If that’s his question, I think it’s a good one.

Tyler quotes the following from Casualene’s editor’s policy (as published in 2009—perhaps she’s somewhere else in her thinking now):

The task, then, of the poetry editor for BYU Studies is to try to discern among all the poems received which are the stronger, and even the strongest, and recommend them for prizes and publication.

During my hot-dogging days as a novice poet, a contestant for poetry’s laurels, a poetry editor and a managing and then founding editor of a literary journal, I cherished similar ideas about my roles.  Nowadays, however, I hear disquieting undertones in the close parallels Casualene draws between judging whether or not a poem is publishable and the ranking of strength and intelligences.

For one thing, applying a strength-and-intelligence quality scale to poetry (or any language) runs risks of reducing it to another consumer product—a thing—whose quality is judged by how effectively (”strongly,” “intelligently”) it meets my consuming needs (“healing,” “nourishment,” “pleasure,” etc.). Some poetry is only or mostly a consumer product (“Ach der lieber! Sick you are? Hope you soon feel wunderbar!”), and some language does abide in the get-it-done, “thing to use,” tool or product marketplace of communication (“I’d like two, chocolate Oreo shakes, please,” “Somebody call 911!”).  But much of human expression is a relational act (i.e. an act of reaching for relation, of forging relation) in the unbounded exchange of connection.  Usefulness scales don’t work in this highly charged and often unmanageable flow of energetic “getting across to”—or if I do apply valuation scales there, they whittle relation down to the means by which I get what I want, and only that. I may be more or less well intentioned in using a poem’s language to get what I think I want and need.  But instead of being caught up in encounter with another and with the world as expressed in what might possibly be the writer’s very best language, instead I’m beating the poem into a tool or assortment of instruments to use to my liking or advantage. In the strength-and-intelligence scale of poetic quality, the strongest poetry becomes the “most effective thing I use” to get nourishment, healing, or whatever I crave.  Bad poetry is poetry that doesn’t do anything for me or doesn’t do what I insist it should.  It doesn’t support me.

For another thing, the strong-stronger-strongest valuation scale casually orders the strength or intelligence of poetry readers, too.  If I, as a reader, like and seek out “middlebrow” verse like that of Longfellow and Benet, but not Milton or Goethe, whom some might consider “highbrow,” then may I be presumed less strong or less intelligent?

Younger poet-and-editor me used to think so. It took my becoming the mother of a child whose brain a clever virus rendered “severely disabled” to shed excesses of luxury living from my beliefs about what made for strength and intelligence.  And speaking of discerning, I began also to discern shadows in my valuations of others’ words—specifically, my indulgence in valuation’s dark, down-scale side, devaluation.  Yes, I, too, admired poems on the basis of how well they supported my needs and positions—whether or not they provided me “a portion of their power and virtue,” gave me healing, nourishment, or pleasure, as Casualene’s essay says they ought to do. I ignored or cast them aside if they didn’t tickle my strength-and-intelligence fancy. And there also lurked in my thinking the jaundiced implication that what I valued as strong and intelligent was strong and intelligent by virtue of my thinking it so.  Education failed to take the edge off that particular old circular saw.

But since those early, high-minded days, and in the wake of my daughter’s birth and nearly two decades of caring for and seeking to get across to her, my editorial stance has shifted. Certainly I see the historical and cultural importance of the diversity of artistic language that literary journals provide for. And I get that a wide variety of lit journals come and go, and that while they’re around, I can choose as I see fit and avoid contact with verse that doesn’t do it for me.  And yes, I believe that some language is more fertile and recombinant than other language is. In fact, some poetry knocks me silly with desire: Oh oh oh, I want to have your poetical baby! But, nowadays, I accept a lot more responsibility for my depth of response to poetry of all rhetorical walks of life rather than place the whole burden for proof of fitness squarely on the work at hand as if I were a football coach assembling a winning team: “You, you and you—you’re strong and intelligent, you make the editorial cut.  The rest of you—consider taking vows of silence.”

In his book, Homo Narrans: The Poetics and Anthropology of Oral Literature, John D. Niles quotes Walter Ong’s observation that calling people “illiterate” “… suggests that persons belonging to the class it designates are deviants, defined by something they lack” (Niles, 1999:23).  Ong and Niles’ interest in the use of the term “illiterate” relates to their studies of oral literature, where historical and modern populations not considered educated have developed sophisticated performance (oral) literature.  Of course, Casualene’s 2009 BYU Studies essay doesn’t call anybody illiterate.  But can we discern in a critical position that assesses poetry and its readers according to a value scale tied to “intelligence” and “strength” a similar, lower-down-on-the-yardstick marking out of writers and readers on the basis of what they’re thought to be lacking or unable to serve up? If so, this is, perhaps, an haute monde position, one that elevates itself at the expense of other meaningful narrative strains. In the past, as an editor, I was complicit in this stratification of language.  As a mother, I’ve faced off against strength and intelligence models applied against any idea of my daughter’s being a viable expression of human potential.  But wow!  How that severely developmentally delayed child, as the cognoscenti pronounced her, has rocked my world.

Nowadays, I consider language more than an instrument shaped for getting yummy ant-crunch out of a log, or a hem out of which I may absorb healing, or a commodity suited to sorting based upon its perceived value, usefulness, or ability (or inability) to meet my needs.  Language can be and do those things (or fail to do them), but it’s also up to so much more.  And no, I don’t think that language is inherently ineffectual.  And I no longer believe language a broken artifact of our fallen state.

In Adam’s Tongue: How Humans Made Language, How Language Made Humans, Derek Bickerton reflects upon Darwin’s intuition about how people got smart.

Darwin knew a century and a half ago that the Encyclopaedia had it backward—that it wasn’t a “highly developed brain” that gave us language …  and abstract thought, but language that gave us abstract thought and a highly developed brain.  “If it be maintained that certain powers, such as self-consciousness, abstraction etc., are peculiar to man, it may well be that these are incidental results of other highly advanced intellectual faculties, and these again are mainly the result of the continued use of a highly developed language” (Bickerton, 2009:5).

