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Books
and PublishingJanuary 2001
As a published author ('Adventures in Knitting', Blandford, 1991), I would like to add my comments to the letters on publishing which appeared in The World of Embroidery issues of May and September 2000. While I am primarily a knitter, I am also a keen embroiderer. In any case, the comments which follow apply equally to either craft.
After having my book published, I have by no means exhausted my fund of ideas and, naturally, wanted to share them with other people. So I submitted a full manuscript for my next book but this was rejected out of hand by the mainstream publishers. I was told that my ideas were (all of a sudden) far too adventurous; the knitter could not take such innovation. I approached an agent who might, I hoped, have better luck with selling my book. Unhappily, she received the same response. Publishers want safe books. Why avid knitting experimenters should have become so timid overnight, I fail to understand. This depressingly timid picture does not correspond to my experience. I have given numerous talks at the highest and the lowest levels of expertise, held workshops, visited many a foot-numbing exhibition, spoken to yarn stockists and manufacturers, and all have greeted my ideas with enthusiasm and encouragement. So often the response has been, 'When is your next book coming out?' You can understand the frustration.
What I expect of a book, be it knitting or embroidery or any other craft, is something to inspire, to stretch the imagination, so that I shall be urged to create something of my own. Judging from the Letters page in The World of Embroidery, this is just what other readers expect too. So what a pity it is that we are being sold short by publishers. My experience has been that in general, publishers do not fully understand their readership. Furthermore, unless you are very fortunate, they do little to promote your work but simple allow the bookshops to place your book, which has cost you so much in sweat and tears, on the shelf to take its chances among all the others. You are not necessarily going to reach the enthusiastic craftsperson even if you have managed to leap the first hurdle and had your manuscript placed between hard covers. Targeting the right reader seems to be the publishers' weak point. A poorly targeted book gains poor sales which, unsurprisingly, discourages the publisher from taking on further similar books.
Undeterred, however, I continue to pursue my passions. Taking knitting and embroidery, combining them, stretching them to the limit. And as I experiment, I continue to write the next manuscript and, after that, perhaps the next. As for publication, I await more enlightened times.
Brenda Shapeero
Newark, Notts
PublishingI sympathise with Brenda Shapeero's letter regarding publishers only wanting to print 'safe' books, and I have the feeling this will continue for some long time. Although I have not had a book of my own published, I have had various pieces of work in other people's books and have found on this level that either the author feels the kudos of being published is sufficient and no fee (or copy of the book) is given, or the fee that may be paid never actually covers the time and effort the work has taken. Consequently the work is never innovative, as the time involved and the reward given are not compatible. I have friends in the USA who are beaders, and ended up publishing their own books and selling them through an agent both nationally and internationally and this seems to work very well. Perhaps this is the way forward?
Shirley Isaacs
misaacs@cwcom.net