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FAQs ON WRITING
Caution: Data Dump
Territory for Writers!Pat Elrod's gotten a lot of questions on writing over the years.
Here's her take on a lot of things, including the unvarnished truth about e-publishing.
As with other items on this site everything here is copyrighted. We welcome links. Just write!
Don't be a writing scam victim!
Every day scammers with slick websites and empty promises are defrauding would-be writers out of their money and their dreams.
They have ads in all the major writing magazines, so they *look* legit, but don't fall for their lies. They want your money, not to make sales to publishers.
Your best protection is to learn the basics of the business.
This stuff ain't rocket science,
but the scammers don't want you anywhere near it!The sites below have the information all the pros know.
You want to be a writer? Then check 'em out.
The more you know the safer you'll be!
http://www.authorslawyer.com/ http://www.sfwa.org/beware/
Bookmark & pass them on to your writer friends!
Warning signs of a scammer's website!
Here's a new way to guarantee you won't get published!
An excerpt from the "Writer's Kit"
How a book gets professionally print-published:
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The writer, after a lot of work, writing, re-writing, and proofing--which includes reading "The Elements of Style" by Strunk and White and using the SPELL CHECK--prints out the first 50 pages or first three chapters of her book. |
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These are whole chapters and do not break off in the middle of a line. |
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She PROOFREADS it and gets a friend to proof it. Two sets of eyes are better at spotting typos. |
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The writer sends a copy of this with a brief cover letter to a print publishing house that puts out books similar to the one she wrote. |
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She does not send her romance to a non-fiction house, she does not send her western to a sci-fi house. |
| She absolutely does not send it to any scam agent, E-publisher, subsidy, POD house or try to sell it on eBay. |
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Her sample chapters are addressed to an editor/agent by name, which was obtained by going to the house's website, or phoning the house and asking. "Hello? I need to send mail to the editor in charge of the S/F line at ROC. Could you please give me the correct spelling, I don't need to talk to them." (If you are accidentally connected to that person, keep the call SHORT & just ask for the info you need, say thank you, and hang up. Be polite, professional, & fast. |
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Do not say why you're calling or try to sell the book to them. They're BUSY.) |
| If you get an answering machine, say you were connected by mistake and try to get the switchboard operator again. |
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The writer includes a Self-Addressed Stamped Postcard with "Jane Smith's sample chapters of "Space Operetta" have arrived at ROC (or whatever) printed on it. Editors will drop this into their "out" mail. |
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Alternatively--if trying to find an agent, send the MS to an agent who represents writers who do books similar to yours. Most writers with websites will let you know who reps for them. |
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The writer does not sit on her hands while waiting to hear back from the editor, but continues writing on the next project. |
IDEALLY: (This usually takes place after a weary influx of rejection letters. the writer keeps writing and improving her book after each one. She keeps reading other books about writing to improve her craft.)
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In about 6 weeks (or months) the writer gets a phone call from the editor who expresses interest in seeing the rest of the book. |
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The writer WILL HAVE THE REST OF THE BOOK READY TO SEND. |
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She sends it in. |
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Another long wait..... |
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Then.... THE PHONE CALL. The house wants to buy the book! |
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The writer, after screaming and running around like a lunatic, calls all her friends and relatives to tell them the good news. |
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Another wait, then the contracts arrive. During this time the writer can be shopping for an agent to close the deal. If she's real smart she already has someone lined up for the job. |
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The writer reads the contracts carefully and consults with others about them, always deleting the "joint-accounting" clause. |
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If she doesn't understand something she does sufficient research until she DOES understand it. |
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Once happy with the contract--and this can take awhile, she signs and sends them in. |
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YOW! THE WRITER GETS AN ADVANCE CHECK!!!! |
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She wisely banks half of it in a savings account to cover her taxes for that year or come April 15 she will want to put her head in an oven. She must now fill out a Schedule C form to deduct all expenses associated with her writing business. She will have read books about how to do this. |
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A long wait, then the writer gets the "copy edited" manuscript. It looks like her 5th grade teacher blue penciled it, which is pretty much what's happened. |
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The writer has about 2 weeks to go over this and return it to the editor. |
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She proofs this to make sure she agrees with the editing. If she wants to change things, re-type a page, keep something the same, etc. she uses a different color pen or a pastel colored paper so the editor can easily spot changes. The writer has found books at the library telling her how to do this. She has read those books. |
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Finished, she returns the raw MS and possibly includes a copy of the book on disk or CD, depending on what the editor wants. |
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Another long wait, then the writer gets GALLEY PROOFS. This is the last stage before publishing. These are a Xerox of what the book will look like when it's in print. |
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She PROOFREADS the proofs. This is her last chance to make changes/corrections and find typos. |
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She sends it back. |
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Another long wait, from 18-24 months until the book is released. |
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During this time the WRITER IS WRITING, not sitting on her hands. |
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SHE IS WRITING. |
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Her book is released and she sets up signings, news releases, has a website up, and is hopefully getting good reviews. |
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And all this time she is doing this all over again for the NEXT BOOK. |
Sounds like a lot of work and waiting? Yeah, it is.
