New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

You’re located in Maui, so I’m curious how being a Hawaiian publisher impacts both the books you publish and how you do business. Do you cultivate local authors/projects?
There are pros and cons with paradise. On the plus side, we have the clarity and perspective that comes from not being stuck in the fray. When you are jumping in the ocean regularly, you are more in touch with your own creativity, balance, and inspired to make work count. We have the great good fortune, as they say, to focus intently on building relationships with meaning, working on books that have a positive impact on the world, and loving what we do. And I always promise my authors (who can travel to Maui) editorial meetings on the beach, with or without mai tais. Manhattan publishers certainly cannot deliver that.
Because there are many wonderful Hawaii-specific publishers, such as the University of Hawaii or Kamehameha Press, who have Native Hawaiian and cultural expertise, we do not publish Hawaii-specific books and most of our authors come from the mainland. That said, we want to part of our Island community 3/4 and to that end, we just launched a company called Brilliant Voices, offering Hawaii enrichment programs to raise cultural and environmental awareness by connecting nonprofit groups with corporate travelers .

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

On your Publisher’s Marketplace page, you also state that “the author’s first-person p.o.v. should speak to women in their 20s, 30s, or 40s. Authors should have a platform, be mediagenic, write with flair, and present a fresh angle to these crowded categories.” Can you elaborate on the qualities you’re looking for in your authors? For those without a platform, is starting a blog or Web site to build a following a good idea?
A blog or Web site is a terrific way to get started. That’s not to say that it takes only a blog to secure a book deal, but we like to see that sort of ingenuity and willingness to be in public. We like that little extra bit of exposure, something that shows the author has a following of readers or viewers. Being well-spoken and easy in front of the camera only enhances their appeal. Because our Polka Dot authors are almost always speaking from their own experiences, reading a Polka Dot book is like getting together with a group of your funniest, smartest girlfriends — even better, the authors have “been there, done that” and can offer real solutions. Finally, a book can have a great package and solid promotion, but what ultimately matters is that the book be well-written, entertaining, and useful. When I consider whether a proposal has Polka Dot potential, I consider if any of the leading women’s magazines could pluck a passage from it and run it in an issue. It’s a little bit hip, a little bit clever, and usually a little bit rebellious.

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What makes a given book stand out for you, and, conversely, what makes you immediately reject a manuscript?
The Saturday Night Hat by Eugenia Kim was an instant favorite because her animated writing style is just as colorful as her look-at-me-now hats. Hatmaking doesn’t generally get a good deal of attention, but her take on it is refreshing and her press packet was overwhelming. The clincher was the sense of fun and adventure she brought to this unique aspect of fashion/sewing.
Proposals that really excite me always have two things going for them: projects that I would want to make/wear/give immediately and an author who can deliver more than just how-to instructions, one who can entertain and enlighten.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

What makes a given book stand out for you, and, conversely, what makes you immediately reject a manuscript?
When I sit down to read a proposal, I try to be open to the topic, but my approach is to look for reasons to reject it. When the proposal is able to answer all or most of my objections, then I know I’m onto something. A good book proposal has a well-defined topic that fills a viable niche; it’s organized, well-written, and structured in a logical manner; the author has done market research and can tell me in a compelling way why he/she is the best person to write this book and how this book is different and/or better than what’s out there.
This fall we’re publishing Illuminations: Expressions of the Personal Spiritual Experience by Mark L. Tompkins and Jennifer McMahon. The book presents a collection of photographs, artwork, poems, and prose pieces that express personal spiritual experiences. The proposal was presented as a professionally designed, full-color dummy, which allowed me to immediately see its visual potential. The authors had gathered more than 180 contributors from 43 countries, which no one has done before in this way. It is a beautiful, inclusive, and meaningful project that fit perfectly with what I’m trying to put out into the world.

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Many of your books also have a pop culture bent, from Spin magazine’s 20 Years of Alternative Music to the book version of The Marijuana-Logues. Is there anything prospective authors should or shouldn’t do when approaching the world of pop culture?
I tend to avoid books that focus on highly specialized or esoteric elements of pop culture — sometimes culty things are that way for a reason, and the audience for a book on the subject is probably going to have too small an audience for my list. I also try to avoid books that are extremely of the moment — in that the topic is hot right now but may not be nine months from now. I prefer to focus on books that focus on an evergreen subject where there is clearly established, long-term interest — The Book of Exodus, my recent book on the making of Bob Marley’s Exodus record comes to mind. Generation after generation comes to Marley, and I think that book will have a very long life.

