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Interview with Gail Kearns from To Press & Beyond.

Victoria: Greetings Gail! Thank you for taking time today to discuss your book shepherding company, “To Press & Beyond”.

Gail: It’s my pleasure, Victoria. You’ve been a great help to our clients.

Victoria: Thank you. How long have you been in business?

Gail: We’ve been in business since 1996 and we’ve worked with over 300 authors and independent publishers, worldwide. Getting in on a book project early in the editing process and shepherding it all the way through to the marketing and PR phase is our trademark. Dan Poynter, the guru of self-publishing, is quoted as having said, “For the reluctant self-publisher To Press & Beyond is the perfect solution— all the decision advantages and control, and a built-in editorial/production/marketing team.”

Victoria: How many books have you published?

Gail: Actually, we’re not a book publisher, but book shepherds, a term coined by Dan. I suppose another familiar term for us in the world of book publishing would be “book packagers.”

Victoria: You provide a great service to authors in the self-publishing world. So often, first-time authors are so excited to publish their book,  that  they do not think the process through the more critical steps of publishing, such as cover design, riveting quotes from colleagues, marketing, promotion, even blogging and social networking.

Gail: That’s right, and what’s even more unfortunate is the money that the author/publisher has already put out to get an inferior product. It’s hard to market a book that doesn’t hold high standards. I’m always thrilled when a potential client can visit our office and see the quality we produce, both in content and design.

Victoria: Imagine that I come to you as first-time author, and I have my manuscript. I think it’s great. Take my hand and show me the way…what next?

Gail: We begin the process by reading the manuscript and giving extensive feedback in the form of page notes. At this point many of our writers go back into their manuscript and make changes based on our comments. We may then suggest they go out for a peer review to get even more feedback. Our goal is to make the book the best it can be in terms of content. Then comes the copyediting, which is basically a line edit, paying attention to punctuation, grammar, spelling, consistency of style and so forth. This is all done in a Word document and when completed this gets sent to the book designer. Once we get a final page count for the book from the designer we begin the bidding process with printers. After a printer is selected and the book is designed and signed off on by the author, we put on our marketing and PR hats.

Victoria: What can I, as the author, do to prepare for the publishing process?

Gail: For starters, if you are self-publishing you need to come up with a name for your publishing company, secure your ISBN numbers, list your title with Books in Print, and take care of several other publishing details, all of which we help you with.

Victoria: I understand many of your authors have garnered prestigious awards. Can you name a few of authors, their books and awards?

Gail: I’m honored to do so. Most recently, one of the children’s books we helped to market (through your agency, I might add) is Too Tall Alice. (www.tootallalice.com) It just won a Moonbeam Award. We have other books we’ve shepherded through the process that have won awards as well:

•  An historical fiction piece (“Ebola: Through the Eyes of the People” by Dr. William T. Close--a Foreword Magazine Book of the Year finalist. This was a bestseller.) http://www.williamtclosemd.com/ 
•  “After the Diagnosis” a health and reference book by Donna Pikula was a multi-award winner with a Foreword Book of the Year award, Mom’s Choice Award, and Best Books Award, among others. http://www.books2helpyou.com
•  “Color Me Butterfly” by Y.L. Marlow. It won TEN awards including the 2007 National "Best Books" Award, S'Indie Award for Literary Excellence, Quality, and Originality, the 2008 IPPY Book Awards, Foreword Magazine 'Book of The Year' Award, and The Indie National Excellence Book Award. http://www.colormebutterfly.com/ 
•  “Regina’s Closet: Finding my Grandmother’s Secret Journal” by Diana Raab won numerous awards, among them the 2008 National Indie Excellence Award for Memoir. http://www.dianaraab.com
• Others include a memoir (“In Transit: The Insatiable Quest” by Gwen Harrison--an IPPY award)
• and an interior design reference book (“Mystery of Color” by Rosemary Sadez Friedmann--a Writer’s Notes Magazine winner).

