I’m curious about how you chose to go it alone after parting ways with agent number four. Newcomer that I am, I’m concerned that without an agent I’m bound to make some serious rookie errors (including those marketing mistakes you’ve alluded to!). Did your prior experience with publishing sway your decision to become independent? Would you recommend that new novelists find agents to help promote their work or is it possible to go it alone (with a boatload of hard work and perseverance, of course)?

Brad, for a MUCH more detailed look at how books get packaged, you can go to my website, where I’ve reposted a 5-part series of articles I wrote in the 1990s about this. It’s a little dated now, since there’ve been so many changes in technology, but probably 90% of it is still valid: http://sff.net/people/laresnick/About%20Writing/Book%20Covers.htm

Meanwhile, there are many avenues to explore in response to your questions about HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN? (and there are several hideous covers posted on the above webpage, as well as good ones), but the short version, most suitable for a reply-post here, is probably something that Tom Doherty, founder and head of Tor Books, says often, which is that every single book that’s published is a new-product launch, and if you know anything about business, you know that most new-product launches fail. If you liked the last bottle of Ivory Dish Soap that you bought, the odds are very very high that you’re going to like the next bottle of Ivory Dish Soap that you buy. Whereas if you liked the previous Laura Resnick novel, it’s still a complete toss-up whether you’ll like the next one. (This is why one of the most common qualities among bestsellers is consistency–a high level of probability that anyone who liked the author’s last book will also like the next one.)

And whereas Ivory Soap only gets a packaging make-over once every few years, EVERY SINGLE BOOK PUBLISHED gets a new package. Stastistically, even with the best will in the world, a percentage of those packages just won’t work.

Additionally, the most talented, ambitious, and competitive people in commercial or graphic design and in marketing aren’t often attracted to publishing, where salaries are low and opportunities are pretty limited for them. When you’re looking at a Michael Jackson album or a bottle of Ivory Soap, you’re looking at a design package and a marketing campaign that was the beneficiary of a LOT more work hours, time, attention, and planning than a publisher is able to give to any of the hundreds of midlist books it publishes in a given year with a small staff and a tight budget.

Is it simply that publishers don’t know what they’re really doing, and it’s all guesswork? Is it that even good publishers have poor employees working for them, and if you get your book in the hands of the wrong employees, it’s done? What factors foster a business environment where potential profit-making ventures are immediately consigned to the loss bin by default, simply because not enough energy and capital is put into the venture in the first place?

And so on and so forth.

And when I sent a polite letter saying that I had decided it was time for me to leave, the response was essentially, “Good, I’m too busy for this.”

LauraR

It’s been a while since there has been a rush of books out that I’m excited about, and now I have MHI, plus your books (one a revisit, one brand new), plus the impending releases of Joan Hess’ “Merry Wives of Maggody” and Stephanie Laurens’ “The Elusive Bride” this month. Thanks for kicking off a fabulous January for me, Laura! Also, I’m stoked to see that there are more Esther Diamonds in the pipeline. Sweet! Thanks for your perserverence.