Guest Blogger: Dwight Baker, President of Baker Publishing Group
Rachel Kent has graciously given up her usual slot in our blogging roster to make room for a guest blogger. This is the first time we’ve invited someone to write for us, and we’re pleased that Dwight Baker would do us the honor.
Wendy Lawton and I recently were in Grand Rapids, Mich., where Baker Publishing has its main offices. We had a delightful and stimulating conversation with Dwight and Marilyn Gordon, director of rights and contracts, about the state of publishing. I think each of us came away from the meeting with a better understanding of where authors, agents and publishers are coming from as we navigate the dizzying changes we’re all facing.
As we talked, Dwight offered some helpful thoughts on how he sees the interplay between publishing’s partners. We invited him to create a blog post sharing some of his perspectives. Here’s his take on how each part of the industry adds up to a healthy whole. Welcome, Dwight.
I love fresh vegetables, but I don’t have any incentive to grow my own. Our local soil is nasty, I lack the requisite knowledge, and I don’t wish to spend my leisure time pulling weeds and picking off tomato worms. Instead, we are members of a community farm co-op. A local farm family provides all the necessary acres, resources, workers, and expertise. We and our fellow members cover their costs and we all share in the harvest, through both good seasons and lean. Eating fresh produce is terrific, as is socializing with our farm community at our weekly pickups. We hear news about the harvest, exchange recipes, and enjoy the companionship of others who are passionate about organic food. If I committed enough time and resources, I could possibly accumulate more tomatoes if I grew everything by myself and for myself, but I would not be enriched by many new friendships. I am a big fan of our local farmer.
Community farms attract foodies, and the publishing world gathers book lovers. Baker Publishing Group, our home company, is one of those gathering points. We have hired professionals of unique skills and experience, forming a team that impresses both authors and readers. Many talented writers and experienced retailers have joined our circle. Our group is well resourced and, yes, it is also expensive to operate and it demands a lot of capital. I am a big fan of our local banker as well.
Throughout history—and presently—writers and readers have always been able to connect without the assistance of publishers. Therefore, if the Baker team is enlisted as an intermediary between the two, we are obligated through our every transaction to add value that outweighs the costs of our involvement. Any publisher that cannot do the same is not likely to endure—nor should it. Fortunately our profession attracts good people, and it cultivates its talent very effectively. This energy attracts great writers and readers into a vast and robust community. Providing an environment that allows this community to flourish is my daily satisfaction as an executive, after I’ve consumed my first six cups of coffee and the morning fog clears.
We love books, and we savor the companionship of others who love books. By our mission we are an explicitly Christian publisher: people of the Book. To quote our founder Herman Baker, “We love to sell a good book. There is no better business to be in. In books we have the richest treasures on earth, the output of the best minds of the ages.” For my part, I seek the companionship of book people at every opportunity, and some of our most aggressive publishing competitors are also friends whom I enjoy and admire. I am a big fan of our better rivals.
We often enlist literary agents in this process, and I am pleased to recommend the services of Books & Such. They have facilitated nearly fifty writers into partnerships with Baker Publishing Group, which is a testament to the energy and discernment of their agents. I am a big fan of Books & Such.
Dear writer, both Books & Such and Baker Publishing Group have much to offer you and your readers. You have an option to publish your work alone, but if you join with our team you will be introduced to more readers and you will be presented to them in better form. Our professionals will edit your work more effectively, design it more attractively, market it more aggressively, and sell it more broadly. We will endure in this effort long after your personal attention has moved on to other tasks. During our seven decades of doing business, we’ve made every possible mistake that can be made by a publisher, and we’ve learned from all of these experiences. These lessons are gathered into a collective wisdom that never sleeps. It’s a side effect of our over-caffeinating.
Finally, let’s revisit that farm stand. Some of my friends grow their own food, and I do admire their determination—from a safe distance. While they are tugging at weeds under the hot sun, I am socializing elsewhere around tables heaping with good food. The tomatoes we enjoy certainly didn’t raise themselves. Our farm family did all the heavy lifting to grow them so we can enjoy both the food and friendships associated with our common passions. If you love books, an association with the publishing community has all these same benefits for you to enjoy.
