PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION
Strategies for Identifying Potential Library Journals
Strategies for Identifying Potential Library Journals
Research and publishing in library and information science (LIS) contribute to the profession. As such, publishing in LIS journals offers one avenue for library practitioners to share results and experiences that both enhance and contribute to our collective wisdom. In addition, getting published facilitates the sharing of new discoveries, leads to personal growth, and is an excellent way to establish a professional identity.
However, identifying potential LIS journals for publication can be one challenge that librarians encounter. Therefore, the aim of this article is to provide practical suggestions for identifying potential journals for library practitioners to get their work published. Furthermore, the importance of following submission guidelines is also discussed.
Early on, considering the audience for which one will write and how the work fits into a larger context are essential dimensions of preparing a manuscript for publication. Setting the stage involves thinking about the topic and identifying your desired readers before preparing the manuscript itself. The next step is to determine the best way to reach this audience. For example, ascertain whether an editorial, review, how-to, best-practices, or research article is a suitable fit.
Conducting a review of the literature is a crucial step for determining how the proposed work fits into a larger context. By performing a review of the literature, one will be able to determine what work has already been done. Overall, conducting a literature review is instrumental to learning what has already been published and to effectively demonstrating how one’s work contributes to the body of literature.
The key to finding potential LIS journals is to ascertain which journals are the best fit for the proposed article. Key factors involved in the decision to publish a paper include “whether the paper has an original idea worth publishing and whether the journals’ readers would want to read it” (LaBorie 1984, 58). Therefore, one useful strategy to help identify potential journals is to examine recent journal issues that have covered related topics. An easy way to accomplish this is to browse journal tables of contents on the World Wide Web.
Another technique for identifying possible journals is to register for tables of contents to be delivered automatically via e-mail or RSS and then to scan them to gain a better sense of the content and scope of a particular journal. Various publishers of LIS journals offer free electronic delivery of tables of contents, including Sage, Elsevier, and Haworth Press. In addition, the previous literature review will help to determine which journals have published articles on similar topical issues. Learning what types of articles a journal publishes, such as review articles or original research, is also important. Often this information can be gleaned in the submission guidelines or directly obtained from the publisher’s website.
Another strategy for identifying potential LIS journals for publication is to contact the editor of a particular journal. This time-saving approach is highly recommended, and editors often prefer it. This approach ensures that one’s article is appropriate for the journal and allows an editor to offer suggestions for further improvement. Furthermore, several print publications provide acceptance rates for individual journals, such as Cabell’s Directory of Publishing Opportunities in Educational Technology and Library Science (Cabell and English 2007) or Guide to Publishing Opportunities for Librarians (Schroeder and Roberson 1995).
Moreover, academic librarians and LIS faculty are often required to publish in peer-reviewed journals for promotion or tenure. To find out whether an article submission is subject to editorial peer review, check Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory. Other alternatives are to consult the journal’s front matter, review the submission guidelines, or visit a publisher’s website. Moreover, determining the reputation of a journal also requires some investigation. One resource to consult is ISI’s Journal Citation Reports for the journal’s impact factor, which is commonly considered an indication of a journal’s prestige. Asking colleagues for recommendations is another idea.
Attention to detail by carefully following the precise journal submission guidelines is paramount for publication success. Failure to follow the instructions can result in delays in the review of a submission or even rejection. In addition, adherence to standard grammar, writing style, and appropriate citation methods is of chief importance. The Online Writing Lab at Purdue University offers a nice collection of online style guides for formatting manuscripts (http://owl.english.purdue.edu).
Proofreading is an important part of the writing process. The value of getting feedback before submitting an article to a journal cannot be emphasized enough, and you are strongly encouraged to have a peer colleague review a draft for clarity and provide criticism. Finally, keep in mind that it is common practice to submit the article to only one journal at a time.
In summary, there are many exciting opportunities for research and publishing in library and information science. According to Brown and colleagues (2002, 18), publishing can be viewed as “a matter of determination, perseverance, and communication.” Identifying potential LIS journals for publication entails selecting desired readers and finding a good match for the proposed topic. In addition, contacting the editor is a helpful strategy to ensure that the work is relevant to a particular journal and audience. Furthermore, carefully following the submission guidelines and having a colleague proofread the article for clarity and cohesiveness are also important steps of the writing process. Overall, identifying appropriate LIS journals for publication increases the likelihood of success and can lead to a creative and exhilarating experience.
Brown, Ladd, Jeff Bullington, Cindy Hepfer, Wayne Jones, and Robb M. Waltner. 2002. “Getting Published: Surviving in a ‘Write Stuff or They Will Fire You’ Environment.” Serials Librarian 42 (1/2): 13–18.
Cabell, David W. E., and Deborah L. English. 2007. Cabell’s Directory of Publishing Opportunities in Educational Technology and Library Science. Beaumont, TX: Cabell Publishing.
LaBorie, Tim. 1984. “Publishing in Library Journals.” Serials Librarian 8 (3): 55–61.
Schroeder, Carol F., and Gloria G. Roberson. 1995. Guide to Publishing Opportunities for Librarians. New York: Haworth Press.
If your goal is publication of a book-length work, chances are you’ll need a literary agent. A literary agent helps an author navigate the stormy seas of the publishing industry, and, for many publishers, working with an agent is a required stepping-stone to publication. Fortunately, with a lot of hard work—and some luck—you can enlist the help of an agent to further your writing career.
