What happens from the time a book is sold to a publisher to its appearance on bookstore shelves is complicated and sometimes confusing or mysterious. What I want to do in this article is tell you a story about the publishing of one book, and explain what the inner workings are.
I've used Simon & Schuster as a representative publisher because of its size and complexity and because I worked there for eleven years. I've tried to be accurate in my description of its divisions, publishing procedures, and fiction and nonfiction lists, but publishers and publishing are in a constant state of change and there are probably some differences between what I describe and how publishing is at S&S today.
The book and the characters are fictional but the passion, vitality, commitment, and belief in the importance and value of books and authors are real.
Judith hung up the phone, and smiled, and smiled, and smiled. She felt giddy, even a little foolish, but she couldn't help it. She was so happy. And she wanted to enjoy every moment of her publishing experience. Somehow, for some reason, the sun had shone on her, and her memoir, SHATTERED, was becoming a surprising success.
The reviews were filled with praise and admiration, Simon & Schuster had gone back to press for a third printing, less than a month after publication, her publicity tour was being extended by another ten cities, and foreign publishers around the world were buying translation rights.
All of that was keeping her floating, surrounded by clouds, and now, there was more. Ben, her editor, had called to tell her that Oprah wanted her to appear on her show. Oprah. Wow.
She closed her eyes and hugged herself very hard. Yes, it was all real. But it was a dream too.
After three years of working with Judith on the book that would become SHATTERED, literary agent Sarah Henderson was ready to submit the manuscript to publishers. Rarely did she get so editorially involved, especially for that length of time, with one of her clients, but Judith and her book were special.
Sarah had been preparing for months her thoughts about which editors and publishers to submit to, and Judith had helped by researching publishers that had brought out psychological memoirs and might be interested in adding SHATTERED to their list.
A publishing veteran, Sarah knew dozens of editors but not all of them were appropriate for this book, perhaps because they specialized in literary or commercial fiction, sports or reference books, or worked at a small house that couldn't afford the kind of money she was looking for.
In addition, with a work this personal, it was important to get the right psychological fit of author and editor. Sarah reviewed again her final list of editors. No deletions, no additions. It was time to find out who had serious interest in reading the manuscript.
She called four editors, three of whom wanted to see the book and a fourth who didn't get it and didn't care. Next on her list was Ben Fitzgerald, Senior Editor in the Simon & Schuster Trade Division.
Ben worked for perhaps the biggest and most aggressive publishing company in the world, and as an editor in the Trade Division he competed for books, not only with rival publishers, but with other Simon & Schuster divisions that also published general interest trade books.
Simon & Schuster had the prestige, success, money, power and drive. But would they have the interest?
As a man, Ben wasn't the obvious choice at S & S for this book about a woman's breakdown and recovery, and indeed he was the only male editor she was contacting.
Sarah knew that Ben published many men's books in fiction and nonfiction but she also knew he'd been very romantically married for over twenty years, was unusually sympathetic to and understanding of women, and enjoyed occasionally publishing women's books. Additionally, and too rare among editors, he had a great reputation for providing as much editorial assistance as his authors needed. Ben was definitely a good prospect.
He answered the phone himself, something that not too many editors did anymore, using their assistants as a screen. But that was Ben.
"Ben Fitzgerald."
"Hi, Ben. It's Sarah Henderson."
"Hey, Sarah. Good to hear from you. Haven't talked to you in years. Well, maybe a couple months. What's up?"
"I represent a first-time writer named Judith Marlowe. When she first came to me three years ago, all she had was a partial manuscript.
"Frankly, it was a mess but there was something there, a voice, an emerging style, an astonishing honesty about the ugliness and pain of her life. Taking Judith on as a client was one of the best decisions I've made as an agent because the manuscript I have is shining, brilliant."
"You've got me interested, Sarah. Keep going."
"The book's called SHATTERED: The True Story of My Devastating Breakdown--and Ultimate Triumph.
"Judith writes about being a middle-class, well-educated woman who's a mother, wife, business executive, would-be writer. She stays exhausted, trying to handle all of the conflicting, competing demands in her life.
