Book packaging?

linton · Apr 21, 2009

I've just email the complete manuscript of my novel THE BLACK WIDOW RANCH to Tekno Books. P and E says nothing bad and that they "buy" books. Wikipedia says a book packager:
Book-packaging (or book producing) is a publishing activity in which a publishing company outsources the myriad tasks involved in putting together a book—writing, researching, editing, illustrating, and even printing—to an outside company called a book-packaging company. Once the book-packaging company has produced the book, they then sell it to the final publishing company.
In this arrangement, the book-packaging company acts as a liaison between a publishing company and the writers, researchers, editors, and printers that design and produce the book. Book packagers thus blend the roles of agent, editor, and publisher.[1] Book-packaging is common in the genre fiction market, particularly for books aimed at pre-teens and teenagers, and in the illustrated non-fiction co-edition market.

Question - Buying? Selling? Is this another way of saying giving the writer his or her just royalty or does it mean cutting the writer out after purchase?

Danthia · Apr 21, 2009

Bookends has done a few blog posts on this, since they started out as book packagers. Book packagers work a little differently than an agent if I remember right. I don't remember the days of the posts, but a search on the site should bring them up.

nevada · Apr 21, 2009

the key here is the phrase "the publishing company outsources". Writers do not contact book packagers. Publishers do. A publisher buys a book, but for whatever reason, does not want to do the work inhouse. they hire a book packager who does all the work for them, ie cover design, printing etc and then sells the finished product back to the publisher.

book packagers are not another way for a writer to get into the publishing company. They do not buy manuscripts. I'm afraid you'll have to keep looking for an agent.

linton · Apr 21, 2009

nevada said:
the key here is the phrase "the publishing company outsources". Writers do not contact book packagers. Publishers do. A publisher buys a book, but for whatever reason, does not want to do the work inhouse. they hire a book packager who does all the work for them, ie cover design, printing etc and then sells the finished product back to the publisher.

book packagers are not another way for a writer to get into the publishing company. They do not buy manuscripts. I'm afraid you'll have to keep looking for an agent.

I am, but still...packagers as I understand it are supposed to come up with plot, characters ect. and hire a writer to follow their requirements. In my case so far the only criteria they are coming up with is "mystery." My novel is already complete. My charaters. My plot. Everything is mine. I haven't heard back from them but it seems in my case this might be something a little shady and I wonder why P&E doesn't warn writers.

nevada · Apr 21, 2009

I'm confused. Did the packager actually advertise for a writer? If not, you should not be sending them a manuscript. P and E wouldn't warn because there's nothing shady about it. As a writer, you should not be sending them unsolicited material so there's nothing to warn about. you should be querying agents, with query letters and whatever other material they might ask for per their stated requirements. most agents want to see a query letter and the first five pages. You never send an entire manuscript to anyone unless you have been specifically invited to do so. You get specifically invited to send a manuscript by properly querying the agent. Most publishers, as in 95% of them, do not accept queries from writers, only agents. So your quest to find a packager is a waste of time. you should be querying agents.

Or there is a whole lot of info you are not giving out, in which case we can't answer your question properly. Also, in general, response time to queries can be up to 6 months if not longer. if you just emailed something today do not expect a response quickly.

Nadia · Apr 21, 2009

I'm a little confused...? I thought you said you sent them the book. Did you initiate the contact or did they, esp. since you said you came up with plot, etc.

Also bookpackagers will provide things like editing, etc. IIRC. So it's not just the concept.

Rushie · Apr 21, 2009

Interesting... I read their guidelines, apparently they do accept unagented submissions. They say their customers are primarily the library market.

James D. Macdonald · Apr 21, 2009

linton said:
Question - Buying? Selling? Is this another way of saying giving the writer his or her just royalty or does it mean cutting the writer out after purchase?

Could be either. Check your contract.

Okay. First, Tekno is a packager. Five Star, which is where I suspect you sent your manuscript, is a publisher that's allied with Tekno.

Tekno is Marty Greenberg's outfit. Marty has packaged tons of books and anthologies.

Five Star's information and guidelines are here.

As to what a packager is, the explanation I like to give is that a packager is like those annoying people who come up to you at conventions and say, "I have a great idea for a book! You write it and we'll split the money!"