The first step in securing an agent is to have a good, marketable piece of work, whether this means the next great American novel or a guide to American Idol. In my case, I worked with two other writers to create an anthology of stories and recipes called Let Them Eat Crêpes. After some basic market research, we were pretty sure we had a solid, unique concept, and we set to work.
I think of literary agents a little like real estate agents; they help bring sellers (the writers) and buyers (the publishing houses) together, and they get to take home a little piece of the pie for their trouble. Of course, the difference is that the book industry is definitely a buyers’ market. Imagine if your real estate agent took one look at your house and refused to work with you!
One rule that almost every agent will tell you is not to look for an agent until your work is the very best it can be. Is your novel your best work? Is your book proposal watertight? Have you had multiple readers, dozens of drafts, and a couple of breakdowns? Then you’re probably ready to seek out an agent. Agents are looking for work that is ready— now—to be sold to a publisher.
For fiction, you need to have a completed novel that is carefully edited and vetted. Agents and publishers will not generally sell an unfinished novel. For nonfiction, you will either need to have a finished book or a solid book proposal.
Librarians have an advantage when it comes to writing stellar book proposals. With our research skills and ease with information seeking, we can find statistics, comparable books, and data that might be difficult for other writers to find. There are many resources that will help you write a nonfiction book proposal. My two coauthors and I used samples from the Web and Jeff Herman and Deborah Adams’s Write the Perfect Book Proposal (1993) to write the proposal for our anthology. We set up a website for our project and did a lot of research and work to create the best book proposal we could.
After your piece is in the best shape it can be, it’s time to look for an agent. There are many resources both print and online to help you in your search. We relied mainly on Writer’s Market (2009) and the online Publishers Marketplace (www.publishersmarketplace.com) listings. Literary Market Place (2009) and Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, and Literary Agents (2009) are other resources to try. You can also find agents by looking at the acknowledgments page in books similar to yours, as authors generally thank their agents and editors.
As you look for agents to whom you might send your work, you will need to learn a little about each one. What kind of track record does he have? How many books has she sold and to whom? Does he represent the kind of material you’ve written? You can find out a lot about most agents through basic Google searches, and there are many blogs and websites that track agents. Because my coauthors and I had written a food-related book, we looked at agents who specialized in nonfiction, food writing, and anthologies. Querying the wrong kind of agents is a waste of your time and theirs.
Once you’ve identified a list of agents, a query is your first contact with an agent. This is generally an enticing letter or e-mail that lets them know how great your project is and why you are the one to write it. There are many resources that will help you write a good query. Look through the books listed herein and your own library’s collection to find samples of good query letters.
If you’re lucky, one or more agents will respond favorably to your query. If their needs, the market, and your project align, an agent may ask to see either more of your work (for fiction) or a proposal (for nonfiction). For Let Them Eat Crêpes, we found an agent who was fairly new but had sold a food-related book to Simon and Schuster. When we got the e-mail asking to see our book proposal, we were thrilled.
Because we had our proposal ready to go, we rushed to the copy shop and had a professional color copy printed. We sent it through regular mail in a standard business envelope—we also enclosed that vital SASE (self-addressed, stamped envelope). Agents are often particular about how they want to receive your material. Some of them want manuscripts stapled, some don’t; some want a hard copy, others an electronic version. It can’t hurt to follow their instructions to a T. If the agent is particularly interested, he or she may ask for an “exclusive,” meaning that the agent expects to have your manuscript to him- or herself until a decision is made. During this time, you should refrain from sending your manuscript out to other agents or publishers.
The vast majority of the publishing industry is located in New York City. However, we happened to have garnered the interest of a local agent (we live in Minnesota). This was entirely by chance, but it meant that we were able to meet with her in person. Most of the time, this kind of face-to-face meeting isn’t necessary or possible, although it can help both parties make a decision about representation. The two other writers and I met the agent at a coffee shop and were happy to find her to be friendly, knowledgeable, and—most important—interested in our project.
Not every response from agents will be positive, of course. Many will not respond at all; most will send generic notes or e-mail. One agent said no one would be interested in our topic, but our agent clearly thinks differently. The book industry is such a subjective one that it’s impossible to know for sure what kinds of topics or projects will interest an agent.
Once you have an agent interested in representing you, you and the agent will need an agent agreement. Most agents have a standard agreement that lays out the details of this business arrangement. Agents typically take 15 percent and 20 percent on foreign sales. The agent agreement is a binding legal contract and is an exciting step in the process.
Signing with an agent, though, doesn’t mean that the work is over. After signing with our agent, we then set to work revising our proposal. Even though we had researched book proposals, our agent was able to help us tailor our book proposal for the market reality. We trust her to help us produce the best possible book proposal; after all, we all want to make a sale.
Having an agent is only one step in the long march toward publication. An agent may or may not be able to sell your work, may not have the contacts necessary, or may have misjudged your work and the market, or your project may not meet the needs of the publishers.
In any case, we’re hoping that Let Them Eat Crêpes will soon be on bookstore shelves. The publishing industry, as librarians know, is unpredictable and changeable, but with luck and a lot of work, you can find success.
Herman, Jeff. 2009. Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, and Literary Agents: Who They Are! What They Want! and How to Win Them Over! 19th ed. Stockbridge, MA: Three Dog Press. (Annual publication.)