Victoria: How valuable is receiving an award—will it boost sales?

Gail: Having a gold or silver seal on your book cover attracts attention among book buyers, librarians and consumers alike. It says that someone of influence liked your book and it can be the extra credibility that's needed when buyers are making a decision between competing titles.

Victoria: Will it help in attracting new media attention, which we know can boost sales?

Gail: Along with the sales boost that can come from an award is the personal recognition. The prestige of winning inspires authors and independent publishers to promote the book with more enthusiasm and give the title?s marketing campaign new life. They can send out a new wave of press releases announcing the award, just like we're doing with Too Tall Alice.

Victoria: How do these award agencies hear about an authors' work?

Gail: You submit your title to the award agency. I keep track of the awards and give a list to our clients. Keeping in mind that each book award entry involves a fee, I recommend those that have a track record.

Victoria: Twenty years ago, if an author couldn’t get published, there was always VANITY PRESS. Their advertisements were often tucked in the back of glossy magazines or tabloids with enticing offers to help authors get published. Authors who bought into the pitch would invest thousands of dollars. Weeks later, a truck showed up delivering a pallet of 5000 books which generally got stored in the garage, because authors didn’t know how to market or promote their book.

Gail: That’s true and in many respects it’s true even now. Writers still get rejections from agents, but perhaps not for the same reasons. Many have people have a book inside of them … something they want to say. The major publishing houses have been affected by the economy (as has everyone else) AND changes in technology—so it’s a double whammy. What I’m hearing is that if you don’t have a strong platform as an author to begin with, then you ought to be building one before you approach a literary agent. Of course, there’s always the exception to the rule. But you have to be heads above the rest in either writing ability or, in the case of non-fiction, fill a niche that hasn’t been filled.

Victoria: Ah, yes “the platform.” I actually mentioned this to a client recently. “A platform” is how well known the author is, who their audience is and other things such as…”

Gail: Such as how much of a following they have on Twitter and Facebook. Do they have a healthy blog, meaning are people commenting on it regularly. Do they have a large subscriber base to their newsletter or tip-of-the-week? Are they an expert being hired as a speaker in their field? And on and on…

Victoria: Today, publishing is like the Wild Wild West.

Gail: So true. With the advent of print on demand and POD publishing companies like IUniverse, it’s a free for all. So virtually anyone can publish a book these days. I have nothing against these companies, but at To Press & Beyond we get a lot of queries from authors who have already published a book through one of them. More often than not, the production quality is not up to par or the content and editing leaves a lot to be desired. That’s where the old adage comes in: "You Get What You Pay For." My advice to authors going this route is to make sure they have their manuscript content edited and peer reviewed before publishing and to consider hiring a book shepherd to help with this and the design of their book.

Victoria: Great point. Editing is so crucial. Can authors consult with you solely about editing? Or do you prefer to assist in the entire process? 

Gail: Yes, authors can consult solely on editing, but the beauty of working with us on a project through the entire process is that we really know the content of the book having worked on the editing and perhaps even getting the writer on track with writing his or her book more to their target market.

Victoria: The advantages of getting a literary agent and having a book published through a boutique publishing company, often a subsidiary of a large company like Simon and Schuster are?

Gail: Well, if a writer is fortunate enough to get an agent and be picked up by a publisher like S&S, then they have that cachet. And that’s great! They’ll receive a royalty on each book sold. If the book doesn’t sell well, then it won’t amount to much. If their book becomes a bestseller, then they’re on the road to success. However, a first-time author shouldn’t expect that the S&S-type publisher would put a lot of money behind a PR campaign for them. It’ll be up the author to be a savvy self-promoter and even hire a PR firm at their expense to get the ball rolling.

Victoria: How many queries do you receive each month?

Gail: It varies from month to month. But on average, I would say we get thirty or so queries a month.

Victoria: What are the dominating types of stories writers pitch?

