Category Archives: Publishers

It’s Not Indie VS. Traditional, It’s Indie AND Traditional

Posted on March 26, 2011 | Comments Off

As fiction writers, we live in an exciting era right now due to the new distribution opportunities available through Kindle, PubIt, and Smashwords. But to hear some writers talk, it’s Indie vs. Traditional, and one has to choose sides.

Well, a lot of neo-pros and old (20+ years) pros I’ve been talking to are excited about being able to do both indie publishing and traditional publishing at the same time.  Having more revenue streams as a writer makes it easier to pay the bills each month. And as long as one is careful about reading and negotiating away any excessively broad non-compete clauses in a traditional publishing book contract, doing so should not be a big deal.

Short stories still need to go to traditional markets first if you want to sell them to a place like The New Yorker.  But if you write a novelette or novella that can’t find a traditional home, it is now possible to indie publish it instead of just letting it sit around unpublished. And once the exclusive time frame on a traditionally published story expires (and if you didn’t sign an all rights contract), you can republish it as an indie reprint to generate more income.

But one thing I want to emphasize is the importance of thinking twice before giving away a royalty cut to an e-packager for an indie story.  Dean Wesley Smith and J. A. Konrath and Barry Eisler debate the pros and cons at length in a post put up today.

We’re all in for a wild run over the next few years in publishing. Since I used to work in the software industry–which makes publishing look glacial by comparison–I confess I’ve welcomed the publishing technology breakthroughs that are bringing on a faster business pace.

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Posted in Business of writing, Contracts, Markets, Publishers

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Barry Eisler Turned Down $500,000 Deal to Indie Publish

Posted on March 21, 2011 | Comments Off

In case you haven’t already heard the gossip, thriller writer Barry Eisler has turned down a $500,000 advance from a traditional publisher so that he can indie publish his next 2 books instead.  You can read his interview with J. A. Konrath about the reasons here.

In the end, it looks like it came down to having much more money and control in self-publishing that tipped the decision for him to go indie. He’ll be able to make a heck of a lot more revenue over ten years by indie publishing than in the deal he was offered. And he’ll be able to get the first book published now instead of having to wait until Spring 2012.

Dean Wesley Smith has a thoughtful analysis on the Eisler & Konrath interview on his website. Reading Eisler’s blog post, followed by Dean’s, will give one a great crash course on money matters in publishing.

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Posted in Business of writing, Contracts, Markets, Publishers

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Helpful Links on Media Insurance

Posted on March 15, 2011 | Comments Off

I’ve been having to do research on what media insurance is available for writers and small publishers, and realized I ought to share what links and resources I’ve found so far since other writers may want to know about them.  What follows is a long list of links.

The best discussion of the legal issues involved with online publishing (including insurance needs) is still the Citizen Media’s Law Project guide at Harvard University. This guide provides a terrific discussion on what to look for in a GOOD insurance policy for media & libel & etc.

I have discovered that NYC lawyer Mark Fowler has been blogging about writers and law for a few months.  He had a terrific thoughtful post on Libel Insurance.

The Author’s Guild offers a media liability policy to its members.

The Media Blogger’s Association also offers media liability policy to members.

The National Writer’s Union does not currently have a media insurance policy for members.  They do offer contracts and grievance assistance to members through their committees.  They recently helped a member who had to deal with a threatened libel suit in Pakistan. A writer does not have to be published to join the NWU, just has to provide evidence that he or she is actively pursuing a career as a writer.  Dues are on a sliding scale, depending on writing income, and start at $120/year, and go up to $340/year if making over $45,000/year in writing income.

Through Mark Fowler’s website Rights of Writers, I found out about the media insurance policy benefit for members of the Independent Book Publisher’s Association:
http://www.ibpa-online.org/benefits/liability.aspx
Yearly membership dues start at about $129/year to join the IBPA.   A writer who is self-publishing through his/her own tiny press can join the IBPA.

There is an online insurance broker that will work with individuals to get a policy from AXIS PRO.   I don’t know what the pricing difference is (i.e. if money is saved by going through IBPA instead), and I don’t know the broker and have not done a policy with them.

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Posted in Business of writing, Publishers

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The Borders Bankruptcy Number Crunching

Posted on February 21, 2011 | Comments Off

C. E. Petit is crunching the numbers over at his website right now about the Borders bankruptcy and how it may impact publishers as creditors in the Chapter 11 proceedings.  Go read his posts from yesterday (Feb. 20) and today, great stuff.

This is a wise time to learn about the financial health of any publisher you have contracts for novels with that are still in print, or if you are planning to sign a contract in the near future with a publisher.

If the publisher is part of a publicly traded conglomerate on the stock exchange (and you know the name or ticker symbol) you can easily look at the SEC filings at 
http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/webusers.htm
The quarterly (10-Q) and annual filing with the SEC is where the good stuff can be found, like how much cash they have on hand (Cash and Cash Reserves), cash flow, and their debts. You’ll want to take your time and read back as far as the database will allow you to get a good feel for what is going on in a particular company.

As for private publishing companies, if your library has access to Hoover’s (http://www.hoovers.com/), you might be able to get some info on their finances from there.

Also, another resource to turn to for help in doing financial research on a publishing company is your nearest Reference Librarian. Librarians are a wonderful resource for this sort of research.

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Posted in Business of writing, Markets, Publishers

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Robin Sullivan’s “Write to Publish” Website

Posted on February 18, 2011 | Comments Off

For those thinking about electronic and POD self-publishing, make sure to check out Robin Sullivan’s “Write to Publish” website. She’s been sharing her pricing experiments as well as her learned lessons about the business side of publishing. Her article comparing Lightning Source to Createspace is a huge help in getting a handle on the actual print-on-demand costs.