Herman, Jeff, and Deborah M. Adams. 1993. Write the Perfect Book Proposal: 10 That Sold and Why. New York: John Wiley.
Brewer, Robert Lee, ed. 2009. Writer’s Market. Cincinnati, OH: F&W Publications. (Annual publication.)
Literary Market Place. 2009. New Providence, NJ: R. R. Bowker. (Annual publication.)
You’ve been there: a contact at another organization has promised to follow up with information to answer a patron’s reference request, but you wait and wait and wait for the reply. Or you receive a request that your library purchase a specific item. You submit the order, then have to wait for the item to come in.
Following up on requests is par for the course in a library. Whether you’re dealing with patrons, vendors, or others in the field, it’s crucial that you know how and when to send off a subtle, or not-so-subtle, reminder.
The publishing world is no different, and the rule of the road is often “hurry up and wait.” That said, publishing is a business like any other, and it’s important to exercise your right to know about the status of your submission. This chapter will show you a simple method of tracking your submissions and will offer tips on when and how to follow up on your work.
There are a number of ways to track your submissions, but I’ve found a simple spreadsheet works best. The one I use combines two different spreadsheets described in Starting Your Career as a Freelance Writer by Moira Anderson Allen (2003). I create my spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel, but with a little modification, you could create this design in a table in Microsoft Word or even in a ledger book. Experiment to see which method works best for you.
Each submission should have its own row (horizontal line). The columns (vertical lines) record the following information:
Title of piece. An example would be “Tracking Your Submissions.”
Title of publication. In this case, Writing and Publishing. This column comes second, so if an article is rejected, you can simply insert a second row under its initial entry and record the new publication information. This way you keep all of the submissions for a single article together.
Action. Record here all of the activity that occurs for a submission. Actions would include submitting to a publication, receiving a rejection or acceptance, following up with an editor, or getting a check. This column can be repeated as many times as needed. In my spreadsheet, I have three separate columns all labeled “Action,” so I can keep a chronological record of what has happened. If I need more than three columns for a submission, I just add a new row directly below and keep recording actions.
Date. This column works hand in hand with the Action column. For each action, make note of the date on which it happened. Again, this column is repeatable.
Payment and compensation. For scholarly works, expect to be paid in complimentary copies and record those here. For essays and short stories written outside the scholarly world, record the dollar amount.
Notes. It may not sound like it, but this column is extremely important. Here record such comments as “Will hear back by January 15” or “Article due September 21.” It’s vital that you record when you’ll hear back about a piece. You can find out this information from a publication’s submission guidelines, which usually say something like “Responds in four to six weeks.” If you submit an article on May 1, six weeks means that you should receive a reply by June 12. Highlight that date on the spreadsheet in an eye-catching color (yellow works well). If you haven’t heard back by then, follow up.
Because most publications don’t accept simultaneous submissions (meaning you can submit a piece to only one place at a time), you need a response from one publication before you can move on to the next one on your list. Of course, if you’re being paid for your work, it’s very important to make sure you are paid on time. So what do you do if the expected date has passed without a check or a response?
Send a polite e-mail (or letter, if you submitted by snail mail) to the editor to whom you first submitted your story. Make it short and sweet:
Dear Mr./Ms. Editor’s Last Name:
I submitted a short story, “Name of Story,” on such-and-such a date. Because X amount of time has passed and I have not heard back, I am inquiring about the status of my submission. Please let me know when I might expect a decision.
Sincerely,
[your signature block with contact information]
Generally, this contact is enough to elicit a response. The editor will tell you when you can expect to hear back, will confirm the check is in the mail, or will give you a definite answer on whether your story has been accepted. Record this information on your spreadsheet, highlight any new hear-by date, and follow up as needed.
What happens if you still receive no response? You can wait an additional two weeks or so, and follow up again. If you still receive no response, it then falls to your professional judgment to decide how much effort you want to put into working with a particular publication. If you are submitting to a peer-reviewed journal, you may want to wait a little longer. Obviously, if you’re waiting on a check, you’ll want to follow through until you get it.
Once you’ve decided that you’ve waited long enough to hear whether a submission has been accepted, simply send the editor an e-mail stating that you’re withdrawing your piece from consideration. Then send the story on to your next target publication. Create a new row on your spreadsheet, highlight the reply date, and prepare to follow up.
Publishing is a business that requires perseverance, patience, and knowledge of professional etiquette. Luckily for you, these are skills that librarians develop on the job. Just as you would go to bat to follow up on information for your patrons, so you must do the same for your submissions. Treat yourself as our own patron and ensure that your writing goals stay on track.
Allen, Moira Anderson. 2003. Starting Your Career as a Freelance Writer. New York: Allworth Press.
Thinking beyond Library Journals to Write What Your Clients Read
What do your clients read? You know because you see those publications all the time. School librarians can and do write for journals that their teachers and administrators read. Public librarians may write for particular segments of their market, such as publications for teens or seniors. Some may write columns for local newspapers, like my biweekly “It’s YOUR Library” column for the Shawnee News Star. (In my first job as a public librarian, I gave a new reporter help with backstory for her work, and she in turn helped me get the column.) Academic librarians sometimes write for the Chronicle of Higher Education. Subject specialists in large libraries or in special libraries write for the specialty publications their clients favor. For instance, there’s Pam Sieving’s (2007) explanation for nurses of Cochrane systematic reviews of medical research or Jim Henderson’s (2005) insights on Google Scholar for doctors.
