I'm in the process of signing up for the Cape Cod Writers Conference, or maybe the official name uses "Center" rather than "Conference". I've gotten as far as reserving a room for Aug 19th through the 24th at the conference center which belongs to the Unitarians. That's practically in the family. An uncle of mine, while serving as president of a college town Jewish congregation, was approached by the local Unitarians with a merger offer! My sole business outing last year was for an Internet conference, and I realized I haven't been to any author oriented events since I quit the Author's Guild.
The room reservation being set, I'm having some trouble deciding which sessions to attend. A close reading of the course descriptions left me with the impression that most of them are essentially workshops. I'm frankly more interested in a passive classroom experience at this point. I'd rather get a structured lecture series from somebody who knows their stuff than random thoughts from fellow writers, which I already get plenty of by e-mail:-) I'm leaning towards two full week sessions, "WRITING COMICS" by Peter David, and "CREATIVE NONFICTION" by Mel Donalson. I don't know anything about comics, though I've dabbled with cartoons in a few of my books, and the creative nonfiction course looked more like a lecture series than the others.
I'm often chided by friends, including one who is a working actor in NYC, over avoiding anything resembling performances myself. Part of it is pure neurosis, I've always hated public speaking, and while I've always been able to do it when I had to, part of the fun of being self employed is not having to do things you really don't like. The other part is that I'm sufficiently competitive that when drawn into public discussions, I find myself trying to take over the room, which isn't so nice for the programmed speaker or the participants. It took me a decade of attending lectures just to reach the point where I didn't HAVE to ask a follow up question.
So, I figure I'll register, show up, and try to keep my mouth shut for at least the first few days. If nothing else, it should give me some fresh blog material, maybe I'll even get a guest entry from somebody. And since it's on Cape Cod, if I don't like it, I can always go swimming instead.
What Self Publishing Means To Me
Recently I've corresponded with several knowledgeable authors who were vacillating between self publishing and signing a(nother) trade contract. They were all fully cognizant of the trade-offs involved in trade authoring, and were trying to decide whether or not to go the self publishing route for a particular title. I'm stressing "particular title" because it's important to note that self publishing and trade publishing coexist. In some instances, a self published title will sold to a trade publisher, in other instances, the author may write both for trades and for self publication.
I can, and have, made all sorts of arguments as to why self publishing will often result in a higher pay day for a work-a-day nonfiction writer. But the main attraction of self publishing for me is being the boss. Self publishing means retaining the right to do whatever I want with my work, including licensing it, packaging it in different versions of books that may include other contributors, or simply selling out down the road. Authors who are confronted with the decision of whether or not to sign a trade contract end up concentrating on the terms they have a chance of altering: royalties, advances, foreign rights, editorial input, non-compete and out of print clauses. The forest that gets missed for the trees is giving up ownership of the work.
That loss of control doesn't mean much to authors who have no publishing ambitions of their own and who are willing to accept that the trade publisher will manage the title with the best interests of the author at heart. But it doesn't always work that way. Correction, it doesn't usually work that way. The reasons are myriad, from young and inexperienced staff at trade publishers not being good at their jobs to old and experienced staff being wrong or stubborn. The interests of the publisher and the author can simply diverge due to other titles in the publisher's list that compete with the author's or require more attention due to higher initial investments, or due to restructuring and changes in the business plan that come and go as often as editors. To an author with one title in print, the decision to sell into a major retailer at a deep discount for branding purposes or to redesign the book to fit a series can have a major impact on the sales and on integrity of the work. For the publisher with hundreds or thousands of titles in print, what the affect will be on one author isn't even a consideration.
I'm currently trying to decide what to do with a healthy chunk of a new book that's in the draft stage and drawing enthusiastic visitors online. I may publish it, with additions of my own, as a companion to another book of mine. I may work with another author to create a more comprehensive work with a much higher cover price. I may try to license the work to the trade publisher with the leading book in the genre, or I may do all three. Self publishing means that I don't have to give up on the work after the first publication, or wait for a trade publisher to decide on a new edition (and what their marketing people want to see inside). Self publishing means that I'll never have to watch one of my books die a lingering death because of decisions made by an apparatchik at a trade publisher.