"Then, her middle child, Buffy, develops brain fever, and for a year barely hangs on. Judith tries to be with her constantly, while balancing her job, the other children, and her husband, Jon, who becomes increasingly distant. Worse, he starts an affair with a friend of theirs."
Sarah paused. She could almost hear Ben shaking his head.
"It sounds almost unendurable."
"You're close, Ben. It was unendurable. When Buffy gets worse and Jon moves out, Judith starts crying and can't stop. She fears insanity. She loses her job, and her mother has to move in to take care of her and the kids.
"Thankfully, Buffy responds to new treatment, and one day Judith stops crying, initiates divorce proceedings, and begins writing-compulsively, driven to record all she's been through. That's when she came to me."
"Sarah, I should ask you to do the editorial presentation. Of course, I want to see the manuscript. Right away."
"I'll get a copy to you this afternoon."
Two days later, on Thursday, Ben called Sarah. "I read it. I love it. I want to buy it. I'm going to present it to the editorial board next Tuesday, at our weekly meeting.
"I should have asked you before but I got too caught up in the story. Who else are you submitting it to here? And how many other houses are you going to with this?"
"I've sent the manuscript to fourteen editors. That's more than usual for me, as you know, but I want to give everyone a chance and maybe get a frenzied auction going. I've already gotten calls from people who are part-way through the manuscript or finished, like you."
Ben laughed. "Whew. With that much competition, I'd better keep moving fast. And who do I have to worry about internally?"
"Jessica Vest has it for Pocket Books, Liliane Williams is reading it for Scribner, and Ellen Richardson wanted to consider it for The Free Press."
"OK. I'll check in with them, let 'em know I'm pursuing with all due speed, and ask
'em to keep me posted on what kind of response they get on their end. Are you setting an auction date?"
"Not yet. But based on what I've heard from editors so far, I'll probably set a closing for late next week. I'll let you know tomorrow."
"Good enough. I'll call the ladies and try to convince them they should let me buy this book."
After talking to his fellow editors, Ben thought about strategy. He wasn't surprised Jessica wanted to buy the book for Pocket, and was getting other readings so they could discuss it at their next editorial meeting. Jessica was excellent with women's books, had literary taste and understood mass market. She was a young editor moving up fast.
Liliane, Senior Editor at Scribner, had been publishing distinguished literary fiction for the last fifteen years but once in a while she published outside of that area. To Ben's regret, Liliane thought Judith had a lyrical and distinctive voice. She was going to be trouble too.
Fortunately, Ellen, The Free Press's newest senior editor, while recognizing SHATTERED's quality, decided she didn't want to stretch her issue-oriented, serious nonfiction list to encompass this memoir.
Ben needed an ally, and he gave a copy of the manuscript to Maureen Bahan, Executive Editor at Simon & Schuster's trade paperback division, Touchstone/Fireside. Maureen was known for the books she published on religion and spirituality. SHATTERED wasn't the kind of book she usually did but there were elements that might appeal to her. She said she'd read the memoir before the editorial board meeting.
Ben prepared his cover memo for ed board, describing with considerable eloquence his reasons for recommending the book and listing the responses he'd gotten from Jessica, Liliane and Ellen. He added a profit and loss
(P+L) estimate based on what he thought possible hardcover and paperback sales would be, and included projected income from the licensing of book club, audio, British Commonwealth and translation rights.
He selected an excerpt from the manuscript, and had 22 copies of the whole packet made for the executive, editorial, sales and marketing people who would be in attendance, to read ahead of time.
He thought it was important to make a strong connection with Judith early, so he got her phone number from Sarah, who thought his calling was a good idea. Ben spent an hour talking to Judith, concentrating on the book and her life, leaving the publishing aspects for his talks with Sarah.
The following Tuesday, at the ed board meeting run by Catherine Callis, publisher of the trade division, executives, editors, heads of sales and marketing, and others, joined in a spirited and appreciative discussion of the book, bringing to it their diverse perspectives and experience. Maureen provided hoped-for, trade paperback support, and the consensus was that Ben should try to get the book for S&S Trade.
