Novel News - May 2005

Welcome! To yet another month of the Novel News. We hope you'll enjoy the offerings. We've got some straight talking about your rights, a reminder to keep yourself in the submission game, thoughts about word count and Gryphondear returns with another installment of the Grammar Corner. Grab a cup of coffee and settle down. There's lots to read!

Solar Falls
"The Novel Workshop" 

Table of Contents

Feature: "Your Rights as an Author" by Frankie is NaNo'ing

Special: "Invalid Item"  by Gryphondear
         You can't get published unless you submit!

Writing Reality: "The Word Count Monster"  by Sasha
         Just how important is Word Count?

Grammar Corner: "Invalid Item"  by Gryphondear
         Of legality, brevity, and finality

Advice Area: Your questions answered. by Gryphondear
         What are non-exclusive rights?

"The Brag Board"
         Your opportunity to toot your horn.

Feature Article

Your Rights as a Writer
by Frankie is NaNo'ing

You've just been offered a contract. You're so thrilled that you're jumping, screaming, biting your nails, calling everyone you know--including a few you just barely knew back in high school--and letting them know that a big publishing house just offered you a contract. Congratulations.

There are a few things you should know before you go signing that lovely piece of paper however.

Number one: Do not sell yourself cheap.

Do you realize that on average, authors are getting paid less for their first novel now than they were getting paid 20 years ago? That's outrageous. No wonder we have starving artists. No matter how grateful you are that they picked you out of the multitude of other novels they had, you are not paying them to publish your book. Too often I've heard writers say, "If they picked me, I'd pay them." Well, don't. Why? Because you make it that much harder for the other guys to make anything off of their first novel. If the publisher is considering you, you're worth it. Say it with me. You are worth it! There you go. Louder! YOU ARE WORTH IT! Good for you.

Now that they've offered you this great contract, it's time to look at the fine details. There are many things that are going to be in that contract that you won't agree with. Remember this: It's not binding until you sign it. I'm not saying to red-line it, mark it up and send it back unsigned. I'm saying, mark it up, change what you want, sign it and send it back. I know. It can't be that easy. Well, it is. The not so easy part is knowing what to cross out, what to reword and what to keep.

The first thing that you want to look for is rights to your name. Some publishers want to buy your name, especially if you're writing a series, because that means that no matter what, if you want to continue with that series, you will have to go through them. That, m'dear, is a big no-no. Do not sell your name.

If you look, many authors have changed publishers from time to time and sometimes in the same series. Never tie yourself down to one publisher indefinitely. You never know what might happen down the line. Editors move quickly in this industry. What would happen if suddenly your editor was replaced by someone who would not work with you? That's just one scenario.

The next things to look for are the different rights that the publisher is looking to buy. Before you sign that contract, you need to do a little research. Look at the latest edition of the Writer's Market. Read every issue of Writer's Digest. Go in the Internet and browse your publisher's websites. If they have an on-line store that's doing pretty well, then go ahead and sell them your e-publishing rights. However, if their on-line store is non-existent, think twice before signing away those rights. If you sell your e-publishing rights to a traditional publisher, you're limiting your chances of success because that's one avenue that's irrevocably closed to you until the end of your contract.

Does this publisher have ties overseas? Can he sell your book in the foriegn market? If so, that's great. Go ahead and sell him those rights. However, if they're local only, keep those foreign rights for a rainy day and query the overseas market on your own. If your publisher is asking for movie rights, keep them unless you've seen where they've sold screenplays. If they haven't sold one yet, chances are, your script won't be their first. Keep it, find someone to write your book into a screenplay as a favor or do it yourself and sell it the same way you did your novel.

While reading your contract, look for this clause: "paper, