FearZone Interview with Don D'Auria (Part 1 of 2)

In case you've been living under a rock the last decade or so - or you've never had aspirations of getting a horror novel published - Don D'Auria is the Executive Editor at Leisure Books, the primary imprint of Dorchester Publishing, where he oversees the Horror, Thriller and Western lines. Among the writers whose careers he helped launch are Brian Keene, Sarah Pinborough, Gary Braunbeck, and Tim Lebbon. A literary Teddy Roosevelt, Don is soft-spoken but carries a big publishing stick, and has played a major role in bringing back horror and dark fiction from the wastelands that followed the collapse of the 1990s. In the second half of 2008 alone, Leisure will have titles from Jack Ketchum, Gary Braunbeck, Richard Laymon, Sarah Pinborough, Brian Keene, Edward Lee, Deborah LeBlanc, and several others.

I've had the opportunity to meet Don at several conferences and industry events, but this was the first chance I've had to get his take on publishing, the horror genre, and the business of writing.

Don, first of all, let me say thanks for taking time out from what's got to be a busy schedule to talk with FearZone. I know you don't get the chance to do many interviews.

My pleasure. FearZone is a terrific site and I'm thrilled to be on it.

How many years have you been with Leisure? How many titles was Leisure publishing back when you first started?

I'm coming up on thirteen years now. I started back in 1995, but Leisure was only doing a couple horror titles per year in those days. They were hardly a focus of the company.

What kind of changes have you made to the Horror line over the years?

Back when I took over the horror books (you couldn't even really call it a line in those days) I wanted to change the type of horror we were doing and the way we treated it. A lot of the horror we did was aimed at teen-agers, and the covers were pretty hokey. Don't get me wrong, there were some good authors in the mix, folks like JN Williamson and Robert Dunbar, but the general attitude of the line needed to change. So we started doing horror that was aimed more at adults and we treated the books and the readers with a bit more respect. I placed more emphasis on buying books that I thought would appeal to horror fans like myself. People seemed to notice pretty quickly and our sales went up. So we slowly and gradually increased the number of horror titles we did each year, first to eight, then twelve, then eighteen, and finally to twenty-four. As far as I know, right now we're the only mass-market publisher in the country with a dedicated horror line, doing a set number of titles every month.

How far in advance are you purchasing books?

It varies, but generally somewhere between one and two years ahead of the pub date. Multiple book contracts, of course, can cover a couple years.

Take us through the process a typical 'accepted' manuscript goes through, from when it first falls into the slush pile to when it finally hits the shelves.

Well, it can be a long process with a lot of variables, but let's see if I can give a general run-down. Authors usually send a query letter first, telling me briefly about their manuscript and asking if I'd like to read it. If the manuscript seems like it would be a good fit for our line, I'll generally ask for a synopsis and the first three chapters. That will give me a better idea of the plot and writing style. If I like those, I'll ask for the complete manuscript. If I like the complete manuscript, that's when things get really interesting.

Once I've decided I like a manuscript, I have to decide if I can find an opening in my schedule for it. No matter how many great manuscripts I see, I can only publish twenty-four books in any year. Those twenty-four slots were filled last year, and they're filled this year, so if I want to add something to the list, I need to make room. So it often becomes a question of, do I like the manuscript enough to make room for it? If I do, then the next stage begins.

If I like a manuscript and want to buy it, I'll call or email the author or the author's agent and make an offer. If they accept the offer, I have to decide if I think the manuscript needs any revisions. If it does, I'll discuss them with the author and ask the author to make the revisions. When the author is finished with the manuscript, I go through it and edit it for style, pacing, characterization, things like that. If I find any substantial issues with the manuscript at this stage, I'll ask the author to address them. Smaller changes, though, I'd just make myself. Then, when I've finished my edit, the manuscript goes to a copy editor, who goes through the manuscript for things like spelling, punctuation, and consistency. Then the manuscript goes off to the typesetter to be set into print. When he's done, we get sets of galleys, the printed pages set in type. We send one copy of these to the author, so he or she can go over them and make sure there are no typos, printers errors or other mistakes. And we look over another set of galleys at the same time, so there are two sets of eyes checking for errors.

