Perigee Bookmarks

Another Perk of Publishing Nonfiction: The Inside Track on Wine on a Budget

Posted by Jeanette Shaw

Sometimes I think wine should be the official beverage of the publishing industry. It’s certainly my first choice of drink at any work function or even just a quiet night of working at home. (To all my authors: don’t worry, I do edit your manuscripts with a clear head!) A nice bottle of wine can be an expensive habit, though. So I was definitely excited when we acquired Natalie MacLean’s new book Unquenchable: A Tipsy Quest for the World’s Best Bargain Wines. MacLean, an acclaimed sommelier and journalist, spends the book exploring the far corners of the globe for great, affordable wines and the colorful vintners who make them. Along the way she offers some useful advice for spotting a good bargain:

• Look for labels that have illegible gothic script and impossibly long names that are difficult to pronounce. Few people can read them, so they don’t buy the wines, and demand doesn’t push up prices.
• Check your perceptions about which regions can make wine. South Africa benefits from the confluence of the oceans as well as the cooling breeze of the Antarctic, creating ideal conditions for growing wine. So try a South African brand.
• Go for wines from regions where the currency gives you an advantage. Canadian and American dollars are much stronger than Argentina’s pesos, so that builds in another discount on the import cost.
• No longer does a screw cap necessarily mean that the wine is plonk. Many good producers are using this effective closure to protect their wine.

 

Some of my personal favorite wines at prices that will appeal to everyone:

Charles Smith Wines “Kung Fu Girl” Riesling Columbia Valley

http://www.charlessmithwines.com/wines.php

DMZ (De Morgenzon) Syrah (Shiraz) Stellenbosch South Africa

http://www.demorgenzon.com/wines_dmz03.html

Don Rodolfo Pinot Noir Argentina

http://www.donrodolfo.com/pinot_noir.htm

 

Natalie MacLean’s Unquenchable goes on sale in November.

 

Traveling with Trivia

Posted by Jeanette Shaw

I’m traveling to our nation’s capital this week (a decidedly inopportune time considering the blisteringly hot temperatures in Washington, DC, lately), and as a history buff I’m pretty excited to spend a few days gazing at the White House and roaming the Smithsonian, the Newseum, and the Library of Congress – yes, I am a huge nerd.

Luckily I will be armed with a vast array of knowledge that will serve me well in our capital city. Thanks to Perigee’s extensive collection of trivia and reference titles, I already know that: 

• The Pentagon was built with about twice as many bathrooms as would have been expected for a building of its size to comply with Virginia’s then-legal code that required racial segregation of public buildings. (from Sorry, Wrong Answer)
• Foggy Bottom is not, in fact, a highly amusing insult, but the name of one of DC’s oldest neighborhoods, dating back to the 1700s and prone to river fog from the nearby Potomac. (from Wicked Good Words)
• Rosa Parks was the first woman to ever lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda when she died in 2005. The catafalque that is used for anyone who lays in state there is the same one that was hastily constructed in 1865 to support the casket of Abraham Lincoln, and is stored in the never-used Washington’s Tomb when not in use. (from Morbid Curiosity)
• The Washington Monument is still the tallest building in the city thanks to a 1910 building height restriction, and is also the tallest stone structure in the world. (from The Book of Useless Information)

Wherever your own travels take you, I hope you find them relaxing, affirming, and enlightening!

 

How Publishing Is Like Dating

Posted by Jeanette Shaw

 

One of the most important skills for an aspiring author to cultivate is how to handle rejection, because for most it happens a lot. But writers are not alone in this; editors have to deal with rejection and disappointment as well. I recently lost out on a project that I've had my eye on for more than a year and was crushed not to have the chance to publish this sure-to-be future bestseller. In this instance the deciding factor was money, but I and many of my colleagues have also been in situations where the money was right but the author chose to go with a different imprint anyway. Those are the times when I hang up the phone feeling dejected and just a little hurt, and am reminded once again of how often publishing reminds me of that other exhilarating, sometimes rewarding, often depressing pastime—dating.

 

There's the blind date: an out of the blue email or call between you and an agent, followed by a lunch where you anxiously wonder if you will recognize your dining companion or find yourself waiting across the room from them for 10 minutes before you clue in (which has happened to me more than once, sadly), then an often awkward meal during which each of you tries to put your best foot forward and hope that your publishing interests match up. Sometimes you are a perfect match and the agent happens to be going out with a submission that would be perfect for you; other times you never hear from them again and are left awkwardly running into them at happy hours.