Setting aside the valuation phrases in the last sentence (“Highly advanced,” “highly developed”—yeah, compared to what? At this stage, we may be two-left-footed novices in the unfolding dance of brain and words), I find Bickerton’s point that language gives rise to what we call intelligence compelling.  And I’m also thinking that being too choosy about which language rates as artistically strong or intelligent or nourishing could well create and perpetuate poverties of expression.  And yes, I’m beginning to think the word “intelligent” in such qualitative and/or quantitative statements problematic, believing language that gives rise to connection and relationship more creative at its soul and less self-congratulatory.

So circumscribing the scope of what’s artistically viable—designating exclusively what’s “strong” or “intelligent”—might therefore be pretty risky business and result in all kinds of unintentional effects, including the snubbing of undiscerned beauty, the nailing shut of doors opening upon the possible, or the dousing of never-before-seen creative fire.  Rhetorical diversity could turn out to be as important as bio-diversity; perhaps it is a form of bio-diversity.  Human language might just be taking the human brain with it as it trips along to its next best expression, and the transforming human brain in turn might be giving rise to new movements in language.  As I hazard to say in my essay “Embrace the Pure Life” (Parts one, two, three, and four), in a dance of symbiosis, human “intelligence”—however it expresses in the diversity of minds on this planet—in turn dips and spins language, creating newer and more intimate and daring steps.

So increasingly, I’m thinking that, rather than imposing my pet valuation scale on the developing and actually quite sensitive realm of human expression, as an editor (of an admittedly marginal publication venue), I ought to be at least as creative and attentive in my response to the language others bring to me as I try to be to the world when I write poetry about it, or even as engaged as I am in my care-giving to my special needs daughter.  Rather than deciding this poem or that one worthy of continued life through publication and these ones non-viable, I’ve found myself leaning more toward a questioning stance in my editing: “What is going on in this person’s language?  What does he/she mean when he/she uses this word this way?  What does this person’s way of wording him- or herself tell me about language’s nature in general?  Is there something I can do, as an editor, to help this poem speak?”  “Is there something I’m not seeing?”

Increasingly, editing, for me, has become an act of engagement and exchange rather than a culling of the herd to advance my latest idea of what defines its fittest—i.e., its most utile—members. I’m glad that the internet provides boundless space so that I can experiment with breadth of inclusiveness.  Arguably, print journals face greater restrictions.

But, hm, even were I editor of a print journal, nowadays, I’d shuffle to find a way to discern and then publish something of the spectrum of language rising in a culture striving for words to get itself across—its wild blue asters, its violets, even its yellow dandelions, as well as its black orchids, blue roses, and Pot of Gold lilies.  A spectrum, rather than the upper quarter or third of a scale.  I keep sayin’, language is trying to do stuff to and with us, folks. If we can resist the urge, let’s try not to be too hasty to fix in mind what we suppose to be its most valuable assets. We people—Mormons included—are just beginning to find our tongues. I’m very interested in hearing what questions roll off those tongues.  And if we could possibly scroll back on treating language as if words are only a set of instruments that we use to reach the loftiest heights of what we want or need, that might just open us up to greater depths of real connection. The wowza of losing myself in the not-me, be that not-me God, the extraordinary soul of a fellow human, another creature, or spiritual or natural environs—that moment of becoming and becoming bound up in “being with” that in acts of cosmic anarchy blows up dams containing my notions of what I think is or what I think I want and need—that power flashfloods and dissolves, in sudden and unlooked-for moments, the bounds of the heavens.  As perhaps the Tower of Babel story illustrates for us rather strikingly, those heavens are unreachable through even the most determined and elaborate tooling.

Our same, instrumentality-based relationship with the physical environment bought us a load of trouble. Why do we imagine that it’ll work any better in the equally sensitive realm of human expression?

Oh, and, if this is just another Zeppelin of pretension, roll out the dogfighters and shoot me down—please.
_____________________________________________________________________

Notes

1.    Derek Bickerton, Adam’s Tongue: How Humans Made Language, How
Language Made Humans (New York: Hill and Wang, 2009).
2.    John D. Niles, Homo Narrans: The Poetics and Anthropology of Oral Literature (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999).

As I considered these claims, I realized that they are often based on little or no knowledge of publishing economics. So I thought it might be useful to give a basic overview of the costs and economics of book publishing—something that might help those considering publishing their own ebooks, and that might help consumers decide if prices really are too high and authors understand why publishers don’t give them more money. I’m sure for some readers this is obvious—if so, then you likely agree with me about many of the complaints about publishers aren’t justified, or you will be able to tell me why I’m wrong.

Books, whether digital or print, are economically not much different from a lot of other manufactured goods. To manufacture a product, you first plan the production (design the product and how it will be made) and then actually produce the product.

To give a concrete example, the process is really not any different economically than making hor d’oeuvres for a large party, perhaps one in which you really don’t know exactly how many people will come, or how many hor d’oeuvres they will consume.

To plan for the party, you first figure out hor d’oeuvre you will make and what recipe you will use. You also need to consider what kitchen utensils and implements you need and even how many people will help you make these hor d’oeurves.

All of this planning takes time and costs either money or your effort (since you can’t spend the time you put into the planning doing something else you might want or need to do). You may need to consult with another chef, you might need to find workers to help you put together the hor d’oeurves or you will probably need to go to the store and purchase the materials needed to make the hor d’oeurves. You may also need to find or purchase the utensils and tools needed to make them—rolling pins, measuring cups, bowls, etc.

For what its worth, these planning costs are called by accountants fixed costs—because the total of these costs don’t change with the number of items (hor d’oeurves in this case) that are made. The costs of actually making each item are called variable costs—because the total of these costs changes according to how many items you make. In the case of the hor d’oeurves, all that planning might cost just a little bit, say$50, but the cost stays the same no matter how many hor d’oeurves you make. On the other hand, the cost of the ingredients and the time making the hor d’oeurves changes according to how many you make.

The most important and crucial costs for most books come in this planning or preparation phase. These preparation costs include not only all editorial costs (content editing, line editing, proofreading, etc.), but also design and layout of the book, preparation of the cover, design and management of marketing and sales, etc. At most large publishers, these pre-printing costs, all fixed costs, amount to at least several thousand dollars, and for the largest books they can amount to tens of thousands of dollars.