Thanks, Dwight. Do you agree with Dwight’s perspective on the value publishers add to the equation? What do you think of his statement, “If the Baker team is enlisted as an intermediary between the two [writer and reader], we are obligated through our every transaction to add value that outweighs the costs of our involvement.”
Lindsay Harrel
I really, really like thinking of publishing as a partnership. Your farm analogy is perfect. It also reminds me of the Body of Christ in many ways. We all have different functions in this publishing business, but we all have the same goal: bring good writing that glorifies God to readers.
Bill Giovannetti
I love this. Two items jump off the page/screen for me:
1. That the publishing house must add more value than it costs.
Positively inspiring to read. I can imagine the flipside of that: a publisher doing the bare minimum to put a book out there, without a commitment to “edit your work more effectively, design it more attractively, market it more aggressively, and sell it more broadly” and endure in that process over the long haul. I may even know authors who’ve experienced the less-than-totally-committed publisher. What Dwight describes, however, is the spirit I’m looking for in a publisher.
2. That the publishing house would make a direct appeal to authors to give them a shot.
Wow. Reads like a sea-change to me. I think most authors view the publisher as an aloof deity, occasionally deigning to flick a few crumbs off the table to the supplicant writer. This appeal, however, a) humanizes the publishing house, b) evens the playing field, and c) makes me feel honored and respected as an author.
As an author who has been both traditionally and self/indie-published, I resonate with the vegetable analogy — though I’d rather had a med rare ribeye on the grill any day.
A manly thank you and pat on the back.
Bill
Mary Curry
Yes, Bill. Dwight certainly put a human face to publishing. Well said.
Jennifer Major
Well said Bill. And I’ll take a rare rib eye too.
Janet Grant
Bill, Dwight’s view of publishing is heartening. That’s why Wendy and I wanted readers of our blog to hear from Dwight directly; his words are encouraging to all of us.
Christina
I agree with Mary. Very well said, Bill.
It’s hard not to become disheartened by the typical attitude among writers when it comes to publishing houses, and I’m not talking about traditionally published authors. The negative attitude and makes a person want to crawl in a whole and never come out. I’ve tried to ignore them and keep pressing forward. I didn’t realize just how much I’ve paid attention until I read this post.
It’s nice to see this partnership attitude. Nice to know there are, as Mary said, human faces to publishing.
Christina
Wendy Lawton
Bill, you touched on the very thing that has been worrying us– in all these discussions having to do with the future of publishing, the publishers have been, by and large, silent. They are busy publishing books and, let’s face it, they have an unending supply of superb content.
But as everyone talks about the supposed death of traditional publishing, who is giving the publishing point of view? If we agents talk about it, we are accused of being in cahoots with the publishers– part of the big publishing machine. *cracking herself up with that picture*
Truth is, publishers are key to keeping the industry healthy. Baker is constantly innovating and breaking new ground for all of us.
Caroline @ UnderGod'sMightyHand
Your second point is exactly what caught my attention, too. Dwight writes this as an invitation to community, not a sigh of acceptance. I love that.
Thank you for this post and all of you for your thoughts!
Michelle Lim
Bill, you summed it up beautifully!
KatieC
This was very enlightening, and I highly enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing it with us!
Tianna Clore
The analogy is perfect in how it explains the necessity of a publisher. It is nice to know that there are publishers out there who want to cultivate (vegetable garden…get it? Corny, I know! Lol) a meaningful relationship with authors. Thanks, Dwight!
Lori
I love the farm anaogy too! I am a big believer in the team approach. No one really does it all on their own nor should they. We all have something that we can ans should bring to the table.
Mary Curry
Wow!
This line says everything to me –
“We love books, and we savor the companionship of others who love books.”
Those words resonate so deeply within me. I can’t help but think an author would be mightily blessed to work with such
a publisher.