 

There's the crush: a proposal comes in that immediately grabs your attention. This is the one, you think. This book is meant for me. All you can think about is that book. You talk to the author and try to dazzle him with your vision and enthusiasm. You run costs, plan a publication date, are already picturing the cover design and imagining "New York Times bestseller" printed above the title. But then you realize other people have their eye on the object of your affection as well. How dare they? you think. This book is mine. The author loves me! He knows I am the editor for him. Sometimes this is true, and you make the deal and do a happy dance around your office (or is that just me?). He likes me! you think. He really likes me!

 

Other times you lose out. Sometimes it's because of money. Those are the times it's useful if sometimes frustrating to have your publisher, much like a disapproving parent would, give you a reality check and a spending limit. I may have stars in my eyes, but my publisher is clear-sighted and ready to ground me if necessary. Other times it's because the author simply decided to work with a different editor. This is the beauty pageant stage, and you've just come in first runner up. Sadly, even if the winner is not able to fulfill their duties you still don't get to take over the crown. Those are the times I go back over every word of my conversations with the agent and author, and every aspect of my offer, trying to figure out just where I went wrong. Was I too enthusiastic? Not enthusiastic enough? Was my list not impressive enough? Much like trying to figure out why that guy never called you again, this is a futile practice. Some things just aren't meant to be.

 

If you make it all the way through the submission and offer and wind up with an acquisition, you have entered into the honeymoon phase of the relationship, but all too quickly just as in real marriage you'll find that this partnership involves debate, compromise, and occasional frustration. You and your author start to know each other's habits; some days you may be communicating like a charm; others you find yourself avoiding the phone and deleting emails before you say something in the heat of the moment. But in the end you know you have the same goal: you want this relationship to work. You want a successful book. And just like in romance, things don't always work out. But once in a while you find your perfect match. And the nice thing about publishing is, unlike romance, an editor can have more than one perfect match at a time—it's like lawful polygamy!

 

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go back to reminiscing about the One That Got Away.

The Agony and Ectasy of the Bookstore

Posted by Jeanette Shaw

 

It's commonly said that publishing is dead during the holiday season, but I must be doing something wrong because I certainly don't find that to be the case. I'm not even in the office this week, but I still can't seem to get away from work. Of course, that might have something to do with all the time I spend in bookstores.

 

As a child, bookstores were magical places full of exciting new stories; I never failed to leave without purchasing at least three new paperbacks. As an editor, I now approach stores with a mix of anticipation and dread. Instead of wondering excitedly if my favorite author has a new book out or hoping to randomly discover some great new series by wandering the shelves, I walk in and immediately scan the front tables for my new titles, worrying that they've been relegated to sitting, spine out, on the bottom shelf of their section, where no one is likely to find them. If I see a similar title from another publisher on prominent display, I get righteously outraged on my author's behalf. If I see multiple copies of one of my books spine out on a shelf, I casually turn them face out, all the better to catch the customer's eye. And if I don't see one of my books in the store at all, I seethe so intensely I'm surprised the other customers don't notice the smoke coming out my ears. Basically, going to a bookstore has become a more stressful experience than I ever imagined on that long ago day when I said, "Mom, I want to make books when I grow up."

 

But that's all the more reason to be an editor, and to stick with publishing even when it's hard and the doomsayers are ringing the death knell. Editors should be passionate about their books and their authors. And for all the stress and heartache when books don't sell, there's also that happy occasion every so often when I'm in a bookstore and realize that the person next to me has one of my author's titles in their hands, headed to the cashwrap. And then I think about the books that I buy, and hope that one day the editor or author is standing next to me when I go to ring up my purchase, so that they can have that same feeling of accomplishment, of knowing that you've reached at least one more person. So as I haunt the stores this holiday season, that's the feeling I'll be hoping for.

 

 

Being Hands-on in the Online World

 Posted by Jeanette Shaw

One of my heartbreaks as an editor is when a book I’ve worked on, that I’ve been positive should be a big seller, instead seems to fizzle out soon after the initial publicity burst during pub month. It’s a big disappointment for me, for the author, and for the publisher.

In a perfect world, every book would make its way into the hands of its ideal readers with a minimum of effort. For big-name authors, this is generally true. But for most books, if the author doesn’t come to the table with an established platform even at the proposal stage, it’s going to be harder for even the most talented publicist to convince reviewers and media outlets to spotlight one unknown book and author in an absolute sea of other books clamoring for attention, and it’s going to be harder to generate continued interest in the book after the first few weeks on sale. In the end, it’s essential for an author to be actively involved with their own publicity and marketing. These days, that especially includes a strong grasp of online marketing.

