Question about Publishing

I went to The Passionate Pen at http://www.passionatepen.com/romancepubs.htm . (I followed a link from this forum.) They made a statement I heartily agree with and I have a question about.

Quote :

Money should only flow FROM the publisher TO the author.

My question is: how does a publisher attain this ability when they are first starting out?

My answer Sue...financing. It's why some of them don't last, and why some of them are very careful about the books that they will accept. They need money, and the really clever ones even apply for and use arts and culture grant money (or they do up in my neck of the woods anyway).

Pam's answer would apply in any business. If somebody opens a book store or a candy store, they not only have to pay to lease or build the store, but have fixtures and inventory to purchase before anyone comes in and buys anything.

The publisher naturally has to be able to operate via a marketing plan for some period of time before there truly are any net profits. In fact, when one goes to a bank or an investor for star-up money, the business plan will have to convince them that the operation will remain solvent long enough to get to the point where they're even breaking even financially.

Malcolm

Hi Sue,

The full quote is:

If a publisher asks for author monetary contribution at ANY part of the publishing process, they will not be included. Money should only flow FROM the publisher TO the author.

This follows on from:

• The Passionate Pen does not list vanity publishers or self-publishing firms.
  

Which appears under the following heading:

The Passionate Pen Romance Publisher Policy:

Passionate Pen are saying that they do not support vanity publishers. Vanity publishers charge authors to print their books. If you asked would-be authors to pay to be published to offset your costs, you would be considerd to be a vanity publisher.

From wikipedia:

Quote :

A mainstream publisher traditionally assumes the risk of publication and production costs, selects the works to be published, edits the author's text, and provides for marketing and distribution, provides the ISBN and satisfies whatever legal deposit and copyright registration formalities are required. Such a publisher normally pays the author a fee, called an advance, for the right to publish the author's work; and further payments, called royalties, based on the sales of the work. This led to James D. Macdonald's famous dictum, "Money should always flow toward the author" (sometimes called Yog's Law).

Jim Macdonald also considers publishers who make most of their money from books sold to their authors to be vanity publishers. This is an opinion and not a fact, although he tries very hard to convince everyone that even publishers who do not charge a fee can still be considered to be vanity publishers.

As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't amount to a hill of beans. As long as people, who sign contracts with publishers, are aware of exactly what it is they are signing up for, it doesn't matter if the publisher is known as a vanity publisher or a mickey mouse publisher.

If authors sign contracts not knowing what they are signing up for, they have only themselves to blame if they sign up for something that isn't what they really want. No one forces them to sign a contract and, if in doubt, they shouldn't sign.

I can give you a whole list of links about vanity publishing if you want to learn more.

I appreciate all the input you three have given to me.

I was thinking about a small business loan or grant or something. I have been rolling that around in my head for a while now. I really didn't start this business for anyone else but me. However, I am glad I did. No matter whether I publish another book with Weaving Dreams Publishing or not, I learned a lot to help me with contracts and such with other publishers and agents.

I am aware of the vanity presses. I checked into them before I made my decision to start my own company. It was not a quick decision to make and I investigated quite a bit. I did it mainly for myself, for the books to come. However, I have been asked by so many people how to get books published and some of them don't even want to have them published for the same reasons most of us here on this forum do. Those are mainly the people I would like to help.

I had read all the first page of The Passionate Pen. It was the line I quoted that made the most impression on me. I feel uncomfortable about taking money up front from someone, yet on the other hand I may not be able to help them get what they want. Caught between a rock and a hard place. *sigh*

If I ever get all my books finished I will be able to use a small block of ISBN numbers all by myself. *grin*

Again, thank you for all the help!!!!!!

One thing that confuses some people as they explore the edges of self-publishing is that there's another principle that has the effect of fairly immutable law: cash flows from publisher to printer.

If you are the publisher, you end up paying somebody to print books.

lulu.com seems to be sort of a loophole in that, to an extent.