Scottsdale, Ariz.

From keeping staff motivated to staying out of debt to generating new revenue, the different aspects of publishing management are often difficult in even the best of economic environments. How do publishers survive the ever-changing world of book publishing? BookTech Magazine interviewed several industry leaders to get their tips. Keith Weiskamp is publisher and president of Paraglyph Press Inc. (www.ParaglyphPress.com). He and a partner formed the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based publishing company in mid 2002 from an offshoot of what he describes as a much larger company that ran into financial hardship. Its flagship books are the "Degunking" series started in 2004 with the best-selling title

Historically, an unpublished fiction author packages his manuscript in a cardboard box, mails it to one or more book publishers, and waits (and waits and waits) anxiously for a reply. The response is typically months away. Publishers can take nine to 12 months before they finish the process of reviewing a manuscript, giving copies to the poor saps who read the slush pile submissions, and usually sending a polite rejection letter. That's all done with paper, even now. But a few forward-thinking publishers are starting to modernize that process, visualizing the electronic slush pile as the tip of the electronic workflow. Science fiction publisher Baen Books, Bronx,