Many of my favorite books come from Baker House. Reading Dwight’s post, it’s easy to see why.
Thank you Dwight for sharing your thoughts today. Thanks, Janet and Wendy for sharing your experience to help us better understand the state of publishing, and thank you Rachel for sharing your space today.
It’s so inspiring to stop by here and read each morning before beginning my writing day.
Janet Grant
We often forget that publishers love books as much as we do, don’t we? It’s nice to be reminded of our points of commonality.
Sarah Sundin
As a Baker author (Revell) and a Books & Such client, I heartily agree. My novels have received outstanding editing services, gorgeous covers, and a marketing and publicity push I never expected as a debut author. Each and every member of the publishing team is a delight to work with, and I love having so many talented and creative people on my side.
I love the farm analogy. We all have strengths, weaknesses, gifts, and deficiencies. If I tried to everything on my own, I would fail. I’m thankful to be a part of a team.
Mary Curry
This is eerie, Sarah. I was just recommending your books to my critique partner – not 5 minutes ago.
Cynthia Herron
Don’t you just those Holy Spirit, God-ordained moments?!
Sarah Sundin
Ah, thank you, Mary!!! I hope she likes them!
Kathryn Elliott
Fantastic approach! I particularly like the befriend your rival mindset. Publishing is a big sea of unknowns, especially for new authors. Why not cast the biggest net and grab all the help you can?
Cynthia Herron
I was struck by the humility and wisdom of this post. While some of us may not have a “green thumb” or complete knowledge of how to grow the best garden, we can still be instrumental in its success, as well as reap its benefits.
And I loved the learn-from-our-mistakes analogy. As a Starbucks fan, words like “over-caffeinated” will get my attention every time–especially when it pertains to “collective wisdom that never sleeps.”
In fact, I think I’ll pour myself another cup of Sumatra as I ponder your words and the power of suggestion.
This was brilliant–thank you!
Larry C.
When that farmer gets less than a 20% return for planting the seeds and putting in all the work to bring that fragile possibility to fruition, weathering the storms and dealing with the crows, vultures, and other varmits who seek to take the sweat and blood of the farmer for their own; when it appears that those who control the stalls at the marketplace cannot tell the difference between mustard greens and manure in what they are selling to the public, it seems more like a system of sharecropping than a true and equal partnership.
(Not that this is directed at Dwights’ particular farm, but more of the industry as a whole. I
Larry C.
t is farms like Dwights, the farms where the grass actually IS greener, that makes the rest look so bad, and help highlight the problems of the industry.
Janet Grant
That’s so true, Larry. As an agent, I’ve certainly seen the sharecropping mindset, but Baker Publishing Group is not of that ilk. That’s why Dwight gets to write a blog post for us!
Jennifer Major
This was as good as a punk rocker at an Amish quilting bee…sitting down and quilting with the ladies and hearing all the news.
(See yesterday’s comments)
There are days when I ask God, “this is ALL the encouragement I’ll need to keep going!” because it was such a full day and I feel great. Then I wake up and see this!
I KNOW there will be a day when I can say “I like that cover, thank you” because there are people and publishing companies that reassure me/us that they’re about bringing the BEST book to the reader and making sure the experience is the best it can be.
Thank you Dwight, and Janet.
And Rachel, for sharing her spot.
Janet Grant
I’ve seen Baker working with authors until the author can say, “I love that cover.” It’s gratifying to know a publisher will work REALLY hard to make authors proud of their books.
Jennifer Major
Thank you Janet.
That is awesome! Without going into too much detail (cuz ya know, I never do that….) your words are yet another “freak me green and call me Kermit” moment of God confirming that I am , one day, going to have my name on a cover.
Beth MacKinney
Nice post, Dwight. Thanks for helping us all see the great team we become a part of in traditional publishing.
Sally Bradley
As a writer, this post excites me. Yes, some of us could do it all ourselves and be financially fine, but I want to work with others who adore stories like I do. Fresh out of college, I had the opportunity to work for one of the big Christian publishers, and I loved it. It was by far the best job I ever had.
