Angela Booth's Writing Blog

Traditional Publishing: Agency Clauses (Oh, the horror...)

Agency Clauses

An agency clause may be inserted into a publishing contract between an author and a publisher. In essence, a typical agency clause provides that the agent may receive royalty payments on behalf of the author and has authority to act in the name of the author with respect to the contract.

Here’s an example:

All sums of money due to the Author under this Agreement shall be paid to the Author’s agent, Annie Agent, of 321 Applesauce Avenue, New York, NY 10023, U.S.A. (hereinafter called “the Agent”) and receipt by the Agent shall be a good and valid discharge of all such indebtedness and the Agent is hereby empowered by the Author to act on the Author’s behalf in all matters arising in any way out of this Agreement.   For services rendered and to be rendered the Author does hereby irrevocably assign and transfer to the Agent the sum of 15% (fifteen percent) as an agency coupled with an interest out of all monies due and coming due to and for the account of the Author under this Agreement.

via www.thepassivevoice.com

Have you been offered a contract by a traditional publisher? 

If you're a newbie author: beware. Neither your agent nor your publisher is your friend. You're doing business.

Agency clauses like the one above are especially egregious, but you're sure to find several nasty gotchas in any so-called "standard" publishing contract. Read your contract several times. You've got to keep your own best interests in mind. My motto for contracts: if in doubt, strike it out.

Read the above post from Passive Guy and save it. 

To repeat: neither your agent nor your publisher is your friend. You're doing business.

Here's an excellent article on the realities of publishing.

Hat tip to Passive Guy.

Fiction Writing Made Easier, If You Hate To Plot

Fiction writing when you hate to plot

Back in the day, I hated to plot too. I’d get a wonderful idea for a novel and at first the words would flow from my fingertips like magic whenever I sat down to write. Bliss. And then, sooner or later, I blocked, or realized that this junk isn’t going anywhere… what happened?

When a book hit a hit road block, my attitude was: “plot? What plot?”

I decided that I had to get over my plot-phobia. Over a few years, I discovered a plotting method which works for me, and works for my students as well.

Here’s the key. You need to start with a character.

Read the full article here.

Seven Self Publishing Secrets – seven reasons to generate self publishing profits

In tomorrow's issue of Fab Freelance Writing Ezine, we discuss self publishing.

Here's an excerpt from the article "Seven Self Publishing Secrets – seven reasons to generate self publishing profits":

In this article, let's look at self publishing in terms of publishing a book yourself, because this is a common form of self publishing, and one that's worth considering.

If you write a book, whether it's a novel or nonfiction book, and go the traditional publishing route, that is, you get an agent and a publishing house, and the publishing house publishes your book and distributes it around the world, the time from idea to print can be anywhere from two years upwards – say three years.

You'll spend a lot of time on your book, and that time is unrecompensed, unless lightning strikes, and the book becomes a bestseller. Most books do not become bestsellers, in fact most books never "earn out" their publisher's advance.

Read the rest in the ezine.

Technorati Tags: self publishing

Writing Books As A Dream Home Business

In Fab Freelance Writing Ezine this week, our article is "Writing Books As A Dream Home Business".

Here's an excerpt:

Writing books is a dream home business. You can write when, where and how it suits you, without a commute, and without a boss looking over your shoulder.

There's something else which makes writing books extremely attractive: since the rights to books are licensed, the author receives a royalty (somewhere between six and 15 per cent of the sales price) for each and every copy of his books which is sold, for years, and sometimes for decades, to come.

Unlike freelance writing for magazines or the Web, or copywriting, authors (writers who write books) are writing for long term income – for twice-a-year royalties arriving in their bank account, for years, as long as a particular book stays in print. Imagine if you've got royalties from five or more books flowing to you twice a year.

Read the rest of the article in Fab Freelance Writing Ezine this Wednesday.

Additional resources: my new membership site for authors and the site's accompanying blog, Just Write A Book Blog.

Technorati Tags: write a book

How much money can you make when you write a book?

Good question. :-)

I might have known this would come up, but I've so far avoided mentioning how much you can make by writing a book on my new write a book membership site. However, I've had several email messages asking this very question, so let's take a stab at answering it.

