Another advantage of work for hire

A while back I did a post on the relative merits of work for hire vs. getting an advance on royalties in publishing contracts. If you're unclear on these terms check out the link.

After being a Gadling travel blogger for more than a year I've discovered another advantage of work for hire--when you sign away your rights you don't have to defend them. Gadling, or more precisely AOL Media, pays me a flat fee and then owns total rights to my posts. I agree to this because their flat fee is good and they have the most popular travel blog on the web. Once my posts go live, they are their property.

What a relief! With so many people stealing stuff from online sources I'd spend half my day tracking down copyright violations. For example, one blogger reused a photo of mine without permission, others have taken articles, and the Somaliland Times, a weekly English newspaper, reprinted my entire Somaliland travel series. Actually I don't mind that last one, because how many people in Hargeisa read Gadling?

So I can sit back and watch the plundering of my work with a serene detachment. Sure it's wrong, but it gets me more readers, and if AOL Media's lawyers want to do something about it, that's their job. I hope they don't go after the Somalis, though. The Somali people showed me so much hospitality they deserve to get my articles for free.

(Mostly) good times for ebooks

Things seem to be on the up for electronic publishing. One of my publishers is expanding into ebooks and wants to renegotiate my contract to include an electronic edition. We're currently haggling over the royalty rate. As is typical with print publishers new to electronic publishing, they're offer a rate far less than market standard. The math is different for electronic editions, since there's much less overhead, and the author thus deserves a bigger share.

In other news, my short story is almost out from Damnation Books and I've found out that one of the distributors will be Shortcovers, which among other devices offers ebooks for the iPod and Blackberry. i didn't even know you could read ebooks on those! Shows how much I still have to learn.

In more general news, romance giant Harlequin has opened up a new epublisher called Carina Press. Harlequin already puts many of its print books into ebook format, but now they've made a separate imprint just for ebooks. Their first catalog will be Spring 2010 and they'll feature not only romance, but other genres as well. They're wide open for submissions at the moment. I'm curious to see just how their acceptance policy will differ from their parent company.

But not all the news is good in the world of digital publishing. Arkham Tales, a fine electronic magazine specializing in horror, is closing its doors after only its fifth issue. It garnered quite a lot of attention and readership in its short life, but sadly became yet another victim of the economic downturn. All five issues are available for free on their website. Yup, free! They relied on advertisers and donations, and apparently neither of these two sources were sufficient.

Going out of print

At the first of this month I reached a new milestone in my writing career--one of my books went out of print. Strangely, it wasn't my earliest book, but rather a book I only wrote three years ago, Moon Handbooks London. The story is a sad one and a warning for aspiring guidebook writers.

Back in 2005 I saw on a jobs board that Avalon Travel Publishing wanted to expand their Moon series, already popular for Asian and South American destinations, into Western Europe. I applied for the London gig and got it. The advance was good, the royalties generous, and I was really over the moon, as it were.

But if something looks too good to be true in your writing career, it probably is. I wrote the book and it was published, but it received no marketing. None. Zilch. Nada. Moon, a newcomer to a near-saturated market, assumed their name recognition would allow them to compete with the likes of Lonely Planet, Frommer's, and Rough Guide. Problem was, Moon Handbooks didn't HAVE any name recognition in Western Europe.

I complained to my editor about the lack of marketing, and her only reply was, "But we featured you on our website!" Now catch me if I'm wrong, but in advertising you go to the customer, right? You can't expect the customer to come to you. When I asked if any review copies went out, I received evasive replies.

It came as no surprise to me that the book had poor sales. When it came time to do the second edition, I got the runaround for the better part of a year before my editor finally told me there would be no second edition. Most of their writers in Western Europe got the same news, as did several longstanding writers in other regions.

It was a tough lesson, but one I learned well. Now I only work for publishers who have strong marketing plans, or at least publish books that don't have a huge amount of direct competitors with better marketing plans. Something to think about before you sign your next contract.

Now the rights to the content have reverted to me. I'll be updating and reusing the contents for various projects. One of the ways to survive midlist purgatory is to know how to turn disappointments into opportunities.

Leading electronic publisher releases sales figures

New Concepts Publishing, one of the leading publishers of electronic books, has released its sales figures. This is a rare move in a business that generally keeps its sales closely guarded, and gives an interesting insight into this developing medium.

New Concepts pays in royalties only, ranging from 30-40%, the typical business model for electronic publishers, and reports that the average author payout over three years (the normal contract period) is $450. They've also published the range of payouts:

Science Fiction/Futuristic range: $127.89--$8455.46
Paranormal range: $78.00--$5673.50
Contemporary range: $55.18--$7913.78
Historical range: $75.16--$3863.12
Romantic Suspense range: $124.24--$1977.20
Fantasy range: $44.00--$4774.80

As you can see there's quite a range, with some authors earning next to nothing and others getting royalties that compare favorably with advances paid by major publishers. I suspect the endpoints of these ranges are outliers, but considering that the total average is $450, the average payout is skewed more towards the lower figure than the higher. Also note that New Concepts only publishes romance in all its various genres. Romance is the big seller in ebooks, so aspiring authors who publish in other genres might see an average payout lower than this.

New Concepts Publishing is one of the pioneer epublishers, having started in those ancient dialup days of 1996. Congratulations on your 13th years of publishing, an achievement for any small press and almost unheard for an epublisher, and thanks for being so candid about your sales. We can only hope more publishers follow suit.

Starting Book Number Seven

As I mentioned way back in May, I was in negotiation with a publisher to do book number seven. I can now announce I'm working on Guerrilla Tactics of the American Civil War for Osprey Publishing. I've received the first part of my advance and am well into writing the text. Next week I'm off to Missouri for six weeks to do some research.

