Book publishing questions

Collapse

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • #46
    Re: Book publishing questions

    Disagree with what? I was simply copying the figures from an old contract (c.1995). At the time this was pretty standard in terms of rates and royalties. I mean, do I have to scan it and print it out to make you believe it's real?

    Comment


    • #47
      Re: Book publishing questions

      Intresting thread..

      Bought a few how to write novels and get published books a ways back (a few years ago) and it can be a daunting industry writing fiction and getting published..

      I remember once thinking I'd have a go and then I decided to lay back down on the sofa and go back to sleep..

      I've since written a bunch of screenplays, shorts and features and developed some as a writer but the business side of publishing and screenwriting can be a minefield..

      As a writer in whatever field you can definately develop a larger a-hole than you had before simply because some greedy so-and-so screwed you..

      Interesting reading everybody's comments, though.. I too have had to buy some hardcopies on occasion and felt like I was duped into doing so and paid over the odds..

      I was given the SONY PRS-505 Reader for a birthday present.. I stupidly thought I'd be able to read PDF screenplays on it but it's screensize dimension being as small as it is then it doesn't lend well for reading screenplays.

      Most of these electronic readers are ok for reading PDFs with resizable fonts embedded in the PDF but try and download a scanned script in PDF format to the reader and the page will only display at full size.. The scanned scripts won't resize because they basically contain embeded graphics for each page and these readers require PDF files with resizable fonts to resize.

      Reading a PDF script produced with Final Draft and or Movie Magic Screenwriter the script will contain resizable embedded fonts but in order to see anything one needs to zoom in to a portion of the script just so the text is legible.. Sure you can see a full page but it resembles more like a postage stamp than anything else..

      Commercially produced Ebooks tend to reduce the page size to make the page and font size conducive for the small reader which in turn makes the reading experience similar to that of page in a book and you can program and save book marks to return to particular pages in the reader feels so inclined but electonic readers are way off the experience of emulating the same experience reading an actual book in your hands..

      The jury's still out on these eBook Readers for me.. Maybe I should have invested in one of those Kindle Electronic Readers, the models with the larger LCD displays which can display a full script page and still be legible..

      I did recieve 100 eBooks, all the classics FREE, which came bundled on CD-ROM with the Sony Reader product so at least I now have no excuse to say I've never read any of these classics.. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein anybody?

      Comment


      • #48
        Re: Book publishing questions

        Reading the classics is the first step in learning how to become a novelist, Kevan. Knowing how to read is really what being a writer of novels is all about.

        And don't be daunted or feel duped about buying hardcovers, especially of authors who don't sell in the hundreds of thousands. You're making someone like me feel very happy when we see our royalty statements!

        Comment


        • #49
          Re: Book publishing questions

          Originally posted by Jake Schuster View Post
          Reading the classics is the first step in learning how to become a novelist, Kevan. Knowing how to read is really what being a writer of novels is all about.
          This thought crossed my mind.. Now you've confirmed this I shall read more of these.. After all, its shameful I haven't already..

          I have read a bunch mind, just not all.. I'll rectify that.. Wish I'd done this before my eyes went South..

          Originally posted by Jake Schuster View Post
          And don't be daunted or feel duped about buying hardcovers, especially of authors who don't sell in the hundreds of thousands. You're making someone like me feel very happy when we see our royalty statements!
          Well, I've bought a few here and there and as long as the author gets a decent share of the profit then that's a good thing... I'll remember that for next time..

          Comment


          • #50
            Re: Book publishing questions

            Thank you, Kevan. And if you want a good reading list of what classics any writer worth his or her salt should read, shoot me an email and I'll get that out to you.

            Comment


            • #51
              Re: Book publishing questions

              Originally posted by ComicBent View Post
              Hey, Jake, I'll ask you and anybody else.

              All those fantasy novels ... huge tomes with strange pictures on the cover showing alien worlds or bad dreams straight from the id or whatever ... Are any of those books really worth reading?

              My question is a serious one. I have flipped through them time and time again, and I just always end up asking myself, "Would I really want to invest the time?"

              I am open to information.
              At its best, the science fiction and fantasy genre explores new ideas, attacks social issues (often allegorically), provides a sense of wonder, examines the human condition, etc. For instance, all those books about elves and other strange races are a great way to make statements about race relations (okay, some of the books are just fun stories about sexy guys/gals with pointy ears ).

              If you're not into books set in worlds other than the one we live in, you may not like most SFF, because many of the novels move the story into the future or off-world or into a completely unfamiliar fantasy world in order to say whatever they'd like to say.

