Tag Archives: Publishing
March 27, 2011 

The writer who should have signed the contract

Back in 2004 I found a great picture book manuscript that came with some beautiful art and so, on behalf of my publisher, I made an offer to publish.

The unpublished writer was pretty excited to receive our offer and as part of standard negotiations I advised her to find an agent or at the least, get advice from The Australian Society of Authors.

Now, I’m not a member of the ASA nor the Australian Writer’s Guild nor the Victorian Society of Editors because of philosophical differences. They say that working for free is NO NO NO and I say that it’s a valid entry route into a writing career (and my own entry route). The ASA has ridiculous guidelines like freelance writers earning $846 per day. Are these people mad?

Anyway, despite my philosophical disagreements with these various organisations that claim to work on the behalf of writers and editors, I recommended the writer seek out advice on our offer.

She did receive advice and that advice exploded the publishing agreement.

The explosive clause?

Royalties.

Our company paid royalties on net receipts. Net receipts are what the publisher receives in sales. Say a book costs $12.95 in the shop. The publisher very likely sold it for about 40% of this amount – so about $5.18 per copy. The author royalty is then based on this figure. A 12% royalty for example earns the author $0.62 per copy sold.

The other method of royalty calculation is as a percentage of RRP. 12% of a $12.95 RRP earns the writer $1.55 per copy sold.

You can see for this example that RRP royalty earns the writer a lot more money.

Ah, net receipts and the shiftiest move in publishing history. There was some point a while ago when publishers started paying royalties on net receipts rather than RRP for various reasons. A big one is that publishers sold books at varying discount rates and so wanted to pay out royalties based on these changing rates. A set $1.55 per title meant the publisher couldn’t deep discount to move stock. Another reason: they wanted more money (or greed, as we call it).

Where did the big shifty move come in? They said “Hey writers, you’ll still earn 12% … on what we earn, not RRP”. In one move, writers went from earning $1.55 per title to $0.62. Because the 12% royalty is standard, there was a lot of pressure for writers to not now ask for 20-30% royalties to make up for this loss.

Back to our writer and the ASA. We paid on net receipts and our entire business model was set up to pay on net receipts. When I say business model I mean computer systems, financial reports, accounting methods, stock valuation, everything! We did not have the capacity to pay on RRP.

Ah, but the ASA told the writer to only accept a contract that paid royalties on RRP.

I explained our position and offered a high royalty so she’d make that $1.55 on a standard sale but still the answer was no. More discussion went on with the writer, with her shuttling back and forth between us and the ASA. I offered more money up front and a higher percentage. Not only that but we paid out royalties monthly rather than every six months.

No.

We reached the end. I couldn’t convince her to accept a net receipts royalty and she couldn’t listen to anything but the ASA. The deal was off and the book went unpublished.

I wished her the best, gave her the names of some other children’s publishers and moved on.

That was 2004 and this writer is still unpublished today. She didn’t get a deal with anyone else and on her website for a while she talked about writing and publishing but in the last two years has gone dark.

I can’t help but think that the ASA ruined her career. I can’t help but think that had she taken the deal she would have made money (we published some other children’s picture books which earned out) and had a published work to her name. I even saw a second picture book manuscript that was excellent and this would have been published I am sure.

But no, thanks to the ASA.

If I had taken their advice back in 2003, I never would have done writing work for free. Would that have lost me the job? Absolutely. Would I have been replaced by someone else willing to work for free? Yes. When you’ve got nothing but talent and no credentials, you’re a small fish in a giant pool. A single credit lifts you out of the pool. My first credit was a Pinocchio storybook for Penguin Publishing and it lifted me above every other writer of my age and project list. My entire career started by ignoring the advice of the ASA.

I wish this picture book writer had taken the deal and I really wish the ASA was more open to the realities of writing and publishing.

You can hire a writer for $200 via ifreelance to complete a job that takes five days. The ASA says this should cost $4320. Market rates says it costs $200.