The key to breaking in to the literature in another field is to hook into something people want to know and explain it in their terms. (No librarians’ jargon without explanation!) Our expert information needs analysis can go beyond the personal reference interview and the development of our own collections and services. As always, we can get some of our best ideas from listening to our clients.
An important way to cross the discipline divide is to have a coauthor from the field. Such collaboration can start very informally. My first such experience started when I was a beginning hospital librarian eating lunch in the cafeteria. One day, I was explaining (again!) to a nurse that our library services and collection weren’t just for doctors. We could help practicing nurses, and we had a good collection of print and online resources for them. The nurse wondered aloud whether nurses at hospitals without libraries could get such services. I explained that there were libraries in nursing schools and health sciences centers all over the state with collections and services they could use. After several casual conversations about the possibilities, we decided to try a small survey to discover libraries with nursing collections that were open to practicing nurses not affiliated with the library’s parent institution. We started with two lists of libraries in our state: those affiliated with the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NNLM) and those at schools with accredited nursing programs. We developed a telephone survey and called the directors of all the libraries on each list. Eventually, we had a 100 percent response rate. When we went through our results, we realized that, although not all counties in the state had a nursing school library and not all had a hospital library, each county had at least one or the other. We wrote a few paragraphs about how practicing nurses could get help for their daily work from these libraries and published it with the county-by-county list in the state nursing journal (McKnight and Patterson 1995). The article was such a hit that the same journal responded to requests and republished it the following year (McKnight and Patterson 1996).
The native call of the researcher and writer is not “Eureka! I’ve found it!” but rather, “Hmm, that’s interesting.” Noticing that the NNLM libraries (mostly hospital libraries and libraries affiliated with medical school) used the National Library of Medicine DOCLINE interlibrary loan system for journal articles, and that the nursing schools in universities without schools of medicine used OCLC for similar service, we wondered whether the availability of nursing literature varied significantly between the two systems. That led to a study of nursing journals available through the two systems in the state (McKnight and Patterson 1997) and later, with funding from a research grant from the South Central Academic Medical Libraries Consortium, to a study of the availability of nursing literature in five states (McKnight 2000).
Another way to write for other disciplines’ journals is to provide a continuing service useful to both specialists and librarians. Some years ago, at a meeting of the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries, there was a conversation between the then president of the Medical Library Association and the editors of JAMA (the weekly journal of the American Medical Association) about how difficult it was to find evaluative reviews of the nearly two hundred new English-language medical journals that appear every year (Eldredge 1997). The result was the appointment of the volunteer JAMA review editor, who recruited medical librarians to work with clinician specialists to write reviews of new journals. The clinician did the disciplinary evaluation of the journal and the librarian gathered information about how the journal was published and indexed. With doctors from my hospital, I wrote two of these reviews (McKnight and Pickens 1997; McKnight and Bird 1998).
If you are prepared to follow up on opportunities, you will find them. As Louis Pasteur (1854) admonished, “Chance favors only the prepared mind.” Because I searched robust bibliographic databases for hours every day, I got the chance to teach online searching at the University of Oklahoma School of Library and Information Science as an adjunct instructor. Through personal connections, I encouraged some Ph.D. students in mathematics education to take the course to enhance their literature reviews for their dissertations. Soon such students were regularly taking the course; through them, I got to know what databases were most useful to their work. Their professors liked what they were doing and invited me to be a coauthor of a book for faculty mathematicians on how to find and use research in mathematics education—a field of research quite different from that in which they were trained but that they could use to enhance their own teaching. The result was Mathematics Education Research: A Guide for the Research Mathematician (McKnight, Magid, Murphy, and McKnight, 2000).
Working with people from other disciplines is rewarding and interesting. You can do it!
Eldredge, Jonathan. 1997. “JAMA Journal Reviews: Analysis and Master Index 1992– 1996.” Medical Library Association News 292:22–24.
Henderson, Jim. 2005. “Google Scholar: A Source for Clinicians?” Canadian Medical Association Journal 172:1549–1550.
McKnight, Curtis C., Andy R. Magid, T. J. Murphy, and Michelynn McKnight. 2000. Mathematics Education Research: A Guide for the Research Mathematician. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society.
McKnight, Michelynn. 2000. “Interlibrary Loan Availability of Nursing Journals through DOCLINE and OCLC: A Five-State Survey.” Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 88:254–255.
McKnight, Michelynn, and Phillip C. Bird. 1998. “Helicobacter.” [Review.] JAMA 280:100.
McKnight, Michelynn, and Barbara Patterson. 1995. “Library Services for Oklahoma Nurses.” Oklahoma Nurse 40:13–14. Reprinted in 1996: Oklahoma Nurse 41:17.
———. 1997. “Nursing Collections in DOCLINE and non-DOCLINE Libraries: An Oklahoma Survey.” National Network—Newsletter of the Hospital Libraries Section of the Medical Library Association 21: 16, 23.
McKnight, Michelynn, and Bruce Pickens. 1997. “Mind/Body Medicine: A Journal of Clinical Behavioral Medicine.” [Review.] JAMA 278:1794–1795.
Pasteur, Louis. 1854. “Le hazard ne favorise que les esprits préparés.” [Lecture.] University of Lille. (Cited in various places, including “Louis Pasteur,” Wikiquote, http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louis_Pasteur, accessed November 27, 2008, and H. Eves, Return to Mathematical Circles [Boston: Prindle, Wever, and Schmidt, 1998], 273.)
