In reading a response to a discussion I started on a writer’s group on LinkedIn, I was struck with the thought that it isn’t just self-publishers who need to pay attention to the quality of their products. Some very big names are guilty of foisting-off crap.

The kind of food you'll find at Cracker Barrel.

Recently I visited a Cracker Barrel Restaurant with my wife. For those who may not be familiar with Cracker Barrel, it serves southern style comfort food at reasonable prices. We like to go there when we just want foody-food. Nothing fancy.  No cooking with exotic spices like saffron or curry. On the menu will be dishes like meatloaf, country fried steak, and catfish. You can choose your sides from a menu that includes fried okra, turnip greens, and corn. For desert there are various cobblers, pie, and ice-cream. Yum.

Before you get to the restaurant part of the place you have to wend your way through kitschy collections of merchandise that change with the season. My wife loves to peruse their tables of nick-knacks, music boxes, and stuffed animals. Now, as I am writing this it is three days from Christmas, so they were all decked out in a torrent of red and green. Santas and gift items were stacked nearly ceiling high. My eye caught an illustrated book of The Night Before Christmas. The illustrations were beautiful. I wish I could say the same for the book. The workmanship, especially on the cover was a disaster. Both covers, front and back, bowed outward from the spine. It was not only ugly, but made it impossible for the book to lay flat on a table. Here was a book that I wanted to buy, wanted to take home and treasure, wanted to read it to future grandchildren, but I couldn’t get past the cover. This was not an heirloom piece; it was a piece of carnival crap. I looked at the spine and was surprised to see that Simon & Schuster allowed this mess to go out under their banner.

I believe that books are a treasure. They last decades and centuries even. It saddens me to think that the noble business of publishing, especially the giant houses like Simon & Schuster, may be more focused on profit than quality.

I have heard authors complain that their traditionally published books were an embarrassment to them. That the cover designs didn’t truly represent the book, and that cheap cost cutting methods were implemented. Authors who have sold their rights to the publisher have no claim on how the book is manufactured. As for The Night Before Christmas I’m guessing it was sent to a sweat shop overseas to be printed and bound for the lowest price possible, a price guaranteeing maximum profit but sacrificing the honor of the book. I didn’t buy it. I’m hoping no one does. If enough customers reject poor quality the publisher will have to ask why. Why didn’t this book sell?

I plead with self-publishing authors to realize that they have total control of their children. Dress them up in their Sunday best and send them out to play. The day may come when the marketplace will select a self-published book over a traditional one because of the value added that comes from your care.

I’m not just talking through my hat here. January is already wrapping up and I don’t think we are completely through Christmas yet. It is a universal gripe that time goes too fast. I might as well add my voice to the chorus.

The thing is that all the pundits agree that successful businesses set goals, make plans to achieve them, and monitor their progress. Maybe that works well for big companies. Every time I call one of my particular customers he is in a meeting. I’m not sure what other work gets done but they can certainly do meetings. I can only assume that those meetings are for goal setting, planning, and progress updates.

In my business, I find that my days can get very complicated, very quickly. The very next phone call could change everything I was intending to do that day. Or maybe there is a problem on press that requires additional time to fix. I can’t leave the customer stranded there by themselves while I go off and do other work. Thank goodness for cell phones with email capabilities.

I’m fortunate to have a group of good customers who keep me busy doing my job. If any of my customers are reading this, thank you. Thank you for all that you do. Sometimes I get too busy to even say thanks. Darn me.

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I’m not just talking through my hat here, and I’m not trying to make this blog a political statement. It’s just that the overseas printing question has come up again.

I remember seeing a printed sample from China some years ago shown to me by a local paper merchant. They were comparing the China piece to a similar one printed domestically. There was no doubt, the Chinese printing was astonishingly brighter especially in the reds. When they asked me if I knew why there was such a difference I had to confess that I didn’t know. That’s when I was informed that the pigments used, especially the reds, are banned in the US but not in China.

Do they still use those inks? I don’t know for sure and I’ve been searching the big I to see if there is any recent information on the subject. I do know that toy importing with through a big furor a couple of Christmases ago because of lead based paints. Paints and inks are not the same, but still it makes you wonder doesn’t it? If anyone has more definitive information on this subject I would like to hear about it.