Monday 6 February 2012

Beverley Birch - Blog View from my Desk January 2012

Beverley Birch is friend and mentor to many slushpilers and published authors alike. Beverley is a senior commissioning editor for Hachette Children's Books and three times nominated Brandford Boase editor. She is a writer of more than 40 books including novels, picture books, biographies and retellings of classic works. Her novel, 'Rift' came out in 2006 and you know you are in the hands of a true storyteller when you read the very first page.

I’m often asked what I think of the ‘state of publishing’. It all depends on whose prism I’m peering through. More than ever publishing seems divided into the pessimistic and the optimistic - gloom and a mourning of lost times on the one hand, promise and widening opportunity – e-technology and the ease of linking with readers through social media – on the other.

The view from my desk is coloured by the fact that the editorial and commissioning landscape is by its nature long-term – the book I acquire now will reach its readers in a year or more. The first-time writer I begin to support now will reach their writing maturity after several books – and not necessarily in one judged commercially successful, though it may be wonderful for a reader. 

Other sectors of publishing – sales including international rights sales, marketing, publicity, are dealing with the finished object and its immediate reception in bookshops, libraries and partner publishers, by reviewers and readers. It’s a capricious landscape seamed with successes and failures of the moment.

publishing - a tricky path to navigate
 By contrast a commissioning editor has to have a steady nerve and a long view. If I think something is good, just because it doesn’t break through commercially or doesn’t get picked up for prizes, the book hasn’t changed. It’s still the book I believed in – the writer is still the writer I thought worth backing. You keep hold of the qualities you admire, navigate the shifting currents of commercial success and failure while staying true to your own conception of a good book. Not easy in the current climate, and all too easy to veer into the pessimistic camp ...
talking of lost tales...

So, firstly, the bleak bit:

And that’s about how incredibly difficult it is, and getting worse, to get a book – however good, however much everyone believes in it – through to its readers. A whole host of hurdles are in the way – conditioned not by the content or quality of the book, but by the economic models and sales targets of publishing and bookselling of today. It has of course always been like that, but the goalposts for any one individual book have moved. Manuscripts at acquisition are judged by whether they are likely to ‘pay for themselves ‘- achieve individual sales targets that justify publishing them, and then by whether they have – in those terms – succeeded or not. There is little room for the book predicted to have modest sales, but which simply deserves to be published because it is so good – and fighting for that kind of book can be dispiriting.

There’s nothing new in the fact that a story requiring sustained commitment from a young reader, yet rewarding and enriching if the reader sticks with it – will not sell as many as one that offers instant gratification and can be swiftly enjoyed by the less committed youngster. 

Does that mean that the first book should not be published? Sadly, the answer is that these days it usually won’t be – because it won’t (defined by target sales) ‘work’ for the publisher. Yet authors (and editors) who have contact with youngsters in reading groups at school and library know that readers of book A exist: they’re borrowers not necessarily buyers – an impossible conundrum for publishers facing a library and school sector turning away from investment in books. Yet the readers are there and, if given access to forums or to authors, will discuss books enthusiastically and intelligently, reflecting their hunger for them.

Long gone are the days when the sure-fire commercial big-hitters supported the commissioning of books we just loved and felt should be made available to young readers, but which would always net a smaller readership.

The questions now are: will the book/author be promoted by the major high street booksellers, by supermarkets, is the ‘the hook’ good enough? Windows of opportunity flung open initially in the high street get slammed shut in the blink of an eye if a book doesn’t achieve early recognition – no time for its readership to grow. Survival of books (publication, then maintenance in print) is skewed by raw sales results.
sales results don't tell the whole story

Though ebooks is changing that, allowing books to remain available well beyond a print life – that is part of the optimistic view. Add affordable Print-on-demand, into the mix – and it’s the best of both worlds.

And what about the chance for authors to reach out to their readership unhindered by their relative importance or unimportance in their publishers marketing and publicity priorities – the freedoms social networks offer to authors large and small in profile. It’s an inevitable fact that publishers can only focus on publication – and then they move on to the books in the next publication round. In very real ways, the author can support now through the entire life of a book – and keep it alive, keep readers interested in it. That’s most definitely good ….

Juliet Clare Bell with a happy audience for 'Don't Panic, Annika!'

And children are reading, are reflecting their interest in story and story-making (ShoutAbout! online creative writing magazine very recently launched by CWISL – Children’s Writers and Illustrators in South London, has had a steady building of young visitors to the site and submission of new work by them.) And that’s one initiative among many providing evidence that kids are interested in story, in creativity, in story-making – a powerful route to literacy, and reading.