Sieving, Pam C. 2007. “Spotlight on Research: What Is a Cochrane Review?” ORL-Head and Neck Nursing 25:15.
My novel—like most first novels—was deeply personal. It was also—like most first novels— never published.
The V Word began as an in-class exercise in a beginning writing workshop. It was the story of a young woman named Stella who experiences healing and complete remission from an obscure disorder called vulvodynia. Women with this disorder endure chronic and embarrassing pain. There is no definitive cause, and there is no cure. As a sufferer myself, my vision was to use this novel to reach out to women with vulvodynia, to give them an average girl who was dealing with this strange disease, to let them see how this disorder could be a vehicle for growth and fulfillment and not just an obstacle to overcome. As I wrote, I kept those women in mind.
Five years and 320 pages later, I began querying literary agents—more than seventy agents.
About 10 percent of them responded favorably. Not bad for a first-time novelist with no formal training. Not bad for a novel that started as an in-class exercise. But of those 10 percent, all eventual reactions were the same: “just not compelling enough,” “didn’t keep me wanting to turn pages,” “not my cup of tea,” “didn’t grab me.” The responses were all similarly vague and unhelpful.
And then I ran out of stamina, faith, self-confidence, and agents. In other words, I quit.
Rejection and quitting aren’t what you sign up for when you decide you want to write. I certainly didn’t. But the experience, as painful as it was at times, taught me.
Writing a novel is an enormous undertaking, something I didn’t, in my beginner’s naïveté, realize. It gave me a crash course in grammar, word choice, pacing, and character development. I learned to rely on The Elements of Style and Roget’s Thesaurus. I learned how to manage computer files and track changes in Word. I learned about query letters and partials, exclusives and rejections. I also learned about the publishing industry and the difficulties of a fickle market.
I discovered that writing is an almost visceral need, an addiction to creating something out of nothing, to filling a blank screen with black symbols. It is an obsession with language and imaginary worlds and the idea that my words can touch someone.
In all those megabytes of words and sentences, I strived to be true to myself and my goal for the novel. Despite a torrent of rejections, I kept in mind those women with vulvodynia. It was thinking of those women that helped me write query letter after query letter. It was also thinking of those women that made each rejection that much more painful. How would I reach them if I couldn’t publish my novel?
And then, as I closed out my document for the last time and filed away my last rejection letters, I realized that I had reached someone. The thing is, the woman I reached wasn’t a faceless sufferer—it was me.
In the end, the countless drafts and hours of work have laid the foundation for—if not a best seller—my own healing and growth as a writer. Even though I feel like a quitter for setting aside my novel, I’m not going to forget about Stella. When I’m ready, I’ll be able to write more about this character I love. The advantage of spending five years with this cast of characters is that I now have an enormous amount of background knowledge that I can use in whatever else I write. I also have more than eighty thousand words of writing practice, practice that will help me write better articles, better short stories, and—perhaps someday—a better novel.
I’ve realized that the pile of rejection letters is a symbol not of failure but of effort. As painful as they are when they first arrive in the mail in my own self-addressed hand, they eventually become a part of my writing history.
My novel—like most first novels—may never make it to the bookstores. And because I didn’t sign up for rejection and quitting, I’m going to keep writing and keep submitting. I owe it to myself.
Self-publishing may have a faint aura of self-promotion and egotism, yet becoming a publisher, whether of one’s own material or of material that supports a niche interest, can be a valuable service for both the publisher and the scholarly world generally.
My niche interests center on the French violin school, a group of violinist-composers active from about 1780 to 1830. I had published two articles on the French violin school, one in a little-known violin journal and the other in a popular magazine for string players. For several years, I worked on a translation of Arthur Pougin’s nearly unknown work on Pierre Rode (a French school composer). Rode’s obscurity made him attractive to me, but it was a handicap otherwise. I decided to publish my translation of Pougin’s Notice sur Rode (1874) myself.
Self-publishing involves many decisions. Pougin’s short book contained many footnotes, some extraordinarily important and informative, so I decided to eschew the execrable modern habit of using endnotes instead of footnotes—I wanted a book with Pougin’s informative notes at the bottom of the page. I turned to a legal secretary (my sister Laura) for help in creating a professional textual look. Pougin’s book also included images of the first few measures of all thirteen of Rode’s concerti. I relied on our library’s head of media services (Carol Tipton) to produce images of all thirteen concerti for insertion into the text. Pougin mentioned many names, and the value of adding an index seemed well worth the effort. I quickly discovered that constructing an index from scratch is a tedious business, but an index greatly enhances any book’s accessibility.
Besides the thematic index images, I asked a local artist (and incidentally a library employee), Sylvia Martinez, to draw a black-and-white sketch of Rode, loosely based on one of the few known images of the great violinist. This image was converted to electronic format and used as a frontispiece.
After finding a suitable printer, I negotiated for hardback, sewn-in binding, title stamped on cover, and each volume shrink-wrapped. The shrink-wrapping is an excellent option if the expectation is that the book will sell in small quantities over a period of years.
