Daniel Barks - Reprint & Digital Production Manager for Beacon Press

Daniel Barks is the Reprint & Digital Production Manager for Beacon Press, a role he has held since April of 2016. This is not the first hat he has worn, however, at Beacon Press. In fact, it is his third job for the independent book publisher based in Boston., Mass.

His first job at Beacon was as a Sales Assistant, a position he held for a little more than two years, beginning in August of 2013. In that function, according to his public LinkedIn profile, he "Confirmed arrangements for book sales at all author appearances. Identified and reached out to special markets for front list titles. Handled all in-house orders. Processed sales and shipments through Penguin Random House and a third-party distributor" (para. 3). 

From July of 2015 until March of 2016, he changed hats to become the Production Assistant at Beacon. In that capacity, his responsibilities included, "All the production duties not otherwise handled by production coordinators: preparing transmitted manuscripts for copyediting, applying for Library of Congress records and US copyright for new titles, maintaining record of ISBNs, proofreading, coordinating purchase orders with our distributor, Penguin Random House" (LinkedIn Profile, para. 2). 

However, the focus of this profile is on his current position, which he has held for a year and eight months. Barks said the job has many of the same responsibilities as he had as a production assistant, but he has added to his routine duties, "creating EPUBs for new titles and selected backlist, coordinating production of paperback conversions, preparing files for print-on-demand setup, coordinating all reprints" (LinkedIn Profile, para. 1). 

The morning I interviewed Barks for this article was a morning from hell, because it happened to be the same morning that my son's school had "Bring Your Dad to School Day." The interview was scheduled for 9:30, and my son Isaiah and I got into his school at 8:30, had a quick "breakfast" comprised of a doughnut and juice, and then we boogied up to his classroom at the top floor of Central Ridge Elementary School in Citrus Springs, Florida, where the teacher began to lead the class in an activity for both students and dads.

The whole time I was working with Isaiah on this activity, I was watching the clock. The school was 10 minutes away from my house, but it would take five minutes just to get from the top floor of the school out to my car. I did not want to short-change Isaiah, who was tickled pink that I was there, (only a handful of dads in his class were there), but I had to be ready to interview Daniel by 9:30.

By 9:20, I broke Isaiah's heart, and I said my goodbye to him and the teacher. Five minutes later I was in my car, but I knew there was no chance I could make it home. Fortunately, I had brought both my cell phone and my handy dandy laptop with me, and by using the wifi hotspot on the phone, I could log into my school email account, find the phone number to call Daniel, and no one would need to know what a chaotic morning I was having.

The question then became, where should I go to do this interview? Staying at the school was not a great option, because other parents would undoubtedly be leaving to go to work, and I did not want the noise to be a distraction, sitting in my 2005 Chrysler Sebring convertible. That canvas roof would not block out much in the way of sound from outdoors.

As I drove down Citrus Springs Blvd, the street where my son’s elementary school was located, inspiration struck. Less than a mile down the road from the school was the Citrus Springs Trailhead of the Withlacoochee Trail, a hiking and biking trail that runs along 50 miles of land where railroad tracks once were. By this time of the morning, most of the hikers and bikers were already on the trail, so I zipped down into the parking lot, found a nice shady spot under a pine tree, logged into the classroom, and at 9:29 a.m. I dialed the number for Daniel Barks at Beacon Press.

I do not remember if I was still huffing and puffing from booking it down from Isaiah’s classroom to my car minutes before, but if I did, Barks did not let on that he noticed any shortness of breath. After initial salutations, I launched right into my questions, because I had a suspicion that Barks probably had a full plate of work to do, and as I did not have a clear picture of how much time he had to give me, time was of the essence.

The first question I asked was what kind of traits are important to have in a job like his, Barks said it pays to be “persnickety.”

When he said that word “persnickety,” the reporter in me jumped for joy.

I knew that Daniel Barks would be a good interview, because how could he not be a good interview when using such a great descriptive word in the very first quote of the interview. 

I started to feel much better about this morning.

“It kills us when a reader reports a typographical error,” Barks added.

Now, I’m sure we have all seen advertisements for positions that they say attention to detail is necessary, but in a job like his, being detail-oriented actually means something.

“We want someone who is going to pay attention, but in this job, it is helpful to notice when a comma is italicized, and it should not be,” Barks said, by way of illustration.

Although his title and job description contain elements of both digital publishing and reprints, Barks said making sure they have sufficient copies of reprints is the most important part of his job. Digital publishing, while a significant part of the operation, is still not on the level of their bound book sales, and one suspects that is not likely to change.

This might have something to do with the kind of publisher Beacon Press is. According to the Beacon.org website, "Beacon Press is an independent publisher of serious nonfiction. Our books often change the way readers think about fundamental issues; they promote such values as freedom of speech and thought; diversity, religious pluralism, and anti-racism; and respect for diversity in all areas of life" (Beacon.org, n.d., para. 1).

