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The Media

Publishing a Book Without Selling Out? 24

Posted by michael from the challenges,-challenges dept.
Hopeful Author writes "I've written a book, totally unrelated to tech, and I'm at the point where I'm going to look for an agent. My book is a 400-page fantasy novel, what will be book one of three or four (or more), in the style of Lord of The Rings, though with my own elements and twists. I have no idea if it's publishable, though I've had good feedback from those who have read the draft." My take on the situation is that self-publishing would be the best bet, but maybe there's a better way.

"I'm perfectly willing to go through the usual submit-and-get-rejected-endlessly process, and I know I need editorial guidance. My question comes in with the assumption that I eventually get through the publishing process. Then what? Fact is, I don't much like the major book publishing companies. Look at how Time Warner is cracking down on Harry Potter fan sites. I think that's terrible. I would be thrilled to someday have fan sites for my own characters -- I would actively encourage it, in fact. And I'm less-than-thrilled about the idea of signing away some of my rights, say electronic rights to my stories and the like. Yes, I may be able to negotiate the contracts, but as a first-time author I wouldn't have much clout.

"So I could publish on the web somehow, but the fact is I like the distribution efforts the book publishers provide. I wrote my book because I want people to read it (yes, money is not my objective, though it would be nice), and to be able to talk with those who enjoy it. If my book languishes on an ignored web site, I'll feel bad. My question then comes down to this:

"What does an idealistic, /.-reading, not-too-thrilled-about-corporatism author do to maximize the quality and distribution of a book? Are there good open-source type solutions to this problem, ones that will reach an audience? Or are the greedy book corps. the best bet, because of their distrubtion methods, even if their other habits make me sick and I'll lose control over my characters in the process? Or am I overreacting cuz I read /. too much? Any suggestions and advice welcome!"
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Publishing a Book Without Selling Out? More

Publishing a Book Without Selling Out?

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  • Shareware (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    You could always start by publishing parts (maybe Chapters 1-2) on the web for free & see if it garners any interest. This could be done while you seek out publishing contracts. It could generate enough interest/notice for you to dictate your own terms, assuming your book is good.
  • The thing is when a publisher buys a manuscript from a new author they take a big risk which they would like to make money on. While you could put your book online I would recomend that if you want to publish it via the traditional way later (and you may not) that you not do so. I would guess that a lot of publishers would not want to touch it. You probably should try to find a literary agent and talk to him or her about what your options are.

    If you find a good one they will probably tell you if it is something that you can sell. Lets face it not every novel written makes it to the bookstore, some never sell.
  • Yes but he is not Stephen King or Tom Clancey. If I published my new novel the way Stephen King did and asked people to buy it for $5 would you? I probably wouldn't. For one thing I hate reading on screen. But mostly only buy books by authors I have already read or which have been recomeneded to me by a friend. There is too much out there to do otherwise.
  • And before doing anything else, go to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers web site [sfwa.org] and check out all their information, especially "Writers Beware".
  • Stephen Kings online books are done by Simon & Schuster, with DigitalGoods.com encrypting and publishing them for the web. There is interest in web-publishing via pdf, so it might work in this case.
  • King did this with The Plant, and it worked. You may wish to investigate what, when, where, why and how he did what he did. Of course, King was a hugely successful author prior to his experiment with The Plant, so YMMV.

    --
  • As I said. King had no financial risk riding on The Plant.

    If it looked interesting, I would certainly consider it. I took a chance on David Eddings, and Weis & Hickman, and they turned out to be very enthralling. If you wrote a novel, in a genre that I found interesting, and charged $5 for it, I certainly would entertain the purchase. Put up a good synopsis, maybe a sample chapter or two, like Card has done for his last couple of "Ender" books, so I could get a feel for the novel. And for God's sake, distribute it in a standard format that is easily printable, either chapter by chapter, or all at once. You're absolutely correct about screen reading. Sometimes I can sit down and read for hours off the screen. Mostly, though, I like to sit on the couch, or in the La-Z-Boy to read.

    --
  • Have you explored the web publishing options? You'd be surprised how active that realm is. And there's no rules against promoting yourself, either. Get your book onto a web site someplace, then start putting the name of the book (and a URL) into your sig. Now, go about your business. You'll drum up some pretty good traffic, I bet. And without offending too many people, which is always nice. Just try to keep the sig under 4 lines :).