The line that jumped out at me was Dwight saying he was a big fan of their better rivals. It has an All-Star game feel. When you look at your competitors as friends who challenge you and help you improve, I think you’re in a very good place.
Janet Grant
Sally, I think you’re so right–and that goes for authors and agents too. Sure we’re rivals, but we’re also all plowing in the same field and contributing to the “food supply” in our own way.
Pat Jeanne Davis
Many of my favorite authors are published with Baker Publishing Group. As a writer seeking a traditional publisher, it did my heart good to learn that such a highly respected publishing house takes this position. This would explain why it’s such a leader. Integrity shines through Dwight’s words re Baker’s obligation to add value that outweighs the cost of their involvement. As a gardener,I loved the analogy, too. My thanks to Wendy and Janet.
Charise
Great post. And particularly poignant as I frown at my tomato plants with NO tomatoes.
Janet Grant
So you’re saying it takes a team to raise a tomato? (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)
Laura Frantz
Personally, being a Revell author, I can’t speak highly enough of the team there. They’ve always, always gone the extra mile for me, beginning with my editor, Andrea Doering, and continuing on down the line with marketing and publicity, the art team and more. It’s thrilling to see quality Christian fiction blossom under Dwight Baker’s direction. I’m so pleased/proud to be a part of Revell and this post really resonates. Thanks, Janet and Books&Such!
Bill Giovannetti
So, how prevalent is this view among publishing houses?
Janet Grant
Um…Not as common as we’d like.
Becky Doughty
I’ll take the farm analogy a little further….
We are one of “those” folk who plant a huge garden… but every year we are learning what grows well for us and what doesn’t. We’ve learned that there is no arguing with the seasons (sans greenhouse) and that if we are to have a productive garden, we have to focus on the things we do well. Like tomatoes. Not corn. Like beans. Not peas. Like kale. Not cabbage. You get my drift.
The analogy? If I’m going to be a productive writer, I need to focus on the things that I do best… writing, research, connecting with other writers. Not the business end of publishing. I’ve tried it all – self-published a book that I’m proud of – but I know that it is not the vegetable on which I should focus. For that reason, I’m glad for the local farmers and produce stands. For that reason, I’m glad for agents and traditional publishers.
Thanks for the post today – for letting Dwight share.
Janet Grant
Thanks for your perspective, Becky.
DeAnna Julie Dodson
I love this philosophy. I would much rather have a team of experts making my book the best it can be than try to do everything myself and end up with something subpar.
Judy Christie
What an enlightening and encouraging post. Most of us wrestle with a simple and meaningful mission statement, and I really like Herman Baker’s: “We love to sell a good book.” Amen! Thanks, Dwight, and B&S, for sharing these thoughts. Judy Christie
Janet Grant
That is short and yet not so simple a mission statement, isn’t it Judy?
David Todd
And I’ll also take the analogy further, based on my experience as one of those gardeners when we lived at a place with flat ground and good soil.
You plant a hundred seeds, hoping 80 percent germinate. You weed out 90 to 95 percent of those that do. Then, depending on how many your garden will support, you take out a few more. Each that remains bears it’s designated amount of fruit, be it one ear or one head or one melon or dozens of tomatoes.
Unfortunately, the writer’s odds for all publishing houses but together doesn’t equal the odds those 100 seeds have of being the one chosen.
Janet Grant
But in publishing, not all seeds are created equal. Figuring out how to positively distinguish your work is the writer’s job. “Pick me.”
sally apokedak
Hmmm. On the one hand, I’m standing up and cheering. On the other hand I’m asking myself, “What is this Dwight guy putting into his six cups of coffee of a morning?”
Has publishing moved from buyer’s market to seller’s market?
I haven’t seen any evidence of that. I’m with David: Writers still have a bunny rabbit’s chance in Antarctica of being selected to be the dear writer who gets the contract.
To which dear writers are you speaking, Mr. Baker? The dear writer who has never been published? Or to the dear writer who is successfully publishing, either on his own or with a dear competitor?
