The book biz part two

Before I start, here’s a link to an interesting New York Times article about reader reviews on Amazon: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/technology/amazon-book-reviews-deleted-in-a-purge-aimed-at-manipulation.html?hp&_r=1&.

I didn’t finish writing about publishing last week, so here we go back into it.

You may remember that I mentioned the Rutgers conference and said it’s the best one I know of, but I didn’t say why. First off, here’s the link again: http://www.ruccl.org/One-on-One_Plus_Conference.html. The conference is for writers for children and young adults, and it’s another one that you have to be at least eighteen to go – but if you’re not there yet, you’ll reach that mark sooner than you think. You also have to submit a writing sample to get admitted to the conference. You’ll find information on the website.

The conference is the best because everyone is paired with a mentor, who is either an editor, an agent, or a published author. The overwhelming majority of mentors are editors or agents. I’m one of the few author mentors. They let me in because I’ve been going for so long, first as a mentee – and I met my agent at the conference. We’re not paid for mentoring. The editors and agents volunteer because they’re hoping to find new writers.

There’s a panel on some publishing or writing topic and a speaker, but the most worthwhile parts are the one-on-one and the five-on-five sessions. Before the one-on-one, the mentors read the selection submitted by the writer with whom they’re paired. Then the two meet for forty-five minutes and discuss the work and answer any question the writer may have.

In the five-on-five, five mentors and five mentees get together to talk about publishing and craft, with one of the mentors as a moderator to keep things moving. Again, the mentees can ask whatever they like.

And there’s lunch, when the editors and agents mingle, and you may be able to ask an agent or an editor if you can send her something.

In my starting-out days, before I had an agent, when publishers still looked at unagented submissions, I often waited many months for a response. Even if I’d met the editor at a conference, I waited. Sometimes my work was lost. It was maddening. Once or twice a rejection letter for someone else’s story arrived in my mailbox!

In their defense, editors are very busy, and they squeeze in reading manuscript from newbies in odd moments. So, as is true of everything else in writing and publishing, you need patience.

Most of the editors and agents who go to conferences are near the beginning of their careers. If one of them falls in love with your manuscript, she will be almost as happy as you. Editors advance through acquisitions. If your book does well, it’s a feather in her cap. If it does super well, she may get promoted, say from assistant editor to editor.

Your editor does a lot more than edit. She (most are women) will negotiate your contract with your agent, your literary lawyer (see the last post), or you. She represents the publisher with you and your agent.

She represents you inside the publishing house. One of her jobs is to get the sales force, the people who sell books to bookstores, excited about your book. As an example, my editor dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood when she presented my picture book, Betsy Red Hoodie, to the sales people.

She’ll consult with the art director about your cover. If your book is illustrated, she’ll have a say in picking the illustrator. More than anyone except your friends and family and possibly your agent, she’ll be your book’s biggest booster.

And an agent does more than find you a publisher. She (again, most are women) will negotiate your contract, which means she’s an expert on contract clauses, language, and the fast-changing publishing world. She knows each publishing house and what its policies are. There are differences, but I’m not privy to those secrets. I think the similarities are greater than the differences.

Your agent may also represent your film rights and may sell your book in foreign markets. Or may not.

Your agent will certainly represent you to the publisher. If your relationship with your editor gets gummed up, she’ll help you straighten things out.

Your royalties go to her. She takes her cut, usually fifteen percent, and then passes the rest on to you. But before she pays you, she checks over your royalty statement to make sure it looks correct. For example, you’ll get a different royalty rate for hardcover books and for paperbacks, different again for e-books. She’ll check to make sure that the correct rates are applied. Mistakes have been made!

Onto the contract.

I discussed some of this in my post almost exactly two years ago, on December 29th, 2010, so you may want to go back and take a look.

When you sell your book to a publisher, you’re selling specific rights. For example, you might grant it the right to publish in English all over the world or in English only in North America.

In exchange, you receive an advance against future book sales (royalties). You have to make some promises, like that you’ll deliver the manuscript by a certain date – which you can negotiate. If this is your first book, you’ve probably already delivered.

The contract will say that the publisher can’t change your words unless you agree, but it can follow its own standards of punctuation, spelling, and so on. In other words, it’s your book. I hardly ever make a fuss over a comma.

The contract commits the publisher to releasing your book within a certain time. And it spells out your royalty rates and says when you will be paid (usually twice a year).

Subsidiary rights are included in the deal, which means that you’ll let the publisher handle things like book club or audio book rights. (Or your agent may handle the sale of audio book rights.) The contract will specify what percentage you’ll get and they’ll get if there are such sales.

You have to warrant (assure the publisher) that your book is original – that you wrote it.

