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In a recent meeting of authors I overheard one of them to talk about his publishing contract, and that he was surprised to find a clause “that the publisher has all the rights for publishing means that come up in the future”. When asked if he signed this, he affirmed: “Well I wanted to be published, seeing my book in stores, and writing is a hobby for me.” I have heard and read similar statements before, and I am just wondering if these authors have not more self-respect for their own writing – and why they are signing these adhesion contracts.
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Why Are Writers Signing Just Anything…
The fact that it’s assumed authors understand the contracts just as well as the publishers do shows the fallacy of thinking, “Oh, business is SO complicated! I’ll just sign with a publisher and everything will be taken care of!” WRONG! Publishers are trying to squeeze out every dime of authors. And trade publishing is now in the hands of huge corporations who are reporting to stake holders and are less interested in culture or fair dealings with their suppliers = authors. At a lawyers blog, who is an author himself, one can find lots and lots of info and tips regarding publishing contracts.
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Authors: Why Chase the Wrong Goal? Ego?
Why so eager to see your book in stores when 70% of books are sold online through Amazon, Kobo, Apple etc. Do you want to write and sell books for a career – or do you want only “fame”, selling your book for a couple of weeks at B&N or Chapters or Waterstones and working for glory? Publishers know very well from all the queries they receive, and from agents, how much authors want to be “published”. Publishers are in a position to say: “take it or leave it” – if authors start to negotiate or fight for their rights.
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These are the Main Issues With Trade Publishing:
1. Contract Clauses
In these former blog posts:
- Minimum Wages for Authors?
- Do You Understand Your Publishing Contract?
- The Traps in Publishing Contracts
we dissected contract clauses – MUST-READ articles for every author! A warning for those who still want to go with a trade publisher and an affirmation for author-publishers, self-publishers or Indie authors, no matter how you want to call it.
“In fact, some of those provisions would be deemed void and unenforceable. In some cases, they might even constitute consumer fraud and would subject publishers to fines and penalties”, as contract attorney Ivan Hoffman explains in his blog. The question is: will authors negotiate or fight for their rights?
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2. Royalty Payments Are Often Wrong
Kristine Kathryn Rusch wrote several times about issues with wrong royalty statements of trade publishers, maybe even screw authors out of royalties. Here is just a short excerpt:
“Over a year ago, I wrote a blog post about the fact that my e-book royalties from a couple of my traditional publishers looked wrong. Significantly wrong. After I posted that blog, dozens of writers contacted me with similar information. More disturbingly, some of these writers had evidence that their paper book royalties were also significantly wrong.
The reason I was so excited about the Department of Justice lawsuit against the five publishers wasn’t because of the anti-trust issues (which do exist on a variety of levels in publishing), but because the DOJ accountants will dig into the records of these traditional publishers, particularly one company named in the suit that’s got truly egregious business practices.”
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3. Almost No Marketing
From a trade publishers advice for authors “how to impress publishers“:
- “Be humble, appreciative, and a team player.”
- “Be everywhere online!”
- “Have an impressive platform”
- “Know who your target audience is”
- “Reviews are vital! Make sure you have a substantial amount of reviews”
- “Watch how your competition promote their works”
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Well, if an author has already an “impressive platform”, knows the target audience and has lots of reviews, they DO NOT NEED A PUBLISHER. Period.
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4. Soon No Editing Anymore.
The same trade publishers advice talks about editing:
- “Have at least one other professional person edit the entire work”
- “Know what CMOS is and understand the rules” CMOS = Chicago Manual of Style
Employed book editors are a rarity these days due to cost cutting in these large trade publishing corporations, so, as an author you have to deliver your manuscript already edited. Why on earth would you take on the costs and then get only 8 – 15% royalty? Spend a small sum for a great cover design, then publish the book on your own and receive almost 70% revenue!
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5. No Say in Cover Design, Blurb or Book Title.
Be aware that once you sell your manuscript – for a pittance – to a trade publisher (or even worse to a vanity publisher) you have no say whatsoever how your book will look like, what cover it gets and how it will be sold.
However, in this notorious article “how to impress publishers” the author wrote: publishers want you to “Express gratitude. Be thankful for the publisher’s time”. They don’t have to give you any feedback—or their time… Well, that’s not only the attitude of this writer, but that of the entire trade publishing industry.
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Why would any intelligent and self-confident author go with a trade publisher? Susan Brassfield Cogan summed it up in a comment: “My books are my babies. This sounds like selling them into slavery” (to a publisher). And I might add: “People who have no goals work for people who have goals” – or authors who have goals publish books on their own.
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If you would like to get a mentor and our support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer for three months all this and more for only $179 – or less than $2 per day! Learn more about this customized Online Seminar / Consulting / Book Marketing for your success: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars
To learn more about professional book marketing and publishing, please read also
“Book Marketing on a Shoestring”
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UAVL3LE
Our email newsletters with free insider tips are sent out once a month. To sign up, just go to the form on the right site of each blog post.
5 Steps to Writing Success
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Even the shyest author, who would never speak at writer conferences or to a group of book lovers at a library, can write his or her way to success. I am not talking about your next book, which is certainly important, as your readers want to get more books from you, once they discovered you as an author.
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So, What Else Can You Write to Become Successful?