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Please Go Read “Bad Decisions and the Midlist Writer”

Posted on January 27, 2011 | Comments Off

With the major changes happening in publishing right now, anyone not reading The Business Rusch is missing out on great weekly blog posts on this business.  Kristine Kathyrn Rusch is a successful award-winning fiction writer, as well as a former editor and publisher.

This week’s topic is “Bad Decisions and the Midlist Writer,” and is a must read for anyone who wants to make a living as a fiction writer.  With the technology and distribution changes that are happening right now, wonderful opportunities are opening up for fiction writers like in the era of the pulps.

However, when there’s more money to be made means that the sharks and scammers are coming out in force.

Here’s a short excerpt from her post:

Right now, established writers are standing on the starting line of a brand new gold rush.  Unfortunately, writers as a class are stupid about business.  Those who understand business have already cut in front of the writers and have set up shop.

So what do I mean exactly?  Why am I worried about this?

Here’s the hard truth: for the first time in my lifetime, a midlist writer can make bestseller money without having a bestseller and without writing 6 or 8 or 10 books per year.  The rise of e-books, the availability of print-on-demand publishing, and the growing use of internet bookstores like Amazon make it possible to sell backlist titles that could earn a writer tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of dollars per year.

Seriously, read the entire post here. Following her advice could save a writer, as well as his or her family after the writer’s death, significant sums of money over the coming decades.

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Posted in Agents, Business of writing, Contracts, Markets, Publishers

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Scary Thought of the Night

Posted on November 5, 2010 | Comments Off

Tonight’s scary realization….

After a taking a workshop that taught the bare basics on making book covers and thereafter playing around, I can now make simple book covers for real electronic and POD editions if I so chose to.

My significant other pointed out that this means I ought to give into my evil side and start a vanity press.

No, I’m not going to start a vanity press.

But it feels just like I’ve woken up with a mutant power.  I’m used to only knowing about the writing side of things.

Here’s the first pretend book cover I ever did.  Still much much more to learn to get better at this.   And I have no intention of doing this for money from other writers or publishers.  Just learning more about another side of the publishing business.  Also, I find the way I look at the work of cover artists has changed–I admire those artists more than ever!

This is a practice book cover made by L. M. May

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Posted in Business of writing, Publishers

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No Quirky Writing Need Rot in a Drawer Anymore

Posted on October 24, 2010 | Comments Off

Sooner or later it happens to every writer.  The story that’s too weird in characters or plot to get past the sales force of a publisher, or has the wrong word count–too long for a short story sale (10,000 words or more), too short for a novel sale (less than 55,000 words).

It used to be when that happened all one could do was save those stories up for a collection of short stories or let them rot in a drawer.

And then after awhile, one reaches a point where one knows a story is going to be quirky after the first few pages, and an overwhelming urge would hit to just give up on it since there was virtually no market for it.

That’s why I’m so excited about the new distribution systems opening up through Smashwords, Amazon Kindle, and Barnes & Noble’s PubIt.   Writers’ quirky stories are going to be able to see the light of day.   I’m looking forward to seeing what some of my favorite writers do in this new world.

And these days I no longer get the urge to stifle a story after the first few pages, because I know if it’s of publishable quality I can find a home for it, no matter what, down the road.  No story I write need sit rotting in a drawer–unless (like the first novel I wrote) it ought to.   Bad writing is still bad writing in this new world.

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Posted in Business of writing, Markets, Psychology of writing, Publishers

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More Interesting Links on the Writing Business

Posted on July 25, 2010 | Comments Off

Here’s more interesting links I’ve found or been told about…

1) Fascinating article by the LA Times on the legal slugfest going on about THE SHACK.  Get a load of this mess:

It wasn’t until Hachette came around that Windblown Media and Young even put their publishing agreement in writing….

The dueling lawsuits have left Hachette in an awkward position. If they pay Young additional royalties, Windblown might file suit to reverse that decision. But if they continue to pay Windblown according to the terms of the original contract, Young might also press on with additional litigation.

In the first quarter of 2010 alone, “The Shack” earned nearly $1 million in royalties, with more money accruing daily. So on May 11, Hachette filed its own lawsuit in federal court, stating in its filing that “as a result of disputes that have arisen … [Hachette has] a real and reasonable fear that distributing the funds would expose Hachette to multiple claims and liabilities.”

It’s well worth it to take the time to read the entire article.

Moral of the story–learn the business basics of publishing, and make sure you have a written contract with your business partners, or this could be YOU.

2) Maureen Johnson has written a Manifesto on her blog that is worth reading since it raises the question of how far to go in marketing oneself as a writer.  Here’s a small snippet (go read the whole thing):

I hear this almost everywhere I go where there are people talking about social media, and I feel that it is time that I rise up against it. In fact, I did, right there and then. I grabbed the microphone from her grasp and said, “I am not a brand.”

3) Toni McGee Causey’s “How Do You Know When to Quit?” deals with the question  most writers ask themselves at least once during their journey.

4) And there’s a handy tip on contract negotiations with publishers in this article by Marjorie Kehe, “How Greg Morteson Outsmarted His Publishers.”

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Posted in Business of writing, Contracts, Editors, Psychology of writing, Publishers

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Interesting links on the writing business

Posted on July 10, 2010 | Comments Off

Check out Douglas Smith’s Foreign Markets for selling speculative short stories.  This is a unique list of non-English markets.  Make sure to read his guidelines if you decide to submit to these markets.

There’s a fascinating article about how literary agent Andrew Wylie runs his business, written by Craig Lambert at Harvard Magazine.

And Cory Doctorow has an update on his self-publishing experiment (and he continues to share the income and expense numbers), at Publisher’s Weekly as “New York, Meet Silicon Valley.”

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