More of the Publishing Process

As mentioned in my last blog post, I recently sat down with some more BK staff from the publicity, production and organizational sales departments to find out more about the workings of a publishing house. Publicity is one of the key components of getting a book noticed in the marketplace. People need to hear about a book a handful of times before they will recognize it on the book shelf and even then they might pick it up and buy it, but they might not. Coming from an advertising background, I know the importance of promotion and brand identity. Authors need to build a brand for themselves as well as a following. A reputable author can work as the selling point, which is especially effective and important in the non-fiction genre of books. This is due to the fact that expertise and reputation allows potential readers to trust the content of the book. The author is expected to take on a lot of responsibility in publicizing his/her book because no one else knows the subject matter as well as the author. The publicity department does a lot to set up events and speaking engagements based on the book's audience.

Production takes care of the complete design of the book. From the front cover, back cover and everything in between. The production team has to consider font, style, pictures and tables, e-books, endorsements, author bios, titles, subtitles, the target market, booksellers and much more. This is a very creative aspect of the publishing process, but is also very meticulous and deliberate. The author often has very particular ideas about how he/she wants the book to look. However, the production and marketing team look at design elements that will satisfy expectations of the target audience as well as the booksellers. The tricky part of this process is that book design must try to meet expectations of what a book of its certain genre looks like while simultaneously stand out amongst the plethora of others like it on the shelf.

Having spent time in the departments outside of editorial  has given me a more holistic and realistic picture of the publishing process. Its been quite a learning experience.