If you compare that that is pretty strong. We are much smaller. That is an industry that is built up. And hundreds of thousands. Michael is the ceo and is our guest on booktv. Welcoming to the panel this morning. Thanks for coming. Please silence all cellular phones and recording is not allowed during the sessions. I will be your moderator today. I i am a publishing life for that is to say ill be wanted to be in publishing my whole life pretty much and i have. Much my whole life. Into a start up as an editor and it does to produce glittery nonfiction with history and politics andn music and biography of Popular Science and then elisabeth agreed and somewhere toward the end and with that books critics circle award. His tw around the twitter account. E [laughter] have Book Publishing for the last 80 years as a publisher for little brown and Company Working with critically acclaimed authors including taking a rally jk routing. This is an amazing list. Including elton john. Michael caine ended is an eager traveler with herag husband and two sons. President of the Literary Agency represents writers of fiction and nonfiction to encourage affairs in then to a explain things to be from day extraordinary communities. To all the books of fiction and nonfiction and at the end rickey various aspects. Of the Publishing Industry more than 20 years as executive editor at ballantine which is part of random house and then as a finalist for the National Book award. Currently executive editor for Counterpoint Press were the largest publishers in the country in one of the few located on the west coast he edits fiction and nonfiction includes work including a finalist for the National Book award. [applause] recently had a friend call publishing the of boogie buggy whip a business is everything we do it degraded . That is where you would be to the of course, when you drive the of buggy so there is the thought that it proceeds at a glacial pace. We are not creating magical apps to put on your phone you can read them is called the new mossy angeles we are far from the television and movie business but we were stories that existed a lot of places is especially if theyre not buying the book because they want to watch the best rounds but that was a book. Working on stori do they think people are still reading. So i cant imagine the were still reading it and still need a box. I was reading about Reese Witherspoon and all the people are starting in prince if it was so bad they all would want to get down into the of Book Business of my entire publishing career has always ben the sky is falling. That is the nature of the business. If people outside say that all the time we spend their whole careers doing this so it is the opposite that is what we do every day. I think day covered it. That their aspects of the is timeless, aspe of business are a little bit equated to be as progressive as a kid with all of the options now. Mother on the phone or the ipad but those essential assets which is finding books to make them better and get them into your hands i used to joke i got up every morning to put on a tshirt that said old school but i am proud of that i have been at conferences where people rail against publishers for being gatekeeper so how do you feel about the gate keeping up on june . . Nickel you had written Something Interesting about that and i wonder if you was it for cancer first. Hope i can remember what i said. I seek we are a conduit humans need a story said we are here to put them in human hands there other ways to do that but our job is to get them through the door. Is it always fun to be f the gatekeeper. I was astonished to discover how the other people want to be writers but how many did not want to read their books . I read in 500 books published per year and i published 12. And those are things allll represented by a talented but cajuns to also look down 500 manuscripts by people who want to write them and there is a lot of stuff out there. There. A lot so to find those interesting things is what we are passionate about 65 is something that is electricic and exciting to be a reader to find that is challenging people want book recommendations what should i read . I dont know. E a reader and to to say that you should readld this i look at a lot of stuff this is the best thingea s i have seen all year is incredible that has an experience for the reader in fermium the writer in a way i see it as a Service Rather they and a defense mechanism. How you keep from getting overwhelmed with that many things passing through your eyeballs or your brain . As the gatekeeper proudly we have 200 submissions per week may be there are five well ask to see the entire manuscript out of those may be there is one we feel confident that we can help the writer make the book shying. The thing is you keep reading bad things after what you think what i know something good if they came across my desk . [laughter]re how well i know . You will know. You always know. There is something it shines it captures you. The good ones always rise to the top. Thank if they are good for 30 00 p. M. At the end of the day not just at 10 00 4 00 it is the worst you think it is incredible. [laughter] also you read that as you edit it them they continue to be good. Being overwhelmed we have all suffered with that if you just did the numbers there will be more who wish to write in those who can and. Facilitate and so i think that is part of the job to feel overwhelmed and publishing is a business and sometimes people forget that because theres so many other things you attach to writing as a hope injury mitt aspiration by from decided is a business and so there are those rules to follow within the business and i feel the system works so whatever word you use as a facilitator or gate keeper , there are ways in place to help us get to as many writers as we can. You are right to play music sometimes i used to