Working Titlez

Our book designer, Sue Campbell, and yours truly have both been invited to be on faculty for the bi-annual East of Eden Writers Conference for 2010. Held in Steinbeck Country of Salinas, California, this is one of the premier conferences in the country, attracts hundreds of writers and a really top-notch faculty. The conference is sponsored by the South Bay chapter of the 100-year-old California Writers Club.  So honored!!

As attendees of my workshops and programs know, I heartily endorse writers conferences as one of the best ways for authors to learn the ropes about the publishing biz, meet fellow writers, learn tons about the craft of writing, and make important connections. How often do you get the chance to sit next to a literary agent at lunch? Conferences are held all over the world (I’m still waiting for an faculty invite to a conference in say, New Zealand or Iceland) and www.shawguides.com is a great resource for checking them out. Closer to home, the Las Vegas Writers Conference is held every April, and features a fine line-up of presenters.

The Voices in My Head, by Danny Gans and R.G. Ryan went to press this morning. Whew! Danny’s very personal biography will debut in a trade paper edition later this month while a special collector’s hardcover edition (with an audio CD) will be out in December. More on both to come. Danny poured his energy into everything he loved, from his family to his faith, from baseball to his career in entertainment. When it came time to document his life story, he poured his energy into this project as well. Sadly, Danny passed away the day after the manuscript was completed. His inspiring story remains, offering a compelling mix of touching tales and life lessons. Danny’s story, told in his own voice, from his own heart. We’re honored to publish The Voices in My Head.

Stephens Press and iTunes Producer Michael Bloom have inked a deal to convert Stephens Press books into audiobooks for download at the iTunes store. First to be produced is Sinsational Celebrity Tales, to be read by the author, Norm Clarke. Plans are in the works to also produce SP children’s picture books as iTunes apps. These books can both be viewed and read on screen or the child can press an arrow to have each page read aloud. As parents and grandparents know, having an entertaining book or game at hand can be a lifesaver for a squirmy or bored toddler forced to wait in a line or for service in a restaurant. My four-year-old granddaughter Reese knows how to operate my iPhone better than I do!

The Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act went into effect on August 14, 2009. The CPSIA, which governs all products for ages 12 and under and was spurred by recalls of lead-containing toys, is intended to protect children from harm, particularly from lead and phthalates. It was enacted in August 2008 and its first major provisions went into effect in February 2009.

Problematic for publishers of children’s books was a requirement for component testing of every print run (testing of all of the elements that make up the book — ink, paper, board, glue) which, for a small publisher and short print run, could cost more than then book itself.

Lead levels in children’s books must be 300 parts per million or less, down from the 600 ppm level that went into effect in February. The publishing industry has argued that new books are uniformly far below these limits, (modern children’s book test out at less than 10 ppm) and should not be subject to the law’s testing and certification requirements. “Regular” ink-on-paper or board books printed after 1985 were granted a stay of enforcement. Books that contain special elements like attached toys will still require testing.

While no one wants unsafe books or toys in the hands of tots, the over-reaching requirements of the Act could have put a lot of smaller publishers out of business and greatly reduced an already risk-adverse publishing industry from taking chances with a short run for a promising new author or illustrator. Still problematic are books published before 1985 that sit on library shelves and used bookstores. Those books will likely have to be pulled and pulped.

Surprisingly few authors have asked me about the Google Settlement, perhaps because most articles about the digital scanning/copyright infringement issues are mind-numbingly written in legalese. I’ve prepared a couple of letters to send to our authors, only to have the status change overnight. While waiting patiently for the “real and final deal”, here’s today’s update from Publishers Weekly.

In a nutshell, some years back, Google started an ambitious plan to scan every single book ever published and making them findable online via key search words. They invited Stephens Press to participate and we agreed, providing copies of our books for scanning. The results of a search offers a small section of a book that includes the search term — a few paragraphs or a page at the most. The search results also offered links to where to buy the book, starting with the publisher. We thought it was a good way to further our reach and help people find our books. We don’t really have any mechanism in place to track a search all the way to a sale, but we’re eternal optimists and assume some books have, in fact, been purchased as the result of a Google search.

The waters got murkier when Google acquired the rights to digitize the holdings of several major libraries, including many out-of-print books. Now it was the libraries giving Google permission to scan these books — but the libraries don’t own the copyrights, just physical copies. Some are out of copyright but others aren’t. It may well require the tracking down heirs and long-defunct publishers in order to acquire permission to scan. Google argues that it is for the greater societal good that these books be made available to the world via their vast, well, vastness.

So you can see the sticky questions that have popped up. Certain entities, including the Authors Guild, took Google to task, and to court. Google agreed to a settlement, but the so-called settlement hasn’t been settled and seems to morph into new complications daily. The Department of Justice ruled on September 18 that the settlement is flawed and all sides need to return to the table.

