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Selling Sin: Red Rock Press Packages the Seven Deadly Sins as Book Series
Young indie press uses talented freelance staff and the Web to produce "sinfully" lavish books for trade and gift market.
Red Rock Press is the brainchild of Ilene Barth, former Newsday editor, columnist, and book critic who decided to start her own publishing venture in 1998. Not one to shy away from political irreverence, Barth wrote her first book, The Smoking Life, published by Genesis in 1997, about the joys of smoking.Having co-founded Red Rock Press with husband, teacher and novelist Richard Barth (his tenth novel, Jumper, is just out from St. Martin's Press) and established offices in both Manhattan and Telluride, CO, Ilene has jumped into independent publishing in a big way--she currently serves as a PMA Board member. Along with their fledgling publishing company, the Barths have three children and one spaniel puppy. Daughter Daisy, age seven, has sweetly requested that the fortunes of Red Rock Press not be a dinner table topic.
Here is the Red Rock Press catalog so far:
* GLUTTONY: More is More by renowned food writer Nan Lyons, brimming with humorous dining history and food lore--and some of the most wickedly-delicious recipes ever created.
* GREED & Its Rewards by Drew Fetherson is a lavishly-illustrated exploration of the itch for riches, from King Midas to Bill Gates.
* LUST, Love and Longing by Eileen Morgan, an artistic romp through romantic history and the best that has ever been said about those crazy feelings we call love.
The rest of the Seven Deadly Sins will also be coming to a bookstore near you: VANITY, ANGER, ENVY, and SLOTH are in the works. Collect 'em all...To be fair, we should also mention that another series of books entitled Virtue Victorious. These books, with titles like The Book of FORTITUDE: True Stories of True Grit and The Book of CHARITY: True Stories of Giving and Receiving are collections of first-person accounts of ordinary people who have achieved extraordinary feats of virtue.
I spoke with Ilene Barth about becoming a publisher and about creating and marketing Red Rock Press books.
IP: Independent publishing isn't exactly known as the most profitable business venture to invest in these days. To borrow a phrase from one of your books, are you a glutton for punishment?
IB: I've literally been working 14 hours a day, often with weekends included, and have yet to take a penny for my efforts, so maybe you're right. Also, it didn't take long to realize the seed money I'd raised from friends to start the company was not nearly enough. Our revenues this year will double or triple last year's, but that doesn't mean we're profitable yet.
IP: You do seem to have a lot of momentum for such a young company.
IB: I decided to start with a series rather than unrelated titles, so that we
would have an identifiable publishing program and identity from the outset.
This was a good decision because it gained us a distributor early on. We
picked topics that appealed to us and which I knew I could find good people
to help implement.
IP: How did you bring yourself up to speed in this business?
IB: I had confidence in our ability to produce high-quality books and promo materials--after all, as an editor I'd been on the receiving end for years. I also quickly became involved with small-press groups--partly to learn but also to contribute. Initially what I had to offer was my journalistic background--I know how books look, and how they're quickly assessed by those who are being swamped with them. Mastering the business side has been the most interesting challenge, and we're still working on that.
IP: It appears that your production team is spread out around the country. How is that working out?
IB: The biggest surprise to me is how quickly the Red Rock Press freelance "family" has grown and how geographically scattered it is--which
is workable thanks to the computer and the Internet. Authors and editors are
strung out from North Dakota to New York to Georgia. We have one designer in
Montana, another in Manhattan, and a third in California. We print one series in Hong Kong, another series in Kansas, and our bound galleys are printed in North Carolina.
Our "Virtue Victorious" series editors are based in Grand Forks, ND, Telluride, CO, Forest Hills, NY and Atlanta, GA, and they troll for prospective contributors on author sites and exchange information and receive and circulate submissions via email. We are setting up a second Red Rock site, VirtueVictorious.com, where authors, editors and readers can meet and share stories and insights. This, we believe, will also extend "grassroots" interest in this series. The most gratifying part of all this is how talented and dedicated the people we work with are, and how little by little, the book buying public seems to notice that our books are worth having.
IP: You've explained how the series concept gained you a distributor early on. Why did you switch to commissioned sales rep groups after your first season?
IB: Lining up distribution before we printed books was vital to our start because without it we couldn't guarantee a single sales outlet or map a publicity campaign for our authors. And since the "Sin Series" books are beautiful little full-color art books, it made no sense to substitute galleys which couldn't possibly capture the books. But not having books or any sales record meant we had no lure for a distributor. So at modest cost, we asked our
designer to work up an eight-page color blad of one book, and we produced a
color brochure of mock covers of other titles we planned for the series.