The difference is that in the case of the packager they really do have a great idea for a book (or at least a salable one), they've already sold it to a publisher, and they're ready to sign a four-or-five figure check that afternoon.

The downside is that you're working with their characters, their story, and a deadline that could be next Thursday. You might get a flat fee (work for hire) or you might get profit participation (royalties), or some combination.

What Five Star's deal seems to be is that they contract with libraries: The library buys a subscription, and every month Five Star sends them a certain number of original hardcover novels.

Incidentally, researching anything at Wikipedia is a bad idea. The quality of their information varies from article to article, and even in the same article it varies from day to day. The last person to edit a page may not have had a clue what he or she was talking about.

linton · Apr 21, 2009

Nadia said:
I'm a little confused...? I thought you said you sent them the book. Did you initiate the contact or did they, esp. since you said you came up with plot, etc.

Also bookpackagers will provide things like editing, etc. IIRC. So it's not just the concept.

I found the company on publisher's marketplace deals and googled it punched submissions and got:

Please send a synopsis, your bio and publishing history, and at least the first three chapters, if not the entire manuscript. Submissions may be sent via regular mail, but we have a strong preference for email submissions. All manuscripts submitted to us must be available in electronic format. Email manuscripts should be forwarded in one complete attached file, preferably in either Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format (RTF).

Old Hack · Apr 21, 2009

I used to edit for a non-fiction packager in the UK. If you have any questions let me know and I'll do what I can to answer.

linton · Apr 21, 2009

James D. Macdonald said:
Could be either. Check your contract.

Incidentally, researching anything at Wikipedia is a bad idea. The quality of their information varies from article to article, and even in the same article it varies from day to day. The last person to edit a page may not have had a clue what he or she was talking about.

Thank you James and let me say you are a tremendous asset to this website and I along with many appreciate your inciteful missives.

What you say about wikipedia is certainly true but still they are a tremendous source of info and like with anything else, should be taken with a dash of salt.

nevada · Apr 21, 2009

linton said:
I found the company on publisher's marketplace deals and googled it punched submissions and got:

Please send a synopsis, your bio and publishing history, and at least the first three chapters, if not the entire manuscript. Submissions may be sent via regular mail, but we have a strong preference for email submissions. All manuscripts submitted to us must be available in electronic format. Email manuscripts should be forwarded in one complete attached file, preferably in either Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format (RTF).

I learn something new every day.

Grebbsy · Apr 22, 2009

linton said:
Thank you James and let me say you are a tremendous asset to this website and I along with many appreciate your inciteful missives.

What you say about wikipedia is certainly true but still they are a tremendous source of info and like with anything else, should be taken with a dash of salt.

Perhaps it's better to say that you should never rely on Wikipedia alone. Most Wikipedia pages will have links to other webpages whose value and accuracy you can hopefully judge for yourself.

Namatu · Apr 22, 2009

Rushie said:
They say their customers are primarily the library market.

Reference publishers will contract with book packagers to outsource the production of books. Not enough people in-house to manage that encyclopedia? Look for a packager to handle all the details for you. I don't see how a packager would be suitable for fiction. Since you are the author, with a completed work, there's nothing for them to do.

linton · Apr 22, 2009

Namatu said:
Reference publishers will contract with book packagers to outsource the production of books. Not enough people in-house to manage that encyclopedia? Look for a packager to handle all the details for you. I don't see how a packager would be suitable for fiction. Since you are the author, with a completed work, there's nothing for them to do.

That's my whole point. But we'll see when and if they offer something..

ChristineR · Apr 22, 2009

Well, if they really liked your book and thought it might be suitable for a YA series, they could buy your rights, write an outline of future books, contract an artist for the illustrations, manage the possible movie rights, write a "Bible" for the series, edit the book, manage the printing and binding...pretty all the stuff normal packagers do, except for contracting the authors. They might not even contract you for the future books. If your ideas are better than their ideas, and the book is great, why not? I suppose they could even do this with a one-shot, no series title. But overall, they must refuse even more titles than the average agent.

Book packaging?

linton

Danthia

nevada

linton

nevada

Nadia

Rushie

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle

linton

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman

linton

nevada

Grebbsy

Fearless vampire slayer

Namatu

Lost in mental space.

linton

ChristineR

What happened?