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Originally Posted by charlesatan
Might only be loosely related to the topic, but can I inquire regarding your marketing? For example, I noticed that last week, you started becoming active (again) in eBook forums like here and Kindleboards. Wanted to inquire whether this is part of a larger strategy (either with one of the Big 6 or your plan for an upcoming self-published book) or not. Thanks.
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My primary marketing platforms centered on goodreads groups and fantasy book reviewers/bloggers. These are the venues that readers frequent and I highly suggest going to where the "readers" are.
Forums like this and kindleboards are where writers hang, and to be honest I don't think they are good sources for "buying books" (Yes I know writers read too, but in general they are strapped for cash, and too busy writing their own stuff to spend time reading extensively). The people you want to focus on is the voracious readers - hence the sites I mentioned.
About six months ago I was asked to do an AMA on reddit, and it really opened my eyes that with a lot of the changes going on in the industry, there is confusion by authors who really don't pay attention to the publishing landscape. Because everything is changing so quickly, and because I'm in one of the few who have been on both sides, I've been trying to do what I can to help authors understand the various aspects. I've found it very rewarding over there, and just thought I should try it on a few other venues.
Quote:
Originally Posted by charlesatan
Also, I think you brought up in another thread the non-compete clause from Traditional Publishers. Are there any clauses that writers should look out for, especially when they're exploring both trad and self-publishing routes?
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Well in self-publishing you really don't have to worry too much because you aren't signing a contract with anyone. You are agreeing to "terms of service" and you have to read these carefully but the very nature of "terms of service" means that it spells out the relationship while you are using the service and you can terminate when you want and then any arrangement between the two parties ends. I suppose there are some terms of service that may specify some time period where you can't leave - so I'd watch out for that.
In the traditional side of things, each author is going to care about different things. For me personally I'm most concerned with clauses that revolve around how and when I get my rights back, and how and when I can produce other works. So the things that I watch carefully are:
* Term of contract - I would LOVE a contract that has a limited term - say 3 or 5 years. Because in such an arrangement I know that even if I don't love the contract as it is, I know when it will be over and I have rights to the books again. But big-six contracts are for "life of copyright + extensions" which basically means 70 years after the author dies - that's a REALLY long contract so I get more concerned about under what conditions I get rights back.
* Reversion clauses - In the old days a publisher used to do a print run and had a warehouse full of books to sell. If they sold well, they would do additional print runs, if they sold terribly, they might remainder the books (sell by the pound at a loss) and move on to another title. If they sold moderately well, then they wouldn't bother with a reprint and so when the warehouse was empty there were no more books. In such an environment it was easy to determine that a book had run it's course, there was nothing more the publisher had to sell, so rights reverted.
Because of Print-on-demand and ebook, it is possible for a book to never go "out of print" however, if a publisher has rights for something and they aren't generating a good income to the author, the author should be able to get that right back and see what they can do to make money from that. So I look carefully at the language that indicates when a book is "out of print" and revert. At a minimum it should be based on # of copies sold or $'s generated so that once it reaches the point where it's not generating income the author gets it back.
* Non-compete: This is my personal pet-peeve. I want a contract to concern the work I'm signing over - not future works that don't exist. I personally think there should be no non-compete in a fiction contract (and for a non-fiction contract the non-compete should only be in effect for a certain amount of time. I almost didn't sign my first contract because the non-complete basically stated that I couldn't create any book that might complete with the work for the length of the contract. This could mean that I would be prohibited from producing sequels, prequels, or other books with my same characters or in my same world. It could also reasonably be applied to any "fantasy book." Such a clause would be a "career killer" and under no circumstances would I sign such a thing.
I don't think it is unreasonable for a publisher to want a time of "exclusivity" where their books are the only works out from an author. So a restriction of no other books close to the a books release is something that I have agreed to, but if I had my druthers it would be to have no contractual restrictions and trust the author to not do something that might infringe on sales of a work put out by their publisher.
* Author warrantees - I've seen some language in here that in my opinion doesn't belong. In particular it is common to insert language such as, "The author agrees that "The Work" will be the next published work released by the author. If you are a slow writer, there may be no problem with such a clause, but if you are like me, and can write 2 - 3 books a year this could spell disaster as the contract you are signing usually provides the publisher up to 2 years to get the book on the market. This combined with a non-compete could mean a "potential" 2.5 years where the author can't release any other books. A bad restriction when you earn a living by writing for a living.
* Territories - My agent is primarily focused on foreign markets so when she negotiated my contract she specified "World English." Personally I would have preferred "North American English." (But Orbit has UK and Australia divisions and they want to have those rights for those divisions). Most contracts offered to new authors will be "Worldwide Rights." Basically you want to make the territory as small as possible because then you have the freedom to sell other rights in other markets. If you sell "World rights" then it is the publisher who will do the selling, and you have no leverage to light a fire under them. Not to mention any foreign sales will fall under a subsidiary license so the publisher will get a cut (usually 25% - 50%) right off the top.
Bottom line...when looking at a contract consider what is the "worst case scenario" and whether you can live with it or not. Keep an eye on what you are giving away and when you can get it back.