(Host)
Many writers choose to live in Vermont, but from time to time find it
necessary to make their way to the marketplace to ‘pitch’ their work.
Book Expo America is the biggest book event in North America and it will
take place in New York City the week of June 5th. Commentator Stephanie
Greene is a freelance writer who lives on the family farm in Windham
County, and she’s been thinking about how writers today prepare for
events like this.
(Greene) The book business has changed
enormously since my parents’ day, when they ran the Book Cellar and the
Stephen Greene Press in Brattleboro.
Independent bookstores – and
even the behemoth, Borders – have closed at an alarming rate, leaving
some large cities across the country without a single bookstore.
(Although Brattleboro, population 12,000, boasts four bookstores: two
new and two used). Prestigious, large publishing houses have been
gobbled up – even as self-publishing enjoys a renaissance. In September,
the New York Times’ bestseller list contained two self-published
e-books.
Thirty years ago, when the portcullis between fledgling
authors and bestseller-dom was firmly in place, this would have been
unthinkable. At the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, there’s even a
machine that will print and bind a book in minutes.
Production-wise,
it may not produce the Gutenberg Bible, but the result is still
impressive. It’s like the Wild West out there, with nary a sheriff in
sight. Writers are called upon to ‘sell’ their work to publishers and
demonstrate their marketability in unprecedented ways.
A catchy "pitch" is essential, as is a blog and a Facebook presence.
Can
you imagine Henry David Thoreau pitching Walden? Shakespeare would have
been more than equal to the task of pitching, since he was accustomed
to competing with bear-baiting for audience attention, but what about
Emily Dickinson? Would she stand a chance in this market, or would her
work forever languish in her desk drawer?
Most writers, it turns
out, are rather well prepared for this new world. In journalism class,
we’re taught that our lead sentence had better be a knockout, or we’ll
lose our reader to Dear Abby. Standing around in bookstores, some
readers subject books to the "first sentence test". If they aren’t
grabbed, the book goes back on the shelf. Life is short. And editors are
not surrounded by firewalls – after all, they’re always looking for the
next Harry Potter.
In the 70’s, a curious publication called
The Unborn Book (TUB for short) enjoyed a closed circulation among
agents and publishers. Founded in 1977 by Contact Magazine editor and
publishing mensch, Bill Ryan, TUB’s purpose was to circulate
descriptions of unpublished manuscripts "of real merit" in order to
streamline the submission process. If a deal was struck between author
and agent or publisher, TUB would collect a finder’s fee. TUB only
lasted four years, but it helped many authors find publication.
Stewart
Brooks writes books on medicine and pharmacology. You’ve heard of the
Physician’s Desk Reference, that tome on drugs and their interactions,
lovingly known in medical circles as "The PDR"? Well, in 1978, Brooks
sent a query made up of only three letters to an editor he knew at
Little, Brown. The letters were N-D-R. The editor understood. Soon they
had a deal for the Nurse’s Drug Reference, which sold briskly for years.
Now that may be the shortest pitch on record.