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A Publisher's Conversations with Authors: Self-Publish? Traditional-publish? Hybrid Publish?

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  It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic is about whether to seek traditional publication, self-publish, or go the hybrid route. Each of these approaches to publications has advantages and disadvantages. - Self-publish (you do everything yourself):      Pro: You can proceed immediately. You have full control over all content and design. You get all the net income.     Con: You have full control over all content and design--meaning, the book is only as good as your own professional skills (or, you can pay for professional services that a traditional publisher would provide for free). You don't know what you don't know. It will take much

A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: Republishing Self-Published Books

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  It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic is about republishing self-published books. Can you get a traditional contract from a traditional publishing house for a book you have self-published?  Well, that depends. As the acquisitions editor for a traditional press that also offers hybrid publishing contracts for untested writers, the answer is an across-the-board no, but there are some publishers who might. Let's look at the reasons for and against republishing a self-published book, from a publisher's point of view. Why a publisher would not want to re-publish a self-published book -- Typically, an author thinks that he or she has exhau

A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: Self-Publishing (Excerpt from Publishing for Smarties: Finding a Publisher)

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  Excerpt from Publishing for Smarties: Finding a Publisher Why Would You Want To Self-Publish  As an acquisitions editor for a small publisher, I have sometimes received proposals that clearly indicate that an author would be better off self-publishing. Typically, just one or two exchanges with that author will make that preference clear. Such authors will want full control of the book—cover, title, release date, size of the book, and the like. They will often even say something like, “I can take care of the editing; I just need the press to do the marketing.” Well, frankly, the industry does not work that way. Any press that is going to market the book is not going to turn over full control to an author, and any author that thinks he or she can manage full control in a quality fashion is clearly a neophyte. If an author cannot detach himself or herself emotionally from the “baby” (the proposed book), then no kind of functional working relationship will be able to be buil

A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: What Does My Contract Mean and Should I Sign It? -- Initial Verbiage and Paragraph 1 (Rights)

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  It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic addresses contracts -- what is a good one, what is a bad one, and what do the specialized terms actually mean? I will answer these questions in a series of posts, using, to start, our contracts, and will go through them paragraph by paragraph. Then, I will look at some other publishers' contracts for differing. So, for today, let's take paragraph 1 (all paragraphs are numbered in a contract; that makes it easier for refer formally and legally to specific clauses). Before paragraph 1;  Name of the publishing company The words, MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT, or something similar, establishing that this i

A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: How to React When Told Your Book Needs Work

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It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic focuses on what to do if a publisher tells you that your book needs work. Editors will rarely tell you this. It takes time for them to write back to you, and it takes time for them to give you specifics about your book's lack of merit for publication. How should you interpret their words when they actually communicate with you? If a publisher says that your book needs work (and nothing more), there are a few responses and interpretations: Generally, this is a kind (though it may not seem so) comment, helping you to understand why the book is being rejected rather than the typical "does not meet ou

A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: The Painful Truth about Memoirs

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  It is Tuesday. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side.  Today's topic takes a look at memoirs. Everyone, it seems, well, lots of people, have the desire to share their life story, and most assume that lots of other people will want to buy their memoir and read it. Well...the reality may not be as heartwarming and positive. According to some statistics, memoirs are among the poorest selling books. Except for perhaps some personal friends, authors without a well-known name have trouble gaining traction for their memoirs. (Who wants to read the life story of Mr. or Ms. Nobody?) Most people's stories are not unique enough to create a "wow" factor needed to get readers to pick up the

A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: How to (Not) Lose a Contract with a Publisher

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It is Tuesday. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side.  Today's topic shares some real-life cases (book titles and author names changed, of course) of authors and would-be published authors lost contracts, from before being offered one to even after a book was published. They can serve as warnings of what not to do and, in converse, what to do in trying to secure -- and keep -- a publishing contract . Before being offered a contract (case: Developing School Discipline by Gordan Cruikshank): Arrogance. This attitude is perhaps the primary turn-off to an author being offered a contract even when the publisher is otherwise even very interested in the book. Remember, publisher and author working t

A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: About Asking a Traditional Publisher to Re-publish Your Self-Published Book

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  It is Tuesday. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side.  Today's topic addresses a topic that comes into my in-box on a regular basis, at least once or twice a week: a self-published author (either thought self-publication would provide more control and money or was unable to land a traditional contract) does not like the self-publication results and would like a re-do, i.e. start over again with a traditional publisher/contract. To cut to the chase, this is the content of the typical response I send to these queries: Thank you for your submission. We have a policy of not re-publishing previously        published books, so your book would not be of interest to us.  Of the data available from A

A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: How Much of the Self-Publishing Hype to Believe

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  (photo by Frank Perez) It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic is about assessing the hype for self-publishing. What should you believe and not believe? Hype abounds for self-publishing. Some of it is somewhat accurate, but many of the claims, while not necessarily false, are generally de-contextualized. We have friends and colleagues who have self-published books. While some of them are very nicely laid out and well-written, most can be easily discerned as self-published because of the quality. In one case, we were so appalled by the results of a friend who self-published through a vanity press, we offered to republish the book so that it had