But it is SO WORTH IT.
This is how one gets print-published in the real world.
Don't let any E-publisher, POD, vanity press, pay-to-read agent or "book doctor" tell you different. You will see tempting ads in writing magazines and on TV telling you different. But magazines & TV need ad money, so ignore the temptation or it will cost you cash and future opportunities.
A real print-publishing house does not have to advertise to get writers to come to them.
The only publishers that are actively trying to invite you in will only try to clean out your bank account.
Repeat the pro-writer's mantra:
"The money flows to me...the money flows to me...."
Anything else is a rip off.
FAQs on Writing, Publishing, and E-rips
Ever wonder why 99% of books are rejected? Here's one take.
ELROD'S FAQS ON WRITING
You write too slow! I want MORE Jack Fleming stories! Can I do some myself for a fanzine or an e-site? I'm not doing it for money or anything like that....
Sorry, that’s a no, and VERY big, hairy, most-stinky important NO!
It is called copyright infringement and there are terrible penalties and fines for getting caught. I know you want to do it, but in the long run only I can write a Jack Fleming story. Anyone else doing it and taking it to even amateur publication will be sued. Not my idea—the publisher’s.
If I didn’t sue, then Ace would sue ME! I don't want to sue anyone, ever, but there is a clause in nearly every writer’s basic contract on this very thing. The publishers are really hard-assed about it. They do NOT care if you're making no money from it and only do it for love. These are LAWYERS fer cryin' out loud!
If you have any ambition to be a writer, then you DON’T want to risk this.
This is why I'm humbly asking fan writers to please include me out.
I'm honored you like my work so much, but I DON'T want anyone to get into trouble over it!
And one more VERY IMPORTANT POINT:
PLEASE do not copy and paste pages of any author's books up on your own websites or blogs. Even if you give the writer credit for the excerpt doing so is a copyright violation.
There is such a thing as "fair use" and you can use short quotes here and there, but copying out whole pages of a book just ain't cricket. The fair use thing is for reviews and such, but please don't abuse it.
Besides--whatever you might use could be considered a SPOILER! Maybe you really love a particular section out of a favorite book, but fans who haven't read it yet won't thank you for spilling the beans on a key scene.
Don't you just hate it when someone gives away the truth behind the Maltese Falcon? Or shouts out what Rosebud really means? Or lets slip the big secret about Norman Bates?
Please, be polite and let people enjoy finding out those things in their own!
Wait a sec--YOU wrote fanfic!
Indeed I did once upon a time waaaaay back in the 80-90s when I didn't know any better. No one told me what a risk I was taking!
But I learned about copyright, and I don't write it any more, enjoyable as it is. I was very, very lucky. I didn't get caught, I didn't get sued, and I am extremely grateful for that. If I'd been prosecuted for it there would have been NO Vampire Files or any of the other books. That's why now I try to let young writers know what they're risking and encourage them to make up their own universes to write about.
That little disclaimer in the front of most zines "we intend no copyright infringement" cuts no ice with lawyers; it is their job to make your life a misery.
I usually hear that as an automatic defense from fanzine writers/publishers and some actually believe it will protect them from prosecution. But the hard truth is that if the owners of any given copyright ever decide to go after the violators, said violators will be toast. (The badly charred kind.) I've seen it happen.
It doesn't matter that you're doing it for love, not money.
Once you’ve been accused of plagiarism and/or copyright infringement NO legitimate publishing house will want to see anything you write.
A pen name won’t save you, nor will appeals about First Amendment Rights. This is not about Freedom of Speech, it's about people stealing and using something that doesn't belong to them. There are whole sections on "intellectual properties" protected by copyright.
The extreme case cautionary tale is still going around about two women (Dawn & Susan Hartzell writing as Pauline Dunn) who ripped off Dean Koontz's Phantoms, lifting the plot and whole passages and putting them into their books, which they sold to Zebra back in the 90's. They got caught. (Well, d'oh!)