 Here are just a few examples of crucial steps authors can take online to reach the widest possible audience, inspired by the invaluable resource Publicize Your Book by Jacqueline Deval, which has been revised to include extensive discussion of online marketing and is a must-read for any author serious about maximizing promotional opportunities:

 

• Make your own website/blog. Publishers lack the resources to set up sites for every author, so it’s your responsibility. Make sure it looks professional (check the sites of other authors you admire for ideas), and make sure to update it frequently to encourage repeat traffic. 
• Become a social networker. Make a Facebook page; create a Twitter feed, and use it wisely – don’t just promote your work constantly. Create personal connections with other authors and followers and they will be more inclined to support you – and your book – in kind.
• Create your own database of blogs and sites that would be good places to promote your book, particularly if you’re writing about a specialized topic. Publicists are often pitching multiple books in various genres every month, and aren’t going to know about every possible site or publication that would be ideal to promote your book. Your expert knowledge is invaluable.

 

There are many other great tips in Publicize Your Book, for online as well as traditional marketing and publicity, so if you are an author I absolutely recommend you check it out. Happy publishing!

 

Publicize Your Book!

My Money or My Life?

Posted by Jeanette Shaw

I’ve been engaging in a typical urban dweller activity the last few months: apartment hunting. Having lived with roommates for most of my adult life, I’ve decided it’s time to experience the joys of living alone. (As my one coworker enthused, “You don’t have to wear pants if you don’t want to!”)

The New York metropolitan area being as expensive as it is (I live in New Jersey) I knew this would be a difficult hunt. I have certain requirements: the commute can’t be too much longer or more expensive than my current one; I need a parking spot for my car; and I need an elevator building because I host holidays at my place and my grandmother is long past the days of being able to climb stairs. Now of course, for these kinds of amenities, I’m going to pay a pretty penny, more than I should be spending on rent by all the financial experts’ standards. They say your total monthly debt to income ratio (housing expense plus recurring debt to gross income) shouldn’t be more than 36%. Around New York that number is often more like 60%.

I could find an apartment that meets purely financial standards. I’d have to give up certain things but I’d certainly never have to worry that I’m stretching my budget some months. But is the financial benefit worth the personal costs? Not having a car would make it harder for me to see my friends. I love being the hostess at Thanksgiving and Christmas; not having an elevator would mean I couldn’t do that anymore. Cooking is a big hobby of mine; I would hate to give up having a decent kitchen.

These are the kinds of questions personal finance expert Carmen Wong Ulrich tackles in her upcoming book The Real Cost of Living. Carmen explains that for every life decision, big or small—whether to buy a house, go to college, or buy that daily latte—there are financial and personal costs and benefits. The trick is recognizing them, weighing them, and making a decision that is ideally a balance of fiscally responsible and personally satisfying.

In my case, I’ve found an amazing apartment that has everything I’m looking for. The rent is high, and some months I may find myself eating peanut butter sandwiches for lunch and dinner for a week, but I’ll still be hosting the holidays, my commute is staying the same price, and my car will be safely parked in the building’s garage. The tradeoff might not be worth it to some people, but it is to me. Everyone’s “real cost” is different, but we will all benefit from Carmen’s advice—I know I did, and I can’t wait for you to as well.

 

The Real Cost of Living is on sale in January.

Superstitious Minds

Posted by Jeanette Shaw

 

It’s Thursday – definitely one of the best days of the week. The weekend is almost here, it’s a great TV night (my DVR bounces around between Community, Grey’s Anatomy, The Vampire Diaries, and 30 Rock), and apparently it’s the best day to make important decisions, because you’re more likely to make the right one. (Unless you’re in Germany, in which case Thursday is thought to be the day when all activities are doomed to failure.) 

 

That useful tidbit comes from Black Cats & Four-Leaf Clovers: The Origins of Old Wives’ Tales and Superstitions in Our Everyday Lives. Now, I don’t normally think of myself as an overly superstitious person, but there are definitely some habits I find hard to break, like avoiding walking under a ladder or knocking on wood. Maybe it’s because of that one time I stated proudly that I’d never broken a bone, didn’t tap any nearby trees, and ended up with an ankle fracture a week later. Coincidence? Well, better safe than sorry.