Meanwhile, while all this is going on, we're also working on the cover art and producing covers so our sales reps can go out and sell the books to our accounts. And our sales and publicity folks will be working behind the scenes to promote the book and get it into readers' hands. So a lot of effort has gone into the book before it appears in any stores. It's still a great feeling to see the books on store shelves. It's the culmination of a long journey, for us and for the author too.


It's a wonder you can find time to read any submissions! I imagine you get a lot of manuscripts coming in each month. How many of them 'almost' make it? How long do you hold onto those, trying to find a spot for them?

I couldn't come up with an actual number or percentage, but there are definitely a number of manuscripts that I like but don't currently have room for in the schedule. Sometimes I'll hold onto them in hopes that something will open up. And sometimes something does open up. Other times I have to just resign myself to the fact that it isn't fair to keep holding the manuscript any longer, and I'll send it back. I wish I could publish every excellent manuscript I read, but I can't.

What are the 3 most important things a manuscript needs in order to catch your eye and make it into the 'under consideration' category?

I'd say an interesting voice, a clever, original plot and excellent pacing. And believable characters, if I can squeeze a fourth in there.

We all know the genre crashed and burned following the heyday of the 80s. How has the market changed during your time at Leisure? How much of an effect do you think Leisure's - and your - dedication to the market has had on the horror publishing environment?

Well, when I started at Leisure no one was touching horror. The general impression was that horror was dead. Publishers had cut way back or gotten out of horror completely after the boom went bust. Agents wouldn't represent horror, or if they did they called it dark suspense or paranormal thrillers. Anything but horror. But I think once we started coming out with horror again, some of the other houses saw that we were successful with it and slowly got back into it again. Nowadays other publishers are publishing horror again, though not as much as we are, and agents aren't afraid to represent horror authors anymore.

Since the 80s, we've seen cycles where other genres - medical thrillers, political espionage, legal thrillers, etc. - have become immensely popular and then died down again. Do you think horror will ever have another boom period? Is there enough of a fan base to support this, or has it become too fragmented?

I'm very optimistic about horror. I can definitely see another boom coming, though I can't say what will trigger it or when it will be. One reason I'm so optimistic is because I see one very important element for a boom is firmly in place, namely top quality young writers who can not only keep the genre alive but can also reinvigorate it. With the huge number of manuscripts I see, I can tell you there are a lot of young writers out there who love horror and are eager to be a part of it. More importantly, they're good. As long as there's new, quality talent coming up, the genre will stay alive, because it's the authors who bring in the readers. And right now I think we're seeing a terrific burst of new talent, a new generation of horror writers who are taking what they've learned from their favorite authors, folks like Ketchum or Laymon or Lee, and added their own talent to it. Think of the new writers who've appeared on the scene in the past couple years. From Leisure alone we've seen Brian Keene, Gary Braunbeck, Nate Kenyon, Gord Rollo, Sarah Pinborough, Bryan Smith, Mary SanGiovanni, and Bill Gagliani, with folks like Wrath James White and John Everson due out in the next couple of months. But other houses have found great new talent too, excellent writers like Sarah Langan and Joe Hill and others. This is a very exciting time for horror readers.

If the big publishing houses promoted horror more, and published more of it, do you think it would affect reader perceptions and increase sales by bringing in those readers who tend to read whatever's on the recommended reading lists of newspapers and magazines, or who tend to buy whatever's being promoted the heaviest at the time?


That's a possibility, but it's such a delicate balance. If all it took to make a book a sure success were heavy marketing, every house would spend a fortune on every book. But for every book that becomes a bestseller because of massive promotion, there are a lot more that don't sell, and because the publisher spent so much money on them, they're seen as failures. But if the publisher had more reasonable expectations, the book might have sold the same number of copies and been seen as a hit. Remember, the big successes stick in your mind, but the books that disappear despite the marketing get forgotten. Unfortunately there's no formula for sales. As far as publishing more books in a certain genre, don't forget that one of the reasons the horror boom went bust was because so many publishers were flooding the market. There were simply more books out there than the marketplace could stand.