As a librarian I knew the value of having an imprimatur and an ISBN, so I decided to create a business. My first concern was to create a business name—a name that was both descriptive and perhaps a little intriguing. I eventually chose The Lyre of Orpheus Press, because of both its allusion to music (my niche interest) and its romantic flavor (at least to my mind). I applied for a business license with the state of Texas and registered with the local taxing authorities. In one sense, this was a costly move. I have never made more than approximately $200 income in any single year, so taxes on inventory and the occasional sales tax on Texas sales are excessive. The regular business footing is important, however, and is the basis for future growth.
A regular business foundation is also important for listing the book in directories and similar finding aids. Today, Lyre of Orpheus Press is listed in Global Books in Print, among other resources. Another consideration is the ISBN, an integral part of the book producing and selling world. Contacting Bowker (ISBN agent for the United States) in the 1990s, I invested in ISBNs for my foundling press. The original ten ISBN numbers have still not been exhausted, though that may happen in the near future.
The next step was advertising. The book is of most interest to two groups: libraries and violinists. To reach libraries, I sent a letter advertisement. To reach violinists, I placed an ad in Strings magazine and received orders from as far away as Australia.
Other published works from the Lyre of Orpheus Press have followed: two pieces of sheet music (one of them carried by a supplier in Arizona) and more books, though I have opted for perfect bindings done locally since the first book.
Small-press marketing becomes ever easier as the Internet age rolls along. Over the past three or four years, nearly all books from the Lyre of Orpheus Press have been sold through Amazon.com. Amazon is a marvelous means of distribution for the small press, as millions of people worldwide search Amazon’s site, and Amazon welcomes small presses (though the price for the small publisher is the discounted cost that Amazon requires). In the past year or so, Amazon has issued its new Kindle electronic book reader, which (along with similar readers) offers another format for the small publisher and a means of continuing a title in print that may have gone out of print in paper format.
The Lyre of Orpheus Press has provided a platform for publishing certain materials that probably wouldn’t have seen the light of day otherwise. A “press of one’s own” provides a vital means of communication and can be part of one’s authorial profile. Many of my subsequent publications on the French violin school have been based, to a greater or lesser extent, on Pougin’s work, and my early efforts to translate and publish this work were a building block to the future.
My advice, based on my individual experience, may be encapsulated in the following points:
The do-it-yourself movement has led to a resurgence of handcrafted cool (pick up an issue of ReadyMade magazine and you’ll see what I’m talking about)—but historically, poets have long experimented with DIY projects to distribute their work. Dating back to sixteenth-century Western European and North American history, the broadside (a single sheet with print on one side) was used to distribute descriptive narrative verse or song and was crucial to preserving traditional ballads and rhymed verse. When folded, the broadside was transformed into the chapbook, a small booklet named for the itinerant chapmen who pedaled the books. These small books once contained popular folklore, sensational tales, speeches, and hymns. Today, both broadsides and chapbooks are a perfect vehicle for the distribution of modern poetry. Whether publishing for yourself or publishing another’s work, broadsides and chapbooks can be a simple, low-cost, and creative means of distributing printed poetry. Here’s how to get started.
If you’ve read this far, chances are that you are already feeling the glow of inspiration. The next step is to look around for ideas. Check out all of the bookmaking and journal-making books in your library. I’d highly recommend How to Make Books by Esther K. Smith (Potter Craft). Most independent and used bookstores carry chapbooks by local poets, so browse the shelves to see what other poets have done. If you’re feeling really inspired, many community colleges offer bookmaking classes. If you’re lucky, you might find bookmaking, screen-printing, and letterpress workshops sponsored by the local book arts collaborative. And of course, there are many online sources to investigate as well.
Once you look around a bit, you’ll have a better idea of how simple or complicated you want your book to be. For example, will the book be handwritten, printed on a desk printer, or will you take it to a commercial copier? What about the binding—will the book pages be loose (stored in an envelope or box, perhaps), folded, stapled, or hand-stitched? Much of this will depend on how many copies you wish to create. For your first project, I’d suggest a simple folded book, which can be easily replicated on your desktop printer. A broadside of your favorite poem printed on card stock is also a really easy way to get started with DIY publishing. Accordion books or store-bought blank books (collaged or sketched with your own artwork) make great limited edition chapbooks!
Once you have an idea of the poetry you will be publishing, consider collaborating with a visual artist friend. Photographers, painters, collage artists— they all make terrific partners in poetry. Share your ideas and see what happens. If you’re making a chapbook, you’ll need an interesting cover design. If you’re creating a broadside, you will probably want an image on it, too. Desktop publishing tools allow one to easily scan and insert images—or you might consider making each book or broadside an original. I’ve seen one-of-a-kind chapbooks, all using different sketches and paintings for each edition number. One of the more unusual designs I’ve admired used photos inserted into an opening in the cover design. The possibilities really are endless.
Art supply and craft stores carry a wide variety of interesting papers and bookmaking supplies. There are many uses for recycled materials as well. Think cardboard covers wrapped with wire, or vintage postcards and photographs as pages for poetry. I’ve made limited edition books entirely out of discarded library resources, such as card catalog cards, book jackets, and 35 mm slides. Outdated topographical maps make intriguing canvas for poetry broadsides or pages for chapbooks. The world is full of bookmaking materials—sticks, feathers, cigar boxes, wallpaper, bingo cards—the only limit is your imagination. Don’t forget basic things like a ruler, X-Acto knife, scissors, glue, and ink (whether stamp pad, laser jet, or lithography)!