be in a band to start a the end is to start a Small Business some succeed really well because they have a group of for five people who have those talents to do the things the dow the talents that they need not just the music by record and talk to the media and the press is indeed Good Business people and a writer whether sitting at your desk for yourself or professional best seller, you have to think of yourself as a Small Business like Jacqueline Smith in new hire people along the way to help you run your business so she hires a book agent to sell her work to publishers she hires a publisher to promote her kraft so there is another side to look at that we are working for the raiders and a lot of ways somehow those talents and dont need the gatekeepers or the publishers some dont in they need to hire people that can do the job for them. There was the speech when i was in new york that said his sister at the time worked at nestles and he had to explain that publishing was trying tout a mag make a marketing plan for every chocolate chip. [laughter] this is delicious but in a different way so that is a huge challenge. How do you decide how to market or how do you reach the market . You read the book first b of all. Do that. [laughter] i know it sounds crazy but there is a point at which way you look at things in a proposal or to acquire we talk about the potential market the way you read the book that is what the answers the question the vast we have things like comparable titles to think t about that market but almost everything we have is like a separate chocolate chip they are all separate products although people dont like that word but being able to define what is different in a unique and special and waterfall about that particular product helps you to figure out your audience that it is a math problem to break down the conduit of the audience that is the job of the publisher to be that conduit of the retailers in the audience to was to read a book like that book. If readers find their books by following other on t writers nine twitter or by the front table at a book table those are all conduits. To what extent do you depend on the author with the marketing ability to marketers . Own gravy as marketers . I would be very interested to hear from agents fled to use the devout that because he did give proposals for you that if for talks about the authors toolkit sometimes the only thing the author does well is right. That is why. Y. We need to know that so we know what other parts we need to fill in or other ways to utilize their talents or if they are freight public speakers or a brilliant to themselves with a huge media platform bed we want to use that but we dont require that. To what extent do you look at that . It is helpful absolutely e as an independent press where 12 people doing 70 so it is not a small workload so each book is evaluated on its own merits than whatever the strength of the authorev may be can help us to get the word out is helpful. It is not a requirement it is an advantage something that will help the author in the future in the future work as well as. As an agent and a longtime agent notwithstanding often the weakest link in publishing cares you wind up with the 22 yearold who does not read the book at the first job in the entire understanding of what to do for publishing is to put a book in hand standoff then nothing happens they say i sent out all the review copies and im sure that that he knows this as well that yes publishers depend more on the platform some do and some dont some are good for social media son of a shy away because they know how to write especially fiction but even nonfiction with the subject matter it is whether science or food your plumbing. Youre really good plumbing bookie want to sell me . [laughter] times thinking about chocolate chips. [laughter] yes. Helps when they have the subject matter they are the expert but that publicity is often lacking it does rely on the author to do as much as possible the thing about microphones would abuse saye it comes out louderud sometimes distorted so the best doctors have a very clear message in they help the publisher. So a young hits a lot of targets. Riveting about death writing about death and people are curious about that is to do i even say a performances it is italys easy but she and the stephens she needs to be out there of the event would employ dash show it in seattle unless they get 50 people there. A and wants you have that they can say to the publicist i know these are super excited i dont have time to send a book and followup bet you do that we will keep going. Want the bad agents will do is we will work with you to improve your platform to suggest different ways or consultants to talk with to get your name out there it can be difficult for us if you are invisible to like that david analogy a lot. [laughter] this marquands know to go where the audiences. The statistics on who makes of living as a writer the whole question above discover ability that there is a resurgence at have been apprised traditionally for their ability off your discovery in a book. Is are there new ways to promote to discover ability . And then they get them the front line people placing books in peoples hands and sometimes more important as the shelf space dwindles it is one of the reasons that i really like social media because it is a because it way for authors to interact directly with the audience which is hard for authors to do unless they pack up the bus and had a publisher willing to send them now into the world to meet humans you can meet those who like reading books like yours and interact with them to develop not the same kind of relationship but once through the social media platforms as a way it has we talk about how many jobless Data Platform 20 years ago . There are plenty that have ael platform now because theyy have a way to talk to people so that is another