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New Moon Rising: Birth Of A Children's Book Publisher
INSTALLMENT #8: HALFWAY THROUGH FIRST CYCLE, THE SECOND BEGINS...With Books in Hand (But No Sales Yet), We Start Work on Our 2001 List.
We received our first books from the printer this month, and they look great. Opening those cartons was pretty exciting...The big news for the month was the receipt of our first two titles, Hello Willow and Petronella. We received two cases of each by airfreight and opened them up with great anticipation. Lo and behold: no surprises! The colors matched the proofs; registration was perfect; and the pages were right-side up, in the proper order. Cause for celebration, so Cate and I took the obligatory lunch out.
Returning to the office, I put the finishing touches on our first mailing of "prepublication" review copies of Hello Willow, stickering the end papers with publication data, making sure that selected publications got mockup reviews and that others didn't, stuffing the padded mailers with books, news releases, cover notes, etc. We got them to the post office the same day and happily paid a couple hundred dollars in postage to see them off. Now, how much of a pest do I make myself with the review editors?
We were due to receive the full shipment by sea and surface freight just a couple weeks later but, with no distribution agreement yet in place, still had nowhere to put them. Cate negotiated with a local warehousing company, learning some of the arcana of that field, about which we previously knew nothing. By the time the full shipment arrived, we had a secure spot in the warehouse reserved, inventory insurance in place, and some idea of what it might cost to ship the books out again to a distributor. Carton cutter in hand, Cate visited the warehouse to inspect the shipment, opening up three boxes on each of the seven pallets. Again, everything looked fine. The downside of that, of course, is that we have to make the final payment to the printer (just joking).
WHOLESALERS AND DISTRIBUTORS
While awaiting the air shipment, I was anxious that the planned
prepublication review mailing should include the information: "available
through Ingram and Baker & Taylor." Making that statement was fairly easy
concerning B&T, because they pretty much assure publishers of acceptance
into their database for the price of some completed paperwork and a
registration fee of $125. Ingram was trickier, because they require that
four finished books be submitted on a "complimentary" basis before you can
be considered for acceptance into the Ingram Express program. After seeking
advice from other publishers on my favorite listserve, we decided to state
"available through Ingram" even though we had not yet submitted our
application. Of course, a package went out to them on the same day that the
prepub review copies were mailed and, to the best of my knowledge, our
submission is being processed, and we will be listed soon.
Distribution remained a topic of intense frustration. Even though we had received offers from three distributors, we were still trying to hook up with some others. So as soon as we had finished books, we sent copies to three more distributors, and then eagerly followed up with our top choice. But my numerous phone calls and emails to our main contact went unreturned over several weeks. Seeing the writing on the wall, and feeling that we had nothing to lose, I emailed the company's president, and received a prompt response from the main contact, declining to distribute us and apologizing for apparent technical problems in telecommunications. We also submitted books to another children's publisher who had agreed to consider distributing us, and were turned down there, too.
So we are looking again, very hard, at our dwindling options. We now have four offers on the table, all of them problematic in one respect or another. (One of them appears to be a fictional company; one seems financially shaky; one has a very thin children's line; and one is asking for an unusually high percentage, plus an up-front "listing" fee.) There are two others -- neither involved in children's books -- who would probably accept us if we wished. Then there are the options of using independent reps (maybe), and of keeping sales in-house (no way). With the October publication date of Hello Willow looming, we need to resolve this soonest. Getting HELLO WILLOW's illustrator Jennifer O'Keefe (left) and author Kimberly Poulton up in the tree for a publicity photo took some ingenuity. The little girl in the center was more cooperative.
SUBRIGHTS AGENCY
Representation in the area of subsidiary rights progressed much better. I
was unable to find agencies specializing in subrights for publishers in
Literary Market Place, so I called Thomas Woll, author of Selling Subsidiary
Rights: An Insider's Guide, but he didn't know of any such agencies either.
So I emailed about 15 literary agencies, seeking expressions of interest.
After getting no responses, I started making phone calls, and the first one
I contacted referred me to another agency with loads of experience in
children's books subrights. They were provisionally interested, pending a
look at our books and, after they received finished copies, made us an offer
of their standard contract, which seemed reasonable. We swiftly negotiated a
few minor issues and easily reached a "verbal" (actually email) agreement.
We're now awaiting the contract papers, delighted to have someone selling
foreign rights, book clubs, and the rest (TV and film, dare we hope?) in the
immediate future. In the meanwhile, we've sent review copies to the major
children's book clubs, and it's getting nigh-on time to follow up with the
acquisitions people.
CREDIT CARDS AND E-COMMERCE
Wanting to begin taking prepublication orders by phone, mail, and through
our website as soon as possible, we contacted several credit card companies
and received a range of quotes for merchant accounts. We were surprised to
find that the ISOs (Independent Service Organizations) were offering better
rates than the banks (we had been told to expect the opposite), and that
they were far, far more responsive. (We tried four banks, three of which
couldn't connect us to the right office for new merchant accounts, even
after numerous attempts.)