Our distributor started to sell the first two books in June; we knew by the beginning of fall that that we'd need a better arrangement for the following year. Our distributor got us into Barnes & Noble and Borders, but into very few if any smaller chains or independent bookstores. Moreover, we had no idea where in the country our books were selling, as communication with the distributor was abysmal due to its constant personnel changes. The big chains are, of course, essential to us, but so are independent bookstores and gift stores. Without smaller stores also on board the success of any single title (or even series) could rest entirely on one particular chain-store buyer's opinion. We could not allow Red Rock Press to be that vulnerable.
The quality of our existing books, and the fact that we were committed to two series allowed us to select among sales-rep groups whose other clients are much larger and better known than we are. Managing sales-rep groups, shipping and invoicing is a lot more work but our sales results are already significantly stronger.
While the knowledge of our actual outlets is not perfect since many stores still prefer to order through wholesalers, getting specific orders through our reps and being able to see daily what is happening at Ingram (and less frequently Baker & Taylor) gives us valuable info. For one thing, we can better track the results of publicity, such as a review in a Midwestern newspaper, the results of an author appearance on a local Atlanta TV station, or a late-night network TV appearance.
IP: As a former book review editor, will you share some tips about how to get books noticed?
IB: The most frequent failing of many book publicists (especially in-house ones)
is that they send every book they represent to everyone on their media list,
without any assessment of whether that particular person in that particular
job slot is likely to have a productive interest in the book offered. And,
they update their lists too rarely--tons of books arrive addressed to
editors and producers that are no longer there.
When I was the Editor of the editorial commentary sections of a major newspaper, I was inundated with books that didn't suit my editorial mission (pop novels, abstruse academic theses, how-to books). The titles I was interested in (well-written and original books dealing with foreign and national policy or even literary novels by authors who had genuine ideas about contemporary culture), I usually needed to request from publishers.
Editors are very busy people who also plan ahead. The typical editor or assistant will glance for a second at a book and make an instant decision. After that micro-moment, ninety-five percent of books end up on a slush heap. The tragedy for publishers is that some of those errant books might be of interest to others on the publication. Because we were busy, we were lazy and also aware that other editors might not be grateful to us for adding to their clutter.
The moral of this story is: Find the right person, and send your enticing catalog with an easy check-off form to him or her. Follow up with a phone call or very brief email. My experience on both sides of the fence shows that a requested book is not going to get guaranteed attention, but it has a good chance of receiving it.
IP: What are some other marketing concepts you're working on?
IB: Now that we're solving other marketing problems, we see Special Sales as key
to our growth. We believe that the "Virtue Victorious" series, just launched with Fortitude: True Stories of True Grit should be of interest to charitable foundations and many types of corporations eager to enhance public image. "Charity" will be out in the fall; "Wisdom," "Hope" and other series titles are in the works.
When I received the "Fortitude" manuscript last April, I laughed and cried as I read it, and so did everyone else who saw it then. I realized that the book exceeded our high expectations for it: that its compelling authenticity was a 21st-century twist on the great, real-people-speak works of Studs Terkel, and since these real people had written their own stories, I had not only one talented editor/writer who could speak authoritatively about "courage today," but many contributors from across the nation who could tell their own stories to local media and prospective readers. Since we could not afford an expensive author tour, having these authors in place could be a bonus for us. Upon its publication in November we were able to schedule 16 readings at bookstores across the nation. A couple of contributors also brought the books to small Special Sales venues in their regions. This jump-started orders and sales, and we're not through yet.
We will also be publishing a book, tentatively entitled "A Month of Sundaes." For this title we are committed to lining up Special Sales to companies such as ice cream manufacturers and/or ice-cream parlor chains BEFORE completing its design. While the book will also be sold in the conventional marketplace, we want to explore early on editions for special bulk buyers.
A different and immediate challenge for us, now that we've gone the sales-rep route, is to offer enough new titles each season to allow our reps to give bookstores sufficient choices. We need to do this without sacrificing the quality of our titles with rush-jobs, or committing resources too far ahead of revenues. The experimental "solution" we've just decided on is to offer selected other small publishers our sales network. We are inviting such publishers to submit upcoming books to us that both suit our niche and meet and high quality standards. If we think the book is right for our mix, and the publisher can deliver sufficient copies to our warehouse, we'll include it in our catalogue under its own "imprint" and handle to-the-trade sales for a reasonable fee.
IP: Any hopes for your term as a PMA board member in the coming year?
IB: I'm working with fellow board members and the PMA's dedicated staff on
bringing more media attention to our Ben Franklin awards, on exploring novel
and productive venues for cooperative displays and on increasing the
amplitude of the independent-publishing voice on key first amendment issues.
IP: What's for Christmas dinner?
IB: Fondue on Christmas eve; lamb on Christmas Day.