And there are some brilliant books being published, from fine established writers and debut authors alike. When you take the long view – and to borrow from Julia Eccleshare when she introduced the Branford Boase Award in 2011 – if that shortlist was anything to go by, writing and publishing for children is actually in very good shape. And that reflects that everywhere there are writers writing and editors supporting books they love, regardless of how hard it is. We don’t give up, do we? 

So in the end, I suppose I’ve stepped decisively into the optimist’s camp …

22 comments :

  1. A sobering and thought provoking post. The goal posts have unquestionably shifted in terms of "traditional publishing", but, at the same time, new opportunities have opened. The landscape is changing, but the game remains the same, and like Beverley, I remain optimistic.
    Thanks for a great post.

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  2. Thank you for such a timely post! How to reach our audience was the subject of the moment in writers and illustrators intensives in the huge SCBWI winter conference in New York. Many US publishers are admitting that they are much more likely to take on authors who show that they can and will promote their own books.

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    1. ... and more and more authors are showing that they are willing to do it. So many authors have started up blogs, are tweeting and doing all the necessaries. But how does one stand out now that everyone's on the ball? Ah ...

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  3. Many thanks, Beverley. You're right - we don't give up do we.

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  4. Change is always hard, and its nice to have the bright spots pointed out. Thanks for the post!

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  5. It's a twisted circle of cause and effect isn't it? Authors languishing on the slushpile bemoan the commercial shortsightedness of the publishers ... and publishers despair at declining book buying by schools and libraries. Technology is definitely not the enemy. We need a united front to promote reading over-all. Thank you for this, Beverley.

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  6. I love Beverley's quiet, realistic optimism - I think it's a reflection of why we all keep at it. Yes it's a struggle, but new authors do break through, great books are getting out there - disheartening as it is to hear no, no, no we know that people will always love stories. The good ones will make it somehow and just daydreaming about a Branford Boase nomination can keep us going until we get there.
    Thanks Beverley.

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    1. It's also a case of what else do we do? Writing for children is our world and I can't think of a better place to live. We keep carrying on.

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  7. Thanks for this Beverley (plus all your help and advice to so many) and to the slushies for bringing it to us. And Candy, how right you are - blogs, tweets, FB fanpages. How to differentiate indeed?

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  8. So long as there is a hunger to read and read widely as possible in whatever form, authors mustn't lose hope!

    I'm all for the optimistic camp too!

    Thanks for a most sobering look into publishing - it's hard but writers carry on with equal passion!!
    Take care
    x

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  9. Thanks Beverley for your insightful comments. I also remain optimistic. Surely great stories will survive even if they are no longer printed on paper.

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  10. As an author I'm finding the whole 'state of the industry' exciting. and I have both feet firmly planted in the optimist's camp. I'm optimistic that good stories will find their way to the children in one form or another. Thanks Beverley.

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  11. I would like to add a personal thanks to all the above. Beverly was hugely supportive of my Dougal Trump books and I kept that in mind during the ups and downs of trying to get him onto the bookshelves. I'm SO happy to announce that he will have his day at last - his first will be published by Macmillan in July. Thank you for believing in him, Beverley!!

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    1. Well deserved ... it's never been 'if' with you Jackie, but 'when' - congratulations again!

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  12. As David Almond put it, ‘Stay calm. Write. One day, the right person at the right moment…’

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  13. I think one of the challenges of digital publishing at the moment is the knowledge that it will transform the marketplace, but not really knowing how. And I say this as someone out there at the coalface, trying to design apps that can satisfy existing print audiences and hook in people who are not traditional readers.

    In fiction terms, I like the challenge of trying to write something eye-catching. I'd argue that differentiating our blogs, Twitter feeds etc. relies on exactly the same principles of "doing it differently."

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    1. Agree! I really think publishers should be careful about urging ALL their authors to blog or tweet ... marketing and publicity departments don't need bandwagons - they need new Big Ideas.

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  14. Thanks Beverley for your gentle reassuring optimism. I think the combination of shifting goal posts for 'traditional publishing' and not really knowing how digital publishing will pan out in the future makes things feel very scary - and when we're scared, it's easy to run for cover at the very time we need to stay most positive.

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  15. Like those busy little mammals in the Jurassic, we've got to adapt & survive. Thank you for the post, Beverley.

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  16. Thanks for this Beverly, inspirational :o))

    Agree with Candy, it's the big ideas that are important not just switching on the Twitter/blog/Facebook formula

    Also, maybe it's about thinking outside the book sometimes.

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  17. Thanks Beverley! A very interesting and sobering post.

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  18. Grounded and pragmatic, but, as usual, hugely inspirational. Many thanks, Beverley.

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