Tag Archives: Contracts

Literary Agent Kristin Nelson on Harper Studio and Vanguard Press

Posted on November 25, 2009 | Comments Off

Literary agent Kristin Nelson has a helpful post on Harper Studio (HS) and Vanguard Press (VP), and how the contract terms for them differ from the typical author-publisher contract.   Go read the entire post for all the details.   But here’s a snippet:

I’m wondering if the editor was erroneously comparing Harlequin Horizons to a legitimate publisher such as Vanguard Press or Harper Studio.

They are not remotely the same.

At Horizons, the writers are forced to pay for their work to be “published.” And forced to pay for “marketing” or anything else from a fee-oriented “menu” of choices. The writer foots the entire cost.

At VP and HS, the publishers pay for publication. The authors are not out any money from their pockets. Vanguard and Studio also commit a certain percentage of monies to the marketing/promotion as part of the plan. In lieu of the advance, there is an equal split of royalties between Publisher and Author.

And another key factor, at VP and HS, the books are available for wide distribution via traditional sales outlets just like a traditional publisher.

There is also an interesting post by one of the commentators, Lisa Dez, about Smashwords.

Happy Thanksgiving!  :)

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

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The difference between traditional press, vanity/subsidy press, and self-publishing

Posted on November 24, 2009 | 4 Comments

Recently I’ve had friends of friends approached by vanity presses trying to lure them into buying their overpriced mediocre services.  The story is always the same–a newbie writer has just written a first book, is not a member of any sort of national writer’s organization, and has absolutely no clue of how the business side of publishing works.

Then there was the whole uproar over the creation of vanity/subsidy press Harlequin Horizons (see the link about it at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books for the most info.  But be warned, the comment section now stands at over 830 comments!) I’ve read quite a number of comments on this controversy, and was troubled by the number of people who didn’t know the difference between traditional vs. vanity/subsidy vs. self-publishing.

I think Writer Beware at SFWA does a terrific job of explaining the differences.  Here’s a link to their publisher definitions page.  Once you read this, you’ll know how to tell which press is which.

The Novelists Inc. blog has a post which lists several websites to help understand the hazards of vanity publishing.

My rule of thumb is “keep control of the money.”

In self-publishing, a writer gets competing bids from the best freelancers she can find for every part of the process (editing, art, making the book, publicity, e-book versions, etc.), keeps copyright and controls ISBN, and gets to keep all money made from sales.   You don’t get to do those things with a vanity/subsidy press–and on top of that you shell out large sums of money while they shell out little, and then you have to deal with them taking a huge cut of the money from sales as well.  A vanity/subsidy press makes its money off of writers, not book sales.

A traditional publisher pays the writer.   They take care of all of the expenses, which is why they get a big chunk of the sales.   Some writers exchange being paid an advance by an e-publisher in order to get a higher royalty rate (usually about 35%).   But those writers don’t pay the e-publisher, ever.

Writing is an art, publishing is a business.  Publishing presses are like any other business–there are great ones, good ones, mediocre ones, and slimy ones.   Shop around.

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Posted in Business of writing, Contracts, Ethics, Markets, Publishers, Scams

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Laura Resnick’s REJECTION, ROMANCE & ROYALTIES

Posted on November 18, 2009 | Comments Off

I think what I value most about Laura Resnick’s essays in REJECTION, ROMANCE, & ROYALTIES: THE WACKY WORLD OF A WORKING WRITER is her brutal honesty.   This is not an essay collection for the faint of heart.

Let me provide an example from her essay “Passion” in the book:

Editors have told me that my advance is more than I’m worth; my work isn’t that good; I should write more like so-and-so; my work is “shit;” I don’t know how to write; my work is an “insult” to them; and I don’t “appreciate” them enough.   Agents have told me that I’m “not worth” their time; my query is an insult to them; I’m “self-destructive” (based on my choosing to fire that agent); they “hate” my work; and I’m lazy (I wrote a mere 1,400 pages that year).