What large publishers do NOT include (but which most authors who self-publish should include) is the authoring cost—the cost of the author’s time and effort in writing the book. By agreeing to pay the author a royalty, the publisher converts that cost to a variable cost—the total depends on how many books get sold, and if the book doesn’t sell well, then the author’s time and effort isn’t paid for in full. But that fact doesn’t bother the publisher, because he only agreed to pay however much per book. But for the self publisher there isn’t any way to ignore or make into a variable cost the costs of time and effort writing the book.

The implications of the fact that such a large proportion of book publishing costs come up front, before a single book is manufactured, are huge. It means that book publishing is almost always about what kind of sales volume you can get. The basic math is simple: the larger the number of copies you sell, the lower these costs are per copy sold. If it costs you $5,000 up front to write and prepare a book, then selling only 500 copies means these pre-printing costs are $10 per book—quite a lot. But if you sell 5,000 copies, then these costs are only $1 a book, and 50,000 copies are just $0.10 a book!! Volume is everything.

Too often those unfamiliar with these economics ignore the editorial and other pre-printing costs, especially when considering book prices. Somehow, it is widely believed, a 9 x 6 200 page paperback book printed on standard paper should cost the same regardless of its contents. In fact, the most important factor driving the costs the publisher faces is how many copies it can sell. And the public’s belief that books configured the same should cost the same regardless of content, actually allows publishers to keep the price of bestsellers higher than they might otherwise.

These same costs are one of the factors that drive publisher reluctance to reduce prices for ebooks. The actual printing (variable) costs are a relatively small factor in pricing print books (printing for books is usually 1/5 to 1/6 of the cover price), so reducing that small factor to zero (as happens with ebooks) doesn’t save much money, and doesn’t allow you to reduce the price that much. Its not about cannibalizing print book sales, its about covering the editorial and other preparation costs. Unless the publisher is sure he will get a big bump in sales volume, he can’t reduce prices on ebooks much.

This is, of course, just one aspect of publishing economics, although its one of the most important aspects. I hope to address other aspects in the future, including distribution costs, sales patterns, and pricing.

I know this can be a bit confusing or daunting, and I hope I’ve made the concepts clear. In my mind, these concepts explain a lot of what goes on in book publishing, and indicate, among other things, why it is unlikely that ebooks, just because of their format, will have significantly lower prices than print books. If ebooks end up significantly cheaper, it will be because of many other factors.

There are, however, some large hurdles to overcome.

Jonathan’s vision includes 5 broad elements. He wants the bookstore to be comprehensive in its list of titles, deep in the information about each title, well organized and categorized, with a customizable and interactive interface. I agree that all of these would improve the store’s ability to succeed.

In the post, however, Jonathan recognizes only one of the major difficulties with creating the store site: the list of titles to be included. I think there are at least three other major difficulties that anyone attempting this project would have to face. Below I’ll explore each of these four difficulties briefly:

1. The Title Database — As Jonathan mentioned, collecting the information about the titles is key. It isn’t just a list of titles, authors and perhaps ISBNs, however. The post does recognize many of the bits of basic title information (technically, database fields) that are needed — “publishing house, pages, binding, ISBN, etc.” plus some of the important additional information that help customers connect to the title:
   

   some kind of rating system or description (e.g., violence, sex, language — for those to whom that’s important), genre(s), topic(s), award(s), links to published reviews in places list AML and AMV, links to author publisher webpages/website, and whatever other information might be easy to collect and useful to help readers figure out if the book might interest them (setting? timeframe?). There should also be an indication of the Mormon connection (Mormon characters? Mormon themes?) and stance (e.g., pro, anti, neutral), though the latter would have to be done cautiously.

   In addition,this database also needs information about the publisher: contact information, purchasing terms, pricing, etc. This information is sometimes difficult to get also. First, not every publisher does what it should to let potential customers know that it exists. [An example is the edition of the poetry of Eliza R. Snow released a few years ago (no, not the recent Derr and Davidson edition, but the self-published edition that was only available from Sam Wellers and nowhere else)] Second, terms and pricing are usually given to those who are purchasing books for resale, and, sometimes vary by who the reseller is. Obtaining this information from publishers sometimes almost requires that the store be ready to purchase.

   Large retailers like Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble get information about available titles from several sources—distributors, wholesalers, books-in-print, publishers presentations. But in the Mormon market these aren’t as easy to use: There isn’t a true wholesaler in the Mormon market, and the distributors, which usually serve just the smallest publishers, don’t seem to provide this information on a regular basis, and the small retailers in the market don’t seem to be looking for it.Like it or not, the Mormon portion of the market doesn’t use the sophisticated data tools that the national market does.

2. System for Maintaining Title Information — Once the data on the titles in the Mormon market has been collected, it still needs to be updated regularly — in this case probably at least several times a month. I believe that the Mormon market produces at least a few hundred new titles each year, or dozens each month. In addition, these days new publishers arise several times a year, and publishers change their terms from time-to-time. Adding reviews and blog posts about titles, and maintaining the information becomes almost a full-time job.The problem here isn’t just the amount of work required. It is also the systems needed—what files are created and passed to whom and how are those files processed. Any bookstore trying to be comprehensive and to provide deep information about titles would need to develop its systems for maintaining that information.
3. The Logistics of Purchasing from Publishers — Even with a fairly complete database of information and a way of keeping it up-to-date, the bookstore would still need a system for purchasing the publisher’s books. Regardless of whether the store purchases from a wholesaler or the publishers themselves, this means meeting the publisher’s requirements for setting up a resale account. This often means meeting a minimum volume of purchases and meeting credit requirements (odd as it might sound, some publishers assume that all their customers purchase on 30 days credit and might have difficulty setting up an account on any other terms). While its usually straightforward, setting up and maintaining these relationships is necessary for the kind of book seller described here.
4. The Logistics of Packing and Shipping — One of the sometimes overlooked realities in online bookselling is the idea that the books for sale will ship in a short time after purchase. Because many of the publishers in the Mormon market aren’t represented at the national wholesalers, having the assurance that the book will ship a few days after purchase, is much harder to get. The largest retailers in the national market ask wholesalers like Ingram Books to ship the copies their customer’s purchase, so that the books never actually touch the bookseller’s hands. Since the Mormon market doesn’t have a wholesaler, such a relationship can only be set up  with the national wholesalers (which don’t have every Mormon title). Thus this bookstore would need to use national wholesalers (if possible) and also stock and ship at least some books—those not available through the national wholesalers. And stocking and shipping books means workers, a place to store the books, and shipping materials.

