Carl Lennertz, v-p, independent retailing, at HarperCollins whose blog is publishinginsider.net, reports from this year's Denver Publishing Institute.
I think I am correct to say that the Denver Publishing Institute is the longest-running book-only publishing course in the land. Stanford has been around a while, too, but it is for mid-career folk; Pace is also for those already in, I believe. Columbia and NYU are world-famous, but for magazines, too. Denver is for college grads looking to get in for the first time. Also, Denver is also the only one involving a boa and lobster boxer shorts. I'll explain in a moment.
An amazing woman, Elizabeth Geiser, started the Denver program 30 years ago and recently retired, handing over the reins to the one-and-only Joyce Meskis, owner of the one-and-only Tattered Cover Bookstore. Denver's Jill Smith and Sandra Bond keep the intense schedule on track, and that sked is two weeks of editorial workshops (kicked off by a keynote speech from a publishing dynamo like Dominique Raccah of Sourcebooks), a week for marketing and finally, a week of career focus, including interviews with HR folks from several publishing houses, small and large.
I'm just back from running the week of marketing (or the "dark arts," as I've coined it, a term which the Harry Potter-raised and now Stephenie Meyer-consumed students seem to enjoy). This was my third year since inheriting the reins from that high-energy force known as Richard Hunt, now at Keen Communications/Clerisy Press but for many years, the indie man at BDD.
It takes a pot of coffee the first day of that third week, as Richard and I both attempted to impart several decades of marketing experience and jargon into the heads of 100 eager but overwhelmed (mostly) English majors. The goal is not to woo them over to marketing but to make certain that these future editors know the importance of marketing, now more than ever. They need to know the landscape if they want to do all they can to help their books succeed.
Whether it's the fact that many of the students have some interning experience or that the two weeks of editing workshops pointed out that being an editor is as full of detail and deadline as anything else, the marketing lingo seems to go down pretty well. Their three homework assignments that week--to design an ad, write a press release and work up a full marketing budget for a book--hopefully seem less daunting by 5 p.m. on Monday than they did at 9 a.m.
Mercifully, for me and them, a roster of wonderful guest speakers take the podium Tuesday and Wednesday: Carolyn Schwartz of Random on advertising and promotion, the inimitable Scott Manning on publicity, Kent Freeman of Ingram and Pete McCarthy of Random on online marketing, and Chris Brown from the University of Denver Library on e-books. I love these sessions, as do the students.
One of the highlights of the week (pizza day at the cafeteria aside) comes on Thursday, when commission rep David Waag sells part of a list to Cathy Langer of Tattered Cover in front of the class. A few folks move right over to a sales or bookselling career that day.
Friday brings the close of marketing week, and every student presents their wild idea for a book's campaign. There has been an emphasis all week on the basics of a campaign and staying on budget, but the last day, they are allowed to go wild with something creative and without cost restraint, although even then, something free and on-line is preferred and much more indicative of what we need in the real world. After each idea, I throw (if it's a T-shirt) or hand along (if a book, ARE or weighty tchotchke) a prize to each student. (I gather AREs and swag from all publishers all year long. Hint hint.) There is also a surprise that last day, the nature of which I cannot reveal for the sake of future classes, but it's really fun and the week ends on a perfect book-related high.
Just as important as the class learning from all the guest speakers, we speakers learn from the students. They are the next generation of readers as well as employees, and it is very interesting to hear what they are reading and what they respond to marketing-wise in the real world. I know that all of the teachers leave reenergized by the enthusiasm and perspective of the students. Heck, we're just thrilled these people want to follow in our publishing footsteps.
Okay then, about the boa and lobster boxer shorts. The boa was a prize saved from Harper Children's Fancy Nancy campaign; the boxer shorts (with images of purty red lobsters all over) from the twisted mind of my friend Steve Wallace, now working for Unbridled. The shorts became a totem of the week, a symbol of all things fun marketing-wise. On that the last day, things got exuberant, and much to Joyce's chagrin, the boa went around my neck and the shorts on over my jeans. Out came the cell phones and snap, there might now be pictures of me in this undignified state around the net.
What happens in Denver doesn't stay in Denver, I guess. Oh right, that's the whole point. Go get 'em, ye of the next generation.