Gail: It runs the gamut from children’s books to adult type material. But mainly memoirs and self-help books dominate the types of genres we get queried on. A number of business books too.

Victoria: How many authors do you accept per month?

Gail: That depends on what we’ve got scheduled on our boards. We can only do so much and give our clients the attention they deserve. At the end of the day, we may have six to eight titles percolating each month--and usually it’s a mix of editing, overseeing production of their book and/or website development, and marketing and PR.

Victoria: You actually assist in the entire publishing and marketing process much as a large corporate publishing house. Give us an idea of the steps. 

Gail: First we ask the writer to send us their manuscript so we can review. If it needs editing, we discuss the level of editing they need. We come to an agreement and the editing gets underway. If they intend to self-publish, we will guide them through that process, including hiring the appropriate book designer and getting printer bids. We interface with all of the outside contractors and oversee every detail to make sure they get a product that looks like it came off the press of a big house and will compete in the marketplace. As early as possible, we begin to discuss marketing and PR:

• What are the goals the author has in mind for his or her book?
• We create a set of deliverables for the promotion of the book and execute them. Along the way, we consult with our clients on every aspect of the book publishing process—from setting up with distributors and wholesalers to getting reviews to the growing importance of social networking.

Victoria: Where do you see publishing in the future, i.e. KINDLE and electronic book readers?

Gail: Interesting question. Sales of e-books rose last year and continue to rise. I spoke with a forty-something-year-old author the other day, and she had just read a novel on her Kindle and was looking to download another. The Kindle has just gone international and has lowered its price for the U.S. market. But I still think there’s plenty of room for the printed book among young and old. I remember when video came on the scene with movies and everyone said how movie theaters would die out. That hasn’t happened. Video became another income stream for the industry and that’s the way I feel about books. People still love to hold a real book in their hands and read it.

Victoria: You have offices on both the east and west coast, what are your plans for the future? How do you plan to keep ahead of the competition?

Gail: The answer to that is two-fold:

• Keeping up daily with what’s going on in the publishing industry. We read Publisher's Weekly, Foreword Magazine and get numerous e-zines regarding publishing and marketing books. It’s important to keep a pulse on the industry and to keep ahead of the curve in terms of technology.
• We also monitor the national news like CNN and MSNBC, blogs, talk shows, and other media outlets both print and online. It’s important because breaking news and the tie-ins with our clients’ books can help in getting serious media attention.

Victoria: What made you decide to launch To Press & Beyond?

Gail: That’s an interesting story. Initially, the company was called GMK Editorial and Writing Services. Suffice to say I broadened the scope of traditional editing services to include layout, production, printing and vendor coordination after numerous requests from clients who would call us up a year after the editing process and say, “Remember, you edited my book. I’ve got 3000 of them sitting in my garage. What should I do now?”

Victoria: Finally, give us 5 steps to help authors in preparing to query you and how to best plan their writing projects.

Gail: 1. Know your goals for your book.

2. Know the audience you want to reach.

3. Visit our website at www.topressandbeyond.com to get a sense of our company.

4. Set up a half hour gratis phone call so we can get to know you and your project better.

5. Visualize your success tempered with persistence, tenacity and realistic expectations.

Victoria: Thank you Gail for sharing your time and expertise with our audience. Your company name says it all: “To Press & Beyond!”

Gail: Thank you! I am completely captivated by the name of our company because it has that stickiness factor, but I cannot take credit for it. Penny Paine, an award-winning children’s book author and my associate in overseeing children’s books, came up with it. I’m very grateful to her for the inspirational brand she started for us.

To Press & Beyond are experts in book publishing consulting and support services who will take your book project and shepherd it through writing, editing, design & layout, printing, distribution, sales and promotion, both in trade and niche markets and on the Internet. They have worked with over 300 authors and independent publishers as far away as London, Switzerland, Egypt and Thailand.

To learn more about Gail and her company To Press and Beyond, visit ToPressandBeyond.com

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