Setting all this up means an initial investment of tens of thousands of dollars (in the Mormon market) and a lot of work to get everything established (although it may be possible to develop all of this over the long term).

Of course, it may be possible to avoid some or all of this by using partners — such as developing a store that is simply links to the books on Amazon or another online seller. But that idea also has drawbacks — such as not being able to include titles that aren’t in the partner’s catalog.

I’m not quite sure that I’ve included everything in the difficulties above. I’ve probably left out something somewhere. But I do believe that the difficulties are significant.

But I also don’t want to give the idea that these difficulties are insurmountable. They are not. While its a lot of work, the project is worthy, and could make a big difference. It is possible, and even probable that a store like this will exist.

The title database is, I think, the most important piece. And the Mormon Literature and Creative Arts Database gives anyone who wants to do this a big chunk of the old data that they need. Unfortunately, without the access we asked about last year, I’m not sure that we can use it as a place to store even the relevant portions of the data needed — its not possible to add data there yourself! So perhaps we just need a way to create a structured database and give the Mormon Literature community access to add and modify data. Once that information is available, the other difficulties may be easier to solve.

I don’t have any new ideas about how to find those readers. However, I do have an idea about a different piece of the puzzle. At the moment, there’s no single place to send people where they can browse for authors and titles that might interest them. My suggestion: an online store that caters specifically to Mormon literature, organized to make browsing easy — like a good brick-and-mortar bookstore — with a broad and inclusive enough selection that people could explore with a fair confidence of finding what they’re looking for.

I hasten to admit that I have no idea how this could be done (from a technical perspective) or who would do it. The idea started as an electronic parallel to an art gallery co-op, where the different artists put in shifts at the desk. Maybe this could be done as a cooperative effort among some of the independent LDS publishers, though that could have some disadvantages (see below). Perhaps it would be better to run it simply on a volunteer basis. For now, though, I’d like to talk about what I’d like to see in such an online bookstore from a user/customer perspective.

• I’d like to see as broad a selection as possible within the realm of Mormon literature. Ideally, this would include titles from as many publishers as possible (including self-published) and information about out-of-print books, with a link to Amazon or Sam Weller or somewhere else that might be willing to sell and ship a used book. Even if part of the goal is to help people find the realistic stuff, I think the idea will work better if everything that could be described as Mormon literature is listed in the inventory. While the original idea had to do with providing a space for books not found in standard LDS bookstores, I think that in the interests of offering a complete range — and in order to increase the chances of success — it should also include titles from Deseret Book, Covenant, etc., on an equal footing.
• Accurate, standardized information about each book, including all the regular stuff (publishing house, pages, binding, ISBN, etc.), plus some kind of rating system or description (e.g., violence, sex, language — for those to whom that’s important), genre(s), topic(s), award(s), links to published reviews in places list AML and AMV, links to author’publisher webpages/website, and whatever other information might be easy to collect and useful to help readers figure out if the book might interest them (setting? timeframe?). There should also be an indication of the Mormon connection (Mormon characters? Mormon themes?) and stance (e.g., pro, anti, neutral), though the latter would have to be done cautiously. It strikes me that authors and publishers would have a strong motivation to do much of this work themselves, if a consistent framework could be set up.
• A top-level organization by genre (like a brick-and-mortar bookstore), but with options to list and access book titles/descriptions flexible in many other ways as well (e.g., by topic). It should be possible to see lists such as the Whitney Award winners and finalists, AML award winners, and possibly top-20 lists (in general or by genre) by noted Mormon critics (e.g., Richard Cracroft) or others. Favorite books by well-known Mormons without particular literary credentials might be worth considering too, for sheer market appeal (e.g., Gladys Knight). And it should be possible to see (a) new releases, and (b) new additions to the site since a date specified by the user.
• Something that might be nice (if it’s not too difficult to do) would be to make the website organization and appearance customizable by the user. For instance, if you’d rather see books that only match specific criteria, that should be possible.
• There should be a way for readers to rate and share their opinions about books. Possible this would need to be moderated to reduce the possibility of turning it into a way of promoting one’s own work or sabotaging that of others. Ideally, there would also be some kind of “if-you-liked-this-then-look-at-this” setup.
• I don’t know but am guessing to trying to actually sell books from the site might be a pain. Links to places like the publisher’s site or Amazon.com would suffice. Maybe it could be set up like the AMV deal, where the links to Amazon bring some small amount back to the coffers? It might never pay enough to make the site a paying proposition, but at least could help pay for server space.

So there it is. Anyone want to take a crack? I’d even be willing to serve my shift adding and coding books, if someone actually gets it started…

Most of us involved with the LDS market simply assume that there is a consumer need or desire that is being filled, and that the audience will always want Mormon materials. Less frequently, many assume that separate LDS stores and perhaps publishers will eventually be absorbed into the rest of the market for books, music, film and other cultural goods, because, they believe, there isn’t any reason that consumers need separate LDS stores.

Perhaps.

The current LDS market is best defined as a niche — a small portion of the overall market that consists of customers with specific interests or needs different from the rest of the market. A niche is usually small enough that it is overlooked or ignored by the rest of the market. It often also has some kind of impediment or ‘insulation’ from the rest of the market, something that keeps those in the  rest of the market from simply adding one additional product to serve the needs of the niche.

The answer to whether or not the LDS market will continue lies in this “insulation” form the rest of the market. Without some impediment, companies currently outside the market will eventually see the niche as attractive and absorb the market.

So what are the impediments? What, if anything, keeps Random House from publishing books for Mormons? or what keeps Barnes and Noble from becoming the preferred seller of LDS titles for most buyers?