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Since you publish across genres and formats, from political activism to poetry, fiction, graphic novels, comics, spirituality, history, current events, and erotica, is there an overarching theme tying them all together, or do you evaluate each book on an individual basis? Is there anything you categorically do not want to see and would never publish?
The theme is that through all these books, I’m trying to understand the world. In a sense the process is deeply personal (I’m trying to understand) and wholly divorced from my personal tastes (to understand the world properly, you have to let it come at you full-bore, shock you.) So really no, there’s very little I could say I would not do — I just did a book called Power and the Idealists by a so-called liberal hawk, but I did a book by a guy who thinks the Zapatistas need to be far more aggressive militarily. So in this sense, very much everything has to be evaluated case-by-case, so as to allow for discovery.

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Harlequin is the standard-bearer for many people when they think of romance, and releases 110 titles a month with its various imprints, selling 144 million books worldwide in 2003. How has the company evolved with the times, and how are the romances you edit different from, say, those from 20 or 30 years ago?
Harlequin is always looking to update their offerings and determine the next wave of reader interest. We were the first company to respond to the success of the chick lit genre. After the success of Bridget Jones’ Diary, we launched Red Dress Ink, which still publishes distinctive fiction for the 21st-century woman. And in the last few years, Harlequin has launched several new series and imprints that go well beyond romance: fantasy imprint Luna Books, erotica imprint Spice, as well as a women’s fiction series, Harlequin Next, and the upcoming series Silhouette Nocturne, Harlequin Everlasting and Steeple Hill Love Inspired Romantic Suspense and Love Inspired Historicals. We’re also invested in new formats for fiction, from mobile phone technology to e-books and audio downloads.
In today’s romance market there is a wide range of character types, plots and subgenres. Romance readers tend to read a lot, both in and out of the genre, so romance authors — and publishers — capitalize on this by providing romances that blend genres, such as romantic thrillers, Christian romance, romantic suspense, erotic romance, and women’s fiction. First and foremost, romance novels are about the emotional high of finding love. That’s still true today.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

What makes a given book stand out for you, and, conversely, what makes you immediately reject a manuscript?
We acquire books by committee, so a proposal kind of goes through the ringer here before we’ll bring it on. Sometimes a proposal stands out because of the writing, other times the platform. I acquired Max Wolf Valerio’s The Testosterone Files: My Hormonal and Social Transformation from Female to Male because of the writing, but it was a serious conversation here because he is technically the first male writer Seal has ever published (in a single-author book). Yet we’re publishing trans issues, and we realized that we needed to embrace writers and issues all along the gender spectrum, so that was a direction that we decided to go as a press.
Things I reject outright include books that would probably have commercial appeal elsewhere. We don’t publish guides on how to catch the perfect man of your dreams because we don’t believe that those types of books are empowering to women. Conversely, we will publish dating books that have a feminist sensibility to them, in which the writer addresses the range of emotions that are involved around being single. We tend to err toward more complex issues that lots of women grapple with.

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mediabistro: What makes a given book stand out for you and, conversely, what makes you immediately reject a manuscript?
Stevens: The book has to be different: have a different tone, interesting characters or conflict, or unusual settings. So much of what I receive is perfectly well-written, but tells a story I’ve heard many times before.
I also have to really love the book. After all, I’m going to be reading it three, four, or five times during the editing process. Then, it’s up to me to sell the book to other departments in the company. The enthusiasm I show for a book has to be genuine. Believe me, they know if I’m faking it.
One of my recent buys is Fashionably Late by Nadine Dajani, which is coming out in 2007. Nadine’s critique group told her that the book wouldn’t sell because it’s set in Canada and the Caribbean-not in the United States—and because the book features a Lebanese-Canadian main character. Those are the main things that attracted me to the book. It didn’t occur to me for a second to ask her to change the setting to somewhere in the United States. That would have ruined the flavor of the book.
I bought sMothering by Wendy French because the partial she submitted had me rolling on the floor. I made copies of the submission, and was running up and down the hallway giving copies to co-workers, saying they had to read it.
On the science fiction side, Tobias Buckell’s novel Crystal Rain is set on a lost planetary colony. But this particular colony was settled by refugees from the Caribbean, and their language and culture shapes the entire novel.
And Gil’s All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez was a buddy story about a vampire and a werewolf who save the world from a teenage witch. It was just so much fun that I had to buy it. I’m glad I did because it has gone back to press multiple times, it won the Alex Award from ALA, and the movie rights were optioned by the Jim Henson Company. Not too shabby for the author’s first novel.

