The
new issue of Poets & Writers magazine has Michael
Szczerban interviewing
at length 37 Ink founder Dawn
Davis: "The truth is, we spend so much of our time
advocating internally for our books, making sure we have the right cover, the
right subtitle, filling out forms and so forth, that we often don't have time
to be entrepreneurial. But when a moment of clarity comes, it's fun to pursue
it or to brainstorm with an agent about a client whose writing you really
like."
Davis notes: "You can feel caught in the weeds when you have to let people
know you can read and advocate outside of your own background. To have people
only think of you for African American projects—or, if you’re Latino, to only
be thought of for Latino culture–based projects—that can be disappointing and
exhausting. I feel that's something I'll always have to navigate."
Ultimately, the fundamentals still matter the most: "I've learned that
despite all the new bells and whistles, there's no substitute for giving the
bookselling community time enough to read a book and get behind it." Plus,
"Despite all the things that we tell authors to do, there has to be a book
that you want to recommend to five other people after you put it down. It
starts with the book no matter what. Without that it doesn't matter how much
you tweet. You'll get one wave of publicity and then it's over."
Via Publishers Lunch
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