Publishing Contracts

Anyone willing to share their publishing contracts?  I have two pending.

Neither provide an advance.  Both provide one free book to author.  One gives authors 20% off books purchased. The other gives 40%.  Both provide 10% Royalties up to 5000 copies sold on print books and 15% for ebooks.

Both have web sites and put the books on all the major online seller sites and "helps" get them in store shelves.  Both count on the author for the majority of advertising.

There are no costs to the author with either publisher.  Both provide edit services and covers at no fees - again no fees to the author. 

One is a 2 year contract, the other is a 5-7 year contract (5 for the trade paperback and 7 for the audio book).

They both have complicated provisions regarding subsidiary rights.

Both are small presses with a large number of authors, many award-winning authors.

Any thoughts?

Also, a convenient list of potential publishers that connects to their web sites is found at novelrank.com

I suggest you run your contracts by Victoria Strauss. http://www.victoriastrauss.com/ She runs Writer Beware, and she was helpful to me when I was considering a small press contract from which I needed to run. Nice person and on the writers' side.

Good luck with them.

Thanks for the tip. I sent her an email.  I started this thread for others to contribute also at the suggestion of Alice who wants some more threads.. :-) 

6/17/2014

                            DK..

                                   WHo are these publishers ? I'm thinking of re-releasing two
                       of my books I now own.... Thanks..

                                                            Cheers..Joe.. 

DK, 

Great job.

Joe, they are publishers whose books are tracked by Novelrank to record the number of sales and sales rank.  They are international and range from one person with their own publishing name to major New York Publishers. 

When you have time, you could take a few at a time and go to their web sites and see what they have to offer.  That's what I did.  There are many publishers!

6/18/2014

                        How do you get the list ?

                         Oh yes DK since you live in Fl.
                         Check out my art site I have several cool tropical
                         fish, turtles, Japanese Jelly Fish I shot yesterday
                         at the Albq. Aquarium....

                http://www.fineartamerica.com/profiles/joseph-frank-baraba.html

                                       Cheers...Joe.... 

The list is at http://www.novelrank.com/publisher

6/18/2014

                           Did you know they changed their name ?

                               http://www.publishamerica.com/ Form
                               this to : " America Star Books."

                                         Cheers...Joe... 

They needed to change their name.  Actually, there are quite a few publishers using the same idea to sell books to authors and publish anything.  That is a pitfall in seeking a small press.  Some are legitimate and some are smaller versions of "America Star Books."

If a person just wants a few books for friends, family and the local area, any of those publishers are a good bet.  They cost nothing and do produce beautiful books.  The problem is the company you keep.  You want to have your book published beside books that have some merit and are well-edited.

dkchristi wrote:

You want to have your book published beside books that have some merit and are well-edited.

Then self-publish. You'll be beside Hugh Howey, Amanda Hocking, Joe Konrath, and many others.

I think there's a lot to be said for self-publishing. Several of the L & L Dreamspell authors self-published after L & L closed their doors.  Most have done very well indeed.  However, most already had a following and a platform which makes a difference.  Many of the L & L authors were members of writing organizations and sat on their panels for conferences, etc.  Now, they have those avenues set up so no one pays attention to where their books are published.

Some of the organizations to which I belong are still a little uppity about "self-published."  They make you jump through more hoops to prove you are worthwhile. 

I think we are at a crossroads where some authors will do very well self-published and others better with a publisher, even a small press.

During this transition time, I had several books up at Kindle.    I was just keeping them alive until I had another publisher.  I used them for several promotions but didn't find it very beneficial.

The bottom line is that small presses have limited budgets, and to be a success, authors have to work hard 24/7.

And as we know, some who work that 24/7 do reach the success they seek.  There's a bit of magic, timing, luck, serendipity or whatever that makes the difference.

My royalties with traditional publishers for trade books have been 10% and for textbooks a minimum of 12.5% (I can't disclose my current textbook royalty rate but it is higher than the earlier texts, though at a much lower sales price.) Publishers have done all of the editing, advertising and promotion. Two of my textbooks included advances. One of the textbooks included a sliding scale depending on sales numbers with the low end at 12.5%.

I would not consider a 10% royalty agreement unless the publisher was well established and committed to doing all of the advertising and promotion so that I could expect a significant number of sales from the project. (That was the case with my two projects at the 10% royalty rate from a publisher whose books are marketed to and purchased primarily by libraries and researchers.) For each of my trade books and textbooks I received 10 free copies. Author's discounts were offered for the trade books (especially after the first year after publication)  but no special pricing was offered for any of my textbooks, if memory serves. (I never buy books to sell--not even my self published ones.)

I attend book fairs where I need to sell books.  Also, I sell books when I do presentations.  I find if I send them to Amazon the impulse to buy based on the presentation disappears and I lose the sale.

I understand, DK. For me, whether an indie author aggressively markets their books or not, I believe POD services with no strings attached and with reasonable book pricing usually represent a better deal than the small presses. Authors have complete control over their pricing, content  and no contractual commitments of any kind with the book "publisher". If I wanted to sell my CreateSpace indie soft cover books myself, the authors' prices are reasonable and I could make a nice profit by selling them for the Amazon list price which of course I set, or even lower. For me the primary benefit of dealing with a traditional publisher is the marketing and distribution channels that they provide. I would not deal with a small press that requires me to do my own marketing as the editorial services they provide is not worth a 10% royalty share and no control over the price charged for the book (as is usually the case).

What about audio books?

I have a lot less experience with audiobooks than with traditional books/textbooks. My Mindscapes collection will be out very soon through ACX on a 50% royalty split basis with the voice talent/producer of the audiobook. I made no inquiries beyond ACX before deciding to test the waters with my newest short story collection because I liked their model. Information on their standard royalty split is available online and has changed since I signed on for the project to a somewhat less attractive split. Depending on my experience with this project which should be available for sale within a month or so, I may make my intellectual property and poetry collection available in this format as well with me as the narrator when time allows.

Thanks for the info.  The potential publishers will do audio books with Audible.  The funny thing is, like you, one talent I own up to is a great radio voice.  I used to do a lot of workshops and conference presentations so I made use of it as well as tv and radio interviews.

My question is, how do you set up your home recording studio?  I heard a thing on NPR where the woman was an audio book reader and while traveling recorded in hotel closets using her ipad.  What quality voice is that?  Must have been sufficient.

Of course, the joke on NPR was she recorded getting locked in the closet...hollering through the wall to get help getting out - a true story.

The very rough and unedited audio clips I've done of my poetry and fiction for the equally rough book trailers were done with an inexpensive headphone/mike. My home office is quiet enough that I don't have to worry about background noise much--especially if I record late night (which this night owl prefers). If I opted to narrate my own intellectual property or poetry collection as would be my preference, I'd simply buy a decent microphone for about $100 on Amazon. (e.g., Blue Microphones Yeti USB Silver edition). My real problem is time, as always.