I can, and have, made all sorts of arguments as to why self publishing will often result in a higher pay day for a work-a-day nonfiction writer. But the main attraction of self publishing for me is being the boss. Self publishing means retaining the right to do whatever I want with my work, including licensing it, packaging it in different versions of books that may include other contributors, or simply selling out down the road. Authors who are confronted with the decision of whether or not to sign a trade contract end up concentrating on the terms they have a chance of altering: royalties, advances, foreign rights, editorial input, non-compete and out of print clauses. The forest that gets missed for the trees is giving up ownership of the work.
That loss of control doesn't mean much to authors who have no publishing ambitions of their own and who are willing to accept that the trade publisher will manage the title with the best interests of the author at heart. But it doesn't always work that way. Correction, it doesn't usually work that way. The reasons are myriad, from young and inexperienced staff at trade publishers not being good at their jobs to old and experienced staff being wrong or stubborn. The interests of the publisher and the author can simply diverge due to other titles in the publisher's list that compete with the author's or require more attention due to higher initial investments, or due to restructuring and changes in the business plan that come and go as often as editors. To an author with one title in print, the decision to sell into a major retailer at a deep discount for branding purposes or to redesign the book to fit a series can have a major impact on the sales and on integrity of the work. For the publisher with hundreds or thousands of titles in print, what the affect will be on one author isn't even a consideration.
I'm currently trying to decide what to do with a healthy chunk of a new book that's in the draft stage and drawing enthusiastic visitors online. I may publish it, with additions of my own, as a companion to another book of mine. I may work with another author to create a more comprehensive work with a much higher cover price. I may try to license the work to the trade publisher with the leading book in the genre, or I may do all three. Self publishing means that I don't have to give up on the work after the first publication, or wait for a trade publisher to decide on a new edition (and what their marketing people want to see inside). Self publishing means that I'll never have to watch one of my books die a lingering death because of decisions made by an apparatchik at a trade publisher.
The Copyright Agency Of China
A little over a year ago, I got the following email - from a Hotmail address
----------------
Dear Morris Rosenthal:
I am a staff working in Copyright Agency of China that is a state-established organization that provides service in the field of copyright and found in 1988 and a unique all-round Copyright Agency. We cooperate with many major publishers at home and are empowered to inquire about one book license to Chinese simplified character copyright shown below:
Print-on-Demand Book Publishing: A New Approach To Printing And Marketing Books For Publishers and Self-Publishing Authors (ISBN 0-9723801-3-2).
PLS give me more details for granting Chinese copyright, could you send three reading copies to me?
Add: 5F,Wuhua building, 4A Chegongzhuang Street, Beijing, China P.C.: 100044
We are looking forward to having cooperation with you in future.
Thanks a lot
Ms Jing Yuan
--------------------
My response read:
--------------------
Jing,
We don't generally grant translation rights for any of our titles, just too complicated in the Internet age. However, if a publisher from China wants to contact us directly, we're always happy to talk. Negotiating with an anonymous person writing from a Hotmail address isn't an option:-)
Morris
--------------------
Well, negotiating with a person using a Hotmail address DID turn out to be an option. Obviously, I was skeptical, in no hurry to send reading copies to China, etc. But Jing was persistent, lined up one deal that fell through with a prestigious university press (my fault, I sort of talked them out of it), and then found yet another publisher. The contract negotiations were swift enough, the contract they sent had been written by an American lawyer for another author, my own lawyer asked for a two small changes, which they made. In the meantime, I went to the trouble of asking Jing the name of an established American publisher they had worked with, called the editor there, and heard that the Copyright Agency of China was on the up-and-up.
