By all means, if possible, commit the printing and the publishing of your book to the same hands. While the book is still in process of making, the plans for bringing it before the public should be arranged. Preliminary announcements can be made, and it can be put into catalogues which it would miss if placed in the hands of a publisher only after the printing had been done. Literary notes, circulars, review slips, and all the paraphernalia of its announcement to the public can thus be prepared, and all be ready for the campaign as soon as the book comes from the press. This is a very important point.
Genealogical works should be committed to publishers who have already had experience along this special line. The sale of genealogical works depends very largely upon a special kind of circularizing which will bring them to the attention of those particularly interested—public librarians, historical and genealogical societies, and special collectors. And whether the book be a "clan" or "Grafton" genealogy, there are many who will be anxious to own it, on account of distant tribal connections, and who can be reached only by the proper methods.
A little judicious advertising may prove a paying investment. For this the author is altogether dependent upon his publisher. He who ignorantly plunges into the luxury of advertising may readily sink a large fortune, without returns, in a very short time. Or the little that he has to invest will all be thrown away. But the experienced publisher is like an old fox that has learned the ways of hounds and hunters and is not easily caught. Such a publisher knows the best mediums, where a modest notice almost always brings good returns, and one cannot do better than to reap the fruits of his experience.
If the reader desires to try his own hand in the work of publishing, we wish him well, and advise him that the only way in which he may hope to realize sales is by carrying out, as well as he can, the regular methods of the publisher.
The truth, however, is that the author cannot expect to do for himself, even in a modest way, much which the experienced publisher does for him. The avenues to the book trade, the book reviewer, and therefore to the general public, are not really open to any of us who are not publishers—as we can soon learn by making the attempt to travel, unpiloted, in these directions.
The only genealogist who may hope for any measure of financial success by his own efforts, is the author of a "clan" genealogy who has systematically gathered the names and addresses of the living representatives of the "tribe" his book exploits. These may be circularized, and appealed to on the ground of family pride and of fair play. The least they can do for a historian who has toiled for their glory is to take a copy of his book.
The plan commonly adopted is to make such works "subscription books" from the beginning. The author fixes a price for his forthcoming volume and as he sends letters for information to living representatives of the tribe, he invites a subscription to his book. But whether these subscriptions have or have not covered the cost of production by the time the book is ready for the printer, why should the author not seek to realize all the additional profits which can be secured through the regular channels, aided by a publisher?
The services of The Grafton Press can be secured as the publishers of any good genealogy, as well as in all the other capacities hitherto mentioned. Probably such a connection would approach as near to the ideal set forth in this chapter as any which it would be possible to make. Added to all the rest, it certainly would secure the hearty co-operation of an experienced firm which pushes the works of genealogists with special zeal and enthusiasm.
The publishing of a "clan" genealogy will be cheerfully assumed at any stage in the production. If desired, the "subscription" feature will be taken in hand, and that as soon as the author begins his work. Or if he has handled this feature during the progress of authorship, every effort will be made to realize the further profits from a proper introduction of the book to the public.
The service rendered may be in the capacity of publishing agents merely, or that of a kind of partnership arrangement in connection with the author's book; and the work in question may be a chart, a pamphlet, a volume, or a work of still larger proportions. The desire is to co-operate so as to give the worker all the fruits of his toil, and secure to him all the profits which the best business methods can realize.[7]