Catherine told Ben she hoped to authorize him to make an offer on the day of the auction which Sarah had set for Friday.
First, though, with Pocket and Scribner also interested, Catherine was going to have to work out with the other publishers who should make the offer. They'd also decide what the right combination of hardcover and paperback would be (the possibilities were rather dizzying: S&S/Touchstone, S&S/Pocket, Scribner hard/soft, Scribner/Pocket, and Pocket hard/soft), and whether they should make a house bid representing all of them, get the book, and sort everything out later.
After eleven demanding years there, Ben still loved being an S&S editor but there were times when buying books got very complicated.
What Catherine worked out with the other publishers was that SHATTERED potentially had such popular appeal it should be reprinted in mass market paperback, and that meant Pocket Books. Maureen was disappointed she couldn't have the book for Touchstone trade paperback reprinting but she understood.
Jessica and her boss, Tristram Coffin, the Pocket editor-in-chief, wanted to publish in hardcover themselves but Catherine asked them, as a favor, to give up original hardcover publication and settle for paperback rights. Next time, the favor could go the other way.
In hardcover, that left S&S and Scribner. Liliane had given the matter further thought and, realizing that she was already doing a couple of books about women enduring emotional crises, recommended to the Scribner editorial director that they step aside. He agreed, and let Catherine know.
On Friday, the day of the auction, Ben was ready. He was also very pleased that in the end, he'd been chosen to be the participating editor, and had called Maureen, Liliane and Jessica to say thanks.
Another exciting development was that Wayne Scott, the Chairman and CEO of Simon & Schuster, had taken a personal interest in the book and discussed it with Catherine, who told him she was authorizing Ben to offer up to $150,000 for world rights-English and all foreign languages.
The bidding started at $50,000, with seven publishers making offers in the first round. As the auction continued through subsequent rounds, and publishers starting dropping out, Ben stayed in, keeping Catherine informed and getting her approval to go over $150,000 when the bidding passed that level. He finally triumphed in the fifth round with a winning bid of $185,000. The CEO was pleased that they'd bought the book, and Catherine felt they'd paid the right amount.
Judith and Sarah were thrilled with the results, and particularly happy that Ben was the acquiring editor because Judith had felt a real ease and compatibility with him when they'd spoken. They also had confidence that S&S would make the book a success.
Ben had congratulatory conversations with both of them, and got to work on the business matters. He had to prepare, along with other paperwork, a contract request form, giving the details of the deal he'd worked out with Sarah, and a revised P+L statement, reflecting the final advance and related numbers.
He also prepared a book information sheet. It would be used throughout the publishing process by every department, from sales to production and advertising, so Ben made his description of and information about SHATTERED and its author, accurate and comprehensive.
The contract form, P+L, and book sheet would circulate together in-house, getting the necessary approvals, and the contract would be issued. After Sarah got the contract, she'd review it, make or request any necessary changes, have Judith sign it, and return it to S&S for countersignature and first payment.
Ben didn't have to wait for the contract to be signed before he began editing but he was overwhelmed with other manuscripts that needed editing, submissions kept rolling in, along with memos and endless other papers, everyone wanted him at meetings, and his phone never stopped ringing.
If he'd bought SHATTERED as a proposal, he might wait until the complete manuscript was delivered, but since Judith's memoir was finished, he could start editing at any time. When things calmed down. He knew how likely that was. He'd have to make the manuscript a priority or he'd never get to it. Sometimes, Ben felt like Smokey the Bear-always putting out fires.
There were rewards though. One of his greatest satisfactions as an editor was helping his authors achieve their best book, and he was really looking forward to working with Judith because of her talent, commitment, receptivity and graciousness. Ben was known for being able to work with even the most difficult authors, and he never had any regrets about the effort that took. But when he had a chance to work with someone who was a fine human being as well as very talented, he was particularly motivated and enthusiastic. He picked up the phone.
"Hey, Jude. I'm feeling very Beatles today."
"I'm glad you're in such a good mood, Ben."
"It's only because I'm in total denial. I'm ignoring everything in my office that hasn't been done yet, and pretending that my assistant, Gina, doesn't keep walking in with more manuscripts and papers, the sadist."