    If you're publishing it electronically, then make up a PDF version and ship it off to lots of review sites. That's also more press for you.

    In short, just getting it published isn't the end of the road. You still have to work to get your name recognized and get the eyeballs.

  • I would personally say that as a newcomer you might want to consider selling the book electronically.

    There are some companies (do a search) that have a print on demand set up, that way you can set up your own web site, release either sample chapters, or the whole book (in multiple formats would be nice, HTML, Text, PDF for starters) plus have a link to a "buy this book" form for the print on demand guys...

    You probably won't make as much money as if a large company buys the book from you and then sells it on... you won't have the advertising budget for a start. But if you get a small print run done then you could hawk it round local bookshops, send sample copies to Papers and magazines... All of that stuff.

    You might want to have a look at some of the e-book sites to see what people suggest as well. There are a lot of other small/self published authors out there... and some are really good.

  • Sell First, THEN write it (Score:3)

    by scotpurl ( 28825 ) on Thursday March 22, 2001 @12:41PM (#346624)
    I know that sounds backwards, but it's the approach several successful writers, like Piers Anthony, have followed. You get an agent, you present a very short draft of the story, and the agent shops it around. You keep coming up with story drafts until one sells.

    The difference here is that pretty soon, everything you write sells, because you're only writing what has been sold. And since the project is still in conception, it can be more easily made marketable, or fixed, or even the rough edges of your inexperience honed better. That's the same as getting VC backing. You shop the idea around, they mold it slightly, you get paid, you produce. If they don't buy it, you keep your other job, and keep thinking. You want the idea, not the labor, to produce the income. Ideas come faster than product.

    Sounds really dumb, I know, but TV shows are based upon pilots, movie scripts upon 30 page script summaries, and on and on. You have to get in the door before you can write what you want.
  • http://www.baen.com/library/
    I just read this.
    This is the single best worded argument for free sharing of IP I have yet read.
    Mr. Flint applies it to books, but it can easily be applied to all media. He just earned another potential customer. (Hey, I might not LIKE his book, I don't know yet, but now he and all the other authors on his site will get LOOKED at.) And unlike Mr. Katz, he's actually sharing his work for free.
  • You might be interested in these guys: http://www.baen.com/library/ [baen.com]

    I believe that there was recently a New York Times article about them.

  • I see publishing houses as offering you three things:
    1. Marketing
    2. Distribution
    3. Editorial Direction
    Along with that comes loss of full rights.

    If you want to keep full rights then you're going to have to find some way to fill in the other three items.

    1. Marketing: you're going to have to do that yourself. A web page can be a very popular place as long as you do the work to make it known. Get on a newslist or forum to market your book.
    2. Distribution: taken care of as long as you stay on the web. If you want secure distribution you're probably going to have to pay someone who's developed a secure distro method (if that even exists).
    3. Editorial Direction: I'd imagine that you'd have to pay someone to give you direction (and lose some rights in the process). You can probably get around that by asking for feedback while you promote the book.

    There has to be some sort of free writers guild somewhere. Good luck finding it.

  • A middle ground ... (Score:3)

    by Daniel Dvorkin ( 106857 ) on Thursday March 22, 2001 @04:16PM (#346628) Homepage Journal

    Take a look at the small press, both traditional publishers like Meisha Merlin and Print-On-Demand (POD, not to be confused with subsidy or "pay as you go") like Wildside, and you may find what you're looking for. MM particularly seems to do a good job of pushing their authors -- they don't get quite the range of coverage that people who publish with, say, Tor do, but it's not bad.

    That being said, I do think you should try the major publishers first. It's no fun gathering rejection slips (trust me, I've been there) but the rewards for a sale are enormous (I've been there too) and as for potential legal problems ... well, try your best to negotiate any clauses (e-rights grabs especially) you find too objectionable, and if you can't strike a deal that satisfies you, you're under no obligation to sign the contract. You'd be surprised at how often publishers, even big ones, are willing to change things when authors, even first-timers, kick up a fuss. Often they write the worst possible language into a contract on the assumption that most authors will just go ahead and sign without plowing through the legalese, and sadly, they're often right.

