Deadlines play a key role in a publisher’s life, and they’ve been part of my life ever since… well, since forever, really. Even when I was a kid there were homework deadlines, and nothing changed when I joined the adult world and began to earn a living. Somebody, somewhere, always needs something completed by a certain date, or an entire system will collapse. And of course for a crime fiction publisher, the word is ripe with double meanings and potential for corny jokes. None of which will I burden you with here, you’ll be relieved to know. Crème de la Crime has a reputation for originality and I’d hate to shatter any illusions.
So this is a serious post about the role of deadlines in a small indie publisher’s life. I’ll leave the humour to those who are better at it.
One of the first jobs I do when I’m planning a new year’s publication schedule is draw up a list of what needs to be done and when, usually working backwards from each publication date. (No doubt there’s a management-speak term for this, and if I’d studied the art and craft of management instead of lurching into it by accident and learning on the hoof on a need-to-know basis, I’d know what it is. But I didn’t, and I don’t, and I seem to get along well enough without either the training or the jargon.)
You’d think that the other end of that chain of events is delivery of a manuscript. Actually it’s not. At least not every time. A lot of the work happens before the author is halfway through the manuscript.
Our authors do get a delivery date for the first draft (which actually means the first draft they’re happy to let go of) specified in their contract, and mostly they deliver by that date, which is calculated to allow enough time for editing, whatever rewrites are needed, and a final copy-edit before the manuscript goes to be typeset. I always try to build some slack into the system too; you never know what boulders life is going to hurl in your path, and sometimes it helps if we can finish one part of the process a little early.
In fact, for someone who doesn’t do organised, on the face of it I have things pretty well organised!
Except…
Oh come on, you didn’t really think it was that simple, did you? Create the schedule, specify the deadlines and it all falls effortlessly into place? If only! Dream on! (insert appropriate exclamatory cliché of choice.)
Mostly the problems don’t have anything to do with the authors. There are several more stages in the building of the book production jigsaw where things can go wrong. Here are just a few of the things which have – mercifully only once in each case:
· Cover illustrator gets a bad case of image block – like writers’ block, only with pictures – and can’t come up with something that really captures the book’s spirit. (A small miracle that this has only happened once, since he’s invariably working from a half-page outline of the plot.)
· Cover designer catches flu/develops a bad back/moves house and is suddenly unavailable when the printer discovers a glitch in the cover file.
· Editor has a major family crisis the day before the manuscript lands in her in-box.
· Advance marketing material for the distributor is prepared and sent off to meet their deadline – and when it gets there someone spots a really stupid typo which has slipped though all the checks. This has happened twice. And guess who prepares that marketing material…
· Printer who gave us an unbelievably good price suddenly stops answering his phone, so we’re back to square one. Fortunately when this happened there was still time to find someone else. But it goes to show, if a price seems too good to be true, it probably is.
· And finally… author, who I wouldn’t dream of ratting on but s/he knows who s/he is, has one crisis after another and eventually delivers the manuscript six months late. Just the one author, on just the one occasion.
I’ll probably think of half a dozen more examples as soon as I’ve posted this, but I don’t want to depress myself. Usually it works, and if it doesn’t we find a way round it. That’s life.
And that’s it. No double meanings, no corny jokes, no jargon. But guess what? I’ve missed the deadline I set myself for getting my Dead Guy post up.
Well, I did say I don’t do organised…
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Posted by: Supra Shoes | October 30, 2010 at 03:54 AM