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Wiscon 29 report - Day Four (final)
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Wiscon 29 Con Report
This entry is the final part of my Wiscon report. Check out the previous parts here: Day One, Day Two, Day Three (Part One), Day Three (Part Two).
Day Four - Monday, May 30
We got up bright and early to pack and check out of the hotel, then had breakfast at the hotel Cafe. For some reason they were starting to close down the buffet, so
we got in just in time. There was a panel I really wanted to go to, but I wasn't sure if we'd make it in time. As it turned out, we had about ten minutes to spare :)
The panel was one of the few scheduled for the Monday, since everyone is busy packing and bidding the convention farewell on the last day. We finally caught up with Jason before the panel and had a good chat. The title of the panel was "Small Press Publishing: How To Do It Right," and the panelists were Greg Ketter (Dreamhaven books), Jacob Weisman (Tachyon), Jason Erik Lundberg (Two Cranes), David Moles (All Star Stories), and Eric M. Heideman (Tales of the Unanticipated).
Greg has been a publisher and bookseller for about 20 years. He's seen all sorts of problems over the years and has pretty much figured out the right and wrong ways of doing things in the business. In his opinion, small presses have entered a renaissance period; print-on-demand (POD) has changed everything. He gets about 20 small presses a day trying to sell him books (!). He needs to consider the quality of the book, possibility of sales, good reviews, and so forth when making a buying decision.
Eric started a magazine called Tales of the Unanticipated and it's still going strong over 17 years later. The average submission quality has been going up steadily over the years. Greg talked a bit about Eric's magazine, holding it aloft for the audience to see. It looked like a high quality production, in contrast to the high quality fanzine appearance the magazine apparently had in its early days.
Jason started Two Cranes Press with a chapbook titled "Four Seasons in One Day." He's sold nearly all the copies of this, so get in quick if you'd like one! He, along with his wife, have recently put together an anthology with a cooking theme, entitled "Scattered, Covered, Smothered." The spiral-bound book contains a blend of stories and recipes, and looks just like a cook book. The original artwork for the cover was in the art show, and had sold even before we had a look on Saturday! This past March they've done a chapbook for Daniel Wallace (author of Big Fish), which has sold out as of this writing.
David was co-editor of All Star Zeppelin Adventure Stories. He talked about Deborah Layne at Wheatland Press and how that began in 2001/2002 with the first Polyphony anthology. That had an amazing line-up which gave it a lot of credibility. He then talked about how the zeppelin anthology came about. At the Toronto Worldcon, Jay Lake and Darrell Schweitzer were on a panel and made a joke about Spicy Zeppelin Stories (a pulp magazine which never existed, although there was one about zeppelins). David said he thought they should do it, and they got setup through Lightning Source (POD publisher) with David providing the funding. The zeppelin anthology is selling well and should pay for itself. It has a Howard Waldrop reprint, with the remaining content original to the anthology. Ben Rosenbaum's story even got on the Hugo ballot! Due out later this year (or early next) is another themed anthology, titled "Twenty Epics."
Greg talked about the business of running a small press. You need to treat it as a business even if you're not planning on making any money on it. Start with one book at a time, and be realistic! Build in all the costs, and be sure to make money on every book at wholesale (ie at the highest discount available: 55-65%). One of Jacob's distributors was in the audience and had a few things to say. His advice was to make sure the book comes out when you say it will, since bookstores only take books if they are new (ie they come out as announced). You're out of luck if you're late! Greg continued, saying how distributors have been known to collapse due to late books. A good question to ask a small press is "how are you getting your books into bookstores?" Distributors make it easier to get your book out there. He noted that the internet has changed things, with more books being sold direct; the situation is very dynamic. He dropped a few names he's published with his press, including R. A. Lafferty, Philip K. Dick, and Neil Gaiman.
Eric has been very busy. His website is his main distribution source, and he gets a lot of orders from out of state bookstores. He is a print-on-demand (POD) publisher. Greg said that most of the cost of POD is paying your authors up-front, although the price point tends to be high too. Jacob pointed out that if you're selling a few thousand copies, POD is more expensive than regular printing.
Jason's main method of distribution is going to cons and selling copies through his website. He said Jeff Vandermeer was a great help with pushing the anthology project. For Daniel Wallace's book they've organized a mini book tour! To give an idea of copies produced, the chapbook had a run of 100, the anthology was 230, and Daniel's book was 250 copies.