Osprey is a well-known publisher of military history books, and one of the reasons I wanted to hook up with them was because I noticed the same names cropping up again and again in their catalog. If they like you, they'll keep giving you work. I'm already discussing a few other titles with them.

In a previous post, I talked about when it was OK to do work for hire, meaning the author gets a flat fee and no royalties. Osprey only offers work for hire, but the contract definitely fulfills my criteria. The money they pay (in pounds sterling, not the Mickey Mouse money American publishers pay in) is sufficient for a decent wage for the time it will take to write the book, it's a reputable company that will look good on my CV, and there's a chance for more work. So all in all, I'm very happy.

New Trends in Publishing Give Writers More Choices Than Ever

As I outlined in the previous post, the publishing industry is going through a lot of changes. Emerging writers now have more choices than ever. In larger houses, the midlist is shrinking, but there are still contracts to be had. With the advent of POD, there is a boom in the small press. Self-publishing is getting huge. Ebooks, once ignored as a gimmick, are now getting serious attention.

So where should an emerging writer submit their work? In my opinion, the big publishers are still the best bet, because they offer the largest advances and give you a chance to make a living as a writer. The major downside to them, of course, is they take forever to get back to you and have a murderous rejection rate. Oh, and they only market the big names.

What about small presses, many of which are now using POD? This can be a great option for someone who doesn't have making money as a major motivation. Small presses are like the Wild West of publishing these days, covering every topic under the sun. There are small presses just for psychological self-help books, ones just for Lovecraft pastiches, others for specific subgenres of mystery. The list goes on and on. Many of these produce a high quality of work. Hippocampus Press springs to mind. I've bought many of their books, and helped with research on a couple, and the editing, layout, and general presentation show a much greater love for book production than most major houses.

Self-publishing I've covered before. There are a few specific situations where self-publishing is a viable option, but in general, if you want readers, it's not a good idea.

Ebooks are gaining respectability. I've had good impressions of the people in the ebook industry, and it's beginning to make money. The major sf/fantasy publisher Baen is getting into them, as is romance giant Harlequin. The big drawback, besides the lack of advances, is that the main moneymaker for ebooks is erotic romance. Not my cup of tea.

So as I said below, the publishing industry is doing well, and that's good news for writers. Oh, there are the problems of the shrinking midlist (especially painful to yours truly), consolidation, advances not keeping up with inflation, and sharp business practices, but the doom-and-gloom posters on many writing boards are seeing the glass totally empty when in fact it's more than half full.

When Should A Writer Ask For More?

A magazine signed me up to do an article recently and offered me $375. That's not much, but it's a straightforward article that won't take me much time, so it's worth it. I asked if they could pay me $425, and they came back with a counteroffer of $400, which is what I expected them to do.

It never hurts for a writer to ask for more. I always ask for more from magazines and book publishers, and the worst that's ever happened is they've insisted on their original offer. Some beginning writers are afraid to do this, but any editor worthy of the name isn't going to dump you just because you asked for a bit more money.

There's a technique to doing this right, though. I never ask for a huge amount more than their first offer, and I don't pester regular markets unless I haven't had a raise in a while. I also ask politely, something important in any type of business (and writing is a business, much as I hate that fact). If one of my book publishers won't budge on the amount of the advance, I'll try to renegotiate other things, such as royalties or the number of author's copies.

In sum, always try to get a bit more from your editors. The worst that can happen is that they'll say no.

Work for Hire vs. Advance on Royalties

If you read the writing newsgroups, you'll find some writers and aspiring writers have allergies to certain aspects of writing. In the article on Lyphobia below, Dr. Bob Rich mentions how some writers panic when they see adverbs. In yesterday's post I mention I did my first book as a work for hire arrangement. Some writers would howl at the idea, unless, of course, they got offered a decent deal themselves.

Many book contracts offer an advance on royalties. The author gets, say, $10,000 and 6% royalties. As the author, you will get 6% of the profits of the book, but you won't see any more than that $10,000 you got up front until after your 6% comes out to more than your advance. If your royalties never do come out to more than $10,000, you still get to keep the money, but your publisher will be disappointed with the profits and may not hire you for another job.

With work for hire, you get paid a flat fee, and never get any money from that book again. This is because you have signed away your legal status as the creator of the work. You lose syndication and movie rights, and any other potential profits. This is why some writers don't like work for hire contracts.

Personally, I think it depends. The first book contract I was offered was for updating the Insiders' Guide to Phoenix. The flat fee they offered me was good enough to cover the time I spent writing it, plus it got me an important line on my resume that opened up the door to my career as an author. Besides, it wasn't like Hollywood was going to option my Phoenix restaurant reviews.

So if you're considering signing up for a work for hire contract, consider a few things:

1. Is the money offered enough to give you a decent wage while writing the book?

2. Does doing this book move your career forward in a significant way?

3. Is there an option to write for advance on royalties? Usually the answer is no, like with the Phoenix guide, but sometimes a publisher will offer you less money up front in exchange for giving you royalties later. Do some math to see how many copies they'd have to sell before you see any royalties, then figure out if it's worth it.

4. How important are the other rights you lose? If you have a smacking good novel, you might not want to lose film rights, but if you look at the left-hand column, you'll notice that none of my published nonfiction is exactly blockbuster material.

5. Are you acknowledged as the author? While you will not legally own the work, does your name at least appear on the cover? In the case of the Phoenix guide, the answer was yes. I would hesitate to write a book for which I'm not given credit. I'd have to get a lot more money for that. Of course, you can always put it on your resume, but it's nice to see your name in print, isn't it?