I’m not sure that I have all the answers to these questions, but several possible impediments have occurred to me:

1. Unique Products — By and large the products in the LDS market are different from those outside of the market, and many of the products outside of the market won’t work inside the market. The language and terms and other cultural elements that we use in Mormon books, music and film make us comfortable and help us understand what the author means, and the doctrines and cultural beliefs that most Mormons share are reflected in these works. While we understand outside works just fine, in certain kinds of works (religious works, or fiction with Mormon settings) outside language or beliefs seem strange or out of place. Outside publishers and other companies would likely need to have LDS employees in order to get these things right in books for the LDS market, and it doesn’t seem likely that they will make the necessary expenditures anytime soon.
2. LDS Consumer Interest in “Safe” Products — Many Mormons, influenced by Church counsel to seek wholesome entertainment and avoid that which might fill the mind with impure thoughts, look for materials that are “safe.” They are cautious about purchasing books, music and film from non-LDS sources, because the works they purchase may not be as “safe” as they want. They then look for indications of what to expect — publisher/imprint names, authors, etc., that they know will fit what they believe to be “appropriate.” At least in part, they believe that books in LDS stores are “safe” and prefer to shop there for some kinds of materials. This doesn’t mean that they never purchase elsewhere, just that they have a preference in some cases where the risk seems greatest. This preference will, I think, continue at least as long as Church leaders continue to emphasize avoiding unwholesome materials.
3. LDS Publishers and Marketing Information Often Unavailable — While most LDS Publishers do make their books available to the rest of the market in the U.S., that doesn’t mean that their books find much of a market there. Other than basic availability, LDS books largely aren’t noticed and haven’t much of a presence in the market. LDS publishers in general don’t try to sell their books to stores outside of the LDS market–no sales calls are made to stores, no marketing materials sent to vendors and no advertising to the non-LDS consumer outside of areas where LDS members are a large portion of the population. The few vendors like Amazon.com that list LDS books, music and film are lucky to categorize books as LDS at all, let alone divide them into categories meaningful to consumers. Of course, this could change, but both LDS publishers and outside vendors would need to perceive this as worth their while.
4. The Christian/LDS Split — In a sense the most likely market to absorb the LDS market is the general Christian market. I believe that, if asked, most professionals in the national market would assume that these markets are already the same. But most LDS Church members and most evangelicals know that any combination of the two is impossible. The few LDS authors, musicians, publishers, labels or producers who have attempted to get their works into Christian bookstores have been roundly rejected, even when their works are not specifically Mormon. While in contrast LDS stores have been somewhat more open to Christian materials, they are often different from LDS materials in a way that makes it difficult for LDS consumers to relate.

There could be other impediments that keep the LDS market separate from the rest of the market (please let me know if you think of something). But even if these are the principal impediments, I think they are quite substantial. And I don’t see them changing much in the next few decades.

I won’t be surprised if someone believes that the Internet, or print-on-demand, or ebooks will somehow overcome all this. Personally, I don’t see that happening. While the Internet continues to have a substantial effect on the market, it most likely means that the division we see in the physical portion of the market will continue, as it has, transferred to the virtual portion of the market. LDS products will still be different from other products, LDS consumers will still want different products and want assurance that what they purchase is “safe.” Print-on-demand and ebooks are simply changes in form and production process. While important advances, they won’t overcome these impediments.

That isn’t to say that these impediments are permanent. It is possible to overcome them, or for preferences among consumers to change. But those changes are most likely to take decades, if they happen at all, because they involve long-standing cultural assumptions and needs, not technology. In the meantime, I think we can safely assume that there will be some kind of LDS market.

For what it’s worth: in my opinion (that is as someone who works in higher education public relations and has worked with the local and national media) this is a well-sourced, multiple-sourced story that brings in the major needed points of view. It does rely at times on anonymous sources, but I’m personally confident that Andrew has used them judiciously and within standard journalistic practices. But also keep in mind that it also represents particular points of view. No one story — no matter how long and well-sourced can do full justice to an issue or event or series of events. That said: this story is worth telling, Andrew has done an excellent job, and many thanks to all those who were willing to correspond with Andrew and especially those willing to go on record.

The struggles of independent LDS publishers

By Andrew Hall

In a Mormon book market dominated by two Church owned publishers and two Church owned bookstores, all which have considerable resources at their disposal, independent publishers live a precarious existence.  Independent publishers provide the diversity of outlets which any marketplace needs to thrive. With finite resources and limited opportunities to reach readers, however, the life span of such publishers tends to be short, and authors with works produced by these companies must take the lion’s share of the marketing on themselves.  This article will look at the current state of three small independent publishers, Valor Publishing Group, WiDo Publishing, and Leatherwood Press.  Valor Publishing in particular is going through what can charitably be called a moment of transition, with two of the four founding members of the company resigning, and several authors taking back their book rights.

Before discussing the state of each specific company, some perspective is needed. Deseret Book Publishing and Covenant Communications, both owned by the Church-owned Deseret Book Company, have resources that go far beyond that of the independent publishers.  They are also able to get almost automatic access to the two largest Mormon-specific book retailers, Deseret Book Retail and Seagull, which are also both owned by Deseret Book Company.  Independent publishers have to submit their completed books to an approval process to get placed on the shelves of these two bookstores, which can take months, and which can act as a brake on a book’s publicity momentum.  Two of the most prominent outlets for book marketing, the Deseret Book bi-monthly catalog and the LDS Living magazine (also acquired by Deseret Book Company in recent years), charge advertising rates which challenge the resources of publishers.  Finally, many books published by the Deseret Book Company are sold at the popular Time Out series—devotional-like events promoted from the pulpit which feature inspirational talks by recently published authors and tables full of books published by Deseret Book Company available for purchase during the event.  Considering these benefits, it is not surprising that Mormon authors interested in writing for the Mormon market are eager to take the opportunity to sign with Deseret Book or Covenant.

Publishers who publish for the Mormon market produced 95 novels in 2009.  Of those 95, Deseret Book and Covenant together produced 47, or very nearly 50 percent.  Those 47, however, represent the most established and best-selling authors in the market.  The sales of those 47 doubtless far outstripped the 48 published by independents.

The largest independent publisher is Springville, Utah based Cedar Fort, Inc. Cedar Fort has been in the business since 1986, and is able to consistently get its books on the shelves of the Church-owned bookstores and advertise in the Deseret Book catalog.  Another long established independent publisher is Granite Publishing, located in Orem, Utah. The more literary minded Zarahemla Books and Parables Publishing have been discussed on this blog many times in the past.