David talked a bit about Wheatland, saying they use Lightning Source (a POD publisher). This gets them an ISBN and the ability for bookstores to order copies. Deborah sells books at conventions, through the website and elsewhere. Amazon sales can make a big difference, and seem to work well for Wheatland. He quoted some advice from Gavin Grant (Small Beer Press): Don't publish crap!
Jacob directed the discussion toward marketing and publicity. Greg said SF was very nepotistic, involving schmoozing at cons, talking to fans and readers, and getting reviews and announcements in mags like Locus. Talking nicely to book stores and holding local events are also good ways to publicize. There's also a big book event in NY soon, where Small Beer Press will be, trying to sell to as many bookstores as possible. He suggests marketing to booksellers rather than readers, since marketing to the latter won't help much if few bookstores pick up your book.
An audience member talked about Big Engine (defunct UK publisher), and asked what causes some small presses to fail. Big Engine was ambitious, looking at publishing 12 books, but didn't end up publishing that many. Greg talked about small presses doing limited edition books, which are more like collectibles. He prefers books for readers rather than collectors. Apparently those limited editions don't sell very well sometimes. People just stop buying them at times; almost like a 'group mind' effect.
There were questions from the audience about subscriptions (to a series of books from a small press), and about selling to book clubs. Jacob said book clubs don't pay much, but they lead to sales you otherwise wouldn't have had. They typically sell more copies than the small press would, and they sell to a different audience.
Greg recently did a chapbook with Neil Gaiman, and sold 5000 copies. The next print run will be for 7000 copies. He talked about the pitfalls of getting into the big chain stores, and how it can bankrupt a small press through the weight of massive book returns. You need to start with a huge nest egg to deal with the chains. He said they put returns against sales. Jacob elaborated, saying the chains don't play fair, and will sometimes return books rather than pay. He mentioned a collection he published in 2000. A chain bought 1100 copies. He turned down endcaps (display at the ends of the shelves) due to expense. A month later they announced they were returning 900 books, but wouldn't return the rest until after Christmas! They also had a nasty policy of buying too many copies of small print-run books, returning them, and then buying them back as remainders at a greatly reduced rate. Greg said he gets nervous about the chains, although he is currently negotiating a deal with one for the Neil Gaiman book.
An audience member talked about distribution, saying his distributor has a lead time of 6 months. Jacob said that is not unreasonable--he has finished acquiring books for Fall 2006. He also mentioned being full-time on Tachyon books (his small press). Greg said it is hard to make a living with a small press only doing it part-time. David said that everything takes 5 times longer than you expect, and the other panelists said this is normal with every single book!
The panelists then moved onto other considerations. Jacob said their (Tachyon) copyediting has gotten a lot better over the last few years. David mentioned paying a professional to copyedit the zeppelin book. Jacob said there's a huge difference between someone who reads a lot of books and a professional copyeditor. David suggested that if you're not very good at graphic design, hire someone! Greg said that good design is important, and he doesn't stint on cover art. Someone in the audience said that the best place to learn more is to speak to some small press publishers.
A new writer in the audience asked about small press for first novels, and David said "Don't!" He advised getting an agent. Jacob said to be very careful about trying to get a novel done through the small press. The panelists mentioned Small Beer Press was a good small press. The panelists agreed that getting a first collection of short stories published through a small press probably couldn't hurt.
An audience member asked about reference sources. David said the Speculative Literature Foundation has some good information available online. Someone else suggested the Publishers Marketing Association as another good source of information. Jacob wrapped up the panel with a closing statement: Have a vision of what you are doing, rather than attempting to emulate other small presses.
I found this panel to be full of practical advice which would be especially useful to someone considering starting a small press. The audience interaction was positive this time around, unlike that previous panel!
We hung around for the Sign Out event, where authors in attendance do book signings. This seems like a good way of preventing authors from having to dodge autograph seekers throughout the duration of the convention. Robin McKinley signed the book Carrie picked up from the dealer's room earlier, and then we departed for the parking garage. And so ended another Wiscon. Like last year it seemed to end far too soon, and already I'm looking forward to next year's event! I hope you enjoyed these reports, and thanks for reading!
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