Russo ack in November, my daughter Emily and her business partner opened a bookstore called Print, Bin Port land, Maine, where we live. It was an enor- mous undertaking — finding the right location, getting a small business loan, hiring a store designer, doing a build-out, ordering fixtures, installing the custom- built shelves — all of which had to be done before we could address the business of the books themselves. Photo © Elena Seibert But eventually they started arriving, the backlist, hun- (and dollars) into deep backlist because they know dreds of boxes containing thousands of books. It was these books are economically viable.” a daunting sight, inventory piled so high that we had Publishers understand, too. Many offer incentives trouble navigating the stacks. The books themselves to promote their deep backlist because they know, came utterly disorganized, history mixed with science as Burton says, that “often all it takes is the smallest fiction mixed with children’s books mixed with cook- nudge for older titles to return to the market in a big books. way.” Even without incentives, many backlist titles Immediately put in charge of unskilled labor (that is, in charge of myself), I spent whole days breaking down cardboard boxes, bagging bubble wrap and cart- ing it all off to the dump. It took six people nearly a “The backlist is at the heart of any week to get all these books shelved properly. Allow me to repeat: this was the backlist — that is, not this sea- indie bookstore’s success.” son’s books. Some of them were published a year or two ago, some a decade ago, some 50 years ago, and — Oren Teicher, the American others much, much longer ago. In other words, the Booksellers Association very books Google and some academic writers have argued are of so little economic value that they should be made available to the public for free. If they are right, what a bunch of damned fools we were for wast- unexpectedly surge in ways that can perhaps only be ing our time on what we might as well give away, like explained by chaos theory. “Without backlist,” says bookmarks. But of course they aren’t right, and they Annie Philbrick of Bank Square Books and Savoy know it. Bookshop & Café, “our shops would look more like So do indie booksellers. According to Oren Teicher, brick-and-mortar Amazon stores displaying only CEO of the American Booksellers Association, “the front-list titles, shelved face-out.” backlist is at the heart of any indie bookstore’s suc- Yeah, okay, but what about Amazon the e-tailer, cess.” Store owners I’ve spoken to say that backlist you ask? Do they think there’s money in the backlist? titles account for anywhere from 25 to a whopping 50 Well, Amazon rarely discusses numbers (or anything percent of their sales. Moreover, the segment is grow- else) but Jeff Bezos is a numbers guy, and if there’s ing. According to Betsy Burton of The King’s English little economic value in a book after a year or two, as Bookshop in Salt Lake City, “independent bookstores Mr. Darnton has suggested, then why did the Amazon all over the country are putting more and more effort CEO go to such lengths to corner that particular mar- ket? Could it be that he knows what Mitch Kaplan, This article was written in response to an article in the Octo- owner of Books & Books, a chain of indie bookstores in ber 27, 2016, issue of The New York Review of Books, Florida, knows — that “without backlist the entire pub- “The New Hillary Library?” by Robert Darnton. The article lishing industry would collapse”? appeared on medium.com February 2 and on the Authors Guild website. Continued on page 49 AUTHORS GUILD BULLETIN 2 SUmmER 2017 S UMMER 2017 THE AUTHORS GUILD BULLETIN ARTICLES President James Gleick How Much Is the Backlist Worth? ....................................... 2 Executive Director By Richard Russo Mary Rasenberger Advocacy News ............................................................. 9 Editor Martha Fay A Bill That Matters ....................................................... 11 By Mary Rasenberger Assistant Editor Nicole Vazquez The Enemy Within ....................................................... 13 Staff Writer By Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Ryan Fox The Authors Guild Guide to E-Publishing Copy Editors By Jane Friedman Heather Rodino Hallie Einhorn Chapter 2: The Book Publishing Service Landscape ............. 15 Bonus: A Definition of Author Platform ........................... 21 All non-staff contributors to the Bulletin retain copyright to the Annual Meeting .......................................................... 23 articles that appear in these pages. Guild members seeking The Guild Honors Toni Morrison, James Patterson information on contributors’ and IngramSpark at AG Foundation Gala ............................ 29 other publications are invited to contact the Guild office. Symposium Published by: When Is It Defamation? Legal Issues for Nonfiction Authors .. 31 The Authors Guild, Inc. Literature and Migration ................................................ 41 31 East 32nd Street By Umair Kazi 7th Floor New York, NY 10016 Supporters of the Authors Guild Foundation ........................ 60 The Bulletin was first published Why Is It So Goddamned Hard to Make a Living in 1912 as The Authors League News letter. as a Writer Today? ........................................................ 63 By Douglas Preston DEPARTMENTS OVERHEARD Short Takes ................................................................... 4 “Here’s the problem of every From the President .......................................................... 6 storyteller — to make sense From the Home Office ...................................................... 7 of the chaos, to gather all the Legal Watch ................................................................ 47 plot strands into dramatic Members Make News .................................................... 54 unity. To figure out the end- In Memoriam .............................................................. 56 ing, no matter what the plot throws at you. All those shift- Books by Members ........................................................ 57 ing, jostling you’s, and all their lessons.’” ABOUT THE COVER ARTIST — Colson Whitehead, Kevin Sanchez Walsh is a freelance artist and longtime contributor to the in a commencement Bulletin. He can be reached at [email protected]. address at Con nect- icut College, May 21, 2017 Copyright © 2017 The Authors Guild, Inc. AUTHORS GUILD BULLETIN 3 SUmmER 2017 vote more resources to preventing notes that “one of the biggest issues SHORT TAKES and addressing the problem. The is who should carry the burden of University of Chicago’s Journal of protecting copyrighted works — Absence of Oxford Comma Law and Economics has released government, the firms selling the Worth $10 Million in a study examining how this af- works, or other firms (for example, Overtime Pay fects the bottom line: Does putting private firms, Internet service pro- money into anti-piracy efforts yield viders, or search engines).” The Milk transportation made national more profit for the publisher? book publishing industry employs news in March after a lawsuit filed As Digital Book World reports, private companies, an investment by drivers for Maine’s Oakhurst RosettaBooks in particular has seen that appears to be well worth the Dairy was decided by a missing “double-digit growth” since “de- price; while the publishers and dis- Oxford comma. The dairy drivers ploying Digimarc’s Guardian con- tributors bear the cost, they also reap argued that overtime pay should tent protection solutions” to stop the benefits of increased book sales, apply to both driving and distribut- pirates from distributing their ti- do not have to pay for legal action ing dairy products; their employers tles. Digimarc Guardian, one of the in the courts and avoid any political argued that overtime applied only largest anti-piracy services, is also controversy surrounding “legisla- to driving hours. used by HarperCollins, Simon & tive efforts” to prevent piracy. The heart of the disagreement Schuster, Penguin Random House can be found in Maine’s labor guide- and other publishers. lines, which state that the following Bertelsmann Likely to Digimarc Guardian marks e- activities do not count for overtime: Become Full Owner of books with “imperceptible and The canning, processing, pre traceable digital watermarks,” al- Penguin Random House serving, freezing, drying, mar lowing e-books to be tracked online. In January, The Wall Street Journal keting, storing, packing for With the information provided by reported that the German media shipment or distribution of: Digimarc, which constantly scans giant Bertelsmann SE was negoti- 1. Agricultural produce; the web in search of the water- ating with Pearson PLC to buy the 2. Meat and fish product; and marks, publishers learn about illegal remaining 47 percent of Penguin 3. Perishable foods distribution when — and where — it Random House that Bertelsmann happens. As Digital Book World doesn’t already own. According U.S. Court of Appeals for the points out, this also “helps publish- to the WSJ, Pearson “faces collaps- First Circuit