Resnick covers a variety of topics in her essays, such as writer’s block, editors & agents, contracts, readers, horror stories about publishing, horror stories about book tours, nerves, cash flow, rejections, etc..

Because this is a collection of essays, certain thoughts get repeated over and over.   This becomes a mild irritant if one sits down to read the book in one sitting.  I found it better to stop for the day after reading four to five essays.

Resnick makes her living as a fiction writer, and she does not spare the reader details about the ugly side of the business.  However, she also has a wicked sense of humor.  Here’s a sample from “It Can Happen Here–And Often Does:”

Trish Jensen, writing under the pseudonym Trish Graves, sold them a novel called Just This Once in which the hero, among other things, mentors a teenage boy, steering him away from street gangs and toward organized sports.  So you can imagine the author’s shock when, upon reading her galleys, she discovered that the editor had changed the boy into a raccoon.

(I think I speak for everyone here when I say, “What?”)

You’ll have to read the essay to find out if the novel was published with the raccoon character change.

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Posted in Agents, Business of writing, Contracts, Craft of writing, Editors, Learning the craft of writing, Markets, Psychology of writing, Publishers, Reviewers, Writer's block

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Learning About Publishing Contracts

Posted on August 2, 2009 | Comments Off

I’ve met writers who refuse to learn the basics of a publishing contract, or who skip reading the entire thing before signing.   This always drives me crazy, because they’ve just signed a legally binding document that could result in all kinds of heartbreak because they wouldn’t accept that publishing is a business, like any other business.  You can get sued.  You can go bankrupt.  You can discover that you can’t exploit certain rights to your work because you signed away all the rights when you shouldn’t have.

A publishing contract is a business contract.   If you sell your writing to a publisher, congratulations, you’re now a small business of one.   And if you sign a bad contract, you can be dealing with the repercussions for decades.  Or out of business entirely.   Doing the writing is art, selling the writing is a business.

So, where to start learning the business law basics a freelance writer needs to know?   I started with the THE WRITER’S LEGAL GUIDE:  AN AUTHOR’S GUILD DESK REFERENCE, THIRD EDITION by Tad Crawford & Kay Murray.  Get the most recent edition to read since publishing law and technology change quickly.  This book provides a great summary of the business law a freelance writer needs to know, from copyright to publishing contracts to agent-author agreements to IRS tax law.  By the time I finished this book, I felt I had a good understanding of the legal basics.

There’s another book to consider reading next, even though it’s from 1999–KIRSCH’S GUIDE TO THE BOOK CONTRACT by Jonathan Kirsch.  Kirsch is a practicing attorney in publishing law, and he had lots of valuable anecdotes and examples to provide as he went through an entire sample publishing contract.

For both books, I found it best to read 10 pages or so, and then stop for a few hours.  The legal matters can be mentally tiring to wade through quickly.  Also, there were times it was helpful to mull over a newly learned fact or law before moving onwards.

Some writer organizations have sample contracts you can look at or lectures about contracts at their national conference.  Definitely check to see if any organization you are a member of provides such services.  Also, sometimes Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch do a contracts & copyright workshop.

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Posted in Agents, Business of writing, Contracts, Copyright, Editors

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Kristine Kathyrn Rusch’s and Dean Wesley Smith’s blogs: Learning the Business Side of Writing

Posted on May 7, 2009 | Comments Off

I’ve discovered that Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith are blogging about the business side of fiction writing.

Go read what they have to say. Take notes. They’ve worked in and survived this business for over twenty-five years as writers, editors (Kristine earned a Hugo for Best Editor), and former publishers of  Pulphouse Publishing (started and run by them in the early 1990s).   They know all about contracts, agents, working through slumps and blocks, recognizing scams, and running a successful freelance business.

