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A Note About Book Sales

WordTech Communications is unusual among American poetry publishers: we do not charge reading fees for submissions, and we do not receive outside funding from governmental or private agencies. As a for-profit business, we derive our revenue solely from book sales. We expect each book we publish to sell a minimum of 250 copies. A combination of efficient cost control, the large number of titles we publish annually, and a strong focus on marketing allows us to achieve enough sales volume to succeed.

Because book sales are not just important but are the foundation of our work, they play a role in how we select manuscripts for publication. The first criteria for selection, of course, is excellence. We will not publish a manuscript that is less than excellent in both the individual poems and the organization of the collection as a whole. But once we identify those outstanding manuscripts that merit the closest consideration, we will consider whether we can successfully market the book. We ask submitting authors, in their cover letters, to discuss their experience in doing readings and similar events, because author events are by far the most successful avenue for selling books. If we are weighing two equally good manuscripts, the author with a demonstrated record in doing readings will usually be the one selected. And if we are considering a manuscript by an author who has already published with us, the sales performance of the earlier title will undergo scrutiny.

Authors need to be dedicated to promoting and marketing their work through public readings and related efforts. We support and encourage these efforts by offering a generous discount on author copies, and paying a 10% royalty on non-author sales once the book is profitable. We do a great deal on our end to market an author's book as well, by doing large direct mail campaigns for that title; by sending the book to high-profile online venues as Poetry Daily and Verse Daily, which have an excellent track record of featuring our authors; by advertising in such leading journals as Poetry; and by making the book available for purchase at a professionally-designed website.

It is possible to place a high emphasis on sales and also adhere to the traditional values of a literary publisher. As noted, excellence is the first and foremost criteria in our selections. We will not hesitate to turn down a manuscript that we feel is less than excellent, even if the author has a strong record as a performer of his or her work. Similarly, we are not interested in offers to order a large quantity of an author's book if we publish it. Some of our authors take advantage of their author discount, and we encourage them to do so, but that is part of the sales and marketing process after the book has been published. Authors are not required to spend one cent on their book. If an author has an event arranged at a bookstore, then the bookstore can easily order copies of the book from our distributor.

We need to reiterate: Our authors must be comfortable with the public aspect of bringing poetry to an audience. If you do not enjoy doing readings and becoming actively involved in promoting your work and would prefer that only your publisher worry about selling your book, then we are not the publisher for you. We support our authors to the very best of our ability, and invest considerable resources in marketing their books through website design, flyer design, direct mail, and advertising. But these resources will be for naught if the author does not become actively involved in the promotion of his or her book.

©2004 WordTech Communications, LLC

PO Box 541106, Cincinnati, OH 45254-1106 / [email protected]