 

Just in case you’re planning your week, here are a few more recommendations:

 

• Don’t collect nuts on a Sunday – you may find yourself in the company of the devil! (It is the luckiest day to get married though.)
• If you’re female, try to avoid having a medical procedure on a Tuesday, which is apparently a high accident risk day.
• Write important letters or ask favors on Wednesday, since the response is more likely to be favorable.

 Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an important decision to make: what to eat for lunch.

 

 

 

 

 

Black Cats & Four-Leaf Clovers

 

A Field Guide to Vampires

Posted by Jeanette Shaw

 

October is right around the corner, and it is absolutely my favorite month. The weather is cooling off (though not fast enough this year!), baking season kicks into gear, and, of course, Halloween approaches. This holiday always makes me want to go re-read my favorite horror stories—The Shining, The Haunting of Hill House, The Tell-Tale Heart. And, of course, this is the time of year to celebrate the supernatural stars du jour—vampires. From Dracula to Twilight, Interview with the Vampire to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, True Blood to the awesome CW show The Vampire Diaries (seriously, watch it), vampires are perennial favorites among authors and readers (it’s no surprise five of the six stories I just listed originated as books). People like their vampires different ways—scary, romantic, outsiders, witty, brooding—but with the overwhelming influx of vampire-related books, films, shows, comics, etc. it’s getting a little hard to keep all these different species of bloodsuckers straight.

 

Which leads me to one of the most fun books I’ve worked on at Perigee: Vampire Taxonomy: Identifying and Interacting with the Modern-Day Bloodsucker. Written by the very cool Meredith Woerner of scifi blog io9, this witty guide is a must for pop culture vampire junkies. It covers the gamut of famous vampires, from those listed above to other popular mythologies like Dark Shadows, The Lost Boys, Blade, Vampire Academy, and many more. Using an extremely scientific (read: totally made-up but surprisingly effective) classification system based on careful examination of physical attributes, feeding habits, weaknesses, habitat, and more, vamps are categorized by type: Romantic, Villainous, Tragic, Halfies, Child, etc. Also included are approach and avoidance methods, useful fang diagrams, and infestation maps (you can’t travel down South these days without tripping over a bloodsucker). It’s a really fun read for vampire lovers of all types, and who knows—the information might just save your life one day, should you meet a mysterious stranger in a dark alley.

 

Give it a read, and let me know your favorite pop culture vampires in the comments, or on Twitter @PerigeeBooks. And Happy October!

 

Vampire Taxonomy is available now.

All the "Best"?

Posted by Jeanette Shaw

When I started in publishing in 2004, the world had already transitioned into primarily electronic forms of communication—email, texting, MySpace, blogs—but publishing felt like the last holdout. We still edited hard copy manuscripts. We received numerous proposals in the mail, and sent massive catalog mailings several times a year. A scant six years later, our company has introduced an online production process that virtually eliminates the paper trail, I do all my editing in Word, most submissions come to me via email, and we now send our catalog electronically. I would venture to say our industry, company, and imprint have really embraced the digital transition (to say nothing of the ascent of ebooks).

So it is with chagrin that I relate that I still have problems with that most basic form of electronic communication, specifically: the email. Even more specifically: the email sign-off. The rules I learned growing up for letters was simple: "Sincerely" for acquaintances, "Love" or pretty much whatever you prefer for friends and family. But when it comes to email, all bets seem to be off. "Sincerely" feels stuffy; I'm certainly not close enough with business acquaintances to sign off with love. I thought I had a pretty workable variation: "Best wishes," "Best," or simply my name for out-of-company or formal purposes, a simple "Thanks" for basic in house requests and correspondence. This was based on endless studying of others' emails when I first joined the company; it's always smart to try to fit with the corporate culture. It's also smart to try to keep your communication on the same level as the other person - if I notice that someone consistently only signs emails with his or her name, I will often do the same only with that person, but such a cold (to me) sign-off is not my norm for general purposes. Seems like a pretty basic, nonoffensive system, yes?

But apparently email etiquette is a much grayer area than I realized. Lifehacker, in a roundup of annoying email habits, found a dislike for using "Thanks"—my go-to phrase!—to close an email. (There was also some antipathy for "Cheers," which I don't use but often tickles me because I always then picture the sender to be British.) Even more suprising, a New York Times article from 2006 implied that "Best" is often seen as a brush-off. Really? Is the omission of "wishes" really that much of an implied insult?

(By the way, this whole discussion ignores the often equally troubling question of how to begin an email. Per our highly informative guide to business communication How to Say It at Work, starting an email with "Dear" is discouraged—though I will do it occasionally in very formal circumstances. Beginning with just the person's name is acceptable, but I often prefer "Hi XXX," usually omitting the comma even though I know it's grammatically incorrect—it just looks weird.)

