Welcome to AW, Louella. I'll try to address your posts in order.
I am Lou Turner, owner of High Hill Press. It's unfortunate that someone else decided to answer your question about High Hill, because it's obvious this person knows nothing about my company, and probably not too much about publishing as a whole.
I think you'll find that most of us here know quite a bit about publishing, actually.
So you do offset print runs, then? Since your books appear to be trade-sized I assume you're also using a trade paperback model*, in which case I'm assuming you offer bookstores a trade returns policy (i.e. the books are not strippable) and discounts? Who is your distributer? What printing press(es) do you use?
*I note that some of your books are listed on Amazon as "Perfect Paperback." Does this mean they have stitched bindings and guillotined edges, then? The "Perfect Paperbacks" seem to have a slightly higher price point, but the regular paperbacks still seem to be trade-priced and sized.
When I say our books can stay in print forever, it's the truth. Like most university presses, and unlike commercial presses, we can keep a book in print as long as the author wants it to be.
Commercial publishers can also keep a book in print indefinitely (depending on contract terms, of course). Some smaller houses use a set period of time to determine how long a book will be in print--like two years or three years, for example, with many epublishers--but most commercial publishers keep a book in print in perpetuity until sales fall below a contractually determined level. Many of those epublishers with set time periods also have clauses about when a book can be taken "out of print" and its rights reverted depending on sales levels.
Commerical presses sometimes take a book out of print within 6 weeks and move on to the next one they think will be a better money maker. An author has a very small window to make sales. We are in it for the long haul on every book.
I would also like to hear an example of this. I have never heard of a book with a predetermined six-week in-print period. (And that makes no business sense at all; the books are already printed, so why would the publisher not want to sell the unsold copies? If the initial print run has sold out, that indicates demand and would lead to a second printing. The idea that a commercial publisher trying to make money off of a book would pull the book from its catalog after six weeks and pulp the unsold copies is just...confusing, outside of the few situations I mention below.)
Now it's true some bookstores will not shelve a book past a few months after release if it hasn't sold any copies (and will thus return the unsold copies or strip them and inform the publisher for credit), but that's bookstore policy, not publishers taking the book out of print. The only books I've ever heard of being pulled from print so quickly are books like OPAL MEHTA or other books where it was determined they were plagiarized or there were other major legal or ethical problems which meant the publisher could not continue to sell them.
As far as the way we edit, we do galleys and expect the author to be involved exactly like a good commercial press will do.
You are correct that commercial publishers expect the author to be involved in the editorial process. For more discussion on "galleys," please see below.
We publish good quality, great books, by wonderful writers.
Not one person here has implied otherwise, actually.
And each author is expected to market their books exactly the way a commercial press expects their authors to do. Unless you're Stephen King, you get no help from a commerical press.
Completely untrue. I would really advise you to actually have a look around this forum, and at the experience and credentials of those to whom you are speaking, before attempting to sell us on such falsehoods.
I'm not Stephen King. My publishers all certainly did a decent amount of marketing for my books. They expected me to do zero marketing; that's their job. They did hope I'd do some promotion, in the form of things I was already doing, like having a website and blog and Twitter account. But the actual marketing was all handled by them. They got my books into stores nationwide, including co-op placement; I didn't do it. They set up events and signings for me; I didn't do it. They printed an sent review copies for me; I didn't do it. They've fielded convention requests for me and booked my travel and accommodation; I didn't do it. That's all pretty basic parts of the publisher's job, not mine.
Who is your agent, that s/he has not corrected you on any of this or explained how it all works to you?
We probably do more than most, but it's still impossible to sell a book, that is the author's job. We put our books into distribution and we sell in every forum we can.
Leaving aside the fact that selling books is exactly the publisher's job, I'd love to ask again who is your distributor? Who warehouses your books? On which bookstore's shelves can we find your books; I assume, since you "sell in every forum [you] can," you have a Marketing/Sales team who meets with bookstore buyers and sells your catalog to them?
I've been unable to find a few of your titles even available on Amazon.
As you can tell I'm extremely aggrivated that someone so uninformed would presume to answer your question for you about my company.
Forgive me, but I strongly suspect that someone is indeed misinformed about publishing here but it's not the previous posters in this thread.
And please know that I understand your question should have been asked. I don't usually join in forum discussions for this very reason. People feel the need to answer questions they are not qualified to answer.
Which questions were we not qualified to answer? The ones about how publishing really works, or the ones about how unnecessary it is to hire a professional editor before submitting a book to a publisher, or...?
So I'm sorry for the answer you got. You should have written directly to me and I would have been happy to pick up a phone and call you with my answer.
The OP was under no obligation to contact you directly, and posted here to get the opinions of people who know and understand the business of publishing and are not directly involved with your company.
While I understand it may have been difficult to read what was here, no one meant any personal disrespect to you and no one directly insulted you as a person; we simply gave our opinions about your company and its benefits for writers (which is the purpose of this forum) based on what information we could find. That's all.
And this comment shows a complete lack on publishing knowledge. All reputable publishing companies use a galley system. With our company we use as many as it takes to get the book the best it can be. That's something that should be appreciated.
Lou Turner
High Hill Press
What's confusing us here is your unorthodox use of the word "galleys." Most publishers don't really do galleys anymore in the original sense, but many of us do use the word "galleys" to refer to printouts of the actual book, laid out exactly as it will look when in its final form, which are checked over for typos or errors in layout, or perhaps the occasional error introduced when the book was converted for printing. Galleys are, in the case of mmpbs (I haven't been printed in trade-size or hardcover, so cannot speak directly to what those galleys look like/what size they are), printed sideways on an 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper, so you see two pages at once.