way for people to discover books certainly not to the hard sell of conversation that building actual relationships. In the best way still with all social media and modern invention is through word of mouth and that is the one thing you can never manufactured that is why a the businesses mostly magic isnt a lot we can i get a reviewed everywhere but putting in front of you 50erent different ways social media and print media but if it doesnt catch your imagination if you dont talk about it with your friends and readers, we are stock. K. Also you hit at the right moment sometimes you do and we knew do it is late being in a bottle you just hit the conversation or you change it out there isnt even something and it makes the train move faster. I would say that there was a really good point to put a book in front of people with that discover ability is the biggest challenge and then to work on the key words to make sure it is in bookstores say that you will find it to make sure it is on the radio if you listen you may discover it there also a hint of that gives the book a chance to survive we cannot force you to walk to the Cash Register with the coffee and by that or click or whenever. I want to confirm it is like tv. It begins with the personal editorial act. If it touches me or eliminate something that is very exciting. Aninto the great and joyful thi. I can say this about them. Having turned down a book that he bought i will not sa see the authors name but i couldnt see it. You figured it we live in the same neighborhood and what did you do to figure this out and it [inaudible] [laughter] standing at the window watching a bird. Everyone in this room could read a book and have different thoughts and opinions. I could read something and not get it and you could read it and had great success. A lot of that remains absolutely true. Thats why we have a diverse and Interesting Group of publishers and writers. I will tell you a story. I tend to be very honest because essentially i need writers and editors to trust me and publishers if i say this is the one that is really good i sell them three bad things before this and if you have to read this right away, they actually do. So i do feel like there are agents that are like this is good enough and throw it and see if it sticks. It blows up in my face and that didnt work at all. If i dont it doesnt work so you have to tell writers thehe truth. Truth. Its not bestselling. I would like to be a writer somewhere. I am not a fairy godmother. [laughter] but im sure you know this, too. Part of what we do is manage expectations of what is possible and what isnt. I think to echo a little bit, if you succeed in this business you are somebody that can figure out how to convey your optimism and enthusiasm for a book and you find a lot of joy to be able to do that and thats something that sustains you and you get excited over and over again about discovering a voice or a story and wanting to share that with the world. Its a pretty thrilling thing to be able to do. We are also publishing a soft cookbook. [laughter] the books i liked told me how the world works. One was about the art world called the seven days in the art world. Each took place in a Different Institution as a sociology like how did that work. The writer goes on to describe why one painting is worth a million and another is worth th nothing and affordable of the market dynamics. They talked about how they make art. You have to break the rules and everybody breaks all the rules but still makes things that look like art. Does that make sense . It showed both intellectually i found thally how a particular community operated so these folks look at how things work and the strait of the culture. I love nonfiction storytellers. We are publishing a novel next month. You heard that story before and at the end of the book it turnso into the story of humanity and where we are going to be going. Theres all these fellows up the cool ideas that you come to while reading a great story. It shows us how things work so we can then use that elsewhere in our lives. I think thats important because there is these reasons you pick a book up and want to spend your money on it but also spend your time on it. It takes however many hours to read and to do that you have to have a lot of reasons for it. Thats why shes telling the story now in this book and why the book is more important because its informed by this authors experience and theres r a whole theory of criticism and they should have nothing to do with the produc products of whai theyve made about is also how the page came to be so i like books where i am able to talki about a writer in a way thats as much about the book. I often think back to my days as an english major where no one cared if i loved beowulf or not and its uplifting and we are publicizing id effectors intoin the work. Its really important for the measure of belief we all feel when we come to any piece of work. Theres so much stuff here that artifice but we do have to believe that the story is real and that it mattered to you. You have to believe the author is worth listening to and their advice is going to help you become thinner and richer and their history is going to tell you what happened in 1776 better than anything else and that kind of authenticity and conviction is imported and they stab from the love of a topic or the writer of the story. My most successful books have been the little engines that could have started small and then ended up with movie deals. Not mu one of them after seeing a fragment she wrote was only distributed in my silver Lake Neighborhood and she wrote a very beautifully about a girl that surfed. When the book came out i and wet out onto the bestseller list and there were sales and its been under option for 20 years and its now being made into a film starring Jennifer Garner and it started out really small. Do you have any