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Book publishing industry: Inside the sausage factory

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This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Publisher Richard Nash, who has embraced Web 2.0 (he blogs, he twitters), is guest blogging at writer Jeff VanderMeer’s site Ecstatic Days. He kicked things off by saying that publishers don’t respect readers much. He cranks open the door so we can get a peek into the goings-on in the publishing sausage factory:

there is a real tendency in our business to treat the customer as this perverse, mysterious, gullible, arrogant, narrow-minded, slightly thick, imperceptive lug. We largely talk down to him, dumb down for her, expect the least, fear the worst, and generally leave it up to the retailer to figure out how to reach him or her — we’ll get the book onto their shelves, we’ll pay them some payola, and then it’s their problem.

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Which is pretty harsh, but is it unique? Seems to me that it’s a rare advertisement that targets us as perceptive and sharp. Richard’s solution is to deal more directly with the reader; as an example, he points to a prospective, unorthodox book jacket design. He wondered if people would get it, so he asked them.

I thought the book cover was clever, but I didn’t e-mail him. And imagine if you never saw that Velvet Underground and Nico album that it was playing off of — would you bother to respond? Would you want to expose yourself as someone who finds the cover confusing, indecipherable, offensive? Sounds like those people (if there were any) kept mum.

I was relieved to learn I wasn’t crazy, that the unorthodox cover worked, but once that relief wore off, I started to realize that far more reader interactions like that are necessary.... I’m sure most folks don’t want to see inside the sausage factory, but... if we expect y’all to eat our damn sausages, we’re going to have to spend more time with you guys figuring out how best to make them.

On the one hand, I’m encouraged that a publisher wants to open up a dialog with readers. On the other, I’m not sure how effective focus groups really are. I would like to think it’s possible to treat the reading customer as smart and accessible, humble and perceptive, an open-minded wit — without having to ask him or her. Seems like Nash’s instinct was right about the cover all along.

— Carolyn Kellogg

photo by Kevin Marks via Flickr

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