I’ve been thinking quite a bit about publishers lately. I’ve had the pleasure of dealing with the major publishing houses, and a number of the smaller ones, over the years and have been very impressed by the calibre of people, their commitment to quality stories, their passion for their authors, and their desire to reach readers. That said they also have to juggle the numbers, make a profit, and have to cater to a certain readership that not all of us fit in to, when it comes to book covers, type of story, and certain restricted or limited content.
Bethany House Publishers recently engaged directly with readers with a Reader Survey Book Banter. Their Book Banters usually enable one of their authors to engage with their readers on Facebook. This time it was all about the readers and discovering what they are interested in when it comes to books, authors, publishers, and more. I’ve been fascinated by the responses, comments, and questions arising from the Book Banter and it prompted me to ponder this week’s bookish question.
As a reader, blogger, or reviewer, what expectations do you have (if any) regarding publishers in the way they interact with their reading public? Do you pay attention to a book’s publisher? Do you expect a certain type of book from a particular publisher?
Talk on…
March 17, 2015 at 1:00 am
Interesting question, Rel! I’ve always paid a lot of attention to who put out what book, but I believe that’s just a writer thing. Readers, I hear, typically don’t look at the publisher.
Tyndale has long been probably my favorite fiction house. I feel like they go deeper in their books, and the quality is just about always a given. I partly feel this way because they were my dream publisher when I was submitting and because I worked there years and years ago and saw how they treated everyone. Great place to work!
As for what I expect from a publisher, hmm… In the last handful of years it does seem that publishers have done a better job connecting online with readers. Tyndale again, for example, has done a decent job with their online fiction newsletter and now they’ve got the Crazy 4 Fiction FB page. I think in fiction especially, there’s a ton of opportunity for publishers to connect with readers and push their own fiction. I think most publishers could do that a lot better. The days of letting the bookstore connect them to us readers is really gone.
March 17, 2015 at 11:03 am
It’s not just a writer thing, Sally 🙂 It’s a reviewer/blogger thing, too. I’ve been conscious of the publisher for years and just like I know authors, I know who publishes them, too 😉
Like you, I think publishers do gain reputations for various things, whether it be a favoured genre (think Bethany House and historical fiction, a willingness to stretch traditional boundaries a little (Thomas Nelson), or a guaranteed ‘sweet’ read (Harvest House). And yes, also there is a definite feel out and about how different publishers treat their writers. These are all generalisations, of course.
I agree with your last comments about bookstores no longer being the go-between a reader and a publishing house. I’m fascinated by the ways publishers are trying to connect with readers more and encouraging their authors to do likewise.
March 17, 2015 at 1:25 pm
I can’t remember the last time I read a Harvest House book. You made me stop and think there. When you say they publish sweet reads… do you mean more of a gentler, lighter story? Maybe doesn’t dive into anything related to issues or angst?
March 17, 2015 at 12:19 pm
Sally, I have to agree with you about Tyndale. I like rich, deep, character-driven stories, and struggle to find these in Christian fiction. Each year when I compile my list of top 10-15 books, the majority are published by Tyndale. Thanks for sharing!
March 17, 2015 at 1:23 pm
Yep, Carole! We must have similar tastes. 🙂
March 17, 2015 at 2:24 am
I only look at publisher’s name when I want to ensure the book has Christian content. Other than that, there is no publisher I’d choose over another. Many writers are choosing to self-publish and if I enjoy their work it doesn’t matter to me if they use a ‘named’ publisher or not.
March 17, 2015 at 11:05 am
Good point, Amy, about whether it matters if a writer is self published or has gone with a traditional publishing house.
March 17, 2015 at 6:10 am
I definitely pay attention to publishing houses. Sometimes my sister will be talking about a book and she cannot remember the title or the author. I’ll ask her who the publisher is. She says that I’m the only person who pays attention to the publishing houses. I noticed that Harvest House has gone through at least three different logo changes. I wonder if their most recent one has to do with the very close similarity to the Howard Books logo.
Maybe I shouldn’t, but I tend to think of certain publishing houses as being totally Christian oriented, so they are going to concentrate fully on getting the books to their Christian readers. Not to say that they don’t want unsaved people to read them. They just know their primary readership. Other religious publishing houses seem to be a niche within a largely secular house. That house seems to concentrate on their secular books and readers.
The ones that seem, to me at least, to have more online interaction are Bethany House Publishers and Steeple Hill’s Love Inspired; Revell and Barbour somewhat; occasionally Thomas Nelson and Waterbrook/Multnomah. I rarely hear anything from the other publishing houses. I know they exist and seem to associate certain authors with those publishing houses.
I was very surprised the other day to find out about the large number of Christian publishers that exist about which I had heard nothing. In this list of the publishers that Books and Such Agency works with I have only heard of twenty-seven out of fifty-one. http://www.booksandsuch.com/about-books-and-such/. Out of those twenty-seven there are only six or seven that seem to have a lot of online interaction with their readers. Bethany House and Steeple Hill Love Inspired probably being the top two. Now, other people may feel differently.
March 17, 2015 at 11:08 am
Great thoughts, Sylvia – thanks for sharing. You are not alone in your publishing house awareness but I think it is more rare in readers than writers. There are loads of Christian publishing houses out there but yes, the top 4 or 5 are the well known ones.