Brenda Hiatt has a "show me the money" section on her site which is well-researched and accurate. For example:

Romance novels, for Avon/ HarperCollins earn out at:

Average advance (first book): $13,500
Average advance (subsequent books): $24,000
Advance range: $3500 - $100,000
Standard royalty percentage: 8%
Average earn-out: $26,000 Range: $7000 - $100,000

A small advance for a nonfiction book would be $20,000. Of course, your advance may be much more, depending on the projected sales and how well your agent negotiates.

There are many, many variables when you write a book. At the upper end of the pay scale, you've got JK Rowling, who's making billions from her Harry Potter series and the spin offs.

At the other end of the pay scale, you have authors who make a few thousand per book.

Publisher's Marketplace reports on book deals daily, in their Publishers Lunch.

So, how much can you make? The short answer is that it depends on the book. It's the long answer too, because as stated, there are many variables.

On my new membership site, we cover researching book deals and researching the market for YOUR book before you start writing. There's no point in writing a book for which there's no market. So if you're interested in writing a book and making money from it, join.

Technorati Tags: publishing

Can you write a book?

My exclusive new membership site for authors

Of course you can write a book. If you can fill a page with words, you can fill three hundred pages with words.

A book is more than a collection of pages, of course. A novel requires  engaging characters and a page-turner plot. A nonfiction book needs to meet a demand.

A publishable book needs much more:

* Your book needs an audience: the way publishing works today, you must prove to a publisher that an audience exists for your book. So market research is vital, before you start writing.

* Your book needs an agent and publisher;

* While you write, and after your book is published, you'll need to promote your book: as the author, that's a most important task, and all publishers require their authors to take an active role in marketing.

If you've ever thought "I could write a book", my exclusive new membership site will help you to not only write your book, but get it published too.

Join me on a great adventure - writing your book.

Technorati Tags: publishing, write a book

Stealth publishing: getting your book the attention it deserves

You've written a book proposal.

You've done all the heavy lifting: you know that there's a market for your book. You've shown how your book slots into a niche in the marketplace, and you've described how you will market your book.

Excellent. Your proposal is now making its way around the offices of publishing houses and agents. Slowly. Very slowly.

What if you could gee up the process a bit?

There's a sneaky way of both making money from your book before it's published a couple of years from now (traditional publishing takes a LONG time) - and of attracting attention to your book proposal.

Here's the way: create an ebook version of your book, and sell it online. Not only can you make some money while your book proposal does the rounds, you may get an offer on the basis of an intriguing ebook.

I'm writing about self-publishing as a "stealth" process this week in Fab Freelance Writing Ezine.

Book publishing is a rough business

Over on the freelance writing blog, I've just posted "Freelance writing: stop complaining, it’s all about sales".

Apropos of which, publishers do it tough. Read "Bookstore chain puts the screws on small publishers":

Traditionally, when a publishing house is acquired by some big conglomerate, the bean counters take a look at the accounts, turn pale, and have a talk with the publisher. It has come to their attention, they say, that many books lose money, and most of the others make a small profit at most. Almost all the publisher’s profits come from a small number of bestselling titles. “True,” says the publisher. In that case, the beancounters reply, would it not make more sense to only publish the bestsellers?

The more you know about how publishing works, the better you can protect yourself as a writer. Don't be a woolly lamb... or Little Red Writing Hood confronted with grandma's big teeth. :-)

Giggle of the Day: The Book Business - An Industry of Whiners

From "The Book Business: An Industry of Whiners":

Book Reviewers: Writers who Write About Writing, Oh My! When reviewers spend four to seven hours reading a book, they don’t want to write 55 words and give it one to four stars à la film critics.

Book critics want to express themselves by showing off how much they know. They clear their throats, roll up their sleeves, and rub their hands together in order to prove they have the credentials to critique a book. We are forced to suffer through a tiresome account of the reviewer’s intimate knowledge of the subject, the genre and opinions of the author’s previous books.

Classic. :-)

Technorati Tags: publishing

Get published: Self-publishing versus vanity presses

A reader asks: "How much should I pay my publisher?"

The answer of course, is that a publisher pays you. A publisher buys from you the rights to publish your work in certain markets. These rights are clearly set out in the publication contract, and they're limited, unless the publisher buys ALL rights. (It's never a good idea to sell all rights in your work, unless it's work that you're doing for hire.)

Standard commercial publication takes time, and your book can be rejected by any number of publishing houses, so it's not for the faint-hearted. If you don't want to go through the agonies of standard publication, self-publishing is an option. You should consider self-publishing if you're writing nonfiction, and your book is a "niche" topic, in which major publishers aren't interested because of the tiny market.