              There are plenty of science fiction and fantasy novels out there with great writing, characterization, plots, etc. This is true even of SFF novels that aren't asking hard questions. There are also plenty that aren't worth your time.

              If the books appeal to you, they're worth reading. If not, they're not. Same as any other genre.
              "Your intuition knows what to write, so get out of the way.-
              ― Ray Bradbury

              Comment


              • #52
                Re: Book publishing questions

                I just purchased an e-book from Electron Press this morning, and I'm almost done reading it. It's really good. Edgy and crass and funny, about the underbelly of L.A., addicts and drunks and pimps and whores and whack jobs, with the protag just living one day at a time and recounting his adventures in a plotless manner, adventures which mostly involve getting drunk, looking for small jobs, jerking off in the shower, trying to get laid, trying to find gigs as a bass player in really loud bands, and trying to supplement his income with a bit of drug dealing. Kind of the flip side of the Brett Easton Ellis world, the same screw-ups but from the other side of the tracks. The characters and the language really jump off the page.

                I assume the author tried a more conventional route to publication first and couldn't gain any traction with agents, which is a damn shame cause I think something like this could totally find a niche in the wider marketplace. I can't believe nobody was interested. Anyway, it's good to know there are other options.

                The book cost 6 bucks and I had it downloaded as a PDF file seconds after I purchased it. Sweet.

                Now back to it.

                It's called Highland Avenue in case anyone is interested.

                Comment


                • #53
                  Re: Book publishing questions

                  Royalties vary greatly. Back in 1997 the WGA and the Authorsguild did a study to see what the percentage of submitted materials gets published versus a feature or tv flick. They found a rough average going by 1997 numbers that 1 in 70,000 entertainment was the odds of seeing a movie or tv show of a media literary format while for Trade Paperback fiction interestingly enough, the ratio exceeded over 1 in 1,000,000

                  What is interesting about now versus then is with the emergence of many Ebook readers and the standards of PDF format, the EBook market is actually taking off bigtime. Many major publishers are scramblking now to convert or publish existing and newer titles on their rosters to Ebook. This poses though a major problem for them. It places the existing publisher at a tremendous disadvantage, because they have to sell their product with overhead costs as to where an author selling through many avenues independently has almost zero overhead cost.

                  The main disadvantage here that authors on mainstream distribution sites can undercut the major publisher and their authors quite a bit. While many will bite on the bigger name, they may well read a few sample chapters and the newer independent author then finds a following of newer readers. So the landscape for authors actually has never been this good.

                  Ebook Publishers. Also, many newer publishers are seriously looking for all the newer authors they can get. They average around 13 to about 22 percent royalties and vary greatly. That is generally a little better than a paper book royalty, but my ply is why settle for that when you could keep 100 percent of the royalty that you have can earn from sales? There are also many advertising sites across the net if getting word of your work out remains an issue and eventually since Ebooks have no shelf life which paperbacks do (usually about two months shelf life), again this places all traditional publishers at a disadvantage. More and more authors are choosing to go independent and many with decent results too as they find new followings. One disadvantage though to beware and I have heard this recently at our California writers club is that when authors sign contracts with Ebook publishers and then the publisher goes bust, they can take your book writes too. You must always make sure that the legal contract with a publisher has "reversion" rights so if they croak, they don't make your work choke forever leaving you without your hard earned title you authored.

                  Hope this helps.

                  Comment


                  • #54
                    Re: Book publishing questions

                    Originally posted by Rantanplan View Post
                    It seems to me that getting rid of hardcover books would be a great place to start. Who needs them? Sure they look nice on a library shelf, but mostly they just make the cost of publishing a book a hell of a lot higher and most people much prefer paperback anyway. Plus, the higher the cost of producing a book, the less willing a publisher to take chances on new authors.

                    I vote for a worldwide ban on hardcover for all contemporary fiction. Save that for special box set type stuff, like a lovely leather bound edition of the complete work of Mark Twain or something.

                    Let's face it, most novels are like most films, consumed once and then instantly forgotten, so making a big deal out of a hardcover is just moronic and unnecessarily costly.

                    I may be biased (I'm a former university librarian), but I do like having the choice of hardback v.s. paperback. In my personal library at home, I'm very glad that my favorite books are mostly hardback. The paperbacks do not hold up well. So, I do hope they keep offering the choice of hardback or paperback. I re-read my favorites often. And, some of them are contemporary fiction.
                    sigpic http://blip.fm/Peasblossom

                    Comment

                    Working...
                    X