They had to give back the advance money and buy a full page ad in Publisher's Weekly (which costs thousands) to publicly apologize. (Trust me--they got off light.) That was back in the 90's--in ALL that time I've not heard of them selling anything else ever again, at least to a professional print house under their pen name. Now this was an over the top case of "WHAT were they THINKING???" --- but you can see the consequences just ain't worth it!
Besides--how did you feel the last time you were victimized by a thief? Pretty rotten, isn't it?
So be safe.
Make up your own universe and play in it. It’s a LOT more fun than my or anyone else's used backyard. Write the kind of stories YOU want to read. That’s how my career got started!
ANOTHER REASON NEVER TO SELF-PUBLISH:
Waterstone's Experiments with Carrying Self-Published Books
POD self-publisher, "Broomstick-Up-The-Arse House," has announced an exclusive promotional relationship with the UK's Waterstone's that offers participants a guarantee that a single Oxford Street location of the bookseller will stock three copies of participants' books for "up to eight weeks." The service costs "only 700 pounds" and the site declares, "placement on bookseller shelves is something even the biggest publishing houses can not guarantee a new author."
Pat's Rant: Crunch the numbers, my pretties: 700.00 pounds (about 1200.US$) to get you in ONE bookstore, to sell THREE books (maybe) for, oh, say, a 2-4.00 royalty on each? Someone needs to report these guys as bald-faced thieves or I should invest in them. Service? Service!!!???? This is nothing less than paying to get robbed or worse. (Hence my pseudonym for the "house".)
In case you're wondering, yes, there will be some desperate writers stupid enough to do it! Think a mere three buyers *might* will talk these titles onto the best-seller lists? Give me a call, I've got some Arizona swamp land you have GOT to check out! In the meantime the POD house--who has the lion's share of that money--is laughing all the way to the bank.
What's with that "don't sell your book on eBay" limit? Sounds like a good idea to me!
Only if you're into wacky comedy relief.
Editors and publishers don't cruise eBay listings looking for future best-sellers up for sale. Trust me on this, they are steadily plowing through the manuscripts that have been sent to them by writers who are serious about getting published. Selling on eBay to them simply says "completely clueless amateur" or worse, "mental case."
I've seen a few of these idiotic and absolutely useless attempts. They'd been printed out and passed around the bar, and all the editors and writers there had a shrieking good laugh, declaring it way more entertaining than the Karaoke show.
How much does it cost to get a book published?
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!! You pay for your own paper, postage, and photocopying of your manuscript before you send it to a publisher, but that's all.
IF A PUBLISHER BUYS YOUR BOOK, THE PUBLISHER PAYS YOU MONEY!
THAT'S HOW IT WORKS!
NEVER ever pay anyone to publish, read or print your book!!!
Some self-styled publishing houses (especially e-houses and subsidy publishers) give the impression that paying to get into print is the norm and how it's done, but those are vanity houses who put this LIE about so THEY can get your money. (More on this theme below....) DON'T USE THEM!
And don't use the ones who promise you an "advance." There is a most notoriously awful web publisher who gives writers a one-dollar "advance." (This house is on SFWA's "not recommended" list.) Neos and others who didn't bother to do any research buy into this scam, thinking "Hey, I got an advance, that makes me a pro, right??"
Well, that one dollar just guaranteed the house that the victim--I mean writer--will be buying copies of her own book for 1000's of dollars. This house and others are listed in SFWA's "Editors & Predators" page. Steer clear of these publishing leaches! http://www.sfwa.org/Beware/epublishers.html
Always assume that an e-house IS trying to rip you off. This sounds unfair, but the sad fact is the e-publishing tank is full of money-hungry predators hoping to clean you out. I've seen it happen again and again and happening to supposedly intelligent people. Their mistake? They were impatient to get into print or ignorant of the real publishing process. Avoid being a victim by learning the business. It ain't rocket science. If *I* was able to figure it out, then anyone can!
How much does it cost to get an agent?
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!! A reputable agent will only collect his or her fee -- from 10 to 15% of the advance -- AFTER the book has sold.
NEVER USE a fee-charging agent!! You want an agent out selling your book, not one sitting on his duff waiting for your check to clear and having a good laugh at the easy money he just got from you! (They will usually have a number of interesting excuses why your book's not selling. More below!)
I’m writing this really good vampire book. Will you please read it and tell me what you think?
Sorry, no, that’s an editor’s job.
Absolutely do NOT send any professional writer anything you've written. We're too busy! Such things are deleted unread. (If you're lucky. If not then we'll print it out and read the juicier passages aloud at convention panels for a laugh. I've seen it happen.)