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OMG, I hear you saying, the day has not enough hours… it’s impossible to do all this…
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Write Short Stories
In a former blog post I explained “why you should split your book apart and sell each piece separately” and “divide it in chapters which you can sell to magazines or to web publishers”. To use a chapter or two for a short story means no work at all, but you certainly could change or shorten it a bit. Offer these short stories for download on your website – this way you get the email of your readers. Install an opt-in email form and offer your readers at the same time to sign up in order to get regular info about free stories and new book releases.
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Very important: Don’t just give the story away. Write a short bio or add an about.me link, including your website, info about all your books and their sales link at the end of your short story. This way, readers meet the author (you) and get to know your books and might one order right away with the help of the link they find in the short story.
Upload short stories to Wattpad, Red Room, Goodreads or Booksie.
Why short stories? With all the distractions from other, flashier forms of entertainment it can be a struggle to set aside an hour or two and a find a quiet spot to read a book. Short stories can be read in 20 minutes- while enjoying lunch break, riding the bus or standing in a queue.
Markets for Short Stories: Authors who are aiming to supplement their income have to find markets at magazines, on Duetrope.com or offer their books to Amazon for inclusion into “Kindle Shorts”. Stories between 2,000 and 5,000 words are most market-able, however there is demand for all lengths of copy. Duetrope is an award-winning, free writers’ resource listing over 4150 current Fiction and Poetry publications, updated almost daily. Or get a copy of The Writers Market.
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Write Articles for Newspapers and Magazines.
Be smart, and sell your magazine articles over and over again. As long as the markets don’t overlap, you can sell exactly the same article as many times as you like and, in this globally connected marketplace, it is easier than you think. However, you can only sell first rights, either print or electronic, once for the same piece. After that, unless you change the article significantly, you must offer it as a reprint for a lower fee.
If you change the article, you can sell it again for first rights. For example, you can turn a 600 word piece about traveling with a dog (a chapter of your memoir book) for a dog lovers magazine, into a similar length article for a regional newspaper and then a dog food website (e-rights). Then tweak it into an 900 word article for a national newspaper. Make some minor changes and shorten the piece a bit for a travel or and airline magazine. Each time, you are able to sell it for first rights. Continue to sell it, however look also out for new markets in other English language media overseas.
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Steven Raichlen’s brilliant coup: He wrote an article for Huffington Post Foodie Paradise: 10 Great Places to Eat in Martha’s Vineyard. In a salute to some of Steven Raichlen’s favorite local bars, restaurants, coffee shops, lobster shacks, and ice cream parlors on Martha’s Vineyard, he had his characters visit the same places which he usually patronizes with his wife. He writes in this article: “I hope you’ll discover them by reading “Island Apart”. And then he gives even a link to his book on Amazon, explaining that it is now available in paperback.
Writing this article, Steven Raichlen was able to mention his book to a million readership FOR FREE, as the famous Huffington Post is a blog-empire, newspaper and online news aggregator, and is also ranked the most powerful blog in the world by “The Observer”.
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Why Blogging is Great in Gaining New Readers
“Blogging is not only fun and a way to interact with your readers, but it is an important part of your social media presence”, says Edmund S. Lee, a famous content marketing specialist: “The number one reason you need to include blogging as part of your marketing strategy is because it will gain you more readers and also more customers.” He explains further: “There are a number of reasons why blogging brings an increase in website traffic and in customers. The first has to do with the art of search engine optimization, aka SEO, which means a higher ranking on Google”.
I might add: especially if you post your blog headlines regularly on Google+. And your blog gives your readers a reason to come back to your website on a regular basis. They will naturally see you as someone who provides value to their lives, which builds trust between you and your readers.
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Write guest blogs
To get the most of your guest blogging, look for a blog with an audience that’s similar to yours, but preferably with a huge readership. This way you can greatly increase the number of your visitors. A smart move is also to look for book reviewer blogs, as they are mainly read by book lovers. At the same time you make friends with the reviewer and chances are very high to get your own book reviewed. Check out a former post about guest blogging etiquette.
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They Are A Recipe for Success: Prequels
Savvy authors are building excitement and attract readers to their upcoming books. Editor Alan Rinzler describes them: “Back stories for the longer book to come. Others are like outtakes from the novel, standalone narratives that add to our knowledge of the characters, but don’t appear in the books themselves. Prequels provide readers with the flavor and quality of the forthcoming book in a way that makes them yearn to read more. This technique has had notable successes lately, like propelling a book from obscurity to six-figure advances, and building pre-publication buzz and momentum.
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It’s called content marketing …
Writing articles should become your standard operation procedure, no matter if blogs, articles for print or online – free or paid. Write and sell articles to newspapers, magazines and online. Reselling your work makes good business and time management sense, it cements your brand and gets your name and your books titles to a large audience. And even if you give away your articles (in exchange for email addresses of your readers) you gain something very important: Contact to your readers (and maybe reviewers) and future customers.
If you would like to get a mentor and our support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer for three months all this and more for only $179 – or less than $2 per day! Learn more about this customized Online Seminar / Consulting / Book Marketing for your success: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars
To learn more about professional book marketing and publishing, please read also
“Book Marketing on a Shoestring”
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UAVL3LE
Our email newsletters with free insider tips are sent out once a month. To sign up, just go to the form on the right site of each blog post.
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