March 17, 2015 at 7:15 am
Personally, I have always paid attention to publishers as I have found they tend to publish similar things. So if I like something one has published, I will usually look for others by that same publisher. I did this before I began reading CF almost exclusively, as I do now. I have done it moreso with Christian publishers, but that is probably due to my years of working in a Christian bookstore more than anything else. I will say that I noticed many customers looking for certain publishers during those years. It was almost entirely with CF customers, and during those years the customers looked for Bethany House books the most. They have always had that certain look that has worked for them. I have seen many customers who would buy a new author’s book simply because Bethany released it, and they trusted what they released, especially content-wise. After Crossway released Peretti’s “This Present Darkness” and it eventually became a blockbuster, some customers looked for Crossway books, which released several titles with the same style and look at that time. I wish more customers would pay attention to the publisher today as a publisher, the vast majority of the time, means a pretty well-edited books with trustworthy content. This cannot be said of all independent books being released today, although some are. I do not really expect any interaction with a publisher as a reader. I basically want to see upcoming releases as soon as possible and quality covers (preferably with no decapitations :)!) Another great question, Rel. (By the way, I mentioned in my Revell post about Patrick Carr’s new fantasy cover from Bethany. Have you seen it? I love it!)
March 17, 2015 at 11:12 am
Hey Aaron, thanks for an insider’s look into publishing houses – well, from a bookstore perspective.
Sorry, I haven’t got back to you on Patrick’s cover. I haven’t seen it but have been interacting with Bethany House about it as it is still being tweaked! Would love to see what you have seen 🙂
March 17, 2015 at 11:33 am
Bethany had their fall catalog up on their web page for a few days at least as I saw it in that. But maybe they are still tweaking so they took it down as it is no longer there. I really liked what I saw though. Have a blessed day.
March 17, 2015 at 10:58 am
I do pay some attention to publisher, both for my secular and my fiction reading. I do this largely because there are certain publishers who tend to release books that are well-edited, have a variety of good authors writing for them and soon. I find I’m more willing to try a new author if: (1) he/she is published by a publisher I trust or (2) I’ve read a lot of good reviews first.
I’m a new blogger, so don’t see a lot of publisher interaction with me personally, but I have noticed that Love Inspired, Bethany House and Crossway are all fairly active on Twitter. I do think that Christian publishers could learn from Harlequin, Harpercollins and some of the secular houses who really do seem to spend a lot of time chatting up readers on Twitter and forming relationships.
March 17, 2015 at 11:14 am
Thanks for your thoughts, Amy. It makes sense that you would try a new author from a house you trust. I think Bethany House has a great reputation in that area and I know many readers who will pick up any book by Bethany, regardless of the author, particularly in the historical romance genre.
March 17, 2015 at 11:34 am
I want to pick up on Aaron’s comment about indie-published books. When a “hybrid” author self-publishes a book, if I’m aware of the author I pay only a bit of attention to his/her previous publisher(s). On the other hand, if I don’t know the author but am pretty sure of the type (and quality) of the fiction coming from that house, I tend to pay attention to the source when considering the self-published book.
Also, lest we forget, a number of authors have been published by several different publishers in their career. They don’t always move for more money, although that happens. Sometimes they think they can do better with a different publisher, there are times when the publisher wants to part company…there are lots of reasons, but the end result there is that we as readers have to pay more attention to the author and his/her work and less to what publishers are in the mix.
Thanks for a really thought-provoking question.
March 19, 2015 at 9:04 am
Hey Richard,
I’m probably a publisher/author nerd of the highest order. I can usually list off who authors have been published with, across multiple publishers 😉 #sadbuttrue
I think readers can pay attention to both publisher and author. While it isn’t true of me, many readers do rely on their views on the type of book a certain publisher produces. Similarly, if readers only paid attention to authors, then I imagine it would work against new authors a little.
All good thought, Richard – thanks for sharing.
March 17, 2015 at 10:52 pm
As a reader, the cover, author and back of the book blurb usually draw me in first. Then I will check the publisher to get confirmation that the book may be worth my time. Certain publishers are guaranteed good reads, as some other commenters have stated. I can rely on the quality of the book with close attention to editing.
As a blogger, Bethany, Revell, and Thomas Nelson have the best interaction. I also review children’s books for Zonderkidz — they are great too. I think the authors represented by these houses are getting a great deal. The more interaction the better the sales.
Thanks so much for the great questions, Rel!
March 19, 2015 at 9:04 am
Always appreciate your thoughts, Beckie – thanks!
March 18, 2015 at 9:51 am
The publisher is important in making a reading selection. I look for one of the Christian Publishers. This is especially important in assisting my children with reading selections.
Via Facebook and email, I enjoy hearing about new releases and sales from publishers.
March 19, 2015 at 9:04 am
Thanks Staci 🙂
March 19, 2015 at 10:14 am
As a reader, book reviewer, and author, I enjoyed the Bethany House Reader Survey Book Banter. I do appreciate this new trend of the publishers interacting directly with readers.
March 20, 2015 at 2:44 am
I choose my books by the authors, cover, blurb and/or trusted recommendations. However, interacting with several publishers through FB has introduced me to many books I may not have otherwise chosen. I am aware of who many of the others publish through, but it doesn’t influence whether or not I read their book.