My advice: if you’ve got no credits, take the job. Don’t worry about the professional writers (like me) who you are undercutting. When you’ve got no credits, your only bargaining chip is money.

There are many reasons to charge money (including that you’ll have to eventually if you want to, you know, eat food) but if you’re at the start of your career or trying to break into a related field (like from freelance writing to script-writing) then take. the. damn. job.

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October 11, 2010 

Bye bye fake writers

Thanks to the Kindle (and Smashwords, etc) there are no more gatekeepers between a writer and publication.

No editor to convince.

To brainless marketing team who need to be sold the sizzle.

No accounting department who need to see the business case.

There is just you, your work and the readers.

The only barrier now is computer literacy. But if you can use Google you can very quickly learn how to correctly format your work and even how to create a book cover that doesn’t completely suck. I think most people can do this so I’ll go back to the main point: there are no more gatekeepers.

You see, the gatekeepers used to be a legitimate excuse. You had a meeting with an editor but it didn’t quite get there and you don’t know why (there may not have been any real reason, by the way). You were offered a contract but turned it down (I did this). You signed a contract but then the publisher went out of business (this also was me). The marketing person didn’t like your work and they had influence and so you got a rejection letter and will never know how close to publication you really were.

These were legitimate excuses. I’ve been close, time and time again and I know a few other writers who have had the same experience.

Ah, but now but now …

No more faking it. No more bullshit reasons why that novel isn’t published. No more “I’m looking for an agent”.

If you can complete your work then you can publish it and see just how many people buy it for their Kindle (or whatever other e-reader they have).

E-readers are still only a small part of the publishing market but even so, we’re not talking a few hundred sales per month – we’re talking tens of thousands of sales per month. If you put your work up and it doesn’t sell, well … it tells you something doesn’t it.

It used to be easy for faux-writers to blend in and pretend to be real writers. You’d see them on forum sites spouting crap about not following the rules or some other idiotic anti-authoritarian garbage that is actually a long convoluted defense of their terrible work. And how could you tell them apart? They can lie about meetings with editors or claims about writing all the time. They’d blather on about how they must write, as though it is some curse rather than a choice (oh and how I fucking hate this crap. They look at you and shake their head, trying to pretend they are doomed to write and it is better for you to not have this burden. Hey, I must write too but I don’t go around being a dick about it.).

But now but now …

You can’t fake it. If you’ve finished a novel and edited it then you can publish and see what happens.

There are no more excuses.

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April 10, 2010 

The year I spent $2000+ on books

2003 was the year I spent $2000+ on books but before I talk about that, join me in a thought experiment.

It’s the future and you’re a dinosaur made of cake.

In addition to being a dinosaur made of cake, the entire book market is worth $100 per year in total. All the publishers, writers, retailers, sales people … everyone is trying to get a piece of that $100.

In this world, paper books cost $12.95. The publishers sell them at 60% discount to the bookshops so they collect $5.18 per book. The authors get 12% of wholesale so they pick up $0.62 per book.

In this model, 7.72 books are sold per year for $100. Of that $100, the bookshops pick up $7.77 per title for a grand total of $60. The publishers pick up $35.20 and the writers take home a whopping $4.80 in royalties.

Now we go to ebook publishing world. The entire industry is worth $100 but books only cost $0.99. Authors take home $0.35 per book sold and the ebook seller (Amazon) takes $0.65 per title.

In this model, 101 books are sold per year for $100. Of that $100, the ebook seller takes $0.65 per title for a grand total of $65.00. The writers take home $35.00 in royalties.

You can see some clear differences between the models immediately. The first is that 101 books are sold in ebook world! This doesn’t mean 101 individual novels are sold. Let’s say the first 50 are only three bestselling novels. The next 30 are six bestsellers and the final 20 are ten novels. In this model there are 19 novels in the world.

In paper world even if each of the eight (rounding up) books was an individual novel, there are only eight novels in the world.

Nineteen novels vs. eight novels!