If I said yes to everyone who wanted my feedback on their novel/short story/idea I would have no time to write my own, couldn’t pay my rent, then me and my dogs would be living in my car until it died, then we’d drag our starving bodies to your door and fall down gasping and ask if you could please spare us some food….you get the idea. It’s just too embarrassing.
There are a number of ways to get feedback for free; honest friends who also write are your most valuable asset. DO NOT send you book off to any freelance "book doctor" (see more below) or some website reader service offering critiques for money. They're just looking for an easy way to get out of having a real job.
You CAN look into services offered by real print house publishers. Harlequin Publishing will do this FOR A FEE, but at least you know whoever reads your work is in the real world publishing industry. You can check the details at
http://www.eharlequin.com/cms/learntowrite/ltwSection.jhtml?itcType=critiqued
Apparently your book doesn't have to be a romance, but that's the genre they're familiar with; you can check other publishing houses to see if they have a similar service. Harlequin is very active in supporting new writers, more so than any other house I've seen. They ain't perfect, but who is? Check out their online writing course, it's free!
http://www.eharlequin.com/cms/learntowrite/ltwToc.jhtml
Yes, I know. It's eHarlequin and I have a fine rant against e-books below. However, this subsidiary is with a huge print publishing house, not some kitchen table production run by an inexperienced unpublished greedster looking to take your money.
I will give you a tip: Don’t give up your day job until you’re making a steady living at being a writer…and even then! (Writers rarely have benefits like health insurance, dental plans, etc. and they have to pay extra self-employment taxes and other fun stuff.)
If you meet a writer at a convention resist the temptation to tell her all about your book. That writer would much rather be sitting in the bar visiting with friends.
Absolutely DO NOT send me your fanfic or any idea for a novel you think I should write, either! You'll just annoy me.
DON'T put your book up on the web for all to see.
How do I learn to be a writer? Do I have to take classes? http://www.sfwa.org/writing/
The site above has EXCELLENT advice. Go there. Absorb.
Becoming a writer is an individual journey, like becoming a painter. Classes probably won't hurt, but you only use what works for you.
Read everything, especially read books OUTSIDE of the genre you want to write in. That helps you develop your own "voice," and it makes you real, real smart.
Get a copy of Strunk and White's Elements of Style. It's a skinny book found on every writer's desk. Read it and keep it on your desk.
Read the 808 section of your library. I did.
Start writing. A lot. Every day. Don't stop. Ever. As Joe Bob Briggs says, "What you write doesn't matter, it's the practice that matters."
Hooray! I just finished my novel and am posting it on the 'Net for a Big Time editor to spot!
As my friend Rachel Caine says, "Posting your novel on the 'Net in the hopes that a big-time editor will see it is like writing the perfect resume and then tacking it to the front door of your house, hoping your future boss will walk by."
Reality check: Big Time editors don't have TIME to surf the Net looking for talent. The talent goes to them. You wanna be published? Go through the proper channels as outlined above. It's the Way Things Work!
Besides--why should they buy the cow when you've already given the milk away? D'oh!
Another "D'oh" -- As we have sadly learned, there are thieves on the 'Net! They might like your work so much that they copy it and claim it to be their own. Heck, they could even send it in to a publisher with their name on it!
I got word from one of my long-time writer buds that an erstwhile fan scanned and copied portions of her novels, changed the characters' names, and put it up on a website, claiming authorship. All I can think is that the fan was mental, because this writer is very well known and has many readers. One of those fans--seeking reading material in the genre--found this rip-artist's site and passed the news to the writer's webmistress. She contacted the site's ISP server and got the thief shut down in an eye blink. She does periodic searches in case this person tries to pull this stunt again.
Fandom is a very small community and fans tend to read the same things. Sooner or later someone's going to spot a theft and report it.
In this age where piracy is just too easy, it is more important than ever that we respect copyrights. The ISP's and others fully understand this and go after violators to protect themselves from prosecution. But there's virtually no protection against you getting ripped off by some thief. Some of these disputes devolve into pointless "she-said/she-said" sniping matches. Don't kid yourself, there are a lot of strange and willfully stupid people out there who see nothing wrong in copying stuff off the Net, so be smart about how you get your feedback, then send your book to a check-writing editor at a print house.
What do you think of E-Publishing?
Check out these sites. I agree with them:
http://www.sfwa.org/Beware/epublishers.html and...
http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2005/01/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about.asp
Neil Gaiman's site has a lot of great links to places that will teach you what you need to know about this business. It's also full of many "don't do this" cautionary tales from the garage sale that is self-publishing.
