Before You Author, Ask the Right Questions

Every healthcare textbook publisher asks a single question of major importance before publishing a book: Is this the right author writing the right book at the right time for the right market?

Every potential author should ask the same kinds of questions:

• Am I the right person to write this book?


• Does my book really make sense?


• How is my timing?


• Does the book meet a clear market need?

Let's take them one at a time.

Are you the right person?

You're the right person if you feel passionately about the topic; you have solid, quantifiable experience in the topic and consider yourself an expert; your credentials indicate that you have a reasonable background to write expertly about the topic; and, for a textbook, you have substantive experience teaching the topic to learners.

Take this example. Betty is a CMA (AAMA) with a BS degree in, say, biology. She is also an RN and has been MA Program Director at a community college for 6 years. She wants to write a book about clinical skills for MAs. Does she have what it takes (superficially, at least) to author that kind of book? I'd say yes, absolutely, she seems to have a good skill set for that.

What if Betty wanted to write a book instead about teaching skills for new allied health faculty? Does she have what it takes? I'd say no. She might be a great teacher but her educational credentials don't support her being an expert on the topic. For a book like that, she should probably have an Master's in Education and have a substantially broader experience than solely in medical assisting.

Does the book make sense?

By "does the book make sense," I mean is the topic is broad enough and pertinent enough to sell a significant number of copies? Some topics are just too small for a book but would make a great journal article. They're so niche-oriented that it wouldn't make sense for most publishers to invest in a book that won't sell enough copies to turn a profit.

If your book would fit a course you know is offered by all or most programs, then you've got yourself a solid idea. If it would fit some programs but not others, or if the book covers a section of content within one or more courses, you'll have a more difficult time "selling" it to a publisher, but go for it anyway.

How is my timing?

For courses that already exist, such as med term, A&P, pathology, and the like, timing isn't critical. There are already books out there and the course already exists.

But for topics that seem "cutting edge," topics that are on the cusp of becoming standard but aren't there yet, you're in a tough spot. Some publishers certainly will risk taking on your book, but because education in general—and healthcare education in particular—move so slowly, most publishers will have second thoughts about publishing it. Which leads well into the last question…

Does the book meet a clear market need?

If the topic is too new and untested, then deciding whether your book on it would meet a clear market need becomes much more difficult. The safest book for a publisher, the one with least risk, is one built to compete with at least one other similar product. In that case, it's a let's-do-ours-better kind of approach, which is a nice approach to have. Build a better mousetrap, eh?

Behind the Scenes: Preparations for Proposing a New Book

When a potential author prepares a proposal for a new textbook, my work begins. Here's an admittedly incomplete list of the main tasks acquisitions folks like me need to complete before we can bring a formal book proposal to a decision making body.

• Work with author to refine proposal, table of contents, sample chapters, and such


• Create survey to gain feedback on project


• Find and assign reviewers to complete the survey


• Compile survey feedback and review with author


• 
  
  Request production estimate, which lists the various costs of each component of the book. To do that, I need to provide these estimates and other data:
  
  
  
  
  • Title and subtitle
  
  
  • Trim size
  
  
  • Number of book pages
  
  
  • Type of cover and binding
  
  
  • Number of colors for cover and interior (black-and-white interior is 1-color, black; black and, say, magenta interior is 2-color; what you call full color is 4-color to us, the colors being cyan [blue], magenta, yellow, and black)
  
  
  • Number of photos and how they will be supplied (film, hard copy, or electronic)
  
  
  • Number and approximate complexity of illustrations (for instance, 100 illustrations: 60% complex, 20% moderately complex, 20% simple)
  
  
  • Anticipated manuscript submission date
  
  
  • Anticipated publication date
  
  
  • Price and other business model considerations
  
  
  • Anticipated total fees for developmental editor
  
  
  • 
    
    Ancillaries to be offered, such as:
    
    
    
    
    • PowerPoints, including number of slides and images to be inserted
    
    
    • Test bank including number of test items
    
    
    • Instructor's guide, including number of pages and images to be inserted
    
    
    • Interactive software
    
    
    • Online resources
    
    
    • Image bank including number of images
    
    
    • Flash cards, including format (print, electronic on CD-ROM, electronic online), total number, and number of illustrations, if any
    