Next up is author royalties. Paper world pays out $4.80. eBook world pays out $35.00. These royalties keep authors fed and alive. In ebook world, 19 authors are making a living. In paper world only eight authors are.

Then to publishers. In paper world they’re kicking ass, taking names and bringing home $35.20 per year. In ebook world they don’t exist and bring home zero.

Finally to bookshops. In paper world they’re the biggest winners, taking home $60 per year. In ebook world they have been replaced by ebook sellers who take home $65 per year.

With these figures in mind, travel with me back to 2003, my first job and spending $2000+ on books.

I was working at ACER Press, an educational publisher in Camberwell. Around the corner was Burke road and two bookshops: Angus & Robinson and Dymocks. Also in the area was Salisbury Books, a second-hand bookshop, another second-hand place, a Salvation Army, Kmart and Target.

I bought books from them all. Lunchbreaks I’d head down and spend $14.95, $16.95, $19.95 at Dymocks. I’d go into Kmart and buy new books at $9.99. I’d go to Salisbury Books and pick up amazing art books for $45.00. In the Salvation Army store I’d spend $6.00 on three books.

By any measure, I was a heavy buyer. I’m the prime market for publisher: I read fast, buy a lot of books and spend quite a lot of money. Not only that but I recommend books to everyone I know, lend my books around and give books as gifts.

Somewhere near the start of 2003, Angus & Robinson bought in a customer loyalty card. For the first $100 you spent you got a $5.00 voucher. For the next $100 a $10 voucher. I think it topped out at a $20 voucher at the $500 level. After that, it reset to zero again.

By about October I’d gone around the loop three times. I’d spent $1500 at Angus & Robinson alone in about ten months.

When I realised this, I didn’t buy another book for the rest of the year and significantly cut down thereafter.

Some analysis:

  • My book buying was limited by money, not quantity of books. I was reading a lot of books but nowhere near my capacity. In addition to all this book buying I was borrowing books from libraries. Any moment of waiting had a book in it. Bus stops, train rides, lunch breaks, appointments.
  • Even with my book buying I wasn’t buying every book I wanted to read. Because new books rarely cost less than $9.99, I had to make choices of one book over another. I didn’t buy some books because they were too expensive. Others lost out against others at the $16.95 price point. I wanted to buy those other books but couldn’t afford it.
  • I did buy some bad books in there and at $16.95 a pop, even a few a year was a horrible waste of money. I didn’t buy some books because I didn’t want to take this risk at $16.95.

If we put this $2000 into the two models we see that in paper world we get:

Paper: 154 books are sold at $12.95, bookshops take $1200, publishers $704 and authors $96.

Ebook: 2020 books are sold, e-seller takes $1293 and authors take $707.

In ebook world there are thousands of more books to buy. Yes, this does mean masses of crap but at 99 cents people are willing to risk it (plus you can get refunds easily).

In ebook world there are more authors making money. In paper world there are English teachers who’ve got their pretty good book sitting in a drawer because it doesn’t meet the business case of paper publishing (e.g., can’t sell 15000 copies per year). But in e-book world it’s clocking 2000 sales per year, the author is making $700 a year and that’s enough to keep them writing and involved. They go on to write a second book, a third book, a fourth book and it is this fourth book that is an extraordinary piece of brilliance that will live for a hundred years.

In paper world, tonnes of trees are being cut down, printing machinery is running 24 hours a day, ships are moving these tonnes of books around the world then trucks are driving them to warehouses and then smaller distributors are delivering them to bookshops where they may only sit on a shelf for a few weeks before being dumped.

In ebook world, the electronic good business is booming, making Kindles, Nooks, iPhones and other e-readers. These are still shipped all over the world but once you own one, you can download whatever books you want.