Self-publishing means that you bear all the costs, and you get all the profits. :-) Note: many writers choose to e-publish, because they're writing for a small target market, and because they can manage the entire process.

Beware of vanity publishers. I'm not a fan of vanity publishing - a deal where you pay a "publisher" to print up copies of your opus. These companies are not publishers, they're printers with delusions of grandeur.

In this blog, I keep hammering the point that PUBLISHERS PAY YOU. It's never, ever the other way around.

Technorati Tags: books, copyright, publishing

Final Sale: Writing for Online Cash

Been wondering whether you should buy Writing for Online Cash?

I've got a couple of new ebooks coming out, so I'm withdrawing Writing for Online Cash on September 8. This brilliant ebook has been very successful and has had a great response among from professional writers as well as novice writers.

If you've been waiting to buy this ebook, make sure to buy it before September 8. Until then, it's at the special price of just $39.99 (previously $97.)

Technorati Tags: ebook, get started freelance writing, make money writing, marketing your writing

It's YOUR book, no one else's

No one cares about your book as much as you do: not your spouse, not your publicist, nor your mother, and certainly not your publisher. You must become the champion of your book.

Take Seth Godin's Advice for authors to heart, especially:

7. Think really hard before you spend a year trying to please one person in New York to get your book published by a 'real' publisher. You give up a lot of time. You give up a lot of the upside. You give up control over what your book reads like and feels like and how it's promoted. Of course, a contract from Knopf and a seat on Jon Stewart's couch are great things, but so is being the Queen of England. That doesn't mean it's going to happen to you. Far more likely is that you discover how to efficiently publish (either electronically or using POD or a small run press) a brilliant book that spreads like wildfire among a select group of people.

Great advice. If you follow it, you will be a happily published author, not a bitter one, wondering "what the heck happened?" three years after your book comes out.

What do I mean by "champion"? Seth nails it here: "a non-fiction book is a souvenir, just a vessel for the ideas themselves. You don't want the ideas to get stuck in the book... you want them to spread."

Similarly, if your book is a novel, realize that a novel is just a container for an experience. Who will the experience of your novel help, intrigue, entertain, amuse? When you know that you're creating experiences when you write novels, it makes your novels both easier to write and to champion.

Technorati Tags: books, branding, Business, publishing, writing

Yet another blogger with a book deal, and more

NY Daily News has a story on Stephanie Klein who writes the true-confessions Greek Tragedy blog. She's signed up for a two-book deal and a TV pilot for NBC. (Hat tip to What's Next Blog).

Writing a book? Blog about it!
If you're writing a book, BLOG it, or blog about it. I've written about bloggers with book deals here.

Blogging is the easiest way to get publishers' attention. It saves you years of frustration if you're trying to get a publisher.

Technorati Tags: blog how-to, blog your writing, blogs, get started blogging, make money blogging, monetize blog

The Long Tail and writers

I've just written a blog entry on The Creativity Factory about Chris Anderson's Long Tail theory.

The Long Tail theory has massive implications for writers. Please read the Wired article on which the book is based.

Whether you write fiction, or nonfiction, this article should give you ideas for the direction of your writing career. Essentially, you no longer need to worry about blockbuster ideas. Write what you want to write. Your audience will find your work via the Long Tail.

Technorati Tags: Planning, proposals, publishing, write novel, writing, Writing Tip

Beyond plagiarism: thief-take-all

Denny Hatch's great article: "Book Pirates! Diary of an Amateur Web Sleuth" tells the story of the theft of his father's book, which was still under copyright - not plagiarized, stolen. Essentially this was made possible by the advances in Print On Demand (POD) technology.

As Denny says:

Print on demand represents the future of book publishing. Rather than the old-fashioned model where huge investments had to be made in warehouses filled with books stacked floor to ceiling and gathering dust, the new book warehouse is in a computer hard drive where books and their covers are stored electronically.

Order a book and a computer somewhere tells a book printing machine to print one copy (or 10 copies or 100 copies) of that title. The efficiency of the new system is truly elegant.

POD means that anyone can take a published book and offer it for sale with horrible ease, as Denny says: "We hijack books. Catch us if you can."

If you've got books in print, or Out Of Print, and you hold the copyright, keep an eye on them. Some unscrupulous operators may just decide to snatch your hard work without so much as a "May I?"

Technorati Tags: books, publishing, copyright