"But you love it."
"So true. I decided 26 years ago to become an editor, and this is what I want to do the rest of my life. However long that is. At the rate I'm going, it could be next week.
"And now that I've got your sympathy, I want to talk to you about editing and revisions."
"OK."
"I have to finish the book I'm editing now, and depending on when it's delivered, I may have to do some emergency editing on a novel that should have come in four months ago. After that, SHATTERED is going to be my top editorial priority. I don't think it's going to need a huge amount of work. You and Sarah got the manuscript into excellent overall condition. I'm sure you know how lucky you are to find an agent who would do that much editing."
"Yes, indeed."
"What I'll be concentrating on is overall progression, consistency, style, and any places where you might need to expand or clarify. You write concisely, so I don't anticipate cutting much."
"That all sounds good. How soon do you think I'll be hearing back from you?"
"I'm guessing about three to four weeks. If it's going to be later than that, I'll let you know. In the meantime though, it'd be helpful to get your thoughts about the manuscript."
"How so?"
"Maybe there are problems you're aware of but aren't sure how to fix, or parts of the narrative that may be OK but don't feel quite right, or you don't know if people are going to read about a particular crisis in such detail. If you tell me now, I can address your concerns as I edit."
"Fine. I'll send you an e-mail with my thoughts in a couple of days."
Ben wasn't able to get to the editing for another five weeks-too many crises. Normal but still frustrating. Fortunately, Judith was understanding and patient.
He began by rereading the manuscript to re-immerse himself in it, keeping Judith's comments in mind.
His general impressions after rereading were that the manuscript was interrupted by too frequent flashbacks, and there were a few large gaps that needed to be filled.
Sometimes Judith gave excessive attention to a routine incident, while not being sufficiently forthcoming in other places about her anguish and anger. In certain long, cloudy scenes, greater narrative clarity would be needed to improve the pace and sharpen the drama. Most of these problems Judith had pointed out in her notes so she and Ben were already in agreement.
Ben thought the style was close to perfect. Judith was a born writer. The right material had opened up a voice of astonishing power and lyricism. Ben wanted to protect that voice, and not make any changes that would muffle or weaken it.
Because he and Judith were working together for the first time, Ben decided to send her the editorial notes in sections, approximately 100 manuscript pages at a time. In this way, the revisions would seem less intimidating.
Ben's editing was comprehensive. As he worked, he focused on every line, cutting or adding words and phrases, and restructuring a sentence or paragraph. He considered the narrative passages on their own and in the context of the whole book, and thought about the arrangement of the narrative within the chapters, and the overall structure.
He thought especially hard about how effectively, honestly and movingly, Judith was describing and presenting herself and her life. Having herself as her subject created special problems. She had to be very self-aware but objective, not defensive or egotistical. Achieving that required delicate balance, and Ben remained sensitive to that balance throughout the book.
In his notes, he asked questions, seeking confirmation and clarity, suggested ways to revise the material, and made creative suggestions about what material should be added. In the end, his notes, in five sections, totaled about 25 pages. About average for Ben whose notes on other books had run from 5 pages to an epic 200 pages (only necessary once, fortunately).
Judith responded well to the editing, and called him a few times to discuss further changes. At his request, she sent him the first half of the revised manuscript so he could see what she was doing. He liked her changes a lot. One of the joys of being an editor was participating in and witnessing the creative process, and Ben was fascinated by what a writer, especially one as talented as Judith, did in response to editorial comments.
He didn't expect Judith to do everything he suggested, and she didn't. All he wanted was open-mindedness, and he got that. She thought about every note, and did what she thought was best for the book. That was her right and responsibility.
As was his practice, Ben sent copies of his notes to Catherine, the S&S publisher, and Sarah, so they could see what he was suggesting. Sarah found the notes helpful and called Ben twice with comments of her own. Catherine's approval was implicit in her silence.
With the last batch of editorial notes, Ben asked Judith to send in the photos for the 8-page photo insert they'd put in the book, and the signed permission forms for use of the photos and some quotations.
