This Business of Publishing

nevertheless, tactics available to you to try to rescue your book from oblivion.

With all the musical chairs being played in the editorial job market,

Many conscientious editors, when changing jobs, do try to bring along with them some or all of their list, for they know what fate is in store for the books left behind.

commonly known as the "editor's clause," meaning that if your editor moves to another publisher, you have the option of moving your book with him or her.

("I don't do business with publishers I can't reach by taxi," one of my colleagues sniffs.)

Thankfully, there has been a countertrend in the rise of imaginative, aggressive small presses capable of exploiting types of books that major houses are afraid, or can't afford, to do.

This, in turn, creates still more orphaned books, for, with publishing firms committing most of their resources only to guaranteed bestsellers, the amount of money available for more marginal and midlist books is diminished.

This means, in turn, that if money is going to be invested in any book, it will be invested in the sure thing, the latest book by a big-name author with a successful track record.

conservatism and negativism have become the prevailing attitudes when such decisions have to be made.

Sometimes continuity is achieved by the departed editor's replacement