MSI Press Blog

  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

  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

  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

  The following excerpt comes from  Practices That Work  (Thomas Garza). Introduction Are you a new or future author? Confused by all the choices  in the publishing business? Afraid of being ripped off? (It  happens all too frequently!) Not sure how to take the first step?  Not even sure how you want your “offspring” (i.e. your manuscript)  to be birthed (i.e. published)? This book is meant for  you. It is not another 500-page reference book about a little  bit of everything associated with publishing. There are enough  books like that; one more is not needed. That said, however,  you should certainly add several of those to your resource collection.  At the very least, you should read Writer’s Market   and subscribe to Writer’s Digest . (Google both; you will find  them. Writer’s Market is also available at most public libraries.) This book, unlike most of the books out there on publishing,  looks at publishing from the combined point of need of  the new author and point of view of t

  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

  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 popped up because I received three book proposals that were very easy and quick to turn down. Although perhaps some editors might not have responded at all, I do like to get back to authors who submit proposals. Often, if a book is almost viable, just needs some tweaking, I might give some suggestions for improvement. (Not all authors take these suggestions kindly, but in those cases, I consider nasty responses evidence that I made the right decision in rejecting the manuscript; I would not want to work with such an author.) In today's cases, I was presented with proposals for novels. That is an easy

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

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 asks (and answers) I question I see underlying a number of authors' organizations posts on the Internet that do a great disservice to authors. The question: Do publishers cheat authors out of royalties? The short is that traditional publishers are honest; there is no reason not to be. Scammers are everywhere, and many would-be published authors get sucked in by being told how wonderful there book is when a traditional publisher will not take it (because it is not wonderful). Let's look first at why traditional publishers have to be honest, and then let's look at why authors question their royalties. (To set the st