It's no secret that sometimes a stinker of a book becomes a best seller. We won't mention names, but there are a few titles in the thriller category that have become fodder for ridicule among the professional writing community for their poor grammar, Swiss-cheese plots, and stereotypical characters. Do you think they succeed because a good, basic storyline will always outweigh those other deficiencies? In other words, does it all come down to story in the end?

It depends on the genre. I think mysteries and thrillers rely very heavily on plot. If you're reading a whodunit mystery and the plot is a terrific puzzle, you'll be willing to forgive a lot of other issues in the book. Ideally, though, you don't want to have to ask readers to forgive things. No matter what the genre is, you want a book to have great characters and style in addition to the plot.

As an editor, what do you want out of a Leisure book? Not that there's a formula, but are there certain characteristics Leisure readers want to see, or not see?

I don't have any specific criteria, because I don't think readers do. It all comes down to what I enjoy, what I like and what I think readers will like. No matter what it is, if there's a manuscript that makes me want to keep reading, that's a good sign.

Do you have a preference for books with sequel potential, or doesn't it matter?

It matters a little more in thrillers than in horror, actually. Thriller fans seem to like continuing characters. With horror it all depends on the book. Some just cry out for a sequel, others completely tell their story in one book and anything more would be redundant.

Let's switch gears for a moment. How is the Leisure Book Club doing?

The book club is great. For anyone who doesn't know, it's basically a subscription service in which readers get both of our new horror titles every month at almost half price, $4.25 per book instead of $7.99. It's nice to see membership actually expanding a little bit on a regular basis. To me that says these are readers who like what we're doing and trust us enough to buy our books every month. That's very encouraging.

In past couple of years Leisure/Dorchester has added Young Adult and Paranormal Romance categories to its roster. What is your involvement, if any, in these areas? How are they doing?

Leisure has been doing paranormal romance for a very long time under its Love Spell imprint. A lot of very big romance authors started with us, the most recent examples being New York Times bestseller Christine Feehan and Marjorie Liu. Paranormal romance has been a mainstay of our line pretty much since we started, and it's still one of our most popular romance sub-genres. We added some young adult books to our list when the market for YA was really taking off. When the market slowed down, we stopped doing them. We're pretty flexible that way. I don't have any involvement with any of these lines, myself. I stick to my own books and don't meddle in what the other editors are doing.

What about the Western line of titles? How did you get involved in that, and how is it performing? Did you implement the same strategies for growing that line as you did for the Horror line?

I took over the western line at the same time I began with the horror line, when I started with Leisure. My strategy has been the same with both lines. Namely, treat the books well, respect the books and the authors, build the list slowly according to what the market will bear, and publish the books I like. The westerns are incredibly consistent for us, always selling well. In fact, right now we're seeing a bit of a resurgence in the western genre.

Tell us about Leisure Small Press Horror. How is it different from the regular Horror line?

We don't publish the small press books, we only sell them on our website for the publishers. We saw that we had a lot of authors in common with a lot of the small presses, even a lot of the same titles, so we figured that the people who are coming to our website might be interested in small press books by some of their favorite authors. Basically the readership for our books and the small press books are probably similar, so this might get the small press books a little more exposure. The publishers of the small presses contact us and give us the info on what titles they want us to post.

How many submissions do you get per year? Out of the ones you accept, about how many are new or relatively new names?

I've never stopped to count, and I'm sure it varies, but based on roughly the number I get every week, I'd guess somewhere around four or five hundred submissions. And we publish twenty-four books every year, so you can see how much I have to love a manuscript to get it onto the schedule. Of those twenty-four I always try to publish at least one new author every year, to keep things fresh and to introduce new talent to the readers. Lately, though, because of that amazing burst of new talent, I've been forced to make room for more newcomers. I just couldn't pass these folks up. In 2008 I have four first-time authors on the list: Nate Kenyon, Gord Rollo, John Everson and Wrath James White. It's been a terrific year. And Jeff Strand is due out in June, 2009.

Take us through a typical day of yours.