similar engines that you would like to share with the audience . Its an independent press so any engine is a little engine that could. We are in author driven house so a lot of what we are looking for is not necessarily going to go out on the hug a huge level so l talk about a beautiful and wonderful writer who strugglednn for years and placed a couple of her short stories and nice magazines and we collected them into a book called refund which was beautiful and amazing, but its a story collection. So this business always teaches you to manage when it comes to short fiction. We published it in january of te reviews happened almost immediately to great acclaim she was put on a short list for the prize that was the International Finalist for the book award. That would probably be myyear. Cinderella story. From a deeply talented writer who had faced adversity and a struggling trying to place some of the stories and then had a wonderful experience in thed ste collection. The one i would use would then explain things that hit the the zeitgeist. They sold the book for 10,000 to the press and its range rove revolutionary to never pay royalties. Its also known as the socialist but this might explain things with a collection of essays som me was a c of which you could find on the internet if you looked and they sold it to a publisher in new york and a very young woman read it and they are really excellent about gender politics and men and women and communication and it just keeps going and going with many thousands of copies because it was the right book at the right moment. By worked at an independent press that isnt so little at a time. The publisher bought apr collection of nonfiction essays from a guy that had been a homeless crack addict. He had been a cameraman and worked in advertising and a casual drug users that fell over the edge after his brother diedo of aids. The book deal was made because the publisher bought a copy of street news and wouldnt haveso read it at the train got caught in between stations and he ended up reading the whole thing and noticed that even though a couple of them have different bylines they were all written by the same person and worthwhile return with the experience of the homeless person in new yorke city and having a crack habit. He gave a couple thousand dollars. He found these and gave a book deal. It took several years to write the book because he had to go to rehab and finally finished the collection and he wrote an introduction for it and the book landed in my lap and they said could you get some publicity for this and i said it was a great story. And it gets back to what you were saying about being able to tell the story of the writer and those two things come together very beautifully and so i called people because i had no idea what i was doing and they followed him around for several days into the tunnels at grandou central and i think that the advance may be 3,000 copies of disorder and 50,000 copies. Lee stringer is still a writer today thats within a couple of other books and i thought if this is what publishing is like, then this is great. I could have the opportunity to get somebodys way south in the world like that again is something that makes me happy spring in my step when i go to work every day. Its exciting to have you tell that story. In shes nearly 100yearsold and she lived all of the 20th century and published so she could finish her novel. She wrote this book on her 89thr birthday and it was about what its like to be very old. She had imagined a big beautifu her garden a tree for and she said i would see it get any bigger than this plant somebody got me because im old and i cant get a dog. She wrote about it so precisely and the beauty of it. Theres not a word out of place. The english rights director came to the office and said dont you want to buy it. Sold it. I started sending copies of it with handwritten notes about this and sent one to all of these famous writers and i started getting calls back. Alice munro sent me a postcard and i still have it. The book came out in december and i was visiting my family for the holidays. Things started sparking and we started selling a lot of copies. It became when she won in the book circle int and they all responded as if a great beauty had arrived. She was like here imf 91, aere am at showstopper. I went around and she she is a National Treasure hard toone everyone calls describe. I im going to see her on saturd saturday. Its what you thought. You should bring her a book. Thats a better idea. One publisher said you should bring her a hot caribbean man. [laughter]wanted. She is the i love the story so much. I want to ask you quickly and then open up to a few minutes of questions. They should rates really we well. They have a lot of homework to do and if you are polite to them and help them and seek to understand what the role is rather then why havent you got caught me in the New York Times yet. They want to get to the New York Times and publishers want the same thing writers andew agents want. They want the most number of people to read your book and thats how wordofmouth happene and peoplthe word of mouthhappek and read the book. Even in the la times festivae of books i would say as a writer to do research, see what books you love because the more you know as you go into the process, the better and for you to find the right person. To do your homework before you start because it gets rid of a lot of disappointment. To think of your writing as a career. Youre not going to magically become Malcolm Gladwell or a famous writer. You have to work hard and theres a lot of professional steps you have to take and learn about what those are its important. To be a part of the community you have to come to events and be a part of the community you wish to join. Its not difficult or hard. But its necessary and its helpful. I maintain that i i am often approached because my last name begins with a. That is not a compelling reason. We would love to hear your questions. We have 11 minutes. S. If he would wind u you would lie microphone and speak clearly, we would love to try to answer youe question. I heard a statistic recently that books are bought because of the cover art. If that is true its kind of sad people are buying it for the content. Do you have any experience or comment on that . A good cover it can help solve a book. But then what most people do is read the first page and second page and if it appeals to them then they decide whether to spend their money on it or not. It helps that its not the beall and endall. 