In paper publishing world, writers like me are scraping along as freelancers, working in communications because publishers pay squat, going to meetings with publishers where they promise imaginary future things (paying work) for real things now (just do this book buddy! We’ll pay you in the future we promise!). Writers are dropping out because there is no money to be made. And for those who say that the writer who drops out wouldn’t have made it anyway … you’re full of it. Excellent writers drop out all the time and take up communication jobs instead. They’ll never write that great book because they can’t get paid. They may be creative people but they’re not stupid.

In ebook world, writers like me can take that reader written four years ago and sold to a publisher for next to nothing and put it up for sale online. And although it might not make the flat fee equivalent in the first year, life is long and over the long run it will eclipse the flat fee many times.

I love the ebook revolution

I’ve started buying ebooks which I’m reading on my laptop and I love it. Even with the artificially high prices publishers are charging, $5.95 beats $9.95. And there are a hell of a lot of good books out there for $0.99 – $3.99.

Over the last few weeks I’ve already bought/downloaded about 20 ebooks and when I next move house I’ll be glad to only move my laptop instead of a box of books.

A revolution, really?

Yes and I’ll tell you why. Forget what publishers are doing and focus on the writers. Writers get screwed and anyone who has published or worked as a writer has been burned numerous times. Underpaid jobs, no-pay jobs, screwed on royalties, promised things that never eventuate and even if they get published they have their royalties held back for six months or more.

Hey, write a children’s reader for us! 5000 words and we’ll pay you $200 advance on 5% wholesale price (so about 5 – 10 cents per book sold).

Or …

Hey, write a children’s reader for yourself! 5000 words, no advance but you collect $0.35 per book sold, don’t lose your rights and can earn this money for the rest of your life.

There are plenty of writers in the world who are good enough to publish great work and for this group, e-publishing represents a lot more money, esteem, attention and also control for the writer. A publisher offering $200 and $0.05 – $0.10 per book can’t beat $0.35 per book. They especially can’t beat it when these good writers are already making money online.

The lure of a paper book in your hands or some dream about being on a shelf does not beat a whopping chunk of money.

Anyways, to wrap this up: ebooks rule, paper publishers are screwed.

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April 10, 2010 

Getting Published in FIVE easy steps

1) Find a small Japanese man who runs a tiny market garden and looks completely harmless. Apprentice yourself to him.

2) You’ll spend weeks folding junkmail into origami swans, standing waist-deep in the ocean with buckets of commas on your shoulders and cutting smiley faces out of published book pages. This will seem completely useless. If you can, try to get involved in a montage with some fast-paced music.  It’ll make this section go much faster.  Argue a lot with your mentor and generally don’t appreciate his teachings.

3) Have a run-in with a local writing gang because you think you’re awesome now. You’ll be beaten around the head and shoulders with long hyphens. You’ll only escape because your small Japanese mentor arrives to save you and comprehensively humiliates the gang with only a few sentences.

4) Now you’ve had some of that ego beaten out of you, start up a relationship with a local who will reveal your mentor was once a great writer who went into exile after almost killing a man fifteen years ago in a grammar-off. Be further shocked to discover the local writing gang is trained by a former student of your mentor who now wants revenge. Try to get involved in another montage if possible – a lot of staring out windows at the sea, walking through parks looking pensive, grim training and so on.

5) Face off with the head writer of the writers gang. Get smacked around pretty seriously until you remember all the seemingly stupid tasks your mentor had you doing. Whammo – fold their sentences into sharp spikes and fling them back!  Ka-pow! Cut smiley faces out of the words and pull them to pieces.  Win the battle but decline to kill the head writer because you’re better than that. Walk off into the sunset with the grudging respect of the writers gang. As the credits role, take part in a publishing montage showing you writing and then receiving a cheque and then going to book signings.   Voila!

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April 7, 2010 

Publishing thoughts

After quite a few 17+ hour working days I’m a bit tired so forgive me if this post on publishing rambles a bit …

I keep looking at ebook and traditional publishing and my brain keeps saying “All you need for a good book is a good writer and a good editor”.

I say, yes, but what about … cover design?

Pfft, says the brain.

What about marketing? Surely good copy sells books!