Thankfully, my days are rarely typical. There are always different projects and emergencies popping up. But most of my days are spent editing, reading, writing cover copy, negotiating, scheduling, meeting with the sales or art departments, and answering a lot of emails and phone calls.

Outside of the manuscripts you have to read, what do you like to read - in and out of the genre - when you actually have spare time?

Honestly, in my spare time I like to read horror. I was a fan of it long before I started editing it. But I read a lot of other stuff too. My degree was in comparative literature, so I like the classics, but I've been on a non-fiction binge lately, a bunch of biographies and film criticism.

Have you ever taken, or would you ever take, a chance on publishing a novel that had previously been published on a website or MySpace? For example, like the way John Dies at the End managed to garner a publishing contract last year based on its web popularity.

It's not exactly the same thing, but Leisure published Douglas Clegg's Naomi a couple years back, after he serialized it in free emails to his fans. We were one of the first houses to do that kind of thing. As far as I know, we haven't published anything that was previously published on a website, but in the right circumstances I could see it happening. Also, on a related note, Leisure sponsors ChiZine.com, one of the best websites dedicated to original horror fiction and poetry, which holds an annual short fiction contest. I've been a judge for the contest in the past, and some of the entries are amazing.

Over the past couple of years, you've slowly been reissuing all of Richard Laymon's books, which I think is great for people like myself who didn't discover him while he was writing them originally. What made you decide to do this, and how have they been selling?

It drove me crazy that I could never find any of Dick's books in stores. It was so frustrating to think that he was such a fantastic American writer, but in his own country his books were practically unavailable. Like a lot of his fans in the US, I had to import his British editions over the internet, and that was pretty pricey. I knew if we could publish him right, there were a lot of other Laymon fans like me who would love the chance to read more of his books, and I thought there were also new readers out there who'd love him once they discovered him. I met Dick at a World Horror convention and we started talking about the idea of publishing him in the States again. I was a little nervous because I knew he had bad experiences with some other American publishers. But it worked out, and I'm delighted to say that there are now over two dozen Laymon books available in the US, with more to come. And I was right about the readers. Dick's books are selling very well, to old fans and new. I hear from a lot of folks who say they just recently discovered Dick and his books, and that's a great feeling for me.

I'm also very pleased that Leisure is finally able to publish one of Dick's early books, The Woods Are Dark, in a completely restored edition, just the way Dick wrote it. When it was first published, his then editor made him dramatically cut and rewrite the book, and Dick was always unhappy with the way it came out, but he felt he had no say in the matter. Now, thanks to Dick's daughter, Kelly, the original version has been restored and folks can finally read the book Dick wanted them to read.

Three years ago, I had the opportunity to sit down with you for a pitch session. From a writer's point of view, pitch sessions at conferences are a great and rare way for people who don't live in New York City to actually meet face to face with editors and have a chance to 'sell' our book directly to a person, rather than mailing it somewhere and hoping it rises from the slush. But how important are those pitch meetings to you, as an editor? Do you find that you buy a higher percentage of novels that have been personally pitched to you than you do through the regular submission process? What do you look for in a query or pitch?

I love pitch sessions. They're one of the main reasons I go to conventions. They're a great chance for me to meet writers and hear about their work face to face. It's hard to say what percentage of "pitched" books I buy, but I know I've bought quite a few books that I heard about first at a pitch session. Maybe it's because the authors who are dedicated enough to go to a convention and get a pitch session are extremely serious about their work. Maybe they've learned things from the conventions or other writers. Who knows?

Mostly what I'm looking for in a pitch session is a brief idea of what the book is about and whether I think it would fit in our line. I can also answer some questions the author might have or give a suggestion or two. And I can learn something about the author. If the book sounds like it might work for Leisure, I'll usually ask to read the first three chapters and a synopsis. Ultimately it's the writing that will sell the book to me, but I can learn a lot from talking to the author during that pitch session.

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For more information on Leisure Books horror lines and submission guidelines, go to www.dorchesterpub.com and www.dorchesterpub.com/Dorch/SubmissionGuidlines.cfm.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of our interview, when we'll be talking about the book submission process, finding new authors, and the importance of manners in online chatrooms, among other topics.


End Part One