    
    • Accompanying workbook (which actually gets its own proposal and financials)
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Estimated cost of building ancillaries
  
  
  
  


• 
  
  Complete what we call here a gross profit estimate, or GPE, for which I need to supply the following:
  
  
  
  
  • Expected unit sales over life of title (LOT) for each market (MA, PA, NP, etc)
  
  
  • Expected unit sales for first year
  
  
  • Average discount for distributors and retailers
  
  
  • Number of complimentary copies needed to properly market the book
  
  
  
  


• 
  
  Prepare formal proposal document, including:
  
  
  
  
  • Overview of the product and ancillaries
  
  
  • Why the proposed author is the right person to write the right book at the right time for the right market
  
  
  • Summary of reviewer feedback
  
  
  • Royalty rate, amount of author grant, and other author-related financial information
  
  
  • 
    
    Full competitive summary, including:
    
    
    
    
    • Title, author, edition number, publisher, copyright year, ISBN, page count, price, and so forth
    
    
    • Ancillaries available
    
    
    • Strengths
    
    
    • Weaknesses
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Market analysis
  
  
  • Any other information we believe will help the decision making body, in my case the Editorial Board, determine whether to publish a book
  
  
  
  

Whew, no wonder I'm always behind!

Planning Your Own Succession

One of my authors, a wonderful person  I consider a friend, was recently diagnosed with a cancer for which there is no cure and for which the best available treatment might give him 2 or 3 more years of life. He writes a successful book for us, and we had thought, obviously, that he would be writing new editions well into the future.

The diagnosis and prognosis are awful, horrible, despicable. As a friend, I will provide as much support as I possibly can. Of course I will, just as he would do for me.

But from a professional point of view, the news takes on different meaning. It's sad to even have to think about having a professional point of view about this, but there it is and there it must be.

We talked recently about what a succession plan, a kind of Plan B so that we know what to do in the event of his death. It's a difficult conversation under normal circumstances, never mind when death has become more than an abstract concept, more than letters on a page, when it has become, in all its frightening detail, real.

The discussion about succession brought home the fragility of life, certainly, but also the worth of the partnership that exists between a publisher and an author. Publishers sign authors because they believe in each author's vision, ability, and dedication. We publishers want to maintain a lasting, mutually fulfilling relationship as long as possible, and we don't like it when a good author leaves us, especially under these circumstances.

Leave us they do, however, and for that we all need to prepare.

If you're a textbook author, do you have your own succession plan? Where will your future royalties go? Into a trust, for example, or into probate?

Who would you want to continue writing your textbook? Do you have someone specific in mind? If not, what are the qualities you want us to look for in a successor? What degrees, experience, and abilities should they possess before we consider them?

These are the questions publishers face when an author dies, and they're questions we might want to answer now, before the reality of our own demise becomes all too real.

Thank a “Born Teacher” Today

I was privileged enough a few days ago to witness what has become a familiar experience, my incredible wife being surrounded by her adoring students and their equally adoring parents, each singing her praises as a teacher and a human being.

[caption id="attachment_467" align="alignright" width="181" caption="A Born Teacher"][/caption]

My wife is a fifth-grade teacher and was unequivocally born to teach. I know I can't be fully objective, but I've heard it so many times that I know it is accurate.

If only you could have seen the faces of the students, their heads swiveled upward to her face, their eyes glazed in admiration and love, their feet carrying them to whatever corner of whichever room she went into.

If only you could have heard the testimonies of the parents and the number of times they told her, "I can't tell you how much you've meant to my son," or "I don't have words to describe what a difference you've made to my daughter."

They simply cannot articulate the depth of their veneration for her.

My wife is one of those quite rare individuals whose teaching style is so relaxed and so very fluid that she must certainly possess inbred characteristics that make her so.

Most of us other mortals who teach/have taught are learned teachers. We enjoy passing on our knowledge in a way that makes sense to learners. We've gained insight and expertise over the years and are competent and perhaps even gifted teachers. But we weren't born to teach.