Pfft, says the brain.

Okay I say, tired of arguing with myself, tell me like it is.

Well, says the brain, once you have your edited beautiful manuscript then all you need to do is upload it. A good cover can attract buyers but it is minor in comparison to the effect of the content. And as for marketing – sure, it can help to get those clicks but even if it’s quite bad, good content will beat it and pull it along. At worst people will recommend it with “Don’t read the Amazon description”.

All those salespeople I used to work with replaced with top ten lists, most downloaded, bestsellers, sort by date, by genre, by community recommendations. There are no returns to handle because it is electronic. And as for the idea that we love paper … we’ll find that at $1.99 we don’t love it as much as we think.

What is the point here?

The first point is that I’m really tired and will shortly go to bed.  The second point has something to do with the inevitable crash of huge companies with large overheads compared to freelance editors partnering up with writers to make good books for the ebook market.

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October 7, 2009 

A new book publishing model

So I was pondering my publishing skills the other day and I suddenly realised I had almost enough to be a publisher in my own right.  I’m an editor and a writer who has written contracts, paid out money, negotiated royalties, worked with designers, written marketing and sales material, worked on websites and taken many books from idea to publication.

The bit I am missing is design.  I can use Photoshop and have used InDesign but I don’t know how to use them well enough to design book covers and lay out text.

Ah, but I’m close right? Just by myself – add a designer to the team and suddenly I’m a publisher. Or pick up a few more design skills and I can do it all by myself.

This lead me to thinking about all those books out there and all those writers who are desperately pounding on the doors of Paper Publishing world.  I wonder what the response would be if I offered a new service:

I’ll edit your book, write a blurb, get a cover designed, write sales material, come up with a sales plan, create a website … for a 10% royalty on sales.  All books will be distributed on torrents as free content as well as uploaded to Amazon and other ebook sale sites.  Anywhere it doesn’t cost money to put it. (So that means no to most self-publishing companies who want some cash to simply hold files for you until someone buys the book.)  When torrents and downloads show there is an audience then the book moves towards paper publishing. But only when there is a proven audience.

I think this would be a viable business model for publishing books. At the moment an author gets a tiny percentage of sales for their work. Publishers cite salaried staff, distribution networks, losses on other books etc as the reason they take 90% of the money.  This means if a book is sold for $16.95, the publisher may receive $6.78. Now, depending on the agreement, the author may receive 10% of $6.78 ($0.67) or they may receive 10% of $16.95 ($1.69). In either case, they aren’t receiving much.

An ebook selling for $2 minus a 10% royalty for the editor/designer/publisher gives the writer $1.80 and the editor $0.20.  This is a good deal for the writer! (And for the editor too.)

A clever editor running a website with downloadable books on it would be able to collect advertising revenues as well which would be split with the author.

For books that became popular, large publishing houses may put in a bid to paper publish them. Of course, their royalty offer would need to be very good.

This model would drastically reduce the cost of books to the consumer. Readers would be able to get books for free or very low cost. The author would be able to make more money then with a traditional publisher and editors would still have a job.

As for publishing companies, which should really be seen as distribution companies, well … they’re going to have to get used to the idea that owning distribution to products people don’t want isn’t a viable business model.

Sidenote: I put my book, Super Monkey Group: The Blurting Beetles of Baloogo Loogo up on Minova free content distribution yesterday. It’s been downloaded 417 times since then. I’m not sure how many of those people then read the book but I think it will be at least a few. I’ll be putting the second Super Monkey Group book up there and then the following three that complete the series. Will it result in money and Paper Publication? Perhaps. If enough people download it then I think that shows there is a market. Once I can establish there is a market then I can risk money on Paper Publishing or sell it to a Paper Publisher.

I see editors working out of house to put books into free distribution as the next step in publishing development. The editor will be your agent, editor, copywriter, publicist and yes, even designer. Publishers will simply refuse to look at anything that hasn’t already been downloaded 10,000 times.

What exciting times are ahead!

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