Set aside enough time to devote to your publishing project. Clear the desk and have all of your possible supplies ready to go. I would suggest making one copy of your prototype before printing off the entire edition. Sometimes, it takes a little problem solving to get it just right.
Once you begin your project, don’t be afraid to waver from your original plan of action. And it’s OK if there are minor variations between copies. It’s art—and art isn’t supposed to be perfect.
Once you’ve completed your chapbook, throw a reading party to celebrate its publication. Invite your literary friends over for a house reading or find a community space to host a larger event. Local bookstores or libraries often rent out areas for poetry readings. Depending on your base cost for the book, you may wish to give your project away, trade with fellow poets, or sell the publication for a nominal fee. Don’t forget to ask your local independent bookstore to carry a few copies on their shelf. It’s also a nice gesture to donate your chapbook to any area libraries that host specialized contemporary poetry collections.
I recommend that you get any ideas of making money off of the project completely out of your head. The point of the chapbook or broadside is to share your work and promote yourself as a writer—not to get rich. It’s OK to charge a couple of bucks to cover your supplies, but don’t be surprised if you end up giving or trading most of your copies to admiring friends and family.
Good luck—and remember, chapbooks and broadsides aren’t the only way to self-publish. Think creatively. Local copy centers and online services can put just about anything on a T-shirt, coffee mug, or greeting card. Why not your poetry? How about a whole calendar of poems? Your mother will love it.
Aherald is a person charged with the task of delivering information. In the medieval world, heralds were a very select group. Jumping ahead a few centuries, electronic discussion lists, online video, and podcasts have made the job of herald more egalitarian. A keyboard and access to the Internet allow the librarian-author to promote his or her work in a targeted and efficient manner. With a little technology and forethought, the librarian-author can proclaim the wonders of the written work to the world.
A press release is a static object awaiting something to set it in motion. This inertia is begun by what the industry refers to as buzz.
In the past, buzz relied heavily on publishers willing to spend their time generating interest about a particular work. If a publisher lacked a conduit to a particular audience, a published work might be introduced to a market with little fanfare. Things have changed. Instead of relying solely on publishers and their connections, in the twenty-first century, librarian-authors have more command over generating their own buzz.
There are numerous options available today that were unimaginable ten years ago. Electronic discussion lists with millions of subscribers are now commonplace. The proliferation of sites such as YouTube has completely changed the face of marketing. The ability to broadcast user-created MP3s, also known as podcasts, has opened new avenues for the librarian-author to develop a following. The best thing about capitalizing on these new media is that doing so does not require an advanced degree in computer science or a large marketing budget.
The press release is still useful, but its dissemination has changed drastically. Sending a press release to a local newspaper is helpful and strongly recommended, but how about sending a press release to millions of worldwide readers? Sites such as PRLOG (www.prlog.org) do just that and they do it for free. PRLOG will distribute your press release via the Web to no less than forty thousand RSS feeds (continuously updating web pages that an individual can subscribe to) and to sites such as Google News and other search engines. PRLOG is just one of hundreds of press release sites. An Internet search for “free press release” will yield helpful results.
Electronic discussion lists are similar in function but offer a more direct-marketing approach. A subscription to subject or genre-specific electronic discussion lists will provide access to interested parties with a simple click of the send button. Disseminating a press release via an electronic discussion list is an excellent way to reach a targeted audience, but finding the right list may require a little research.
Podcasts are a new medium to consider when promoting a published work. While there are a number of ways to generate podcast content, Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net) is a great freeware editor. Once the podcast is recorded, it will need to be distributed. The options for distribution range from free to expensive. Pod Bean (www.podbean.com) will host and broadcast your podcast free. For a comprehensive tutorial, try www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com.
YouTube has become synonymous with pratfalls and highlighting awful behavior. That notwithstanding, YouTube is also an excellent site for developing and distributing commercials for published works. Using digital video and basic video editing software, a dynamic and entertaining commercial can be created for little to no cost. Videos for YouTube need not be traditional either. Well-produced slides shows can be developed, saved as a digital video file, and posted to YouTube using software that most post-2004 computers have readily available free. For more information on creating digital video for You-Tube, visit www.youtube.com and click on Help.
Once the various mediums are considered, the librarian-author should create a strategic plan to deliver promotional materials and maximize the effectiveness of these new tools. The following is a fictionalized account of how to use the new media.
A librarian recently had a collected work of poetry and essays accepted by a small publishing firm. This collection centers on the exploration of the natural world and its influence on human objects. The publisher plans to release the book in the next six months. To maximize her potential audience, the author created the following promotional materials and used several new mediums to deliver them.
She wrote a press release that detailed the scope, nature, and publication information of the book. In addition to this information, she included links and instructions to access her podcasts and YouTube video sites. This release was sent to a press release distribution site and posted on several electronic discussion lists that deal with literature and nature.
Over the course of the next several months, she broadcast podcasts of herself reading a poem from her book as well as reading works of other authors and poets who have inspired her. Each podcast concluded with a statement regarding the book, directions on preordering, and a reference to her You-Tube posting.
Using photographs she took of manmade objects influenced by nature, she created a slide show that cycles through the images, interspersed with text from one of her essays, and set it to the sounds of nature. At the conclusion of the video, she provided information regarding her podcast as well as the publication and purchasing information regarding her book.