We spent a great deal of time researching website shopping carts, authorization software, and online card authorization services. We considered foregoing online authorization, in favor of simply taking orders through our website and "batching" them at the end of the day for offline authorization. But we concluded that the supposed cost savings on doing it off-line would be eaten up by the need to purchase the software and place our website on a secure server, so we decided to go with the full e-commerce solution of real-time authorization. We're now awaiting a proposal from a new web designer for implementation of the shopping cart and authorization link.
NEW TITLES IN PREPARATION
We received signed contracts back from four authors, only one of which
involved any significant negotiations. (We had concluded difficult
negotiations with a fifth the previous month.) A sixth has proved more
problematic. This unpublished author wants to negotiate the entire agreement
-- something we're unwilling to do, now that we believe our standard
contract is both good and fair. Consequently, we're pessimistic of signing
this author, while the others have all received, at minimum, the first half
of their advances.
The new books in preparation (all titles being tentative) are:
* Hamlet Builds a Sandcastle, written and illustrated by Brian Lies. This
summer-themed anthropomorphic comedy/adventure for ages 4-8, about an
enthusiastic pig and his cautious porcupine friend, is a sequel to Lies'
Hamlet and the Enormous Chinese Dragon Kite (Houghton Mifflin).
* Jacob and the Polar Bears, by Janet Graber. All 172 tiny, naughty polar
bears on Jacob's new/used pajamas insist on going outside to play at night,
in this comedy/fantasy for ages 6-10.
* Louie Larkey and the Bad Dream Patrol, by Linda Kay Weber. A fantasy for
ages 5-9, in which the courageous Louie Larkey heads a team of teddy bears,
to chase away a saurian bad dream as young Heather sleeps.
* The Sleepy Babies, by Mercedes Lawry. Insomniac babies find amusing ways
to keep themselves occupied in this light bedtime story for ages 0-4.
* Star Dusters, by Ann Garrett and Gene-Michael Higney, authors of What's
for Lunch? (Dutton) and other children's titles. Two rambunctious little-boy
angels create near-catastrophe on earth that they must try to avert. A
wintertime comedy for children 6-8.
Having shared the role of acquisitions editor with Cate, I was now in a position to become content editor for our next five titles. Having a natural propensity toward bossiness, I'm trying hard to be a sympathetic editor. This was fairly easy on the first two I've tackled, because their continuity and language left little to be desired, and the required editing was almost entirely limited to a few word choices here and there. The publication date for our second book, PETRONELLA, is in limbo until we've settled on a distributor or other sales mechanism. The illustration is by Margaret Organ-Kean.
LAUNDRY LIST
Other items this month included:
* We submitted a proposal to the Providence Children's Museum for Moon Mountain to conduct a series of children's programs based on Hello Willow, scheduled to coincide with the book's publication. The program would consist mainly of readings and games with a parachute, and would be directed by the book's author and the illustrator, who are collaborating on its development. The proposal was accepted, so we scheduled an adults-only publication party for the evening of the same day, also at the museum.
* The outdoor photo shoot of Willow's author and illustrator went off successfully, although the issue was in doubt for a while. The weather cooperated beautifully, but the illustrator -- whom I had thought was something of a tomboy -- couldn't pry her terrified fingers off the ladder to hop onto the 10-foot high tree limb I had selected as the setting for the shot. After several abortive attempts, we managed to restage the shot so that she appeared to be in the tree, while actually remaining standing on the ladder. This occurred just a day or two after we had received the first air shipped books, so we were able to present both the author and the illustrator with finished copies, and they both seemed quite pleased with the results. (Pleased? The author was more like over-the-moon thrilled!)
* We had further, lengthy communications with a novelty foods company concerning our proprietary book publishing services. Lots of issues remain unresolved -- including the project's basic marketing objectives -- but discussions are continuing. We also submitted a requested proposal to an internet marketing company for a series of children's books. And we received the long-expected rejection of our first proposal, which had been pending with a not-for-profit foundation for some months.
* Cate attended another organizational meeting of the Independent Publishers of New England, which is still in a formative stage. (I expect that, if the organization ever attains a formal structure, Cate will be promptly be imposed upon to become fill some official position.) IPNE has reserved a display table at the New England Booksellers Association trade show in Boston in September, and we've committed to sharing space with two other publisher/members.
* Cate received and accepted two speaking invitations -- one from the local chapter of The Women's Club, the other from the local Rotary. The requested topic, in both cases, appears to be "the state of independent publishing -- from the perspective of North Kingstown, RI." She also showed off our books at a monthly "poems for lunch" meeting she attends at the public library, and received expressions of interest -- as she has done everywhere she's showed them. We've really got to get our credit card merchant status finalized, because we could be taking orders right now!
Visit Moon Mountain on the Web. Feel free to contact us at hello@moonmountainpub.com.