Editors on Editing: What Writers Need to Know About What Editors Do (39 page)

Although the same manuscript was submitted to two different editors, the outcome of the publishing story was very different. The author was proud of having been published in hardcover, but his promising courtroom drama didn’t sell more than 12,000 copies. Because of that, the book couldn’t really attract a major paperback reprint sale; that level of hardcover sales wasn’t considered strong enough to merit publishing the book as a lead title. With the author having already been paid a $25,000 advance against royalties, the book earned only $24,000 in hardcover royalties, so the author earned no additional money. If in this scenario the hardcover house had a paperback subsidiary, the paperback chances would be equally slim, since the book has already been tarnished by its lackluster hardcover performance.

The author who took the paperback route first, however, felt successful about his book. While the hardcover house wondered whether it wanted to
take on the next courtroom drama by an author who sold only 12,000 copies, his paperback counterpart in scenario 2 already signed a contract for a second book, since his publisher was happy about the success of having sold 225,000 paperbacks of the first one. While the hardcover author received a fair number of respectful reviews, the paperback author received only a few honorable mentions in paperback columns. As for their futures, the unhappy author who chose hardcover went on to write another solid courtroom drama, but this time for another hardcover house, working with a new editor willing to take a chance on him. Our paperback author, on the other hand, earned the good will of his publisher, and his second paperback original was slated as a lead book for that house with a 500,000-copy first printing. Now, ironically, this paperback author found himself in a better position for hardcover success than the fellow who began in hardcover in the first place. If his second (or third) paperback original hits the best-seller list, editors and publishers will view our paperback author as a major hardcover prospect, unlike the author who took the traditional hardcover route.

At publishing firms such as Warner Books, where hardcover and mass-market paperback publishing literally take place on one floor, the ongoing success story of best-selling contemporary women’s fiction author Sandra Brown illustrates how paperback publishing can become the solid foundation of an author’s future hardcover career. After Sandra Brown had written many category paperback romances, and had established a solid readership for her books, it was time to publish her in the lead position on Warner’s paperback list. Her talented editor, Jeanne Tiedge, became her most intrepid spokesperson, championing her to the management of the company as a major new voice in women’s fiction, an author destined to become a star because readers were saying so about her paperbacks. If increased sales book after book is a barometer of how readers feel about an author, it was clear that readers were falling in love with Sandra Brown. Not only were Sandra Brown’s heroes and heroines wonderful characters, but the author also displayed a talent for clever plotting, adding a touch of suspense to her stories and showing that she had a real knack for keeping readers turning the pages. According to Jeanne Tiedge, “The charm of Sandra Brown’s writing lies in the heartwarming themes of her novels: good always triumphs over evil and love really does conquer all. Whether her heroine is struggling to overcome the horrors of acquaintance rape, or the overzealous attacks of self-serving characters, she succeeds because she believes in herself and in those she loves.”

With each wonderful new character building her readership with every book, when her third lead paperback original for Warner appeared,
Mirror Image
, Sandra Brown had her first
New York Times
paperback best-seller,
and it stayed on the list for nearly two months. A second paperback bestseller,
Breath of Scandal
, followed roughly a year later, and before long Warner—hard-soft publisher that it is—knew that Sandra Brown had developed a real foundation for future hardcover publication of her books. As Jeanne points out, “Brown’s paperback success and appeal grew as her novels became richer. I can honestly say that because every novel got better, and bigger—in terms of sophistication of plot and depth of minor characters and subplots—the decision to publish her in hardcover seemed natural. Her transition from genre writer to mainstream bestsellerdom came from continuously challenging herself to write the best possible book she could.”

Clearly confident in the ongoing editorial quality of her books, why did Warner decide to tinker with success? Why not keep Sandra Brown in paperback? Why take the risk of publishing her in hardcover? The answer to that is simple; the publisher made the business decision that, based on the momentum and sales of the author’s paperback books, a critical mass of her paperback readers would follow her to hardcover. Bolstered by the paperback-to-hardcover success stories of authors such as LaVyrle Spencer and Judith McNaught, Warner felt that it too had an author who could make the transition to hardcover. Sandra Brown’s sales had grown with each book, the word of mouth got better and better, and she herself became a wonderfully promotable spokesperson for her novels, convincing every major account that she was here to stay. By the time Warner announced that it was going to publish Sandra Brown in hardcover (and that her books would now command a retail cover price of $19.95 as opposed to $5.95), retailers and booksellers were thrilled because they, too, believed that this author’s time had come.

Sandra Brown’s first Warner hardcover,
French Silk
, was taken as a dual main selection of the Literary Guild and appeared on the
New York Times, Publishers Weekly
and other best-seller lists around the country. Clearly our hardcover launch was successful. But what was special about the entire process was the fact that Sandra Brown’s paperback editor also served as her hardcover editor. In this case, and as in many others, sometimes paperback editors show us where to begin.

Mark Alan Gompertz

M
ARK
A
LAN
G
OMPERTZ
is vice-president and publisher of Avon Trade Paperbacks, an imprint that had its debut in 1990. Prior to coming to Avon, Mr. Gompertz was a senior editor at Crown Publishers. His first job in publishing was at the Overlook Press, where he spent ten years, becoming vice-president and editorial director. Among the books he has been associated with are
: Don’t Know Much about History
by Kenneth Davis
, Into the Woods
by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, and
The Music Room
by Dennis McFarland
.