Ebook sales skyrocketed years ago, but in recent years, the sales have leveled off in most genres, particularly in nonfiction. Some fictional genres, such as science fiction and fantasy, have continued to perform well in the digital formats, but for a nonfiction, socially conscious publisher like Beacon, the likelihood is that bound books will always be their forte.

Another example of the kinds of details to which he must pay attention in his job is knowing how many books they need to reprint. Some books may only need 400 to 600 copies, but others could need 1,000 or more. Finding the right balance, based on sales forecasts, is important, because when a book takes off unexpectedly, Beacon would not want to lose the momentum and run out of product because there are too few books on bookstore shelves. On the other hand, he would not want to go overboard, over-estimate the potential sales volume and have too many copies of the book, which cuts into profits if the books either do not sell at all, or sell too slowly.

Barks told me of a time when they ordered 15,000 copies of a book in an initial run, but the demand proved to be much higher than that, and they could not get additional copies printed fast enough. They responded by doing a digital run to satisfy demand until they could get new bound copies printed and distributed.

“It’s a good problem to have when we have to chase a book,” Barks said, if a book sells better than they expected.

Another one of Barks’ jobs is converting older books to ebook format, as a way of extending the life of books that in years gone by may have gone out of print. One of the mysteries I hoped Barks may have been able to solve for me, personally, is how to format a book to look professional on multiple electronic formats. 

For example, I may have a Kindle book that looks great when reading it on a Kindle, but the formatting does not look so good when viewing it using an app on a smart phone. Unfortunately, Barks could not demystify that process for me, because he said the actual formatting is done by an outside vendor, but when I explained the dilemma, he said he could understand why that would frustrate me, and he is glad he does not have to worry about such matters himself.

Once the outside vendor produces an epub file, he transmits it to Penguin Random House, and they handle distribution. I was unaware that book publishers have such cooperative ventures, and that surprised me a bit, because I had a sense that the competition in the industry would preclude such relationships. However, Beacon is a small press, so it makes much more sense to subcontract out certain functions than trying to do everything in-house.

So, what does a day in the life of a Reprint & Digital Production Manager at Beacon Press look like?

“I am still at a point where I am grateful that it is still 9-5,” he said. He laughed when he said it, but I’m not sure if he was joking.

The first order of most days is to check emails, and to respond to reports from Beacon’s business team.

He focuses particularly on low inventory for new titles from the last year to year and a half.

“Most mornings I am fielding one or two hot titles.”

Barks said that on a monthly basis, they look at their backlist titles.

One of the variables he has to consider, when deciding how many reprint copies to order is that “We know that book stores are going to return some stock.”

Beacon Press even uses Print-On-Demand publishing in certain select cases, and when they do, it is his job to make it happen. He explained that there are some great old books out there that may not sell many copies a year, so it would not make sense to order stock to have on hand to meet the demand, so instead they set up the book for Print-On-Demand services.

The way POD works is that the publisher, often a self-pubbing author, uploads files to a vendor such as CreateSpace or Lulu, among others. Once the book is properly formatted, it is available for sale. CreateSpace is a division of Amazon, so as soon as a book is ready through CreateSpace, they create a page for the title at Amazon.com. If someone wants to order a copy, they can order it through the Amazon.com page, and then CreateSpace will generate a copy to satisfy that order, and ship it directly to the customer. The cost per copy is higher than using a traditional press run of 500, 1,000 or more copies, but as a means to keep a good book available for future readers, POD is an option.

Barks and I have one significant trait in common, which is that neither one of us handle idle time well. I find that I do my best work when I do not have time to relax, or otherwise goof off, because there is a sense of urgency that flies out the window when there is not enough to do.

“My paradox. What I find most challenging is waiting around, because we publish on a cycle, we have a lot of books that come out in the beginning of the year.” As such, managing the time when it’s not busy, and finding ways to stay productive are challenges for him.

During such times, Barks turns his sights away from the minutiae of the job during the busy season and takes a look at the big picture, “Maintaining a longer view of what I can put time to.”

As he approaches the two-year mark in his job as Reprint and Digital Production Manager, one wonders how much longer he will be wearing that hat for Beacon. It is hard to imagine him staying in this role for long, because after interviewing him for an hour, and becoming aware of the considerable skills he brings to the organization, I suspect Beacon will present him greater challenges soon.

Particularly if they have jobs requiring a person to be persnickety.

References

         Barks. D. (N.D.) User Profile, LinkedIn. Viewed Nov. 30, 2017.

         Barks, D. (2015) User Feed, Twitter. Viewed Nov. 30, 2017.

         Beacon.org. (N.D.) Beacon Press History & Mission. Retrieved from http://www.beacon.org/Assets/ClientPages/History.aspx