I am one of those book people of whom you speak. Not only do I love books, I have also loved the publishing industry since the time I was very small. I have a romantic view of the industry and I’d sign with a small publisher and be loyal forever to the guy who discovered me if he loved my work, and gave me good editing and good design (I envision hardback with thick, creamy, pages with deckled edges). I’m one of those dear writers who would love to be part of a team, which puts out quality work.
I am also one of those dear writers who is about to self-publish. I think that because I have loved and studied this industry for so long, I will be able to do a good job of self-publishing. I think I will hire good help and I will set up my own team. If I take the time to learn all I need to learn and I set up my own small publishing company, and if I’m successful at it, I will be loyal to my own self for discovering my own self.
So it seems to me that there is a window of opportunity that dear publishers have. Mine has been open for a dozen years and it’s about to close.
Dear Books & Such and Baker Publishing Group, I have much to offer you and your readers. You have an option to keep ignoring me, but if you join with me, you will have a fine product to add to your list of other fine books, and you will be offering your readers quality entertainment with thoughtful messages. If you will love my work and offer to partner with me, I’ll write my heart out. I’ll work well with your editors and I’ll be a team player. I’ll be loyal to you and I’ll meet my deadlines. Most of all I’ll give you books that many readers will love. During my four+ decades of reading and writing and loving the publishing industry and my dozen years of pursuing publication, I’ve made every possible mistake that can be made by a writer, and I’ve learned from all of these experiences. These lessons are gathered into a soul that sleeps just fine, thank you very much, having full trust in God and having given up caffeine long ago, after the panic attacks and muscle twitches got too bad to be ignored.
🙂 Am I serious? Probably as serious as you are, Mr. Baker. I’ve grown up and shed my childish, romantic view of publishing, and I lean more and more toward wanting to keep creative control of my work and wanting to try to sell it myself and make some money off of it. But I do write for children and I do still believe in magic, so I haven’t completely rid myself of the fantasy that I’ll one day be published by a publisher who loves my work and invites me to his beach house for yearly retreats with other brilliant writers.
David Todd
Sally:
I suspect Mr. Gordon is responding to the growing conventional wisdom in the writing community that the trade publisher doesn’t add value for all that they take from the writer. More and more voices are saying the writer can do or hire done everything the trade publisher does and it will be done just as well. Whether they are correct or not remains to be seen, but the stronger those voices grow, the more you will hear from trade publishers the message Gordon gives here. He’s getting ahead of the pack, anticipating a day when the buyer’s market may not be quite as strong as it is today.
Welcome to the ranks of the self-published. I haven’t given up hope of someday placing something with a trade publisher (which is why I keep reading sites such as this), but meanwhile the rollercoaster I’m on is sure more fun than the query-go-round was.
sally apokedak
Yes, David, I can see where the self-publishing roller coaster would be more exciting than the query-go-round. 🙂
I’m not sure who Gordon is, but I think I understood the purpose the post, and I agree with it…mostly. But I’m just about at a tipping point.
Traditional publishers are still putting out better books the vast majority of the time than self-published authors are, but I’ve looked at the self-published authors who are successful and I’m becoming convinced that I have what it takes to do it well.
I think publishers will always be here. I think gatekeepers are good and necessary. We simply don’t have time to sift through all the drivel on our own. We will have to trust someone to do it for us.
I also, think, though, that the bigger the risk for the publisher, the bigger his payout may be. If Mr. Baker takes on an untried author because he loves the author’s work, that author is likely to feel a sense of loyalty. But if Mr. Baker is only interested in authors who can bring platform and stellar sales figures to the table, those authors won’t owe him anything and there will be nothing to keep them from self-publishing and taking their readers with them.
I have been thinking for a while that publishers have a lot to offer readers, but they have only two things they can offer authors that can’t be bought–they can offer love for the authors’ books that isn’t bought and paid for (affirmation), and they can offer decent advances. All the rest–the editing, the distribution, the publicity, the cover design–can be bought by authors. In fact more and more publishing companies are farming these out to freelancers, so why shouldn’t authors do the same?