I was fortunate enough to take a class with them back when SouthWest Writers had an annual conference, and liked their bluntness about the business side of fiction writing.   I learned even more from them by going to one of their workshops in Oregon.   There’s a lot they can teach you about the business side of publishing, and it’ll save you much grief if you listen to them.

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Posted in Business of writing, Contracts, Craft of writing, Psychology of writing

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Kristin Nelson, Literary Agent and Blogger

Posted on January 25, 2009 | 3 Comments

I found out about literary agent Kristin Nelson’s blog Pub Rants while reading Miss Snark’s comments.

You have to scroll down on the blog quite a ways, but if you look on the right-hand side of the website you will find a series of posts labeled “Agent Kristin’s Agenting 101 Blogs” and “Agent Kristin’s Blog Pitch Workshop” that are definitely worth reading. And she uses labels (hurrah!), so there’s a section where you can have fun hunting for topics such as “author panic” :-) .

She also posts what she is hearing from editors and publishers as far as the kind of stories they wish they saw more of in the submissions pile, and what they’re being inundated with.

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

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Avoiding Scams in Publishing-Writer Beware and Preditors & Editors

Posted on January 16, 2009 | Comments Off

Just in case someone stumbles onto this blog who isn’t already aware of the rip-off artists out there, I’m going to blog about scams.

If you keep these four key points in mind, it’ll help protect you from most of the scammers you’ll run into who prey on new writers:

1)  Money flows from the editor and publisher to you, not from you to them.  Little to no money should flow from you to an agent.  I strongly advise reading the essay on agent fees at Writer Beware to get a sense of what a legitimate fee is and what it is not.

2)  Do a background check of any agent, editor, writer’s contest program, or publisher you’re thinking of signing a contract with.   What’s their track record like?  How long have they been around?  Thanks to Google, and websites like Preditors & Editors and Writer Beware this is easy to do.

3) If you decide to self-publish, you are now a small publishing company of one.  There are good e-book services, print-on-demand services, and traditional printers out there, but there are also sleazy companies that grossly overcharge newbie writers and/or  have unreasonable contracts.  You need to put on your CEO hat, and research your industry to find out what the reasonable costs of production are.  You need to learn about contracts, copyright, distribution, and marketing.  You need to find and hire a good freelance editor to go over your work.

4) If it sounds too good or too easy to be true, it probably is.

Any writer can benefit from taking the time to read the various articles at Writer Beware about the common practices, pitfalls, and controversies of the publishing industry.

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Posted in Agents, Business of writing, Contests, Contracts, Editors, Publishers, Scams

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Miss Snark’s blog – Inside the mind of an agent

Posted on September 12, 2008 | Comments Off

Writing a piece of fiction is a matter of art and craft.

Selling a piece of fiction is a matter of business.

If you’re going to sell your fiction, you have to gain an understanding of the business side of publishing.  Stuff like contracts, agents, markets, and copyright.  It’s not something that is learned overnight–the best approach is to aim to learn a little each week.

For understanding the world of agents and how an agent thinks, the blog archive of Miss Snark is one of the best resources–it’s still recommended by agents as the place for writers to go for their education. Miss Snark blogged for almost two years about agents and publishing, and it’s a treasure trove of information.

The only downside is, there are no tags or categories, so it’s key word searches or wandering through the archives to find what you’re looking for. But Miss Snark’s witty commentary makes it worthwhile to dig around.   For example:

Nothing makes me want to set my hair on fire faster than hearing “I’ve tried to make the book stylistically interesting”. You tell me that in a query letter, I’m reaching for the lighter fluid.

And when you say the “mystery” doesn’t emerge till page 100, that’s akin to saying the “the plot doesn’t start till page 100″.

Prepare to have lingering illusions about the publishing industry dashed; a good thing since I’ve watched writers sign contracts with bad agents and crooked publishers that they later came to bitterly regret.

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Posted in Agents, Business of writing, Contracts, Markets

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