NextGen Genealogy: The DNA Connection is moving toward publication

With great haste we make slow progress. I just returned the copy edits for my new book to the editor. Another step closer to the publication date but still a few steps to go. 

For those of you who have not experienced the process, I'll review it for you. I signed the contract last September. The manuscript was due at the publisher at the end of December. That deadline was missed and my co-author had to withdraw because of success in other areas of her life as a genetic genealogist. It was April before I finished the part she was to have written. 

First the acquisition editor read the manuscript and approved it to go into production. Then it was reviewed for plagiarism, copyright and legal permissions from those whose material was being included. Here the progress seemed to bog down. I'm not sure whether this was due to an illness of the production editor or because of the cycle adopted by my publisher. The cover was developed as soon as the manuscript went into production. Authors, at least with this publisher, have no say about the cover. We can negotiate almost any other aspect but not the cover.

Manuscripts for other books I have done with this publisher were due at the end of December. This allowed the books to be available for showing to thousands of librarians who attend the American Library Association Conference typically held at the end of June. Since the current title missed that cycle, it seemed to fall into the next cycle. That cycle is to get it out in November so that it could be available for Christmas.

The production editor assigns the manuscript to a copy editor who reads it for grammar, footnote format, etc. The manuscript is returned to the author for concurrence with any changes and to answer any questions from the copy editor. This is the last point at which the author can make any changes or add new material. 

The manuscript is returned to the copy editor for final formatting. It is then converted into page proofs. These are returned to the author for one last review. At this stage only the most minute changes can be made so that the pagination will not be disrupted. The index is created at this point. I prefer to do my own indexing. Our work schedule calls for me to be indexing in mid-September. The page proofs and index are returned to the copy editor who places every thing in final form and forwards it to the publisher for printing and distribution.

If you should order this book from the publisher, be advised that the electronic format offered was designed primarily for library servers and may not be what you have come to expect from Kindle. The book also can be preordered from Amazon but the discount code shown above will not be honored there. 

Makes one want to investigate self publishing. 

Ebook Sales Surpassed Print Books or did they?

You may have seen news reports last week that “Amazon's Kindle Book Sales Surpass Their Print Counterparts.” On May 19^th, Matt Jarzemsky, Dow Jones Newswires, reported, “Amazon said Thursday that since April 1, it has sold 105 Kindle books for every 100 print books sold, including books for which there is no Kindle edition. Its sales of Kindle books so far this year have tripled from the like period in 2010, it said.” This is a significant milestone in the accelerating growth of e-publishing which Jarzemsky reported had reached sales of “$966 million last year and is expected to triple by 2015, according to Forrester Research” which measures online trends.

However, according to publishing industry insiders, this report is accurate but somewhat misleading. Three caveats must be kept in mind.

1.       Amazon is an online store and its customer base is more into the digital age than are the customers of some other book sellers.

2.       Also, the Kindle book numbers include short length self-published books and books that are in the public domain.

3.       Amazon does the comparison by units, not revenue and often sells ebooks for less than cost, in order to increase and retain market share.

Publishers are still trying to figure out how to navigate these shifting sands of distribution. My Crash Course in Genealogy, scheduled for publication next month, has been listed by the publisher as available as an e-book as well as in paper. The price for the traditional format has been announced but the price for the digital version is listed as, “Please call for pricing.” When I inquired about this I discovered my publisher has a policy of making ebooks “available through many of our distributors, including NetLibrary, Questia, OverDrive, Follett, Ebrary, and EBL. Going forward, we are diligently working with many other distributors to grow our ebook sales.” The policy in dealing with Amazon is interesting, “The threshold for free conversion to the Kindle format has now dropped to 5 print copies sold through Amazon.com in the trailing 90 days.”

It is going to be very interesting to see how all of this sorts itself out in the next few years. Which distribution channels will survive? Which publishers will survive? What will happen to authors? Will books become more readily available? Grab a good book and stay tuned.