When the revised second half of the manuscript came in, Ben read it, and then read through the entire revised manuscript, looking for any remaining problems. There was only one. And it was tough. Time for a phone call.
"It's your favorite editor-and the world's best."
"Paul? Is it really you?"
"So that's how it is, eh. No, sorry, Judith, it's only Ben. Obscure and limited."
Judith tried not to laugh. "Your self-awareness is going up. Must be from working with me."
"Go ahead, hurt the editor. All authors do. And now that I'm bleeding, I need to talk to you about the last change I'd like you to make in the book."
Very gently, Ben explained why he thought Judith needed to go deeper into and be less guarded about what had happened the night she found out Jon was having an affair while his daughter was dying and his wife was losing her mind. This had been one of the hardest parts of the book for Judith. There had been so much associated pain that she hadn't been able to open up completely, even after several revisions. Judith listened, accepted, and promised she'd try one more time to break through.
She did. When Ben read the final revision of that scene, his eyes filled up.
The book was as good as they could make it. Time to start production.
Ben gave the final revised manuscript of SHATTERED, a stack of extra copies, and the floppy disks, to Chic Mack, the managing editor, who's the liaison between editorial and production. Chic sent the original manuscript to the production department, and distributed copies to other departments, for their reference.
Ben knew that some publishers and certain S&S divisions were doing electronic publishing, with the "manuscript" going from floppy disk to finished book with no physical manuscript in between. But S&S Trade was a little old-fashioned and worked with the manuscript itself, though the disks were used for special purposes.
In a couple of months, the manuscript came back from the copyeditor, with queries about style, information, punctuation and related matters, which Judith addressed, and changes which she approved or disapproved. In going through the manuscript, she saw the printer's marks the copyeditor had made to guide the printer in typesetting the text.
After Ben gave the copyedited manuscript back to production, it was typeset, and Judith next saw it in galleys-those long running pages of printed text (each galley page equivalent to three manuscript pages)-which she proofread.
The corrected galleys would be laid out into final pages, and the concluding stage would be the printing and binding of the finished books. Ben explained that on a normal schedule, it took 9-10 months to go from revised manuscript to books in the stores.
While SHATTERED was going through production, other parts of the publishing process were active. Ben had sent the manuscript to the legal department for their review, mostly to see if there were any issues of libel or invasion of privacy.
Being careful, Chuck Phillips, the S&S lawyer, prepared a long list of questions which he went over with Judith. She provided all the documentation she had, which took care of most of the problems, and they worked out solutions for the remaining concerns.
A month ago, in early December, when Ben told the managing editor he expected the final revised manuscript to be delivered soon, she'd talked to the publisher and moved SHATTERED up in the publication schedule, to October, when it would be out with other big fall books. A specific publication date focused everyone's attention because it gave them clear deadlines.
Production knew they'd have to have finished books by August, so they could be shipped by the printer to arrive in the warehouse in September, and from there distributed to all the bookstores that had placed advance orders, so the books could be in the stores and on sale by early October.
Sales conference for the fall books would be in April, and material had to be ready for the sales representatives, including dust jackets and preliminary promotional material. The reps would need bound galleys (uncorrected galleys cut into pages and bound with a thin cardboard cover) of the major books that warranted special attention. The reps would read the bound galleys themselves, and distribute copies to selected buyers, to get some advance excitement going, in preparation for taking book orders. Catalogs had to be prepared and printed, and early marketing plans had to be described so the reps could use that information in their selling.
Here they were in early January. Time was running out and there was so much to do.
Ben focused: cover art, flap copy, endorsements. Right. He started drafting the copy that would appear on the front and back flaps of the dust jacket, blending restrained description with some hot copy lines, to motivate the potential buyer to actually buy. Ben would show the copy to Judith before he wrote the final version. The back cover of the jacket he hoped to fill with endorsements.
He went to a cover conference meeting run by Dyami Johnson, the S&S Art Director, where Ben and a number of other editors presented their books and made suggestions about what the cover art might be. Since SHATTERED was such a personal book, Ben thought Judith's photo should be used. Dyami agreed. Showing her face would give readers a real person to connect to and increase their interest in the book.
