The business behind book publishing
Ever wonder why it takes so long for a book to get published, even though the author finished writing it a year beforehand? This essay by Rachel Donadio in the New York Times offers an interesting view of why this process is so long. In short, it's the time it takes a publisher to market the book -- in other words the business aspect of the publishing industry. From the article:
"Although publishers can turn an electronic file into a printed book in a matter of weeks -- as they often do for hot political titles, name-brand authors or embargoed celebrity biographies likely to be leaked to the press -- they usually take a year before releasing a book. Why so long? In a word, marketing.
"As soon as a literary agent has sold a publisher a book, and even before it's edited, copy-edited, proofread and indexed, the publicity wheels start turning. While writers bite their nails, the book editor tries to persuade the in-house sales representatives to get excited about the book, the sales representatives try to persuade retail buyers to get excited, and the retail buyers decide how many copies to buy and whether to feature the book in a prominent front-of-the-store display, for which publishers pay dearly. In the meantime, the publisher's publicity department tries to persuade magazine editors and television producers to feature the book or its author around the publication date, often giving elaborate lunches and parties months in advance to drum up interest.
"Like movie studios jockeying over opening dates to score huge first-weekend box office numbers, publishers often change publication dates to avoid competition for reader attention and marketing buzz. The publishers of Stephen King, John Grisham and James Patterson don't want their books appearing at the same time, since all three hope to make No. 1 on the best-seller list."
Contributed by Aaron Bowen