Once her book was published, she distributed yet another press release and continued to create pod-casts. Now she requested audience participation. She solicited readings and interpretations from listeners and then posted them to her podcast site. Her YouTube postings were updated to include video of local readings and interviews with other poets and naturalists. Each new creation included links to the appropriate vendor and information about new projects.
The new mediums of podcasting, electronic discussion lists, and YouTube have made marketing a publication an act of will. If an author is sufficiently motivated, it is not difficult to capitalize on these new avenues. It is important to note that these efforts will take time to master. With sufficient planning, a strong will, and some creativity, the librarian-author can become the twenty-first-century herald of his or her work.
When I attended my first BookExpo (American Booksellers Association Conference) as a collection development librarian, I was asked why librarians wanted to attend a booksellers’ conference. Because many library conferences concentrated on computer systems, BookExpo remained the largest national convention aimed at authors, publishers, publicists, agents, independent bookstore salespeople, and a few inquisitive librarians, that focused on the book.
I attend this very inexpensive three-day conference every year as a collection development librarian and a writer—and I am very comfortable with both careers on BookExpo’s trade floor.
BookExpo, with a minimum of thirty-two authors signing their latest work every hour, gives all writers an up-close and personal experience with many writing giants as well as the smaller-press subject specialists. Many books are timed for release during this May and June conference event. Excitement, advance copies, and author readings fill the aisles, overlapping into conference rooms and publisher booths.
Compared to many writing conferences, artist retreats, workshops, and classes, BookExpo generates the most hands-on author information for the least cost year after year.
On registering, all conference-goers receive a thick guide with a floor plan. Because of the size of the floors, publisher booths are grouped by classification: international, audiovisual, children’s, university, small presses. General publishers (not categorized) take up the largest area of the floor, though the children’s space runs a close second. Specialty areas including African American, graphic novels, gay and lesbian, and magazines are also separated. Booths are numbered and content annotated in the guidebook, the conference attendee’s bible. Some authors sign books in their publisher’s booth as well as in the designated autograph area, so crowds are a common occurrence on the trade floor. Memorization of the layout becomes a first-day necessity.
A BookExpo experience may begin with a snaking line to a favorite author’s table where the attendee receives a free book and autograph from the author (participants are asked to contribute one dollar per autograph to the city’s literacy fund). An individual might have ten seconds to say something to the author, get a photo, or make a pitch for a library program. For all writers, this is the opportunity to think ahead, to strategize, and to “say the right thing” to engage the author in a brief dialogue (i.e., “You are so prolific. How do you do it?” Question asked of Joyce Carol Oates. “What author shaped your writing the most?” Tom Wolfe. “We grew up in the same city at the same time; do you ever get back there?” John Sayles).
Next to the autograph section, the BookExpo trade floor is daunting in its size and crowds but is the perfect place to find a publisher. Check out booths that spotlight similar genre or subject areas, then ask the right questions and leave a business card with all contacts, no matter how slim the connection. In some cases, the contact will call back the librarian but not always the author, so a follow-up phone call is helpful a few days after the conference.
Though it is energizing to wander the trade floor, the conference participant needs to compose a schedule. Writing a cookbook? Don’t miss the Emeril demonstration at 2 p.m. at booth 4354. A fan of serial mysteries? Authors Sue Grafton and Janet Evanovich will lead a discussion in conference room 6 at 5 p.m. Keep author, agent, and publishing house appointments as key engagements.
Yes, literary agents are all over BookExpo, some with and some without badges. Often agents appear with their authors at the autograph tables and publisher booths. They attend the author breakfasts and lunches as well as many of the scheduled events and award ceremonies during the conference. (I made a verbal contract with an agent after I saved her place in an autograph line.)
Take a breather every couple of hours and leave the building or find a place to sit—probably on the floor—in the periphery of the halls. The adrenalindriven conference is hard on the ears as well as the feet. Library Journal sponsors a lounge with free refreshments for all librarians (must state librarian on blue badge) on the trade floor.
Early on the first day, discover the shipping room (near the autograph area). Grab a free box, put a name on its flap, and place it in a space on a table. The box does not have to be used to ship books; it makes a great resting place for goods in between lugging the items back and forth to the hotel. Suggestion: wear a backpack—without wheels. Any wheeled device is strictly forbidden on the trade floor.
The American Booksellers Association releases a daily newspaper during the conference with the important news of the previous day. Arrive before the 9 a.m. opening to read this newspaper with a final cup of coffee. The early morning is a good time to pick up tickets (free) for the bigger authors’ signings.
Some after-hour cocktail parties and events are by invitation only, but many are open to all or to a certain badge color. Attend as many activities as possible and touch base with all people who voice an interest.
Network, network, network. Keep business cards in hand, and learn to be assertive in illuminating your skills. Dress professionally but keep your feet in sensible shoes.
Understand that BookExpo is not for the meek of heart. While I always accomplish my goal of getting autographed books for our Friends of the Library to sell in the semiannual book sales, I sometimes don’t speak up quickly enough to talk about my writing. Often I keep up with my morning schedule but slack off in the late afternoons to just enjoy spontaneous conversations with fellow librarians and writers. Do allow for some self-discovery time.
By the end of the three days of tired feet, I’m looking at the large banner hanging over the exit—“See You Next Year in . . .” and feel the excitement building for the next annual conference. It’s then that I wonder why BookExpo remains a book and marketing best-kept secret.
For more information about the next BookExpo conference, see www.bookexpoamerica.com.