So if I'm running a risk of offense with my usual well-wishes, what are my other options? Well, there's "With warm regards" or "Cordially" (and variations thereof), but none of those feel like me. I like to thank people, sometimes with an exclamation point. I like to wish them the best, though perhaps I will make more of an effort now to add on those extra "wishes." Email has opened up and eased communication and interaction to a degree never seen before, but living our lives entirely through the typewritten word can often lead to second guessing ourselves. This can be a good thing—when your words are irrevocably committed to print it's very important to make sure you're writing what you mean to write (which is why I prefer arguments over the phone, so that you can't go back and reread the hurtful words later—better to let the memory get hazy)—but can also lead us to overthink and come off stuffy, humorless, or cold. So I think I will simply go on signing off in the way that feels right to me, and if anyone gets offended, well, "Cheers" to them.

Or I could just cover all my bases:

With Warmest Best Wishes and Thanks,

Jeanette

Musings on a Mission Statement

Posted by Jeanette Shaw

 

Besides the question “What kinds of books do you work on?” (which Marian discussed so eloquently in a recent post here), the other question I often get as an editor is, “What kinds of books does Perigee publish?” Now, my rote answer is that we publish books that follow our mission statement to “entertain and inform,” or as the line at the top of this site reads, books that are “useful, useless, curious, and creative.” But sometimes I find it hard to articulate exactly what makes Perigee unique as an imprint. How do our books inform readers’ lives differently from other nonfiction publishers?

 

This past week I went down to the Jersey Shore—not the ‘roids and raves shore depicted by MTV, but lovely, peaceful Avalon, where there’s an old time ice cream parlor and a seafood shack on every corner, and all the houses have wraparound porches. Now, having somehow missed out on any of the tanning genes that might have been imparted by my half-Italian ancestry (I guess the pale northern Scottish/Lithuanian side won out), I’m not a huge beach fan, and consequently not the best swimmer. I’m particularly fearful of strong ocean waves. I see little kids jumping the swells all the time, but refuse to let the water go up past my hips, and spend more time sitting at the edge of the water watching the waves break on the shore.

 

This year, as I watched the waves break, I remembered some things I learned while reading The Wave Watcher’s Companion. For instance, did you know that when waves “break” (when the top of the wave comes tumbling over) they are actually turning into shock waves? In fact, a lot of the energy coming from the moving water dissipates into heat and sound, instead of continuing as part of the ocean wave. This was surprising news to me, considering I’ve always thought of shock waves in relation to airplanes and lightning. Author Gavin Pretor-Pinney also offers an answer to a recurring question of mine: Why do ocean waves always line up with the beach? The answer there is refraction—the change in the direction of a wave due to a change in speed. The shallower the water becomes as the wave approaches the beach, the slower the wave travels, so if the wave is traveling at an angle, once the closer end hits the shallower water it will begin moving slower, and the entire wave will “turn” to face the land head-on.

 

When I got home from the shore I stopped by my mother’s house to check on my vegetable garden. This was my first year ever attempting to grow my own organic vegetables, and I utilized Annie Spiegelman’s Talking Dirt to do it. Now, it hasn’t been a complete success—my broccoli was a sad casualty—but when I bit into my first sweet, delicious, homegrown cherry tomato this weekend, I felt an inordinate sense of pride. I could have learned to grow vegetables from another book, or from a website, perhaps, but how wonderful to have the perfect guide to doing so right on my office shelves?

 

And this, perhaps, is what I find distinctive about Perigee. Any situation I ever need an answer for, and even ones I never knew I had questions about, is probably covered by one of our books. The books we publish have had such a direct and indirect impact on how I view the world and how I live my life. They’ve made me want to try new things, like gardening or crafting a sock animal, and they’ve made me want to learn more about the everyday things I take for granted, like clouds or waves or the elevator in my apartment building. (Did you know, according to Bubble Gum and Hula Hoops, Louis XV of France had a “flying chair” installed in his apartment in 1743 so he wouldn’t have to climb stairs to visit his mistress, resulting in the first “passenger elevator”?)

 

So the next time I’m asked, “What kinds of books does Perigee publish?” maybe my answer should be simply, “The books you need, whether you realize it or not.”

 

Talking Dirt by Annie Spiegelman

 

 

 

 

 

The Wave Watcher's Companion

by Gavin Pretor-Pinney

Bubble Gum and Hula Hoops

by Harry Oliver