Hey Folks,
Via The Digital Reader, The Huffington Post (whom I would never and am not now promoting) published an article titled “The 4 Great Myths of Book Publishing.”
You can read the full article at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-4-great-myths-of-book-publishing_us_5988e9ebe4b08a4c247f252d/, but I’ll save you the trouble.
There are actually a lot more myths about traditional publishing than four, but we’ll go with the ones they list.
According to the article, the myths are that a traditional publisher will
- aggressively promote your book to the widest possible readership,
- ensure your book gets on the shelves of all the nation’s bookstores,
- print your book’s text in exactly the way you conceive and arrange it, and
- provide you with a sizable monetary advance.
Of course, the article goes on to say no, they won’t. Because No, They Won’t.
The “remedy” the author of the article recommends for points 1, 2, and 4 (3 is just silly) is to do it yourself. But still use a traditional publisher.
So let me get this straight:
According to the author of the article, you should develop your own promotion plan, promote your book aggressively yourself to ensure more people order it in bookstores, “be flexible” regarding layout, and “be grateful if you’re offered any advance at all.”
So in addition to writing the book in the first place, you have to do everything else too. Okay, I’m good with that.
But in return for your effort, you should still give ALL RIGHTS FOR THE LIFE OF THE COPYRIGHT to the traditional publisher and receive around 12% of the net royalties for as long as they decide to sell your book.
Oh, and if you also have an agent, he/she gets 15% of that 12%.
Uhhhhh, no.
This is it, folks. This truly is your forehead slapping moment. Please don’t pass it up.
If you have to do all that anyway, Publish It Yourself and pocket 100% of the net royalties.
And MOST importantly, Keep Your Copyright (your property) for the rest of your life plus 70 years.
You STILL have to develop your own promotion plan, aggressively promote your book, and you can do the layout yourself (or pay to have it done — see https://covertoupload.com/).
Of course, you’ll have to forego receiving an advance you wouldn’t have gotten anyway. Darn it. Oh, and somewhere, some village idio— er, agent — will go a little hungry. But so what?
Copyright is property, folks. Your property.
Don’t give it away, and don’t sell out for a pittance.
***
I got up a little late this morning, looking forward to the second session of the workshop I’m taking with Dean.
Then I checked my email and was slapped around by the article referenced above. I wrote the post above, then posted it to the main site to go live next Tuesday.
Now to immerse myself in the workshop. Ahhhhh.
Well, I fully expected to write fiction today, but I didn’t. I have the seminar tomorrow, so that will be a long day. So today I took a day off just to read and enjoy.
Back tomorrow.
Of Interest
Via The Passive Voice, see “The definitive guide to SEO for authors” at http://www.thepassivevoice.com/2017/08/the-definitive-guide-to-seo-for-authors/. This is something at which I need to get a LOT better.
Via The Digital Reader, see “6 places to find free and discounted ebooks” at https://www.cnet.com/how-to/6-places-to-find-free-and-discounted-ebooks/. I list this one only so you can check to see whether your books are listed illegally.
See “WMG Publishing Bought a Bookstore” at http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/wmg-publishing-bought-a-bookstore/.
Fiction Words: XXXX
Nonfiction Words: 590 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 590
Writing of “” ()
Day 1…… XXXX words. Total words to date…… XXXXX
Total fiction words for the month……… 13581
Total fiction words for the year………… 376559
Total nonfiction words for the month… 8090
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 127200
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 503759
The Daily Journal blog streak……………………………………… 627 days
Calendar Year 2017 Novel Goal (15 novels or novellas)………………… 8 novels or novellas
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 26
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 4
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………………… 181