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Welcome, everyone, to another chapter of Author's Corner. For those of you who live in the Fox-TV Philadelphia viewing area, beginning the week of Thanksgiving, you'll see a commercial for Fractured Time during the daytime hours and on weekends until Christmas week. TV One Productions of Westville, NJ, created the commercial for me and it's very exciting. Although it's only a 15-second commercial, it's entertaining. Those of you who read Fractured Time and enjoyed it, please recommend it to friends and use it as stocking stuffers.
Twisted Fate, the second book in the trilogy, will be available in February or March. I expect to do many more signings in the area so keep an eye on www.fracturedtime.com for more details. I will gladly sign any copies of Fractured Time that are brought to my signings, so don't be shy.
This month, I'm going to tell you a little bit about publishers. There are four categories of publishers: mainstream, subsidy, vanity and POD (print-on-demand). Each one has advantages and disadvantages. You need to know which is the best for your situation before making a choice.
Mainstream publishers are well known by just about everyone but understood by very few. Penguin, Del Rey and Tor are common names in mainstream publishing. Typically, when you sign a contract with one of them, you get an advance on royalties that is based on 10% of net revenue, after costs of production are deducted from the books' selling price. If a book doesn't sell well, that can be the only payment a writer will ever receive. After purchasing the rights to a book, a publisher can decide to shelf a book. In other words, the book may never go to press. Always keep in mind that publishers must make money to stay in business so, although it sounds tough, it's business. In courting a mainstream publisher, you could be waiting a very long time before getting a response. I've met people who waited up to five years before receiving a rejection. So unless you have the diamond in the rough, it's an uphill battle.
Now for some advantages: When a mainstream publisher prints your book, their resources will ensure that you get recognition. They will provide advertising, marketing and promotion. This is good for the ego but not necessarily a lot of money. So I explored the other options.
Subsidy publishing is a little bit different but has some interesting advantages. When you send your manuscript to a good subsidy publisher, they will qualify your work before offering a contract. This is good for you because you want the credibility of a good publisher to certify that your work is worthy of publication. Typically, a first edition is one thousand books. In subsidizing the first edition, you will keep the copyrights to your work. By retaining the rights, you will have the opportunity to approve each stage of the publication process. This means that the responsibility for each stage is yours. You must carefully measure the publisher's work. If you miss an error, misrepresentation, or facet, you are stuck with it if you've signed it off. Approximately three months before your book's release, the publisher should send out galleys (unbound print) for review. Reviews play an important part in the marketing and promotion of your book. A good publisher will include news releases and other marketing tools in the cost of publishing your book. When the book is released, they should line up at least two book signings for you. Now is the hard part - marketing the book. The burden of promoting and marketing the book is on you regardless of what a publisher says or does. Unlike the mainstream publishers, you will pay for your marketing and promotion. An important issue here is who the publisher uses as a distributor to the bookstore chains. Make sure they subscribe to a distributor like Ingram's and Baker & Street. They are the paths to the bookstore.
After the first edition is exhausted, the publisher may offer a new contract where you pay nothing more and will be paid a royalty on future books. If the first edition does not sell at a reasonable rate, the publisher may decline to offer a new contract. If the book does sell well, you may want to consider using a different publisher for more profitable reasons. In choosing a subsidy publisher, you must realize that you'll have to invest in your work. If your work is of high quality and you invest wisely, you'll make your money back and then some. If you obtain a movie deal, you'll receive all the earnings instead of a minor percentage. If the publisher owns the copyrights, you'll only receive a royalty while they receive the bulk of the money.
The third type of publisher is a vanity publisher. This is basically a printer company and their process is simple. You pay them and they'll print anything, no matter how good or bad. Having a vanity publisher makes it very difficult to get your book on the bookshelves of stores. I wouldn't advise using a vanity publisher.
The fourth type is a print-on-demand publisher (POD). They have come a long way and several of them have extremely good quality. It's relatively inexpensive to have your book published after acceptance. Some offer very good marketing plans at a reasonable price. One thing you'll need to negotiate is a return policy. POD's don't warehouse books because they "print on demand". Some of them will take returns, but you must take them at a discounted (author's) price. Because of the small numbers of books that stores purchase at a time, make it a reasonable move to make. Using a POD is especially a good move after you've gotten the reputation of a good publisher, regardless of whether it's a mainstream publisher or subsidy publisher.
Depending upon what your goals are, you may elect to use any of the above choices. Make sure you research your selections well and explore their previous successful clients. You must take responsibility for your work before trusting anyone with your work.
- Michael D'Ambrosio
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