Born when trade paperbacks were first introduced at Anchor Books in the early 1950s, Mr. Gompertz notes that “now, in the last decade of the century, trade paperbacks and those of us who grew up with them begin to face our middle ages. This, then, would seem to be a good time to ask some questions about this unique area of publishing.” Mr. Gompertz does indeed ask some very challenging questions and comes up with some iconoclastic answers to them. Along the way he smashes some myths and misconceptions about the appearance, character, and content of trade paperbacks, the editors who work on them, the authors who write them, and the audience for this unique format that has influenced and changed the reading habits of millions
.

Written with affection and expertise—and with a youthful vigor that belies its author’s middle age—Mr. Gompertz’s essay not only reviews the editorial and marketing history of trade paperbacks but also defines the changing nature of their readers—from yesterday’s yuppies to today’s baby
boomers. Gompertz calls them “the Cultural Literacy Generation” and believes that “trade paperbacks and the editors who have published them for four decades reflect this generation.” Admitting that “these books and editors have become less daring and more practical, “he contends that, “as always, a new generation of editors and readers will come up from the ranks who will be innovative and bold and will inject new life into trade paperbacks
.”

I inherited this space from a very wise and interesting publisher, John Thornton, who almost ten years ago forecast that—despite a downturn in the national economy and a widespread retrenchment in the publishing industry—trade paperbacks would survive. He ended his essay by saying, “I predict that the next edition of
Editors on Editing
… will feature another article telling the latest truths about trade paperbacks.”

Clever fellow that Mr. Thornton! Trade paperbacks have survived (even though the same economic gloom and doom is back a decade later) and now I’m here to tell you the latest truths about trade paperbacks. You may be wondering why me. What in my background gives me the right to write this piece?

The truth is that most people who end up working in any job in publishing, including trade paperbacks, do so by accident. Until 1989 I knew very little about the paperback business, having worked in hardcover for fourteen years. Sure, I had edited books that were printed and bound between two soft covers, but that is not the same as editing and
publishing
paperbacks, as I will demonstrate in this chapter.

I was born when trade paperbacks were first introduced at Anchor Books in the early 1950s and we (trade paperbacks and I) came of age in the 1970s when companies like Avon Books, where I work now, pioneered methods of publishing them. For me and many people in my generation, the trade paperback has been the format of choice to read. Some of the highlights of my post–“Wonder Years” were
The Stranger, Waiting for Godot, Growing Up Absurd
(I spent a fair amount of time highlighting passages in this book with a yellow felt tip pen),
Slaughterhouse Five
, and
The Last Whole Earth
Catalog
. An overly intense and deeply romantic young man, I gave a former girlfriend Hugh Prathler’s
Notes to Myself
and she, in turn, gave me the photographic gift book of our generation,
Family of Man
.

When Thornton wrote his piece, he was describing the
thirtysomething
decade of trade paperbacks. Now, in the last decade of the century, trade paperbacks and those of us who grew up with them begin to face our middle ages. This, then, would seem to be a good time to ask some questions about this unique area of publishing. What is a trade paperback today? What role do editors play in acquiring them and shaping them? Who is the audience for trade paperbacks? How do we reach them? Can trade paperbacks be bold and innovative as they were in their formative years? Or, like many people approaching middle age, have they become distinguished and respectable and, perhaps, a little bland? Finally, will they be around in the next millennium?

Like everything else in life, there are myths and misconceptions about trade paperbacks and editors who work on them. A perennially popular one is that trade paperbacks appeal only to an upscale market. This is just not true. Because Anchor Books, from its inception, dedicated its line to publishing “quality” trade paperbacks, many assume this format to be the class act of the industry, something for a mainly academic, literary, and highbrow audience. They forget the books about Rubik’s Cube, Pacman, the New Kids on the Block, Kliban’s cats, and some of the genre books like historical romances that have been published in trade paperback.

…

So what do we mean when we talk about trade paperbacks? Strictly speaking, they are larger in format than mass-market or rack-size books. And they cost more. On the other hand, trade paperbacks are often the same size as hardcover books but retail for about half the cover price. In addition to their size and price, trade paperbacks are considered more durable since they are better bound to last longer than the smaller, cheaper paperbacks. And often their covers and designs are more attractive, on the cutting edge, and upscale (but not always). They are generally sold by a direct or trade sales representative who gets them into trade accounts, i.e., bookstores and libraries. But some trade paperback books find their way into wholesale accounts like airports or supermarkets.

From management’s point of view, trade paperbacks are a way of maximizing profits. Why not? The margins are higher and, theoretically, the returns are fewer because smart and efficient booksellers order the “right” quantity. They have to because it costs them more for each unit ordered and they can’t strip the covers and return them for credit as they do on mass-market books. Instead they have to ship back the whole book, at their own
expense, for credit. No wonder, then, that they order conservatively.

Trade paperbacks are a prime vehicle for a publisher’s backlist, and they allow many companies to diversify, acquiring and offering a full line of books in any format (shape, size, and distribution of the book). In the case of reprints, publishers have a better idea of how many copies to print based on the hardcover track record.

Trade paperbacks also give publishers more markets to reach. Mass-market books, although sold in many more outlets, are editorially more limited since there are fewer things you can publish in this format: reprints of hardcover best-sellers; genre books like romances, science fiction, thrillers, and westerns; or the work of a category novelist you’re developing, such as a mystery writer. Editorially speaking, when we talk of nonfiction trade paperbacks we generally think of a wide range of subjects: history, science, health, psychology, travel, business, reference, mythology, New Age, and child care, to name a few. All these categories offer a lot of information. When we talk of trade fiction, we generally think of literary, or more difficult, books, such as
Lord of the Flies, Paris Trout, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love
, and
Possession
.