I like E-book royalties, but if you only sell 10 books, they’re not a wage-earner. I live off my earnings as a writer. I need those print house sales and advances.
New writers have a choice of getting a few bucks in royalties a year (IF they're lucky) from an E-book...
or a minimum of a four-figure advance from a print house!!
Crunch the numbers, people--this is a no-brainer!
The time I would have to use publicizing an E-book in order to make a living from its sale would take away writing time from other books.
The only time I would use an E-publisher is for an out-of-print title that should be in print again. (So far that's not happened to me, knock wood).
If I ever submitted an original title to such a house the manuscript will have been workshopped thoroughly and gone over by a professional print house editor that I paid to bring it up to their level of quality. Why? Because most e-publishers DON'T EDIT! I've seen fanzines with better editing! They know how to use the spell & grammar check, among other things!
I would also not expect to make any money from that e-title, either, so obviously it's a "spare time" kind of book that I did just for fun.
Never expect an original e-book to be taken seriously by the print publishing industry, nor will it garner you the same respect that a print book gets.
E-houses are great for print-published authors to put their out-of-print titles back in front of eager new readers.
I will NEVER recommend E-Publishing to FIRST TIME writers!
These are folks who are the most in need of an experienced editor who has read the Chicago Manual of Style. I saw an E-house whose chief editor was the house owner's own dear mum who had taught 6th-grade English for 40 years. Though she was probably a very nice person, she's NOT my idea of a qualified writing industry professional.
You want YOUR novel to go through a proper editing/publishing process, get into bookstores, and earn you money.
If you think you're a "professional writer" just because a non-fee charging E-house or Print On Demand publisher accepts your book, forget it. That's like joining a neighborhood watch program and acting like you're on a level with a US Marine. It doesn't work that way no matter what your kindly friends and the TV/magazine ads and the e-publishing websites tell you.
The industry is gradually changing, but for now a print-published writer with a single book on the racks is going to garner more respect, interest, and sales than an E-writer with 20 titles. Deal with it.
The current industry subtext for an E-published author is, "If you're such a good writer, why weren't you able to it sell to a print house?"
E-books are a trap to a neo thinking this is how you "break in." There are many houses on the Net who give this impression in their ads. It is a LIE. Repeat that to yourself. Several times. You break in by SELLING something.
This LIE was perpetrated on a friend of mine who thought this was how publishing worked. She honestly thought--because of ads in writing magazines, etc. that play on a writer's hopes rather than the realities of the industry--that you had to pay to get published. She went with it. Yes, she sold a few copies of her book, but not enough to impress anyone due to poor distribution.
Good grief, even Stephen King's Riding the Bullet tanked on the Net so far as sales are concerned, and then he later put it into print. If a BIG NAME like King can't make it, then there's little reason for a neo to waste their time and effort. The E-publishers will get their money from the writers buying copies of their own books!
There are still more people who like to go into a bookstore and browse there for a print book than surf the Net. Not everyone has a computer!
This writer friend also darn-near choked when she learned what the average advance was for a print novel. She not only had to buy a minimum number of overpriced copies of her book, but her rights for that book are now tied up for the next few years. She can't resell it to a print house until those revert back to her again.
Another writer friend put some of her out-of-print titles with a Print-on-Demand house. Now she has an offer from a print publisher to get them back into the bookstores, but again, her rights are tied up. It gets worse: The POD house went belly up and the legalities of getting her rights back are snarled in bankruptcy proceedings.
Most print houses at this time look on an E-published novel as having been "in print" already, so they generally don’t want to buy even a successful "reprint." Crazy, but that’s how it is right now.
Any POD or E-publisher who charges fees will have slick, tempting ads and promise get you "in print." This is like a lapdancer's game. So long as you have money she will feed your ego and perform.
At a fee-charging house so long as YOU pay them money they will tell you you're a great writer. AVOID FEE-CHARGING HOUSES!
Repeat the pro writer's mantra: "The money flows to me....the money flows to ME..."
NEVER, ever PAY anyone to E-publish your book. Any way you look at it--you lose!
What's POD, and why are you so down on them?
POD stands for Print On Demand, which is a good idea. It means the publisher only prints a book that has actually been bought and paid for by a single reader. This means no warehouses full of unsold books and no huge investment for the publisher. I think it's great to save the trees this way, but too often POD also means a publisher getting rich on the unwary. Their slick ads in writing magazines and on TV make it appear that THIS is what professional writers do to make an end run around the scary, all-controlling machine of the print publishing houses. Or worse--they imply that THIS IS what writers do to get published, period. (NOT!)
