K. Marvin Bruce

For many writers, getting a book in paperback is a measure of success.  As writers we think of those books so common that you can find them in grocery stores and drug stores and airports.  Books by Stephen King are everywhere. We tend to think of hardcover books as overpriced and out of reach for hoi polloi .  Besides, who has room to store a bunch of hardback books?  They take up valuable shelf space.  If a book doesn’t come out in paperback we think of it as a failure. Publishers tend to look at it the other way around.  Books are a luxury item.  As much as I shudder to write this, you can live without them.  Publishers know this and that’s why book prices often seem so high.  I’m old enough to remember when a mass-market paperback could be purchased for just over a dollar. Mass market is almost impossible to hit.  As I sit here waiting for six publishers to get back to me on my Medusa novel, I know that it won’t be mass m...

I recently ran across a copy of Library Journal .  Those of us who write are greatly indebted to libraries, even if we never sell a story. Much of my childhood involves memories of trips to the library.  The smells, the tacky texture of books constantly handled, the quiet.  They stay with me. While thumbing through the Library Journal , it struck me that I'd never heard of many of the publishers advertising there. I thought of how hard it's been to find publishers for my own work, and I realized it's a lot like the story of the perfect lovers. You know the one. The story where lovers that we, as readers, know belong together, but the author (cruel lot that we are) keep them apart.  Romeo and Juliet is only one such scenario. Publishers need content.  They crave writers who are steady, dependable producers of good material.  Some of us write every day and have done so for decades.  Publishers don't notice us. For our part, as wri...