Then they asked me for my bank account information and my social security numbers for paying the advance. Ersh. I may be paranoid, but I've already had a go-around with identity theft and wasn't in a hurry to open myself to potential problems from a new continent. I set up a new business bank account with a new tax ID, the transfer failed a couple times, bank gave me the wrong routing number, whatever, and finally I told her to send a check or the deal was off. The check arrived this week, $789.19 (the 10% fee and various mailing and copying expenses came off the $1000 advance), and the FBI hasn't showed up at my door yet, so I assume everything is good.
The royalties were 7% of list price on the first 5000 copies and 8% thereafter. With a target list price of 20 RMB (around $2.50), I'd have to sell something over 5,000 copies to sell out the advance, so I hope all of my Chinese readers rush out and buy 1,000 copies each:-) The main point of my earlier blog post discouraging self publishers from chasing foreign rights deals proved to be true. It was a distraction, took up a good deal of time and worry, and isn't part of my basic business model. Translations and foreign rights may contribute a little to the bottom line, but unless you have a title you expect would do better in a foreign country than at home, it's just not something I'd recommend pursuing. On the other hand, if they pursue you...
----------------
Dear Morris Rosenthal:
I am a staff working in Copyright Agency of China that is a state-established organization that provides service in the field of copyright and found in 1988 and a unique all-round Copyright Agency. We cooperate with many major publishers at home and are empowered to inquire about one book license to Chinese simplified character copyright shown below:
Print-on-Demand Book Publishing: A New Approach To Printing And Marketing Books For Publishers and Self-Publishing Authors (ISBN 0-9723801-3-2).
PLS give me more details for granting Chinese copyright, could you send three reading copies to me?
Add: 5F,Wuhua building, 4A Chegongzhuang Street, Beijing, China P.C.: 100044
We are looking forward to having cooperation with you in future.
Thanks a lot
Ms Jing Yuan
--------------------
My response read:
--------------------
Jing,
We don't generally grant translation rights for any of our titles, just too complicated in the Internet age. However, if a publisher from China wants to contact us directly, we're always happy to talk. Negotiating with an anonymous person writing from a Hotmail address isn't an option:-)
Morris
--------------------
Well, negotiating with a person using a Hotmail address DID turn out to be an option. Obviously, I was skeptical, in no hurry to send reading copies to China, etc. But Jing was persistent, lined up one deal that fell through with a prestigious university press (my fault, I sort of talked them out of it), and then found yet another publisher. The contract negotiations were swift enough, the contract they sent had been written by an American lawyer for another author, my own lawyer asked for a two small changes, which they made. In the meantime, I went to the trouble of asking Jing the name of an established American publisher they had worked with, called the editor there, and heard that the Copyright Agency of China was on the up-and-up.
Then they asked me for my bank account information and my social security numbers for paying the advance. Ersh. I may be paranoid, but I've already had a go-around with identity theft and wasn't in a hurry to open myself to potential problems from a new continent. I set up a new business bank account with a new tax ID, the transfer failed a couple times, bank gave me the wrong routing number, whatever, and finally I told her to send a check or the deal was off. The check arrived this week, $789.19 (the 10% fee and various mailing and copying expenses came off the $1000 advance), and the FBI hasn't showed up at my door yet, so I assume everything is good.
The royalties were 7% of list price on the first 5000 copies and 8% thereafter. With a target list price of 20 RMB (around $2.50), I'd have to sell something over 5,000 copies to sell out the advance, so I hope all of my Chinese readers rush out and buy 1,000 copies each:-) The main point of my earlier blog post discouraging self publishers from chasing foreign rights deals proved to be true. It was a distraction, took up a good deal of time and worry, and isn't part of my basic business model. Translations and foreign rights may contribute a little to the bottom line, but unless you have a title you expect would do better in a foreign country than at home, it's just not something I'd recommend pursuing. On the other hand, if they pursue you...