In Today’s Journal
* In Yesterday’s Post
* The Truth About “Big” Publishers
* Of Interest
In Yesterday’s Post
In yesterday’s post I mentioned that studying only the works of Stage 4 writers who are traditionally published (or were before jumping over to indie) doesn’t fit the current publishing environment.
There are a lot of Stage 4 writers who’ve never had novels or short story collections published through traditional publishers. I’m one of them.
Likewise, there are Stage 3 and even some Stage 2 writers who are best-sellers (and therefore not worth studying) who have been traditionally published by the Big 5 or Big 4 or however many there are now.
The Truth About “Big” Publishers
Fact: I will never encourage any fiction writer to seek a literary agent or submit work to one of the “Big 5” traditional publishers.
Why? Because as not only I, but DWS and many others have said many times,
- many literary agents steal money from their clients outright,
- traditional publishing contracts are openly and blatantly one-sided, and
- there is ample physical evidence that both of those statements are true.
As Dean has said, hiring a literary agent to represent your work is like granting the guy who mows your lawn occasionally 15% of the deed to your property.
In fact, if I were to hire a literary agent for 15% of my advance and/or royalties, I would insist on a clause in the eventual publishing contract that would dictate the publisher send all monies directly to me. Then I would pay the agent’s fee out of that.
This is a reversal of the typical way things are done in that world: Traditionally, the publisher sends the payment to the agent (my employee) and then the agent pays me.
That is bass-ackward. After all, the agent works for the writer, not the other way around.
And as I wrote yesterday, I would personally sell out to a traditional publisher only in exchange for a single, up-front payment of seven figures, and the first figure would have to be greater than 5.
That would suffice, for example, for all rights to my Wes Crowley saga, or maybe the Soleada Garcia or Sam Granger saga. Each of the latter is set in the Blackwell Ops world inside the Blackwell Ops series.
I might also consider selling a stand-alone book or a two-book set for a high six-figure amount.
But I’m also aware that I stand a much better chance of getting struck by actual lightning while sitting in my recliner in the living room of my thick-walled adobe house than of selling anything to a big publisher on my terms.
So I steer clear of big traditional publishers, and I advise you to do the same.
Then again, what’s most important to me is the actual writing. Probably because I’m good at writing fiction; I find it fun, exciting, and soothing; and what I write is strictly up to me.
A Brief Digression
I’m also a child of the ’60s, and admittedly I don’t care about money as much as a normal person does—even a normal person among my generation.
Adrenaline-fueled adventure and living my life are more my thing.
Also, although I endorse and aspire to the ideals held by many of my generation—social justice, world peace (or is that whirled peas?), etc.—I’ve always been firmly rooted in reality.
As a result, I’ve always kept in mind that food, water, and shelter are the big three. Literally everything else is luxury. Including, and maybe especially, being published by a big, glitzy traditional publisher.
Back to Big Publishers
In most cases with “big” traditional publishers, if you don’t agree to grant all rights (outright ownership) of your work to them in exchange for a low (or even non-existent) advance and ridiculously low royalty rates, they won’t publish your work. Period.
The big traditional publishers—all of which are part of faceless corporations reminiscent of the film Idiocracy—have absolutely nothing to lose, so they shamelessly prey on the writer’s need for validation.
And unless your name is Stephen King or Lee Child or James Michener et al—or unless you’re a marketing genius like James Patterson—you don’t matter to big publishers in the slightest.
After all, there are always hundreds or thousands more toddling, groveling aspirants lined up outside the door waiting for the opportunity to give away their work for a pittance. Hell, some of them will even say “Please.”
For that matter, the big traditional publishers don’t even care about your book.
The truth is, once they have all rights to your work, the title goes on their spreadsheet at whatever inflated valuation, taking into account the value of possible ebook, audiobook, film, Netflix series, etc. rights.
At that point the only thing that matters is that the title you once owned now greatly enhances the bottom line of their financial spreadsheet.
That financial bottom line is the publishing giant’s greatest concern, and they quickly forget about you or the book. Actually publishing the book is only a secondary or even tertiary concern.
You’re out of the picture forever, plus they’ll try to make you sign a contract that includes a “non-compete” clause, which means you can’t write anything similar in the future.
And even if they do eventually publish “your” book, they’ll do so with zero publicity, zero marketing, and zero anything else.
Now, whether and how much you personally need or want validation from some twenty-something English-major acquisitions editor is strictly up to you.
It’s none of my business, so by all means do whatever you want.
As for the rest of today’s publishing environment, it’s wide open for any writer.
If you write well, and if you can learn to do book covers and write sales copy, the world is your oyster.
I recommend starting with publication at Draft2Digital and Amazon. That alone will get your work into hundreds of bookstores and libraries world wide in a matter of hours.
Of course, first you have to write.
Of Interest
Cash Streams and Writing Income
Charting Your Course #3: Self-Publish Online (Part 2) This post contains links to three earlier posts in the series. Not vetted.