Born teachers have something special. They exude an aura of purity, of timelessness, of art. The rest of us work at our craft, while these truly amazing individuals paint educational portraits the rest of us can only stare at and ponder.

You might have — might have — run into a born teacher at some point during your education. Or perhaps you work with one. It's even possible that you are one yourself, though you probably don't consider yourself that way. Which is another attribute of born teachers, their humility.

If you know a born teacher, do yourself a favor. Reach out to them today.

Let them know how much you appreciated their vision, humor, professionalism, artistry.

Let them know how much you learned from them, what life lessons they gave you that only they could have.

Let them know how your life changed because they were in it.

Let them ponder those things all summer long and feel, yourself, grateful for having known and been taught by a born teacher.

How Publishers Decide What to Publish

I received an e-mail from a potential author yesterday — let's call him Alan — about a book he would like to write for a market we don't publish for. I sent a polite rejection, explaining that we weren't publishing books in that market and wished him well in finding a more suitable publisher.

He wrote back with thanks and asked, "What criteria goes into making a decision?"

Great question. I'll limit my responses to professional and educational healthcare publishing.

First, know that every publisher is different and covers different markets in different ways. We all have markets we're heavily invested in, markets we're marginally invested in, and markets we don't invest in whatsoever.

For instance, here at F.A. Davis we publish heavily in nursing, physical therapy, medical assisting, medical terminology, and others. We publish less heavily in medicine and the dental auxiliaries.

Often the decisions about which markets to publish in are based on the number of individuals that comprise that market. We tend to publish less for small markets and more for large markets.

For us and many other publishers, the return on investment doesn't make sense when you consider the costs of publishing for a small market. Some publishers, though, specialize in niche markets and can make a solid profit in doing so.

That's not the only reason we have for publishing for a particular market, but it's an important one.

So if you're looking to write a book for a small market, look first at niche publishers rather than the larger ones. You'll probably find a better response there.

Hope that helps, Alan.

(His name wasn't Alan, by the way, and he might even have been a she. Tee-hee! I fooled you!)

Working a Booth at a Convention

When you're in publishing, working healthcare conventions is part of the deal. There is an art to working a booth at a convention, I think, and also a science.

I don't profess to be competent at either, but I've worked enough booths over the years that I've picked up some techniques that, if you ever wind up at a booth, might help you get through the experience successfully.

• Dress for the image you want to present. I always try to look professional but I'm a rather casual guy, so I often wear a nice polo shirt with dress pants. For some shows, particularly for an opening night reception, I wear a dress shirt and tie, but I never wear a suit. To me a suit projects a bit too much formality, which is not me at all. But it may be you, and if so, wear it proudly. But always dress professionally, everything clean and neat.


• Keep that cup o' Joe hidden or discretely out of the way. Exhibitors have to eat too, and attendees understand that. But do everyone a favor and keep food and drinks as much out of sight as possible.


• Use your body language to silently "invite attendees into the booth. I try never to stand in front of the booth and cross my arms. That posture can seem off-putting to some people, and the idea is to seem inviting and open.


• Never block the opening to the booth. This is critical when the booth is small, not so important when it's gigantic. Either way, try not to block something important that you want attendees to see. Even when I'm talking with authors or potential authors, I try to inhabit only a portion of the booth entrance, when in fact there is an entrance.


• Don't force contact. For people passing by the booth, smile, perhaps say hello, but don't force contact. I've seen vendors in a booth literally chasing after attendees to get them into the booth. Sad. Say professional. Be nice, be open, be inviting, but don't push. The attendees don't owe us a visit to the booth. We owe it to them to be there, to listen to them, and try to meet their needs, that's just good business sense. But they owe us nothing. It's good to keep that in mind, I think.


• Honesty is a good thing. At least some of your competitors will also have a booth in the exhibit hall. Scout out their locations as soon as you can so you can send attendees who don't find what they need at your booth over to your competitor's. Yes, that's what I said. If someone visits your booth and you don't have what they're looking for, send them to someone who might. That attendee will remember your graciousness later, believe me.