An editorial letter--generally the first stage of editing--is not called a "galley." Nor are line edits, printed or otherwise, called "galleys." Nor are printed copyedits referred to as "galleys." They're called editorial letters (sometimes just editorial notes), line edits, and copyedits. Only after all of those stages are complete, the book is laid out and "typeset," and put in its next-to-final form, are "galleys" issued. (Galleys are also sometimes, as Victoria mentions below, bound and sent to reviewers.)
In other words, commercial publishers do not actually use "galleys" in the way you seem convinced they do, hence our confusion.
Of course a good publisher will do as many editing rounds as are necessary, but again, editing =/= galleys.
I'm totally confused by your comments.
What exactly was unclear about them? Did my Google searches miss your website, your published works, the name of your agent...?
Not only are you uninformed about publishing, you are implying that my bio is incorrect? Or invalid?
I have been commercially published for seven years. I have been agented and NY published for almost five, with Simon & Schuster and Random House, in addition to HarperCollins UK, audio editions with Blackstone Audio, and various other publishers all over the world.
All of this information about me is readily available on my website, which is easily findable by either doing a Google search or clinking the link at the bottom of my posts.
Furthermore, since I specifically said in my post "I don't mean to imply
at all that she is lying," I'm confused as to why you would immediately jump to the conclusion that I am implying such.
However, I will say that if you feel my comments about the lack of information available regarding your writing are incorrect, a good way to counter that would be to actually
provide the missing information rather than simply getting huffy and insulting me. I actually did some research about you before I posted; you obviously did not bother to do the same.
My comment still stands: you talk repeatedly about the importance of "Author Marketing" but have no website, no list of your titles, no information about your agent (which most of us list so publishers know whom to contact if they're interested in reprints, foreign or subsidiary rights, or other work), no excerpts available, no title of your Pushcart-Prize-nominated story, nothing. Can you explain to us how this fits in with your idea that only authors can sell books, and authors must get the word out and do the marketing? Since that was--as I said repeatedly--the point of my bringing it up?
This is the last reply that I intend to make, and I probably should have stayed away from this page to begin with, but I had to have a say.
And we're very glad you did. I think we've all learned a lot about you, your experience, and your knowledge about the publishing industry, and I thank you for your contributions to this thread.
I've worked my entire life to do well at whatever I attempted. I've run my own businesses for 40 years.
That's wonderful. I truly congratulate you on your success and your determination.
My publishing company has a great reputation, with the majority of my authors renewing contracts on their books.
Again, that's lovely.
I've been a writer for two decades, and a publisher for 5 years.
Again, the easiest way to show us your experience and credentials is to actually show us. Could you please give us a list of titles, publication dates, publishers? You certainly seem to believe yourself far more knowledgeable and qualified than we are; I stand ready to admit my errors in the face of actual credentials, although again, my point was
never that you have no credentials but that those credentials are not verifiable: there is zero proof of any of them (hey, I'm from Missouri myself, so, you know, show me), which is rather odd given your apparent firm belief that authors must get out there and promote promote promote market market market sell sell sell.
We have many authors who have published in New York for years, some even making the bestseller lists, but because I've built such a reputable business, they are bringing their work to us.
You seem to have a very strong niche focus on the Ozarks, which is certainly a good thing for a small publisher; with that type of focus I imagine authors who write for that audience would find a very comfortable home with you.
We just nominated our first title for a Pulitzer, with a book that is the sixth in a series. The other five were published in New York and the first int he series was a finalist for the Pulitzer the year it was released.
I wish you all the greatest good luck.
Actually my words are probably lost to you, because it's obvious you are only out to spout random mean spirited sentences that have no truth to them whatsoever.
Actually, it appears
my words were all entirely lost on
you, and I am not the one "spouting random mean-spirited sentences that have no truth to them whatsoever."
I have no personal issue with you. I am not a mean-spirited person. Were I mean-spirited, I wouldn't be here trying to help other authors--which is the purpose of this forum, to help authors, not to promote publishers.
The fact that you failed to understand my post (which was written in perfectly clear English) does not make it mean-spirited. Nor does the fact that you personally didn't like my pointing out that your own lack of website or verifiable credentials makes your insistence that authors are the only ones who can effectively sell their work confusing, or at the very least points to a lack of knowledge of how to promote books effectively online.
I'm sorry you didn't like my saying that (while repeating that I wasn't claiming your credentials didn't exist). That doesn't make it less true, and it was not intended as a personal insult (again, which I said in my original post).
I haven't participated in a forum since the old days with Francis Ford Copolla when he first started Zoetrope. Now I remember why I weaned myself away from the old chat rooms and forums...it was totally pointless and time consuming.
Time-consuming, yes, but hardly pointless. Lots of us learned a lot here about how publishing works, about writing, and about what to look for and what to avoid when looking for agents and/or publishers. I consider helping writers to be time well spent, personally.
But it was my decision to try and set the record straight...so it's my fault that I've spent time on this. Now it's back to work, I suggest you do the same...and next time don't speak about what you know nothing.
Lou Turner
High Hill Press
Thank you. I will get back to work, and I very much appreciate your patronizing instructions on how I should use my time. But I will speak about whatever I damn well please, and I do in fact know what I'm talking about. Far more than you appear to, to be blunt, and your rude and insulting tone is neither necessary or appreciated.
If you want me to believe you know more about publishing than me or anyone else on this forum, why don't you say something that actually proves that, instead of just insulting us all, misusing terms of art, and spouting utterly incorrect and easily disprovable myths about how commercial publishing works?
Once again, thank you for your contributions to this thread. I am genuinely sorry you were upset by what you found here, but that does not excuse your patronizing insults, your lack of respect, you condescension, or your rudeness and lack of professionalism.
