Jumping Into Publishing

The Overlook

By Tom Clavin

“The Overlook” appears every Wednesday at tomclavin.substack.com. An overlook is usually a place from which one can see in many if not all directions, including where one has been and where one is going. If you enjoy the column, please "like" it and let me know what you think by commenting (check out previous ones while you're at it). All support is appreciated. Don't forget to hit the ‘Subscribe’ button – it’s free!

                I have had the pleasure of reading a book that has just been released. Actually, it’s pleasure times two because it is an enjoyable read and it provoked more thoughts about a publishing topic I have been pondering for years.

          First, the book. Its full title is Hop, Skip and a Jump!: Life: Proceed with Caution. The author is David Richard Hughes. Here is an excerpt from his statement about the book: “These are tales of regret, joy, sadness, terror, death, and forgiveness; I have come to realize that infidelity, adultery, and sexual abuse are but milestones to be navigated along with the mine field of high-speed police chases, a paternal suicide, a hitch as a seamen on a high-seas oil tanker, and a smorgasbord of boldface names who have passed through my life: Meryl Streep, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Frank Sinatra, Clive Davis, Lauren Bacall, Kurt Vonnegut, Marlo Thomas, Jason Robards, Tom Snyder, Paul Newman. And, naturally, there are hookers involved as well as a first heart attack at age 50 (in which no hookers are involved).”

          And I very much like a comment posted on Amazon by his very good friend Bob Drury: “Poignant, zany, and at times tragic, Hughes' memoir is a hyper observant travelogue of a life lived in full. A fine reporter with a gift for the mordant turn of phrase, in Hop, Skip and a Jump Hughes twirls a tale blessed with a wit and style that feels like the result of a one-night stand between P.J. O'Rourke and Dorothy Parker. Proceed With Caution indeed.”

          The book is as entertaining and affecting as it sounds, so I suggest you go on Amazon and order a copy – a “real” one, or a download to read on whatever device you read books on. It is very much a “life” story.

          That Hop, Skip and a Jump! is available on Amazon touches on that topic I referred to earlier. As many of you know and perhaps have experienced, book publishing has become more of a democracy. Another way to put it is, it is more available to people. Some of you might not approve, and I confess I was in that camp. But my thinking has changed.

          In recent years I have had friends who published books via Amazon or small independent presses. These books are really good and deserved to be published. Examples are She’s Dead, Who Cares?, a murder mystery by Randye Lordon, and Only You, a poignant memoir of a young marriage by Eileen Obser. Previously, if such books were not accepted by a major or mid-level publisher, they never saw the light of day, or did so through a “vanity” press, an expensive process that made it out of reach for many authors. Now, the cost of publishing a book via Amazon or a small press is modest enough that an author who believes in his/her project can give it a shot. Because of this “democracy,” there is more material available and more readers who are open to such works, even if exclusively in electronic form.

          An objection to this door opening – which can also be described as less of a barrier between author and audience – is the lack of objective judgment about the quality and/or sales potential of the book. Maybe to have a better understanding of this, let me describe what has been the more typical publishing process, one that I am grateful for and I have certainly benefited from.

          I don’t write novels – not smart enough for fiction – so let me focus on nonfiction. A writer has an idea for a book. Say, in my case, a few years ago I thought there was a book in the friendship of Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson when they were young lawmen together in Dodge City. The writer does enough research to write a proposal, one that could be a few pages or, if necessary, could be 50 pages, especially if a sample chapter is included. When the writer’s agent deems the proposal ready enough, it is submitted to an editor at a publishing house. (Yes, the subject of acquiring/having an agent is worth a separate column.) That editor or the fifth one or the 15th one who sees it thinks the proposal will become a good book and a contract is offered. This includes an “advance” – which implies all upfront money, but in reality, it’s just a percentage. For example, an advance of 60K is paid out in thirds: 20K on signing the contract, 20K when the manuscript is turned it, and 20K when the book is published.

          Okay, contract signed, the author goes to work doing the research and writing to expand the proposal into a full book. It is submitted to the editor, revisions are made, maybe even another round of revisions, there is copy editing and other production functions like gathering images, and down the road the book is published to, one hopes, much acclaim (which was, gratefully, the case with Dodge City). Even better is sales are so robust that it earns royalties, which is what the author receives once the publisher has recouped the advance. Thankfully, if there is a different outcome – the book sinks like a stone sales-wise – you don’t have to return the advance.

          Publishing via Amazon is a much-condensed version of the above. Unless someone is hired, the author is her editor too. And production chief. And ultimately, PR and marketing director. Tasks that are spread out among a publisher’s staffers are the responsibility of the author. Many undertake this gladly because of the opportunity to reach readers.

          Critics complain that the more direct method means a lack of objective judgment – in particular, an editor is not weighing in and overseeing the quality and potential of the book. Of course, there is some truth to this. The condensed process is a much more subjective one: The author decides what gets published and the “publisher” is purely a production entity. The presumption is that a “traditional” publisher will release only books that will captivate readers and/or will sell to a wide audience.

          To me, this has become a shaky presumption. I mean no disrespect to the authors and the editors, but trolling through this past Sunday’s New York Times Book Review I noted these titles: Wandering Through Life: A Memoir, about the author’s affinity for Italy; Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World, about conspiracies and misinformation; The Rigor of Angels, about three philosophers; and The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy. These books and others like it have, at best, limited audiences yet are being published by major houses. Maybe the advances to the authors were quite low and that mitigated the financial risk. Still, they are getting published while some other worthy proposals were rejected. With a more democratic publishing system, there is a chance for those other books to see the light of day. But, yes, along with some titles that should not.

          I probably do have a bit of a bias because a couple of years ago I took this new road with a book titled Promise. The death of my mother and the beginning of the pandemic on the heels of that prompted me to pull together a collection of memoir-like essays coupled with some new pieces. Readers can find it on Amazon and I am glad it’s out there even if it’s selling about 15 copies a month. Would it have been published otherwise? I don’t know. A publisher might have taken a shot with it but another advantage to this new publishing landscape is saving time. I did not want to devote a lot of time and bother to such a personal project. And in this one instance, I liked making all the decisions. Fortunately, with other projects, I could still go the traditional route and reunite with my good pal royalties.

          Without this other option, we would be less likely to have books like Hop, Skip and a Jump! And that would be a shame. We are not all professional writers but many of us have god stories to tell. Expanding the audience and the opportunity to reach readers – who themselves will separate the wheat from the chaff -- can only be good.

Tom Clavin is the bestselling author/co-author of 25 books, including Follow Me to Hell, published in April by St. Martin’s Press. The trade paperback edition of The Last Hill (with Bob Drury) was released last month. Please go to your local bookstore or to Bookshop.org, Amazon.com, BN.com, or tomclavin.com to purchase a copy.