The following posting contains the most recent "Publishers' Devices"
column written by Fleeta Cunningham for the March/April issue of the
_HALL Newsletter_. The author and the HALL Board have agreed to
distribute these columns via LAW-LIB in order to reach a wider
audience. Any newsletter editors wishing to reprint this article may
do so as long as credit is given to the source: 11 _HALL Newsletter 4
(March/April 1994). For more information or comments concerning this
distribution, please contact Barbara Szalkowski, Editor, _HALL
Newsletter_ (email: 72234.1472@compuserve.com ; phone: (713) 646-1724 ;
fax: (713) 659-2217).
Publishers' Devices
by Fleeta Cunningham
I. Legal Publisher Advertises Great Book
II. Law Librarian Learns Great Book Apparently Not So Great
III. Dynamics of Legal Publishing Explained
IV. Professional Reputations At Stake
I. Legal Publisher Advertises Great Book
He was a dark and stormy knight.
Well, no, actually, he was young and blond and an attorney, but
he was definitely stormy. And it wasn't the first time this had
happened. But this time it was my office he chose to storm.
It started like this: I got a brochure in the mail that fit this
attorney's practice like an outfielder's glove fits a long fly
ball. I passed it on and he asked me to order the book. It's not
unusual for me to get a publisher's brochure in the mail that
looks like a sure-fire purchase for a particular attorney's
practice. Most times, if I send it down, the attorney is going to
say, "Get me the book; this looks really worthwhile."
II. Law Librarian Learns Great Book Apparently Not So Great
I order a title with the full expectation that in three or six
weeks or there about, we'll have a new publication on the shelf.
Every so often, though, that isn't the case. The book never
comes. In fact, it's never a book. It's a little like the old
carnival barker out hawking an improbable side show attraction.
The publisher sends out an appealing ad that promises a new title
on a hot topic. Customers place the order. Sometimes, they even,
Saint Dewey forbid, send money. The publisher, however, has no
book to sell. The ad was simply a trial balloon sent up to see
how many people would order the book. If sufficient orders came
in, then the book might be published"in a year or so"and updates,
pocket parts, and supplements could be scheduled to start
immediately producing additional revenue.
In the instance of my stormy knight, enough viable orders didn't
come in and the book was never published. That was the source of
his turbulent mood. It had been three months and the book had not
come. He questioned whether I had really ordered it or forgotten
his special needs. I called the vendor and found that no book
would be forthcoming. The attorney didn't understand how those
rules worked. If he ordered a YuppieToy from Straight Arrow
Catalog, he'd get it. Why didn't book sellers work the same way?
III. Dynamics of Legal Publishing Explained
I tried to explain about the marketing dynamics of the legal
publishing industry and how it wasn't like Straight Arrow Co.
Just because the publisher offered a product for sale, that
didn't mean that there were x number of copies sitting on a shelf
somewhere waiting to be dropped into a plain brown wrapper and
mailed. It was a little more like "if we had this wonderful,
exciting book here at this price, how many of you would part with
enough silver eagles to take it home".
I think I finally pacified the perturbed practitioner. He went
grumbling back to his office without too much coercion on my
part. But it left a sticky spot in my mind. Why hadn't the
publisher just issued a general letter of regret to the people
who had ordered that title? That didn't seem too complex or
expensive; not nearly as expensive as those lush, prosy ads that
drew in the crowd in the first place. And I'm sure there's a list
of those prospects somewhere. How else would the vendor know
where to send the next preview of coming attractions?
IV. Professional Reputations At Stake
I know publishers are reluctant to invest in a publication that
is speculative. Who can predict the way the legal industry is
going to turn from year to year? What is critical to today's case
load may well be obsolete in a few months. Publishers bet on the
future just as much as any other industrial supplier. But we bet
on the publisher, every time we send in an order. We bet our
library budget, our space, our staff time, and to some degree,
our professional reputations that what we say we can produce, we
can produce. Not a myth, not a promise, not a `maybe next time
we'll get a better response', but a usable resource that will
enable our attorneys, our professors, our students to compete in
a market that becomes more demanding with every rising of the
sun.
So my dark and stormy knight has a legitimate need to know all
the sources that will give him an edge. He can expect that when
he's offered a book that may get him to an answer quicker, or
suggests an authority more current, that's what he'll get. And I
need to know when a publication is really a publication and when
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