Speed to market is an issue that has long bedeviled book publishers. But now, due to market forces that can make a bestseller out of a title few people had heard of a few weeks before, more and more companies are finding ways to produce books faster and, in the process, create a generally more efficient production operation. At last month’s Westchester Publishing Services webinar “Manuscript to Market: Speeding up the Journey,” speakers addressed some key points in getting books to market as quickly as possible.
The two panelists from publishers both noted that not every title needs to be on the publishing fast track. Marina Padakis Lowry, director of publishing operations at Zando, said you need buy-in from the author, editor, and agent before crashing a book or else your plan will be “dead in the water.” Nina von Moltke, cofounder and president of Authors Equity, said that since the recently launched hybrid publisher is author-centric, the company works closely with authors on all publishing decisions, including how quickly to publish a book.
Lowry and von Moltke, both veterans of Big Five publishers, offered other practical advice on getting books out quicker. Lowry provided a value proposition for publishers to consider when they are thinking of crashing a title, one that balances quality, speed, and cost or, in Lowry’s phrasing, “the iron triangle.” She noted that usually to have two of those things in place, a publisher needs to sacrifice on the third. And while getting in-house buy-in to publish a book quickly is important, Lowry said publishers also need to alert Barnes & Noble and Amazon about their plans. Both accounts are ordering books in lower quantities and only keeping a few weeks of inventory on hand, she said, so publishers need to give them a heads-up on any changes to the publishing schedule. And Lowry offered a tip—both B&N and Amazon are more likely to take a gamble on a trade paperback than on a hardcover.
While Authors Equity is author-centric, von Moltke acknowledged it has had to become “a bit more disciplined and set expectations for ourselves and the authors” in terms or production schedules since it launched in March 2024. To help them with the process, von Moltke said Authors Equity started using project management software to help the entire team track all the different elements as the manuscript moves along. And before prepress begins, the publisher has what von Moltke called a “nuts and bolts meeting” to make sure all parties, including the author, are in agreement about the different specs for a particular title. Implementing these two steps, von Molke said, “allowed us to have a clear timeline and to move fast when we need to move fast.”
Von Moltke dug deeper into the question of when speed is important for a book. For Authors Equity, the key is what will best help the publisher build an audience for the book. Publishing timelines are not dictated by production time, von Moltke said, but rather by determining “which books will benefit from being quick-to-market [and] which other ones really need the breathing room to build time for galleys to be ready” so Authors Equity can build excitement for a book. In addition, she added, publishers need to take into account the requirements of their distribution and retail partners.
The exception to these rules for Authors Equity pertains to the previously self-published books it has acquired. “In those cases, we do move much, much faster because the audience has already proven itself and it is a book that most likely as already proven itself online,” von Moltke said.
No matter who the author is, von Moltke stressed that a smooth publishing process depends on ongoing communication with the writer. “It is very complex to make a book and not everyone understands that,” she said.
Matt Kennell, executive director of sales for Versa Press and chair of the board of directors of the Book Industry Study Group, put things in broad terms, saying that for the industry to fully embrace quicker turnaround times, all members of the supply chain need to get involved. “How files move from editorial to production; how orders, metadata, and purchase orders transact across partners—all of that can either lengthen or shorten the journey from author to reader,” Kennell said.
Publishers that are successful in getting books to market quickly share four habits, Kennell said: workflow optimization, standardization, transparency with suppliers, and breaking bottlenecks. Kennell believes standardizing processes is critical since it can allow publishers to not just crash the occasional one-off book, but “create speed at scale and have that repeatable.”
Like most printers, Versa Press urges publishers to be as transparent as possible about their plans with manufacturers to help ensure they have the paper and press capacity necessary to meet a client’s needs.
Publishers have more printing options than ever, Kennell noted. Today’s printing industry is a world where companies blend high quality digital printing with offset printing, thus giving publishers the ability to “right-size runs across the life of a title,” he explained.
Kennell urged smaller publishers in particular to work with only one or two printers for best results. One benefit for doing this is that when you have a hot title, “you can jump to the front of the line because you already have other titles in the pipeline,” Kennell said,
Kennell also observed that ever since the emergence of BookTok and other social media sites, “consumer signals can spike fast and late, and as we all know you don’t control a spark, but you can control your readiness.
