Strategy session II: midcareer damage controlto try again, however, be aware that there is a right way and a wrong
way to influence cover decisions.
The wrong way is to rudely dictate your cover requirements to
your editor. The right way is to politely suggest cover approaches
that speak to your unique readers. It is also a good idea to make sure
that your ideas reach your publisher's art director. This is the expert
who knows better than anyone, even you, how to package books. On
the other hand, you probably know your readers better than the art
director does. Help him to find the right approach for your readers
and you are doing yourself a favor. Dictate and you will be ignored.
I am sure that some editors reading this chapter are shuddering
right now, because no one can alienate publishing professionals
more quickly than an author. I agree, so again I will emphasize: keep
your communications short and businesslike.
Once your book is published, what about the other pitfalls facing
you? Suppose you are getting no advertising or promotional sup-
port? Self-promotion may be the answer for you. (See Chapter 11.)
It is certainly better than sitting at home stewing.
More difficult to grapple with are problems like underprinting,
overprinting, and overshipping with its consequent high returns.
Remaindering too soon is another sore point. The only strategy to
pursue in response to these problems is clearly to communicate
your career plans to your publisher. That means identifying your
audience, choosing the right format, and following up with a well-
timed sequence of novels that will grow your readership. If your
publisher understands your strategy, it may perhaps bring its own
plans into line with yours.
Take overprinting: this commonly happens when a big advance has
been obtained and there is hollow optimism about the number of
readers really out there. A realistic appraisal of your potential audi-
ence—which can be achieved by making honest comparisons—may
mean a lower advance than you would ideally like, but it can also
leave you without the disaster of poor sell-through. Now, I am all for
strong advances, but I am not for high returns. They benefit no one.
Keeping the advance level ambitious but within the realm of
potential earnings is a smart strategy for many classes of authors.
Genre novelists building slowly may not want to quickly push