Two cents from the person who got decided who got put on the cover and who didn't.
Five names is what we decided would reasonably fit on the cover. Who to pick...? As the publisher, I have one job and only one job. Make this book sell as many copies as possible. If we want to have an Eclipse Two, then the first one has to turn a profit. That's the business.
So I'm going to pick the five names that I think will best sell the book, and frankly, gender isn't important in that decision to me, unless I think the author's gender will help me sell copies of the book. So why did I pick the five names that I picked?
Garth Nix - sells books by the metric ton, and while YA, has been around long enough to have a lot of crossover fans Bruce Sterling - sells lots and lots of books Peter Beagle - sells lots and lots of books, and oh yeah, that whole Last Unicorn thing Jeffrey Ford - multiple-award winning short story writer, his last two collections were both starred reviews, and his last novel won and Edgar and sold a ton of copies Lucius Shepard - rabid fan following, and I publish his novels and he sells a lot of books for us, which makes be believe he will sell copies of this book
Why are some of the other authors not on the cover? I'll not name names, but some of them are not on the cover because they are not well-known outside of YA. Some of them are not on the cover because they don't sell particularly well, no matter how well they are reviewed. Some of them are not on the cover because we decided to put five names on the cover and not six.
I have read posts here that say "so-and-so is a way bigger author than so-and-so that you put on the cover, so you must be sexist" and you're going to have to trust me on this: you're probably wrong. I have access to sales data, you probably don't. I do this for a living, I own the company, and I don't have a foreign conglomerate backing us, so when I'm wrong it costs me a lot of money. If I thought putting five women on the cover would sell more copies, I'd have done it.
Bottom line, I don't have enough money in the bank to worry about agendas. I'm going to put names on the cover that I think will move the most copies of the book. Readers are pretty predictable. Put names on the cover that they recognize, they will be more likely to pick up the book. Put names on the cover that they don't recognize, and they will be less likely to pick up the book. This is fact, not speculation. If you think I'm completely wrong, toss down your $20,000 and show me the right way to do it.
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The real answer
Date: 2007-08-29 11:20 pm (UTC)Five names is what we decided would reasonably fit on the cover. Who to pick...? As the publisher, I have one job and only one job. Make this book sell as many copies as possible. If we want to have an Eclipse Two, then the first one has to turn a profit. That's the business.
So I'm going to pick the five names that I think will best sell the book, and frankly, gender isn't important in that decision to me, unless I think the author's gender will help me sell copies of the book. So why did I pick the five names that I picked?
Garth Nix - sells books by the metric ton, and while YA, has been around long enough to have a lot of crossover fans
Bruce Sterling - sells lots and lots of books
Peter Beagle - sells lots and lots of books, and oh yeah, that whole Last Unicorn thing
Jeffrey Ford - multiple-award winning short story writer, his last two collections were both starred reviews, and his last novel won and Edgar and sold a ton of copies
Lucius Shepard - rabid fan following, and I publish his novels and he sells a lot of books for us, which makes be believe he will sell copies of this book
Why are some of the other authors not on the cover? I'll not name names, but some of them are not on the cover because they are not well-known outside of YA. Some of them are not on the cover because they don't sell particularly well, no matter how well they are reviewed. Some of them are not on the cover because we decided to put five names on the cover and not six.
I have read posts here that say "so-and-so is a way bigger author than so-and-so that you put on the cover, so you must be sexist" and you're going to have to trust me on this: you're probably wrong. I have access to sales data, you probably don't. I do this for a living, I own the company, and I don't have a foreign conglomerate backing us, so when I'm wrong it costs me a lot of money. If I thought putting five women on the cover would sell more copies, I'd have done it.
Bottom line, I don't have enough money in the bank to worry about agendas. I'm going to put names on the cover that I think will move the most copies of the book. Readers are pretty predictable. Put names on the cover that they recognize, they will be more likely to pick up the book. Put names on the cover that they don't recognize, and they will be less likely to pick up the book. This is fact, not speculation. If you think I'm completely wrong, toss down your $20,000 and show me the right way to do it.
Jason Williams
Night Shade Books