There’s more, but that’s the heart of it. There are other parts that you need to keep in mind, but your agent or literary lawyer will go over everything with you. Ask questions. You should understand it all. My latest contract is thirteen pages long, written in legalese. Many of my books have been published in other countries and most of those contracts are blessedly short, not much more than: I promise I wrote the book, the publisher promises to publish it, and if it doesn’t, I keep the money. Nice.

Here’s a prompt:

I forgot to say anything about query letters because they weren’t very important when I was trying to get published. But nowadays, you need ‘em. Usually the query letter will go with your sample chapters and probably a synopsis of your story. The purpose of the query is to create interest in your book, much like the copy on the back of a book creates interest. You paint your story in the best possible light in a few paragraphs and say a little bit about why you wrote it. The letter should be less than a page. Here’s a link on the subject: http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2010/08/how-to-write-query-letter.html. If you google query letters you’ll find more. A query letter is a little like bragging, which may be hard for some of you but in this prompt I want you to give it a shot. Write a query letter for one of your stories. Could be your latest NaNoWriMo creation. Even if you’re unhappy at the moment with everything you’ve ever written, pick one and find great things to say about it.

Have fun, and save what you write!

31 Responses on “The book biz part two”

  1. E.S. Ivy says:

    Thanks for posting the information about the Rutger's conference. I think I had heard about it many years ago, but had forgotten. The way you describe it sounds much more useful than the conferences I have been to in the past. I contacted them to see if they have a newsletter or contacts list for when the information on the next conference comes out. I do wish the list of authors mentors was longer though. Do you have another conference where you're a mentor with lots of author participation?

  2. E.S. Ivy says:

    That would be great! Actually, we "met" at the Texas Book Festival several years ago when my daughter got her book signed. There were just a few (ha! ha!) other people in line, though ;). I *think* I may have sent you a picture with my two daughters; I intended too.

    You are still always on my daughters' favorite list of authors! We just made sure Tale of Two Castles transferred to their new ipods today. 🙂

    • Agnes says:

      A royalty ithe small percent of a book's price that, if it (the book) gets sold goes to the author.Another way of thinking of it is that most of a books profits, the lion share, goes to the publisher, royalties is the money the author gets. When Gail talks about an advance, I believe she means that by giving an author an advance, the publisher will not give royalties to the author till the advance is payed off.

  8. E.S. Ivy says:

    Not dumb – because at least you know the definition you found doesn't apply! Try looking up "book royalty" or "publishing royalty" but basically a royalty is the amount an author is paid for every book that is bought. I think it ends up working out to about 10% of the cost of a hardback book in a traditional publishing deal. (Ms. Levine, as a big author, may get more!) The percent of the royalty and hardbacks is often different for the same book.

    Authors get royalties from both traditional publishers and book distributors like Amazon Kindle and Kobo, etc. It's the percent of the sales price that goes to the author.

    If you get a contract with a traditional publisher and get an "advance," it's an "advance against royalties." That means you will get your advance first. Then, after your book goes on sale you won't get any more money from that book unless your royalties become more than the amount of your advance that has already been paid.

    Ms. Levine mentioned that your agent checks your royalty statement for errors. From what I have read, errors in royalty statements from publishers are not uncommon; some publishers are better than others with regard to this. That's why no matter how you publish, you need to become business savvy!

  14. Seaspray Wonderlust says:

    I have a story and I am writing it, but it seems like I am struggling to keep it alive. It feels like I am forcing every single word that I type, and the story seems unrealistic and the characters seem horrible and snobby, although their not supposed to. I have only written 6,000 words of it, and it is completely dead nearly. I kind of want to start again, but every time I attempt it it fails. It is like someone had shot it and I can't push the arrow all the way through, pull it back the way it came, or snap it in half. Any help would be TREMENDOUSLY appreciated.

  15. Kathryn Briggs says:

    Just wondering… Do any of you have an idea if there is such thing as 'Normal temperature', I will give it to you in a sentence:
    "The castle was warm, warm more warm than its normal temperature'
    I guess I could use average, or most common, but I don't think they fit in.

  16. rebeccafil says:

    Do you pay your agent? If so, if you don't mind answering, how much? I am a lowly grad student, soon to be a lowly high school teacher, and I'm afraid I'll never be able to afford one.

    • E.S. Ivy says:

      Hi rebeccafil!

      Ms. Levine usually only sees comments on the most recent blog post, but for some reason I forgot to turn off comments to this post and I saw your question. Because I want to make sure you don't get taken advantage off, I thought I'd go ahead and answer what I know, but of course you can repost on a more recent blog entry so Ms. Levine will see it.

      Standard agents fees are paid 15% of what the writer gets from the publisher (advances and royalties) *after* the writer is paid by a publisher.

      A writer should *never* pay an agent out of pocket, before the publisher pays them anything. An agent should never charge a "reading fee" to see if they want to "represent the author."

      Check out any agents thoroughly. A good place to start is Editors and Predators.

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