BESTSELLERS & BEST FRIENDS
My book publishing blog, with murder mysteries woven through it.
If this is your first visit, be sure to start with “1. Let’s do it!”
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Years ago I was in a bookstore looking at a display of Running Press’s miniature books.
And it dawned on me that an unexpected—and irreverent—stocking stuffer gift book might be a winner. Does every gift really have to be La La sweet or some licensed thing?
How about something for your crabby uncle? Like a book titled Reasons to Drink. And if that, why not also Reasons to Smoke? Include those with a nip bottle or pack of smokes as a gift, and maybe your uncle won’t be so crabby.
I knew Jon Anderson, publisher of Running Press. Earlier, at Penguin, he was publisher of the Price Stern Sloan imprint while I was publisher of Planet Dexter.
I called Jon, he liked the idea, he agreed to publish the two books. The royalty advance was $1,200 ($600 per book). Which worked out to about $2 per word.
Then I got to thinking. These little books were concept-driven, not author-driven. I’d had a bunch of books published and really had little to gain by adding theses two to my list. But my son, Max, living in a New York City dump, doing the struggling hopeful writer thing, looking for any sort of break, well, he could write these. $600 for each book, he could pay a month of rent. And have a book contract! He’d be a published author!
I called Jon back. He agreed to do the books with Max. And suddenly Max had his first books, and they were with a great publisher.
Now here’s the cool thing.
Max’s writing career took off. His Galactic Hot Dogs book series (which I mentioned yesterday) was acquired in a competitive auction that went late into the night. The winning publisher was Simon & Schuster Children’s Division. And holy smokes, it’s President and Publisher was now Jon Anderson. A wonderful, full circle, small world moment!
With Galactic Hot Dogs, Jon and his wonderful S&S team did some of the best publishing I’ve ever witnessed.
Reason enough to sit back, light up a smoke, and enjoy a drink.
Tomorrow: Getting ready for Boston, to spread Randy’s ashes