Ben had previously asked Judith to send some representative photos. She'd resisted, feeling unattractive. He'd persuaded.
After the meeting, he called.
"We talked about the cover art for the book today. I suggested we use your photo and showed the ones you'd sent me."
"It's so embarrassing. There are no good pictures of me. Ugly, ugly."
"Everyone's hard on themselves, Judith, and you're too hard. They like the photos. Our art director,
Dyami, wants to arrange a photo shoot. We'll have a pro take some shots in his studio. What we decided we're looking for is your face, backlit with dramatic shadows. We're hoping for a lot. The image we're trying to create will show pain, wisdom, serenity. And beauty, darn it. You may not have a model's looks-few do-but you have a warmth and sensitivity that everyone will respond to. You'll like the cover, and if you hate it, we won't use it. But we really do think this is the best approach so don't let your modesty get in the way."
"Alright, Ben. I'm going to trust you on this. Until I see the cover. Then, we'll see."
"Fair enough."
Ben was confident the photo would work. He now had to get one more part of the front cover in place: an endorsement from a prominent therapist and writer. A few weeks ago, he'd mailed twenty bound manuscripts to bestselling writers, famous therapists, and distinguished biographers and memoirists. If they were willing to endorse SHATTERED, their support would help establish its quality, credibility and significance.
Another advantage of endorsements was that S&S could use them to help sell the book months before publication, sharing them with the sales force which was taking advance orders, and including them in the early marketing plans. Book reviews were valuable but most of them wouldn't appear until after publication, when the bookstore orders had already been placed.
The subsidiary rights department had been working hard too. They'd sent the revised manuscript to the Book-of-the-Month Club and the Literary Guild, and to the national women's magazines for possible excerpting before book publication. The S&S subagents around the world who sold translations rights in the countries where they were located, had been pitching SHATTERED hard because they felt that Judith's experiences transcended the barriers of custom and language.
S&S Audio had bought the audio rights, and they brought Judith into the studio to do her own reading of the condensed version of the book which they'd prepared. The audio would be released when the book was published, and the book and tape would help sell each other.
Sarah had been busy pursuing television and movie interest through her own subagent in Hollywood who handled dramatic rights for her. There was a lot of talk as there always was in Hollywood but no firm offers. Perhaps later.
Maybe it didn't all happen at once but it sure seemed that way to Ben. The cover art came in and everyone agreed that Judith's image was even more haunting, striking and memorable than they'd hoped.
The endorsement Ben had most wanted came in from Dr. Ann Quita, a New York Times bestselling author and perhaps the most admired therapist in the country. He knew it was a front cover quote as soon as he saw it: "Illuminating, tragic, uplifting. A book to read again and again."
Sarah called with news of the sale of television rights to NBC for a two-hour movie of the week that would be broadcast to coincide with publication.
The Book-of-the-Month Club won the auction for book club rights. Cosmo paid a surprising amount for first serial rights, and planned to run the excerpt in the June issue. There were even early sales of French and Italian rights. Just from the subsidiary rights S&S had sold, the $185,00 advance was already half-earned out. Remarkable.
Ben was delighted. There was going to be a lot of good news to announce at sales conference, only a couple of weeks away. He was going over it all in his head when the phone rang.
"Hi, Ben. It's Judith. Returning your call."
"The British publisher improved their offer to 20,000 pounds."
"Take it. Take it." Judith paused. "I can't believe any of this is happening to me. Tell me again that it's real."
"It's as real as it is rare, and the best part is, I think there's more coming."
Ben was convinced of that, and moving aggressively, he decided this was a good time to talk to Sarah about buying Judith's next book. The three of them discussed various concepts until they settled on Judith's writing a self-help book for women that combined ideas about how to deal with overwhelming stress with impassioned sections about women's conflicting work and family responsibilities and what changes needed to be made.
Sarah asked for $250,000, which Ben and S&S thought was a fair advance, given all that was happening with the first book, and Ben closed the deal. The sales reps would be pleased to know that after they established
SHATTERED, they'd have another strong Marlowe book to sell.