The fact is, the customers the POD (and fee-charging e-houses) target are the new/inexperienced writers eager to get published who are intimidated by or ignorant of the professional publishing process. The POD and other kinds of subsidy houses play on that insecurity and they are getting filthy rich from it.
I got one of their invitation letters the other day. Clearly they were clueless that I was print published and have been for 14+ years. It was a form letter, and it was a beaut.
It looked very professional, cast in the style of an invitation--as though they'd heard that the writer was on the verge of publication. Most flattering to a starving ego! Clearly they got the mailing list from a writing magazine I subscribed to; I subsequently canceled my subscription.
The "publisher" waved a very tempting set of figures, claiming to have published over 8,000 titles in their house AND they've paid their writers--oops, make that authors-- over ONE MILLION dollars in royalties! Wow. That's a pile of--er--cash, huh?
Until you do a basic number-crunch. Just divide one million by 8000, and that averages 126.00 in royalties paid per book.
THAT stinks!
Of course, some books will sell better than others, but even dividing a million by 2000 means that, say, a quarter of their writers might make a whole 500.00 off their book. In reality, it's not even that good. Some writers might sell 10 books a year, others a hundred, but the pay is still lousy.
Print-published writers, depending on whether they go to a small or large press can expect an advance of $2,500-6,000 from their 1st book sale!
The e-books's 500.00 is a sucky return for a project that's taken 1-2 years of your time to complete. And that 500.00 is spread out over the course of a couple of years if your book sells, but--hey! --you get your NAME on a book cover! You want it that bad, I'll be glad to design a book cover for you, slap your name on it and kick out a shiny new cover flat from my printer so you can show it to family and friends. And I'll do it for only 200.00! [Kidding!]
I went to this POD site to see what they charged the would-be writers--uh--authors.
Something they called "Basic Service" --they were NOT too terribly clear what that meant, putting your book up on their website, I guess--costs 500.00. Well, okay, you break even if you sell enough, right? If you want something fancier the prices go up in 500$ increments. I'm still not sure what the service was, but have to be honest, I was laughing too hard to get a good look at the fine print.
And then--because you want YOUR book to have a "professional finish"--they are now offering full time copy editing services by their very own full time (and nameless) copy editors. I entered a fake name and title (and credit card number) along with a word count for a bogus opus of 100,000 words to see what this cost. They were most happy to charge a whopping 1,000.00 for their service. Wow, a dollar for every hundred words, is that a bargain or what?
Not really--a legit print publisher does this for free as part of the process of getting you into print.
So the cost of the mysterious "Basic" + copy editing = 1,500.00. Keep your day job. You'll want money to support this project.
Compare that to a print house advance--which will SEND YOU A CHECK worth more than 1,500.00.
Let's talk royalties again.
A royalty is a percentage of the book's cover price. Example: a 21.00 print hardcover with a 12% royalty means 2.52 goes to the writer for each one sold.
A 6.99 paperback with a 6% royalty = .41 for each and so on.
So this POD house gives a 25% royalty for trade paperbacks sold from their site. They give 10% on books sold through a bookseller--who's most unlikely to carry a POD book anyway, so I'm assuming this might be through a seller like Amazon. E-books are sold for a flat 8.00 and you get to keep 4.00 of that. If you sell any. Assume you won't. Mr. S. King sure didn't get rich on e-book sales.
This "publisher's" standard royalty is around 5.50. Sounds great, it means if you sell 411 copies you've made a profit!! Put that 1.88 left over in your savings--you'll need it come April 15th. Better hope your family's bigger than the Osmonds and that they don't mind making pity-buys of copies of your book the way they do Girl Scout cookies for the younger cousins so the little ones don't cry.
Now you've read the ugly truth about subsidy and POD publishing.
For the writer it's a big fat rip off from any angle.
With FEW exceptions, the only one who makes money at it is the publisher--busily collecting as much cash as you care to send him.
What would you do to make E-publishing more acceptable?
Have them pay writers a real advance and hire talented, experienced editors who can spot good writing when they see it. When a house has money invested in a writer it sends a message to the potential book-buyer that a novel is likely worth reading! They know the book has gone through a proper editing process and that the publisher is willing to risk money on this writer in the hope of making a profit and earning prestige for their discovery of a new writing talent.
