Quote:
Originally Posted by eschwartz
Yes, I would, if I happened to believe that I had no rights and no bargaining power and this was the only car I would have offered to me. Because at the end of the day, I really, really need a car.
Until recently, there were no options for a prospective author who didn't like the mostly generic terms offered by tradpubs. Now, they can go indie.
A lucky few had a hot commodity in a story that was billeted to be the Next Big Thing, and tradpubs extended much better offers in an attempt to steal the deal from other publishers.
Many prospective authors even today are skeptical of indie publishing and feel that their only option is to land a tradpub contract. They are easy targets, because they feel lucky to get anything.
In general, a new author doesn't have anything special on the table, and (historically) doesn't have any particular reason to think they can hold out for anything better. The tradpub doesn't care, because there are plenty of other fishes at that skill level.
The car dealership equivalent would be if there is a long line of people walking into a car dealership all wanting the same handful of cars. The dealer can be assured there is a sucker in there for each car, and has no reason to negotiate. Thus, the prospective customer knows he has less bargaining power, and has to outbid the suckers if he wants to get a car. Then it becomes a matter of, is it better to be carless (jobless in the author world) or to get an unfair deal (tradpubbed in the author world).
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Actually, there is quite a bit of choice between the various publishers. That's why authors and their agents shop a book around, looking for the best offer. It is a lot like a car dealership in that there is the Smiling Sam dealership where they try to fast sell you on a bad contract, and there are dealers who value return business. When I was buying my first new car, the first dealer tried to push me into buying their low end car. When I went to the next dealer, I was able to get the next model up, for less money.
If the publishers think you have a good book, then they show a lot more flexibility because they 1) want the book and 2) want to keep a good relationship with the talent so they can get the next book. On the other hand, if you are trying to peddle a book that isn't all that good, then you end up dealing with the publishers who are the next step up from vanity publishers.