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mediabistro: What kinds of books do you work on/are you looking for? Conversely, what kinds of books don’t you want to see at all?
Boczkowski: I do a fair amount of celebrity books-I love working with comedians, in particular. Memoir is probably my favorite genre to work on, but I also do a fair amount of narrative and prescriptive nonfiction (in a “self-help you’re not embarrassed to buy” kinda way.) I also have a background in illustrated books, so I have a soft spot for projects that are more visual. And I’m dipping my toes into editing fiction for the first time with Andy Greenwald’s next book, which I am really excited to try. While I don’t really want to impose any limits on what kinds of proposals are sent to me, because you never know when you’ll take a shine to something, I also don’t want to have to wade through a lot of crap. Just don’t send me crap… unless, of course, it’s so crappy that it’s hilarious, and will make for an entertaining editorial meeting.
mediabistro: Your books are targeted toward 18-to-34-year-old readers, and have a pop culture bent, from Jess Bruder’s Burning Book: Celebrating Twenty Years of Burning Man and Sarah Lewitinn’s The Pocket DJ, to Foxy Brown’s forthcoming memoir Broken Silence and Tommy Chong’s The I Chong. Is there a sense that, with this demographic, you’re competing with other forms of media (TV, Internet, etc.) for their attention in ways you’re not with readers who are 35 and older?
Boczkowski: We’re not competing for their attention so much as we are for their time. I don’t think people our age are reading less, I think they’re just being more discerning about what they invest their time in. The “other forms of media”-the Internet, in particular-are actually a huge help to us in reaching our readers more effectively, especially when it comes to this target demographic. We try to get creative with the marketing, publicizing-even the selling of our books-in order to get our books in the line of vision of an audience that might be more easily reached on Gawker or in Urban Outfitters than in the Times Book Review or in the chains.

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mediabistro: What kinds of books to do you work on/are you looking for? Conversely, what kinds of books don’t you want to see at all?
Argyres: In nonfiction, I’m looking for memoir, family stories, “women with something to say”-whether it be on business, politics, family, spiritual, or women’s issues. Popular science, soft business, and anything Greek, as well as anything about medicine or mental health. I deal mostly with narratve nonfiction, but have also done some practical nonfiction, and recently bought my first cookbook.
In fiction, I have a large range-from commercial fiction, to upmarket women’s commercial fiction, to literary. I’m character and plot-driven. I like fiction about small places and large families. In both fiction and nonfiction, a strong voice and clear message are paramount. Writing that is too quiet or internal doesn’t resonate with me.
mediabistro: You’ve worked largely with non-fiction books, such as What It Takes: Speak Up, Step Up, Move Up: A Modern Woman’s Guide to Success in Business by Amy Henry of The Apprentice; and Brigitte Gabriel’s forthcoming Terror in God’s Name: Islam’s Holy War Against the West; and Christopher Van Tilburg’s memoir Mountain Rescue Doctor-most very timely works. What do you look for, specifically, from these types of books? In terms of newsworthy, topical works, do you have a wishlist of issues you want to see covered, or items in the news you’d like to work on?
Argyres: I look for a strong platform and fresh message. The shelves are so crowded these days that getting the attention of the media is key-quality content and connections to the media are two ways to do this.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Mediabistro: Is there a typical way authors find you, or vice versa – is it mostly word of mouth? Do you seek out specific projects in addition to what gets sent to you?
Durkin: Agents. Agents call up an editor and pitch a project she/he thinks would be appropriate. If I have an idea for a book, I’ll look for a writer or an agent and work on developing a new project. If someone I respect wants to refer an author to me, I will always consider it.
Mediabistro: When you’re acquiring a book, how much relevance does the author’s long-term potential have?
Durkin: It’s usually nice to be able to look at an author’s career in the long-term. We always think about that.
Mediabistro: How many manuscripts do you receive in a given week or month? Do you only consider agented submission? Do you look at everything that gets sent to you?
Durkin: I can get 3-10 manuscripts in any given week. I don’t always look at the unagented stuff. There just isn’t time.
Mediabistro: What are the qualities in a manuscript that immediately grab you and make you keep reading/want to work on a particular book?
Durkin: A strong, mature style; a theme that will make people think; something that makes me laugh out loud.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.