Unfortunately for many would-be writers, (and readers!) the E-publishers know they can turn a better profit by accepting any and all material coming their way. The lion's share of sales money goes to them, which easily covers the yearly cost of maintaining a website and buying the right kind of software to download books.
Just about anyone with basic computer skills can open a "Publishing House" on the Net. Writers who are more anxious to get their name on a book cover than in writing something worth a print publisher's money will always find a home with them and don't those e-houses know it.
Remember, ANYONE can open an on-line publishing house for the price of the software and website space.
Just like anyone can hold a garage sale.
And what do you find at garage sales? The crap no one else wants.
Treasures are the exception not the rule. Investigate a few dozen of these sites and see what they have in common that send up your red alert flags. (Charging reading fees, holding contests where YOU pay THEM money, charging editing fees, no editing at all, etc.) You don't want to deal with them.
I periodically browse the larger, long-established houses, checking to see if things are improving. But when I read cover blurbs (uncorrected by the indifferent publisher) that are full of typos, word repetitions, clumsy sentence structure, basic punctuation and grammatical errors, and just plain stinky writing, I am NOT inclined to read farther unless in a masochistic mood.
I printed a sample page from one book for my writer's group as an example of how NOT to write! That publisher just proved to me they're in it for the money and don't care a hoot about their product, whether it's any good, or helping writers improve their skills. You send them the ingredient list off a bottle of catsup as your new "novel" and they'll put it into print.
Check out the now famous "Atlanta Nights" incident, where 20+ writers each wrote a novel chapter (purposely trying to be as bad as possible) then sent the lot in to Publish America, unedited. ("At Publish America if you don't buy your book no one will!" - Ed Williams. See more on PA here.) The book was initially accepted and the writer, "Travis Tea" (travesty-get it?) was about to sign a contract and get a ONE DOLLAR as an advance!
Oops! PA found out about the hoax and canceled everything. Read for yourself--it's a hoot!
http://critters.critique.org/sting/
Don't send to a "publisher" whose site says "your book will be available at bookstores" which REALLY means if a customer special orders your title, the store will order it.
"Being available" is NOT the same as having it in stock.
I'm absolutely "available" to star in the next Harry Potter film, but that's not the same as actually getting cast!
Don't send anything to a "publisher" who promises to "respect" your manuscript. This translates as no editing at all!
Every writer needs editing, because you can never catch all the typos and goofs or anything else that can go wrong. Again, the publisher is either incompetent or lazy, doesn't really care about helping your career, and can't wait for your next check to clear. Again, they make much of their money off of writers who order copies of their own books. (See the above rant on POD houses.)
And we've all seen the IBM commercial where the stodgy professor is one-upped by the earnest student who tells him that thanks to Print on Demand technology *everyone* can get published!
Think about it. Everyone can get published. That can be a remarkably bad idea. I'm all in favor of free speech, but raise your hand if you've ever read a laughably gawdawful book? Hmm. That's all of you. Yup. Uh-huh. My point exactly. I weep for the slaughtered trees.
Wait a second--YOU'RE selling e-stories! What makes that any different from an e-publisher?
Those stories for sale on the index page are REPRINTS. They were sold first to professional print publishing houses and were put under the eye of a real editor. Someone actually paid me for their "First North American Serial Rights" as it says on the contracts. Once sold and in print I get the rights back to re-sell as I please, either to another publisher wanting a story for a collection or directly to a reader as a PDF file.
Those rights have reverted to me, and since in the last few years the stories have not been earning any revenue I decided to let Mystik Merchant resell them on an individual basis. Many readers have missed these tales, so now they have a chance to download their own copy. You need a PDF reader like Acrobat 5 to read them.
But the initial fact that makes these sales different from an e-house: I got paid for writing the stories in the first place!
Woo hoo! I found an agent willing to read my book. But he wants a reading fee. Is this normal?
Yes--for rip-off artists! Run away from this one. Fast! Warn off your friends!
NEVER, EVER PAY an agent to read your book. A legitimate literary agent will charge you a fee—usually 10 - 15% of the advance—only AFTER they’ve sold your novel.
Fee-charging agents are to be avoided at all times! The general scam—and it is a scam—is to tell writers "You’re good, but your book needs polishing, I know a "Book Doctor" who can fix you right up." Then you pay THIS person a fee—it can run into the thousands, more than any advance you'd get—to "fix" your book. THEN the " agent" might say afterwards that he can’t sell the book and offer a number of creative excuses.