    Two caveats:

    Never, ever, ever go through a self-publisher (subsidy publisher). As Mike Resnick says, in the writing universe money must always flow toward, and not away from, the author; if you have to pay the publisher one red cent to get your book on the shelves (or on Amazon) then that publisher isn't worth bothering with. In contrast, many perfectly respectable small presses don't pay you an advance up front, but they will pay you royalties. These guys are just fine, if that's the route you choose.

    Know your rights. I strongly recommend Kirsch's Handbook of Publishing Law or a similar resource. Most publishers aren't inherently evil (despite the stories you may hear from drunk authors at SF cons) but the simple fact is that they're in business to make money, and the more of the revenue from any book they can keep, the happier they are ... and the unhappier you are.

    Keep at it, and good luck. I've been writing for about twelve years now, and my parents have been writing for about thirty, and despite all of us having been published several times we've still got day jobs, as do most of the writers we know ... but not for a second have we ever seriously considered giving it up. It's worth it.

  • This doesn't solve the ethical problems with those big publishing companies, but it might allow you to satisfy your need to get the word out plus still publish a physical book.

    Since you have no agreement with a publishing company yet, go ahead and publish the draft online (or after a couple of friends help work things out). Do those things that others have mentioned, like sending it out to various SciFi sites for review or comment.

    Then start looking for a publisher to print the book. At this point, there's no way they can just pull your book off the web. (Sure they can try, but it won't be effective.) After another year of fine tuning with an editor, then the book will be ready for retail sale.

    It'll probably be pretty different from the web-release draft, and that provides a couple of good results:
    (1) You already have a small fan base that is eager to read your polished work. More buyers equals more money, which is good even if it isn't your motivation.
    (2) If you can work it so that the next book can publish the same way, that'll make all of your readers happier. Readers HATE to wait so darned long for the next books to go through editorial and review before being published; and when the polished version of the sequel comes out in paper, they'll still buy it. It'll be a little different and many people read the same book more than one.
    (3) The pervasive online presence your draft books have will be admired by people who support the freedom of information.

    I think this idea sounds pretty slick. Any comments on it?
  • Did Piers Anthony do that when he started out though? Once you've got some name recognition, you can probably do that though...
    Hmm, why not web publish a couple of chapters, or maybe extract out a short story/novella for web publishing and see if that gets any interest. You might be able to sell a short story, either pulled from your novel or just set in the same universe, to a traditional magazine, which might not be so ethically troubling to you.
    Also, not all publishers are going to by so nasty, especially if you don't generate as much $$$ as JK Rowling. See if a smaller press will cut you some slack in this area. ISTR that Baen Books allows chapters and the like posted on their website, so they may be amenable to this (or not, if they feel that giving away free stuff is doing enough), but the usually publish military science fiction, not S&S fantasy...
  • Whatever you do, don't self-publish. It costs an arm and a leg and you'll find it difficult to get any bookstore to even carry your books. For fiction, at least, it should be the last resort.

    Now, down to the nitty gritty of it:
    Get an agent.
    It's as simple as that. I don't know where on the globe you are, but here in the Ireland and the UK there are books, such as the Writers and Poets Yearbook, which list all the major agents in the two countries and if they accept unsolicited scripts or not. If they do, you send them a sample of your writing - maybe one of your 'best' chapters and a few 'good' chapters. I know that arbitrary, but it works. Then, if they are interested, they'll ask for more, so you send the rest of your manuscript.
    The big advantages of an agent:
    • They'll negotiate on your terms; if you want to sell first time rights only, that's what they'll sell; if you want them to work in something about 'fansites' then they'll do their best to help you.
    • They'll be able to get more money for you from publishers - even if you have no rep. in the business at all. They do this, obviously, because they work on commission.
    • They can help arrange deadlines, futher books etc... for you - what with us writing types sometimes getting a little disorganised.

    If you go directly to a publisher - and they must accept unsolicited scripts - you won't have any clout, unless you're a lawyer or something. They usually have a standard contract they'll trot out and, from what I hear, they probably won't be too keen to negotiate.
    Finally, as for on-line publishing, e-publishing et al. they are all very 'promising' fields. I personally wouldn't bank on them keeping your book from sinking into obscurity. The ones I've looked at seem to offer worse terms than traditional publishers, less distribution and less reliablity. At least in paper form, there is some tangible(sp-?) proof of your achievment.