There are self-publishing companies offering quality, reasonably-prices packages now. It used to be that POD books were so expensive that people were crazy to go that route, but Amazon has changed the game completely.
Mr. Baker reminds me, though, that publishers have a third thing they can offer authors. A sense of family. A sense of belonging to an elite group of book people. So I think he’s doing the right thing here. He’s offering the respect, the support, and the love that many authors crave. I think his post was great. He’s putting a human face on the publisher and he’s saying what authors want to hear. He’s saying, “We’re book people and we Christians–people of the Book–know what that means more than anyone. We’re your kind of people. We’ll love you and partner with you.” All of that makes him very attractive.
I simply wondered who he was targeting with his post.
Becky Doughty
Sally,
I just want to applaud you for your bold and transparent statement here. I’ve never seen you write so forthrightly and I think you voice thoughts that many of us share.
I am going to be watching for your book!
sally apokedak
Thanks, Becky. I always try to write forthrightly, but I also try to be diplomatic. I fail miserably at both too often.
I was having a little too much fun when I wrote that post to Mr. Baker, maybe. Perhaps I should have been more serious. Because comedy and tragedy are sometimes hard to tell apart. 🙂
I really enjoyed Mr. Baker’s post, but I was also confused by it.
I was thinking…”Hmm. We all love you and want to be published by you. That’s why we keep sending your our queries and that’s why our agents keep sending you our proposals. So why are you here trying to convince us that you have so much to offer?”
Thanks for saying you’ll be looking for my book. If you want to stay in touch, click on my name and hit the button at the top of my right sidebar that says, “Enter to Win a Kindle Fire.” That will put you on my list and you’ll be sure to know when my book comes out. Besides, you’ll be entered to win a Kindle Fire. Or a Google Nexus. Winner’s choice. 🙂
David Todd
Sally:
I’m afraid I misread the name. Somehow I read Dwight Gordon when it was Dwight Baker and Marilyn Gordon. My bad for not reading more carefully.
sally apokedak
Oh, such a relief.
Sorry. Better you than me, I always say.
I thought I had somehow messed up his name. I kept reading it and thinking, “No, his name is Dwight Baker.” But I checked it about five times. Because there’s nothing worse than trying to be funny, or trying to provoke someone a little, and then finding a big old blunder in your post. 🙂
Juan Gonzalez
This was some fantastic information. I’ve only begun my journey as a writer. I’m doing my best to gather as much information to make me the best possible prospect for myself, publishers, and my family. Great read!
Janet Grant
In response to Sally’s comments, I think traditional publishers offer more than you list, Sally. The ability for a traditional publisher to get distribution for your book is unparalleled Traditional publishers are better at that than anyone. A team that always works together has one job: Make sure your book succeeds. And while some publishers have little room on their lists for new authors, that’s not true for Baker. I have several clients whose first books were published by Baker, and their writing careers were launched well there. My point? No two publishing houses look the same.
sally apokedak
It’s true that they offer distribution to bookstores, Janet. I should have added that to my list. I left it out because whereas distribution used to be something that you had to have to sell books, it seems less important to me now that Amazon is such a big player. I’m wrong to think that. They have to still be selling books or they wouldn’t still be in business.
And, yes, publishers do offer contracts to debut authors. I just didn’t know why a publisher would reach out to unpublished writers in this way. Most unpublished writers I know would offer to pay him if he’d take them on.
From where I sit it’s still very much a buyer’s market, so his post really surprised me.
sally apokedak
“they” meaning bookstores. Bookstores have to still be selling books.
Kristie Jackson
Like Becky, I have a self-published book that I am proud of. But I found the process pretty grueling. While I am thankful for all that I learned, the most important lesson of all is just how badly I need a team. What a blessing it would be to have agency representation like Books & Such, and a publisher like Baker. My appreciation for the wisdom, expertise and support of such a dream team would be all the greater having published without.
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