In the meantime he and the "doctor" have split your money and are having a nice vacation. There are several horror stories--all true--on the SFWA website listed below. Think it won't happen to you? Think again. One of these bottom feeders scammed over 5 million from eager wannabe writers who didn't know any better! Don't be a victim!
What IS a book doctor, anyway? (More info at http://sfwa.org/beware/bookdoctors.html
He or she is a person supposedly experienced in multi-levels of publishing and editing who can read and proof your book, offer a critique, basic feedback or even a whole re-write. They charge a fee for this, anywhere from several hundred to several thousand dollars. The latter amount will likely far exceed any advance you could expect from a publisher. The fairest rate I've seen was a dollar per page.
There are legit book doctors, but check their credentials. Many of them are NOT published! Or they might have one POD book or an E-book out and be claiming to know-all about the world of publishing. Or they sold one obscure title a dozen years ago. You don't want to deal with them. They just want your autograph on a big check.
I saw a sad case once--the "writer" had a single E-book up at a site, and now considered himself to be such a seasoned professional that he'd set up his very own "manuscript services site," which included book doctoring for a hefty fee. He might have a thriving business going, I don't know. I had a grim laugh over the painfully glaring grammatical errors in the ad-copy--not to mention the ones in the book! (I read from the sample chapter on the e-book site and winced.) Oh, yeah the victims, I mean, customers of this "writer/editor" were also e-published. Talk about the blind leading the blind! I doubt he ever heard of The Elements of Style, or if he had, then the book was limited to being decorating ambiance for the old office.
Think I'm being harsh? Hardly. I just hate seeing a rip-off in progress. I AM being kind by not dropping the address of this site.
One thing to remember is that a good, experienced writer who is qualified to be a book doctor will be busy WRITING, not trying to fix other people's works!
Ditto for a good editor.
Some legitimate, trained, successful writers and editors might free-lance as book doctors, in which case they will let potential clients KNOW about their list of credentials and references and published titles. ("Jane Smith worked five years as assistant editor for Random House and served a two-year apprenticeship at Tor..." "John Jones has 22 mystery novels in print with Mystery Ink....")
A "doctor" with a business degree from Harvard who took Composition 101 in his freshman year is not qualified for the job. Ditto for anyone with the nicely vague "has an English degree from Whosis College." I know someone who teaches college English, but he doesn't know how to edit.
Beware of "doctors" who tell you you're the next John Grisham. Even editors who have been in the business for decades can't predict that sort of thing! Excessive praise usually means a scam is running and you're the mark!
It is up to you to CHECK credentials. Call up the references in question and ask if they know who the book doctor is. Oh, yeah--get the contact number from the house's site, not the book doctor's or you could be talking to a shill. Beware of helpful editing services that omit the editor's credentials. There's usually a reason for this. There aren't any!
A legit editor or agent won't be afraid to steer you toward success stories of writers who got print published with his or her help. Those names will be writers you can contact and you can ask how they liked the doctor's help. If their titles are all E-published, from a vanity press, or POD, then give the "doctor" a pass. You want someone who actually got PAID for their writing!
I didn't know about book doctors when I started out. I couldn't have afforded one, anyway! In seeking feedback for myself, I asked friends (and they were VERY brave) to read and comment on my first novel. Several picked out the same weakness each time, so I fixed the problem, then started sending the MS off. It worked out.
You can also try a local writers group for feedback. It helps if there are at least a few print-published writers in the group! Beware of touchy-feely groups who LOVE everything or shark tanks with critics who delight in shredding stuff to make themselves look clever.
A good critique is more than "Yuk, I hated that!" It will offer an explanation of why something didn't work, then a possible solution. ("You know, Mr. Dickens, chopping off the hero's head in the first paragraph just didn't work for me. I think it needs more of a dramatic build, then slam dunk the whole guillotine thing home at the END of the book! What d'ya think?")
Beware of "authors" in a group who have a POD or E-book out and think they're at the top of the food chain because of it. I've seen many of this type at writing groups and at conventions. It's really hard for me to keep a straight face in front of them.
Again--if they're so good at writing, why didn't they make a sale to a print house? (Brace yourself, some of the reasons cited are usually way more entertaining than their book!)
If you want the whole low-down on all levels of E-publishing go to the SWFA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America) website. Especially THIS section: www.sfwa.org/Beware/ You will learn a LOT! Not all E-houses or book doctors are bad, but there are enough rip-off places in the industry to make it seem so. Tread carefully! Always read the fine print at least five times. Then get a friend to read it. Then send to a print house first.
If you think it's tough to break in, you're right, but it's not impossible. My first novel was sold right off Ace's slush pile!