The issues are complicated and strike at the heart of current copyright law. We can’t very well say no one can help themselves to someone else’s writing without permission except for Google. And what will Google do in the future? Once it “owns” essentially all the books of the land, will it start selling them? On the other hand, should researchers and ordinary folks have access, at least in some limited form, to everything ever written? Weighty questions.  Stay tuned.

Brady, our protagonist, is in a jam. Big Trouble. Chapter Four of Restless City has just been released with Leah Bailly in the driver’s seat. A signature project of the 2009 Vegas Valley Book Festival, Restless City is a serial novel, with seven Las Vegas authors each writing a sequential chapter. If you’ve been following along, you can read Leah’s chapter here. Or you can start at the beginning here.

Author Jack Harpster and First Lady Dawn Gibbons celebrate the debut of our newest book at the History for Hope Gala at Trump International.

It has been a long haul, like many such projects, to get from idea to a finished book in hand. When author Jack Harpster first proposed this book, the centennial was two-plus years away — which is actually just about the right amount of time needed to research, write, edit, acquire images, proofread, design, layout, print, bind, and ship.

Author Jack Harpster interviewed by Channel 3 News.

This week has been the culmination of this work, with two special events and a road trip. We started Thursday with an elegant evening at Trump International where First Lady Dawn Gibbons hosted a charity gala for the Austism Coalition of Nevada. The mansion’s centennial was the focus with a painting especially commissioned by the First Lady for the mansion unveiled and our book debut in Las Vegas.

Governor Gibbons poses with young admirer after signing a copy of 100 YEARS.

The state’s colors of blue and silver were everywhere from the crushed velvet table drapery to the magnificent silver candelabras. Former governors, first ladies, and their families were in attendance and popular Vegas entertainer Clint Holmes led the entertainment.

Governor Gibbons addresses the crowd as former Governors Bryan and Miller look on. That's our book table behind the Guv.

Friday was road trip day as Bill and I loaded up with more books and drove up to Carson City. The drive through Nevada seems desolate at times, but the wide opens spaces and big blue skies are a refreshing change from city life.

The official centennial celebration of the mansion took place on Saturday with plenty of dignitaries, cannons, flags, pomp and circumstance, and a little thunder, lightening, and rain.

Former governors Bryan and Miller joined current Governor Jim Gibbons in making remarks along with Denver Dickerson, grandson of Governor Dickerson, the first to occupy the mansion.

The mansion festivities were open to the public, to share in the celebration of the People’s House. We were thrilled to be a part of such a memorable event.

This was not the final cover design. Why?

Authors usually face the design of their book cover or jacket design with some trepidation. They know how critically important the cover will be to the book’s success, especially in retail environments. As publishers, we take many factors into consideration in designing covers. The design needs to communicate the content and help the buyer identify books in which they’d be interested. We listen, too, to the author’s suggestions. We consider the marketplace, what competing titles look like, color trends, typography, and much more. Research tells us that IF a customer picks up a book, they’ll spend 8 seconds looking at the front cover, and if their interest continues, they’ll flip it over and spend 15 seconds reviewing the back cover. Book designer Sue Campbell recently posted an article on the design of a new Stephens Press title, A NEW DAY by Dora Barilla. Sue outlines the design process and the covers that were developed at Sue Campbell Graphic Design.

Great article in the Reno Gazette Journal today about our newest title, 100 Years in the Governor’s Mansion by Jack Harpster*. The book will debut in Las Vegas on Thursday night at the First Lady’s autism charity event and on Saturday in Carson City at the Mansion’s centennial celebration. More soon on both events. The book is BEAUTIFUL, lavishly illustrated, and tells the history of the Mansion and Nevada from the POV of the families who lived the the grand old house (some would say, fishbowl). More on the book at NevadaGovernorsMansion.com.

*To our R-J friends, yes, this is “our” Jack Harpster, retired ad director and now Reno resident and book author.

The days flip past, faster and faster. (Image by flowers&machinery CC)

August came and went in a blur, and with it, my first anniversary as a blogger. Keeping my intended audience in mind — authors, our own authors, other publisher’s authors, wannabe authors — I’ve posted on a wide variety of book-related subjects. Everything from agents to book design, editing, marketing, and lots of tips. News, of course, about Stephens Press authors, books, awards, events and publicity. A few personal stories too, like learning to read, my first typewriter, collecting old books and the joys of presenting the first copy of a book to a new author. Blogsite #1, www.CarolynHayesUber.com morphed into blogsite #2, www.WorkingTitlez.com. Both having many of the same posts, but CHU includes more personal items while WT is more business-oriented. I love WordPress because it allows you to create “pages” so I’m building a repository of downloadable reports, interviews and papers that are useful to writers. If you know of someone who’d benefit from news and advice about the publishing world, please refer them. The easiest is to click on the Subscribe By Email link on the right, which will put each new post in your mail box. Q&A articles are popular, so questions from my readers are welcome.