80 sounds kind of high. I think that assumes people buy anything for one reason it is a false presumption. I think the subtext is the game rigged and i dont think so actually. I think it can be very helpful but also the question i was asking myself can i think of books that have tunable coverse that have sold a lot of copies, yes. I wanted to thank you for coming out. Ou for coming out. Ovel winner or accomplish her whatever you want to call it, im now setting up do you have any advice how to write a better inquiry or what you look for, what jumps off the page to say i want to look deeper into this . Spinnaker they are extremely well written. Its the professional moment for you and we woul you would be amy what we get. I im not a writer but i wrote a book. I have a whole routin routine it conferences that are alarming. The good letters stand out. You want to be able to position it with other writers because that is part of the game that wt play. Dont compare your self [inaudible] [laughter] you if you are reading and you are out of the literary scene a new book came out in february so you say its kind of like that. I went to the book event and demonstrating the knowledge of where we are now you have to be somebody thats writing in contemporary. So do you have any advice i dont know who said look at the back of your bookshelf and there are different ways or channels i can look for to find the key masters for the gatekeeper i can clacks theres a website calleds publishers marketplace. But im about i am not a negative person but im about to go a little negative. I want to challenge something ss that a little bit earlier about use of the publishing is a business, there are rules to follow and i feel the system works. I hoped to get you speaking more about thatin the Publishing Industry nine years now and that made me so depressed because all of the evidence ive seen is that its only working for the thestem. At are already in young people system, people getting pushedd out of their jobs are being represented iwere beingrepresens much as they are in the world. I was hoping that you could give me some evidence of where its working and who is making it work and especially how it is working for people that are not already sitting at the table having these jobs. We were talking about the gatekeeping meaning they need ti find agents who find them good homes and houses as opposed to trying to approach publishers themselves i go off on their own thing. So that was a rather specific part of the business. If you want to talk about the changing demographics i think that is an entirely different issue. In the number of people that have editorial jobs is very lowj and i think all of us are aware of it. Look at this stage full of white people and what we can do is be aware of our own biases and try to overcome. Publishing is open to all sorts of voices and certainly i represent writers of color and talking about gender and all sorts of things. I think most publishing houses and agents are all open to this and try to add to the conversation and increased the conversation about the subject so yes it is true. I think that people are asking that question in sight of publishing and people need to keep asking that question and wd need to keep looking at ourselves and very actively trying to make our workforce that will foster more throughout publishing. You also asked about people trying to get a start. Any industry you try to get a start in it is a small industry but i have hired three people that are 22, 23yearsold in the last year. We need young people, always. We all started as assistant and worked our way up into the business is based onbusiness. Apprenticeship. It would be a great panel topic. I am a teacher constantly looking for literature to pass on to students. We have quite a number of entertainers. How are they getting to your level is a because the are entertainers so we are going to hope they make money . It is to go to Something Like the book expo. You see how many different kinds are published every year. Its what gets covered and what gets bought. There are people out there that might go to a store and be interested in your story and that is kind of the basic market demand. I work for a Publishing Company that is independent and we have a huge Academic Division that we are expanding to try to get good books. There appears to be a lot of celebrity. Often times it makes money but we also try to publish goods because it also makes money. If. They have a great story to tell, quite often they dont. We are proud to publish things we consider great literature but i want people to read better things. You are very thoughtful in the selection of books you put in front of your students but i also feel like if people are reading anything for it with that, we must stop. Im sorry we are on book tv ti time. Please join me in thanking the panelists for coming today. [applause] ive been stumbling around as a writer in the business. I was under the illusion that selfpublishing had thrown atrat rock into traditional publishing and now i have books where im stuck with distribution but still havent gotten anywhere. Do you accept the books thatat were self published, thats the question. The majority are original