    By-the-by, I know all this because I'm in the process of writing my own book and I have done some research. (Mind you, lots of people in Ireland are 'in the process' of writing a book, mostly due to the 0% tax rate you pay on artistic earnings 8).

    8)

  • If the book really is publishable, look into getting an agent. They'll be able to tell you what sorts of rights you will or won't have over the content after publication, as well as where you can publish outside of print media (ie: movie and web rights), and whether or not you retain any sort of copywrites or trademark control over the book or content or characters within the book (and hence be as permissive with fan sites as you like). Get familiar with as many kinds of rights that are available to you -- the more you restrict the rights of a publisher over your book (they get the first print run but that's it), the more control you retain over your work, although the less you are likely to be compensated for it.

    You're probably familiar with the various Writer's Guides to Publishing. Get one of them, the latest ones might have contacts with various agents open to looking for new material. More likely, they'll be hesitent to deal with unpublished newcomers, so see if you can get a connected friend within the publishing industry (a writer currently with an agent could help).

    Publishing companies do provide that nice sense of legitimacy to their production and distribution, but the tradeoffs are immense as well. You might want to find a small press that's open to new manuscripts -- they tend to work with new writers more than commoditize them, although the distribution isn't likely to be as big.

  • I've read several books from these guys and they were all great. Add to that the fact that they were free (both beer and the other one) TM and you have a really great Idea.

    Flint's book was so good I bought it half way through the book (so I didn't have to read it off a computer screem). But by te time the damn thing arrived here in OZ I had already finished reading the online version. Oh well. hehehe.

  • It's not as bad as you think. Remember that, as a rule, good non-media Science Fiction and Fantasy is not really a mass-market item. Which means that you don't have the massive lawyers scouting for intelectual property violations, because, in most cases, it will not be worth it. So you probably won't have a Harry Potter-style crackdown on fan sites.

    Now, I think that, given the current situation, your best bet is to go for a real publisher. A real publisher gives you recognition that publishing online doesn't. I can read stuff online, but since there is an editor at the publishing company sifting through all of the crap, I tend to like stuff that I can purchase as a book. That way, I miss out on the mounds of author's (generally sexual) repression mascarading as fiction, poorly written trek fanfics, people with inflated egos writing in baby-talk, etc.

    I don't think a pre-sale buzz is very good. Just about every SF and Fantasy novel is purchased by the publisher without much buzz. The only buzz that helps is if you have shorter works published in SF magazines.

    Now, once the book is on sale, promote the hell out of it on your own. Make an official site for the book. Do signings and stuff.

    Check out your contract. You are going to have to involve a lawyer if you actually get a deal, so this won't be an extra cost. Try to make sure that you have some amount of control over the whole thing, even if you don't get everything you want. For example, you probably wouldn't get too much resistance to them letting you put the book up online some amount of time after the book goes off the market. Things like that.

    Make sure that you pay nothing to get your book published. Any reputable agent gets nothing up front, just a percentage of your royalties. Any reputable publisher will give you an advance and royalties. Make sure that you will receive your money.

    Right now, sad to say, your best bet is the big SF/Fantasy publishing houses. Maybe in a few years, the online places will have something good, but that day is not here.
  • Take a tip from Prince, get famous first, then start dictating your terms.

    Dancin Santa
  • I was in a similar situation a while ago (my book is technical in nature). I had an idea for a book and wanted to find a publisher. I contacted an author whom I respected and was referred to his agent.

    To make a long (and still ongoing) story short, my agent was fantastic, knew exactly what to do, who to contact, and how to negotiate a good deal. After a a lot of book-proposal redrafts she got me a contract with none other than O'Reilly and Associates. (Don't bother looking for my book just yet, it's still in the post-writing process. In answer to the inevitable question: the eland [oaklandzoo.org])

    I can't speak to how you can tell a good fiction agent from a slime-ball, but getting references from published authors sounds like a good start. OTOH, I've heard it's considered rude to ask an author about his/her agent, so take this whole paragraph with a grain of salt.

    Nevertheless, I can honestly say that w/o my wonderful agent my book would have never happened.