This article will look at three newer independent publishers, Valor Publishing Group, WiDo Publishing, and Leatherwood Press.  Each is a legitimate publisher–that is, none of them solicits money from authors to help in the publication of a book.  Yet each has small staffs and small budgets, and requires its authors to do much of their marketing on their own.  Each tries to get their Mormon-directed products on the shelves at the Church-owned bookstores, and although there are delays, they are usually ultimately successful at least at Deseret Book.  One editor commented, “All of our LDS products are available at Deseret Book stores. We have a great relationship with the professional staff at Deseret Book. In our experience, Deseret Book is more than willing to work with the smaller LDS publishers.  Seagull Book does not carry any of our fiction titles . . . Typically, Seagull is much less willing than Deseret Book to work with the smaller LDS publishers.”

Independent publishers also place books in Borders, Barnes and Nobles, or Costco, and sometimes help set up book signing events for the authors at these stores. For the most part they encourage authors to promote their books themselves by setting up and constantly updating their own author blogs, conducting “blog tours” (a logrolling activity where authors solicit reviews from each other), and participating in social media sites.

Some authors question the effectiveness of these activities, and are less willing to participate in them.  William Prusso, for example, had a novel published by WiDo in 2009.  He commented, “WiDo has no marketing budget at all.  I did not know that going in.  I can’t understand why they would put up the money to publish a book, and then do nothing to promote it.  It makes no business sense.”  When presented with this sentiment, founding WiDo editor Karen Gowen said that Prusso was mistaken; WiDo does have a marketing budget and a marketing director, and the company presents each author with a marketing plan, “We encourage our authors to be fully involved with marketing and promotion. We have asked each of them to set up a blog and keep it active and functioning, as well as any other social media like Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads and Shelfari. [Our] marketing director has created a 30-page marketing workbook for each author to assist them in promoting and reaching their demographic . . . I get a bit prickly when I hear something like ‘there does seem to be very little spent on promoting the books’  or ‘WiDo doesn’t market.’ . . . We don’t have the means to purchase billboard ads along I-15, or radio spots, or prime tables at Barnes & Noble. But ask any of the 280 followers on my blog if they’ve heard of [my novels] Farm Girl or Uncut Diamonds . . . In today’s publishing industry, an author must work as hard to promote his book as he did to write it, if not more so . . . Sometimes they have had to get past the fantasy that every publisher has bags of money to spend on ads and such, like Deseret Book does.”  Linda Prince Mulleneaux, the Managing Editor at Leatherwood Press, commented, “If an author does not [market their own book], a book will not succeed, no matter how large the marketing budget. That said, a small marketing budget does limit what a publisher can do to promote a book. We explain these limits to our authors up front. We create a marketing plan for each book, and that plan details what we require of the author . . . Many authors think that if the publisher simply throws enough money behind a book, it will sell. But our best-selling books have been those where the author has aggressively promoted the book, whether or not we conducted an expensive advertising campaign.”

The financial health of these companies is a concern for authors, considering the extremely poor record of survival among independent publishers in the Mormon market.  Several authors from one of the more established independent publishers have reported that the company is far behind in its royalty payments.

Next are profiles of the three companies being spotlighted.

Valor Publishing Group was founded in 2009, in Orem, Utah, with an Executive Board which included three published LDS authors, well known within the Mormon writing community; Candace Salima as founder, Owner, and Marketing Director, Brent J. Rowley as Business Manager, and Tristi Pinkston as Senior Editor.  Cash Case, Salima’s brother, was also a founding member of the Board.  The participants set lofty goals for the company, aiming to crack both the Mormon and national markets.  The company started with the coup of acquiring a novel written by Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, who then appeared to be embarking on a race for the United States Senate, and announced a slate of twelve books to be published in 2010. It was an ambitious beginning which had the potential to launch Valor into a position rivaling Cedar Fort as the leading independent publisher.  Salima dismissed a description of Valor as a “Mormon publisher,” claiming that the company would “aggressively publish and market in both the regional and national markets.”  Its website made claims that went far beyond the usual expectations of a small independent publisher, saying “Advanced reader copies and order forms will be sent to more than a thousand book dealers who stock our books. Additional promotional elements, including publicity, in-store promotion, electronic and print media, targeted email marketing, as well as whole promotions, may be developed as part of your book’s individualized marketing strategy.”

Early in 2010 Valor scored a second coup, when it acquired the rights to “The Cleansing of America,” a previously unpublished manuscript by W. Cleon Skousen, the late Mormon author whose writings have recently gained national recognition in conservative political circles.  The book has sold very well for Valor, with over 10,000 sales in its first two months, and a second printing on the way.  Valor also published five novels early in 2010. The company has also faced many setbacks, however.  In November 2009 it cancelled its contracts for three previously announced books.  In May 2010 it put all novels scheduled for release in the spring and summer on an indefinite hold, and several authors report that the company did not keep its commitments in terms of marketing.  Around this time Mark Shurtleff, unhappy with the company’s marketing and financial dealings, took back the rights to his book.  Then, on June 28^th and 29^th, Rowley and Pinkston, two of the four founding members of the company, resigned their positions.  Both declined to comment on their resignations, and Pinkston remains connected to the company as an author and a freelance editor.  Around this time four authors, whose as yet unpublished books were placed on hold, asked for and received back their publication rights.  Two authors with upcoming books have decided to stay with Valor.  Salima commented, “The authors who had their rights returned were those whose expectations were far beyond what we could deliver, or any publisher for that matter. When we restructured and streamlined Valor Publishing Group, those authors with whom I had to delay their printing were given the option of staying with Valor or having their rights returned.”

Valor author Jenni James stated that the main reason for the delays was the withdrawal of a key investor, who, she claimed, withdrew because of his own financial state, not because of concerns about the company. Author Gordon Ryan, one of the authors who took back their publishing rights, blamed Salima for focusing more on other endeavors than on her business, and said her actions were “not limited to incompetence, but were intentionally deceptive.”  Others with business dealings with Valor also responded to my inquiries with claims that Salima failed to follow through on promises, misrepresented the financial state of the company, and acted in an unprofessional manner.  James defended the company by insisting that Salima had always been honest with her, and that the company was in sound financial health.  Valor announced this week that it was going through “restructuring and streamlining”, and Salima commented, “We are indeed moving forward and not closing our doors.”  James admitted the company was “humbled” by the recent troubles, and planned a more modest slate of releases for 2011.

