Yep, I'm still opening the mail. I think I'll keep opening the mail as it's the best opportunity for immediate sorting. I'll bet I've cut down on our managing editor's rummaging time by about 80%.
But here's the beef: The first thing I want to know when I open a package and pull out a book is what's the publication date. At ForeWord we're already sending out books with November/December pub. dates to reviewers. We can still handle a Sept/Oct edition, but on a very limited basis, which we really try and reserve for the very small publishers who can't get out the early galleys. Anything before then will either go into the Footnotes pile (for quick blurbs on-line), into my pile for special notice, or into the recycling.
Back to the point: I want to know the pub. date right up front. It's the A-Number-One issue upon opening the package. Once I know, once I’ve circled it with my red pencil, then I take a look at the book to see what it is, where it should go.
But, so often -- almost all the time -- I can't find the date so I'm standing there with my little red pencil hunting up and down the press release, looking for it.
Okay, so there's no standard format for a press release, but there ought to be. Put the stats up front and in my face. (By stats I mean, title, author, press, page count, ISBN, publication date.) Go ahead and write whatever you want below that -- even on top of that -- but make sure the stats are the first thing that draws my eye.
P.S. I said in a previous entry that I wouldn't remember who did the most impenetrable packaging job, but now that I've been at this for a couple of weeks, I take it back. I do remember.
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