    -Miko

  • People who relate stories of the endless round of rejections usually don't have a finished product. Often they have little more than a "concept" and a few finished pages. They want somebody to give them an advance to develop, i.e, "finish" the project. If you have a finished book and are reasonable in your expectations, you have an extremely good chance of finding a publisher. They are looking for you. You are a rare item and can really talk turkey with them. Get an agent. Here is how you do it: Write to the authors who have written books similar to yours. Send them a sample of your work and ask them to help you get represted. Most will be glad to help you.
  • Having worked for a company that was created specifically to help self-publishers get to market, and being an author myself, I specifically know about this. In fact, I've a specific website dedicated to the self-published author's market. It's called LOSER, dot com. I wish I could be more encouraging than that. But realisitically, the success of a book is contingent upon how well the author, the book, and the material contained within is sold. Most authors have no clue as to how to be a marketing drone, and most of the techies I've worked with have sneering attitudes to the profession similar to my own about cigarette salesmen. (Hell, I'll smoke a pack of their product a day, but they're on the same ethical level as toadshit.) The reality is, the majority of people who work in the bookpublishing business are there to provide support for new authors. What I find ironic is that the people who decide that they're "selling out" by signing a contract with the major record label are usually the ones who seem to become recognized authors, with respectability. This is on the same level as the guys who play in Fugazi - sure, they're internationally recognized, but Fugazi hasn't released anything new in over five years, their music gets no play on the radio, and they're the musical equivalent of Abbie Hoffman - their allure is only in their refusal to "sell out" to the record companies. Any author serious about providing entertainment (and let's face it, all works of fiction are in some way, a form of entertainment for the individual) needs to accept the position of "writer" like they'd accept the position of "lead product designer" and network within a community of writers to find a market for their contribution to society. Hemingway had an agent. So did Fitzgerald, Faulkner, and millions of other people whose words populate the shelves of the local Barnes & Noble. What I find distressing, specifically, is that people who do qualify for my website / clearinghouse of self-published material are never going to be considered authors. Authors write to be read. Writers write. Publishing is the thing that makes someone's voice get heard. Before I go onto another tangent, one of the realities of the Internet is not that it's made everyone's voice irrelevant, it's that it's given everyone the ability to have their voice heard. In a media-driven society where there's little catalogue distinction between voice by a third party, people have to seek out novelists and entertainment on their own. Agents, publishing houses, and critics perform a vital service. They prevent authors whose works should never see the light of day from coming to the surface. (Granted, in the case of the Bridges of Madison County and Emily Dickinson, they failed miserably, but on the average, they've still got a better batting average than the CIA.) My advice, then, to the fantasy author, is to find an agent who reads and submits fantasy novels, and to hand him 50 pages of the book. If Joe Agent reads it and loves it, he will be the individual who does everything for you. He will provide you with a professional marketer and seller who'll make sure that your work gets what it needs to see the light of day. And it's in their best interest to do so, because they get 10% of whatever you make on the book. The reality is, I wouldn't even read your book right now for less than $5 a page, since it's what I do professionally for $10. The way you get around people who want to read the latest Dean Koontz, John Grisham, or Michael Crichton drivel is to take it to someone whose livelihood is based entirely upon making sure you get your book published by the RIGHT market for you. (Keep in mind: JK Rowlings has executive authority over her works. All of my work has first North American copyright law established over it in a standard agreement. The shutdown of the Potter sites on the net are in keeping with Rowling's authorial rights, and I wouldn't be surprised if she wholeheartedly approves of Time-Warner's actions. After all, if you wrote a brand-new program that halved processor times, wouldn't you want exclusive profits from it?) I've finished two novels and I'm in the middle of revising both of them prior to sending them to reviewers. I'm also working on a third novel that's about this guy and this girl in this place that have to deal with this thing that comes up that breaks them up and brings them back together. But the level of professionalism in my writing dictates that I treat this like a career - not a hobby. Want to run a radio station? Just build it out of parts you find down at Radio Shack and hook it up to your MP3 player. Want to run a media company that shows a profit, affects people's lives, provides information to a broad range of people? Call the FCC and sink $50,000 into a radio station, complete with soundbooth and DJs. If you're serious about your work - (Sound of the last lash on the dead horse.) Find. An. Agent.

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