WiDo Publishing, in Salt Lake City, is the creation of the Gowen family.  The President/CEO is William Gown, family member Don Gee co-created the business and acts as typesetter and designer, Bruce Gowen (William’s father) helps run the business, and Karen Gowen (Bruce’s wife) acts as an assistant editor, as well as the author of two of the company’s first four books.  Kristine Princevalle is the Managing Editor, and Liesel Autrey DeVaul and Allie Maldonado also serve as editors.  The company was created in 2007 to publish Karen Gowen’s first book.  It published two more novels in 2009, and one so far in 2010.  Although the one book published this year is David J. West’s Book of Mormon-themed novel “Heroes of the Fallen”, WiDo staunchly avoids the term “Mormon publisher”.  Karen Gowen stated the company is “veering away from Mormon themes and characters to make our titles appeal to a wider demographic.”  It has as many as ten more books under contract, mostly novels, some of which were promised for 2010. Karen Gowen, however, says WiDo is “Cutting back production. We may not have as many new releases in 2010 as planned. WiDo is very conservative in its approach.”  As stated above, WiDo puts comparatively little money into promotion, but instead claims that they actively train their authors to promote their books themselves.  Some authors attached to WiDo, however, have said that they are disappointed by the lack of communication between them and the company.

Leatherwood Press, located in Salt Lake City, Utah, was founded in 2004 by the current President and co-owner, Garry P. Mitchell.  It publishes in the Mormon market under two imprints, Leatherwood Press, and since 2008, Walnut Springs Press.  Linda Prince Mulleneaux is the Managing Editor, and Amy Orton the Art and Marketing Director.  The company has produced 159 books since 2004, mostly children’s and non-fiction books.  Since 2008 it has also published thirteen fiction books. In 2009 it published two children’s books, eleven nonfiction books, and five novels.  In 2010 it is scheduled to publish eight nonfiction books and eight novels.  In terms of number of titles, Leatherwood appears to have moved into the second position, behind Cedar Fort, as most active independent publisher.  Mulleneaux commented, “In the last few years we have struggled financially, but things appear to be looking up now.”

Authors who published with Leatherwood were effusive in their praise of Mulleneaux as an editor and an advocate for the authors, although some noted that the editing and rewriting period was rushed, resulting in embarrassing mistakes. There was a split of opinions about the company’s marketing efforts.  Some authors were disappointed, while others accepted the fact that the company’s budget necessitated self-marketing.

One Walnut Springs author noted that one attraction she had towards the company was that the contract did not require “right of first refusal”, a provision found in many contracts in the Mormon market.  Mulleneaux commented “right-of-first refusal clauses are uncommon in the publishing world in general . . . ROFR clauses are often illegal (they restrict trade) and unenforceable.” The WiDo contract also apparently does not contain the “right of first refusal” clause, but Brent Rowley said at Valor “most of the contracts [had] a ROFR clause. It was somewhat negotiable.”

Independent publishers face many hurdles these days — from the bad economy to stiff competition to revolutionary changes in the way books are published, marketed and distributed. It is rather remarkable that they put out as much product as they do in spite of all the challenges. The message for established and aspiring authors, though, is that they need make sure that their work is as polished as possible before submitting and be prepared to take an active role in marketing any titles that make it to publication.

Editor’s note: a quote that was previously in this piece has been redacted because it had not actually been provided on the record. Andrew and I apologize for the error.

So here’s a completely self-indulgent poll. Help me figure out what my byline should be. Comments (even mocking ones) are much appreciated.

Are you not all aware that very many, if not all, of our men, women and children are turning authors, and publishing works purporting to be illustrative of the doctrine of the saints. Some of them are badly written, and some of them are mixed with error, and very many of them which are true and useful are borrowed, in part or in full, from our standard works… vast sums are expended by men who have but little experience in publishing, and perhaps pay double for the paper and printing, and all this into the hands of those who feel no interest in our cause.

In this way thousands of dollars are drawn from the saints and from the elders, while the temple cause is neglected.[1]

In my mind, the above quote hints at a lot of the issues in publishing for a Mormon audience. Issues of doctrine and authority are a huge part of what gets published by whom and how willing Mormon audiences are to accept and purchase published materials.

As far as I can tell, no one has put together a complete history of Mormon publishing, although parts of the story have been told. I recently compiled an overview of this history as part of a presentation I gave at the recent Brazilian Mormon Studies Conference, held in São Paulo, Brazil. And I suspect that readers of A Motley Vision will be interested also. I plan to break up this overview into at least 7 parts (in addition to this introduction), and post them here weekly.

This overview is far from complete. Many parts could be better written by those who know the material better than I. In other places no one has really done any research or compiled any data, so this overview may be all that is known. Like most areas of Mormon history, the research done depends a lot on the bias of the majority of those who study Mormon history towards the LDS Church’s formative period and early Utah years, which makes it somewhat difficult to compile information about other periods and areas. Readers should also know that because of the nature of the conference in Brazil, this history may discuss publishing in languages other than English more than is justified by history.

Since this history isn’t complete, I beg for comments, corrections and additions that might help make it more complete.

But even incomplete, the story of Mormon publishing is, I think, fascinating.

So: What do you think are some major developments that MUST be included in any summary of Mormon literature? And which literary artists, critics, editors, works, and websites MUST be mentioned?

Every Sunday, I see both men and women using smartphones or PDAs to read scriptures and lesson manuals. The Church actually does a decent job of providing electronic versions of some of its materials. Do you think e-books could sell in the Mormon market? Why or why not? What types do you think would do best?

I think e-books can sell in the Mormon market as long as people are conditioned to expect products in E. Thing is, storefronts for LDS materials are so few and far between (especially east of the Rockies) that it’s not even a thought in most people’s heads. If your temple happens to have a bookstore nearby, yay, but the pickings might be slim. I live 4.5 hours away from the Nauvoo temple, and invariably get most of my materials there. (I must admit that we have a new bookstore here in KC [not very far from where I live], but I haven’t been there yet. I’m annoyed that they spam email me and there’s only ONE way they could’ve gotten my email address. It’s been a deliberate choice not to go there for that reason.)