After sales conference, marketing plans were reviewed, and Ben had several, separate meetings with Nicole Roberts, the Publicity Director, and Kyle Gibson, the Advertising and Promotion Director. They agreed that the emphasis should be on publicity because Judith was so effective in person.
Nicole assigned Marina as the publicist. Marina would be responsible for arranging Judith's publicity tour, including appearances in bookstores to sign books, and interviews on radio stations around the country by satellite broadcast, and on local and national television shows. She'd send advance copies of the book, with a press release, to newspapers, magazines and other review sources across the country, hoping many reviews would appear immediately after publication and give a big boost to sales.
Kyle wanted to support the book with targeted advertising in the women's magazines, perhaps in People, if they could find the budget, and maybe on network or cable television, though that was usually prohibitively expensive for book publishing.
He had his department prepare promotional material: floor displays for bookstores to use, bookmarks with Dr. Quita's endorsement and an eloquent quote from the book, and a poster which showed the book's cover and, alongside, an enlargement of the cover photo of Judith.
The word from the sales force was that advance orders were coming in larger than estimated so Catherine, the publisher, decided to increase the projected first printing, which is based on advance orders, from 35,000 to 50,000 copies. She also pushed up the publication date, moving the book into September so it would be on sale in the first week of August, ahead of many of the other fall books.
Since it was already June, the new pub date made everyone crazy because the publishing process had to move even faster.
Marketing budgets and plans were quickly finalized, the publicity tour was booked, and finished books were shipped to the warehouse.
Chic, the managing editor, gave him the first copies of the book. It looked gorgeous. Judith was once again convinced she was dreaming, and Sarah was applauding.
The pre-publication reviews appeared in Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews, and they were raves. Judith started her publicity tour in the second week of August, since the books, rush-shipped, had reached the stores the previous week, as planned, the ads began to appear, and reorder requests were coming from bookstores in increasing numbers.
When the entire 50,000 copy first printing was shipped out, leaving nothing in the warehouse but backorders that needed to be filled, Catherine ordered a second printing of 10,000 copies and increased the marketing budget. They'd run more ads and extend Judith's publicity tour.
More reviews appeared, also raves. There seemed to be no one who could or would say anything negative about the book. Very unusual.
SHATTERED appeared in the top 100 of the Barnes & Noble bestseller list and steadily moved up week after week. Judith continued to be a popular hit wherever she went, and the only concern was whether she'd wear out before the interest did.
If Judith survived, Sarah was going to accept an attractive offer from Estes & Associates, one of the major speakers' bureaus that wanted to send Judith on the lecture circuit as a speaker about women's issues. Judith had already said she wanted to do it, and the speaking might lead to a radio show.
Ben called Judith at her hotel in Chicago, a town she'd done publicity in twice before.
"Exhausted?"
"I can barely move. But the people I talk to are so wonderful and supportive and appreciative, they charge me up each time I go out. I feel I've really touched them, communicated something important, and I plan to stay out here as long as they want me, or until the budget runs out."
"I think we still have a few dollars left. And Wayne Scott, our CEO, continues to be a strong supporter."
"Can it possibly get better than this?"
"A little. If the sales keep building, there's a chance the book will hit the New York Times list. I just heard that we're going back to press for a third printing of 15,000, bringing the total to 75,000 copies, and Jessica told me yesterday that she's getting everything geared up for the Pocket paperback publication next year.
"Also, Marina's been working hard on a little surprise. I can't say anything about it yet because it's not final but we think it's likely."
"I'm almost passed out in Chicago and you're keeping secrets from me?"
"Sorry, Judith. It's not easy being a bestselling author."
Judith slowly opened her eyes and relaxed her arms. She'd been hugging herself hard enough to bend her ribs. She hadn't realized she could hurt herself out of pure joy. Success was dangerous. She laughed. But what fun!
Oprah. That was still a wow-the surprise Marina had been working on, and generously let Ben tell her.
She needed only one more thing to make the evening complete.
"Mom? I really appreciate your taking care of the kids. Sorry this tour has turned out to be endless. Is Buffy there? I want to talk to her, and
K.D., and Jimmy." |