The key is to get members to understand that there are *other things* in E besides scriptures. Every week I see those men and women reading on their PDAs and smartphones and iPhones. They’re FASCINATED by my one-function device, my eBookWise, and they’re astounded when I tell them they can read books on their devices. It had *never occurred* to them. That’s what needs to change.

Deseret Book is in a unique position to be able to accomplish this. I thought they were going to start because about a month ago or so, I saw they had free PDF downloads of some of their books. The whole book. But here’s the thing: PDF is not an e-book. There is almost no device that renders PDF well and certainly not any of the devices I see at church. Nobody wants to read on the computer, even if they go ahead and do it.

So the trick is to make it available and train people to expect it to be available.

What is required to provide a good, enticing experience for consumers — it’s more than just creating a PDF file from a Word document, right?

You need these in combination: 1) a well-proofed and well-formatted e-book available in a format you can use, 2) ease of purchase, 3) lack of DRM [Digital Rights Management], and 4) ease of getting it on your device.

I qualify the well-proofed with the well-formatted because very often (it’s the traditional publishers who are guilty of this), the digital version is taken from the RTF or DOC that was used to then typeset the book, meaning it hasn’t gone through galley proofing yet. They don’t take the galley proofed version of the book and convert it to digital, so mistakes remain in the e-book that aren’t in the print book. Preparing a book for print and formatting it for digital are two entirely different processes and two entirely different skill sets, and only the e-publishers seem to have figured this out.

The key to e-books is IMMEDIACY at an attractive price. It’s an impulse purchase, like the stuff in the checkout lane at Wal-Mart. You don’t need it. You’ll put it on your Amazon wishlist and forget about it. You’ll think about having another book in the house. But with an e-book, it’s just so…easy. The easier you make it, the better the experience. Click buy, type in your Paypal password, pay, get directed to download. Boom, done. It all seems so…imaginary, like playing with Monopoly money in exchange for the promise of a good story.

You yourself are an e-book reader. What titles/publishers in the Mormon market have you passed on because you couldn’t buy them in an e-format?

Not in any particular order:

1. Altared Plans by Rebecca Talley (I must qualify that with the fact that we put our heads together and got that sorted out, but not because of any initiative on the publisher’s part.)

2. Deadly Treasure by Jillayne Clements

3. By Love or By Sea by Rachel Rager

4. Shudder by Jennie Hansen

5 & 6. Farm Girl and Uncut Diamonds by Karen Gowen

7. Heroes of the Fallen by David J. West (Again, this is getting worked out.)

My frustration with Anita Stansfield’s “Dance” series not being in E has a different genesis: I was in Nauvoo (where I end up buying almost all of my Deseret-ish books) and bought Dancing in the Light, not knowing it was part of a series. In fact, it was number 3. The book was not marked. Anyway, I started reading and right away knew I’d missed something, went online to Deseret Book and saw that there was one ahead of it. Okay, ordered it. Started reading. Figured out it wasn’t the beginning of the series. I put it down and never went back to it, and I probably won’t. If they had had any of them in E, I would’ve bought them all immediately. But really, this wasn’t a frustration of the books not being in E. It was a frustration with the publisher for not marking the series.

Also? Books from Deseret Book are awfully expensive, especially after you add in shipping.

What can consumers in the Mormon market do to help support e-books? What about authors — and how can they make it easy for their work to be converted in to e-book formats?

If the Mormon market doesn’t know that e-books exist outside of scriptures and what’s available on lds.org, they can’t support it. As I said, people who use their PDAs, smartphones, and iPhone/iTouch are amazed that they can read other books on their devices. It simply never occurred to them.

Most authors have no control over anything, not even in traditional NY publishing. Many romance reviewers who switch over to requesting e-ARCs have reported that they have a hard time getting them from the publishers to the point where the author will send the last copy of the manuscript they have, in RTF for easy conversion (by the reviewer). In the case of the books I noted above, the authors are also doing something about that because the publisher hasn’t made it available. Chris Bigelow made Angel Falling Softly available to me by DOC, so that was awesome.

I know of one LDS publisher who is making a move to digital to maximize her investment. I know of another who is taking full advantage of today’s political climate to put back into print a very popular (and rare) book that hangs on Ayn Rand’s skirts in an LDS context, and by the time I contacted him, he’d already taken steps toward digitization. So I’m not the only one out there who understands this, but it’ll be a slow process. In the case of number 1, she has to start from scratch. In number 2, he’s sitting on a potential goldmine, so I’m waiting eagerly to find out how he does. In our case (B10 Mediaworx and Peculiar Pages), our problem is that our offerings just aren’t classifiable, but we have time on our side to grow our respective audiences.

The e-book is in its infancy, true, but they’ve been around for the last 10 years at least, with the Peanut and Palm. But now they’re gaining momentum, largely due to the Kindle, but the Kindle has its limitations and what I fear happening is that people will begin to equate Kindle with e-book. Just as people say “May I have a Kleenex?” for a tissue, whether it’s actually a Kleenex brand tissue or not, I hope people don’t say, “Oh, I got a Kindle” in the context of having bought an e-book not of a Kindle variety.

What do you think the future of the e-book as a medium is?

For those who haven’t yet, read:  The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson.

Otherwise, right now, there is the Vook (I’m not crazy about this.)

In the between time, additions will be made to e-books little by little that will enhance them, like links within the text, pop-up glossary and footnotes, the prettification of the formatting.

Quite frankly, I would like to find some other word than “book” to express an e-book, because it’s a different experience. I imagine going from tablet to scroll, to hand-lettered and illuminated leaves, to printed and bound stacks of paper must have been different experiences. I don’t know, as I’ve never read from a tablet or a scroll, but reading from a hand-lettered and illuminated leaf is an entirely different experience from reading a paper book. Even reading a hardback is a different experience from reading a paperback.

E-books won’t supplant paper ever and I don’t want it to. There are some things E can’t and SHOULDN’T do, but there are some things that E is perfectly suited for, and one of those is fiction.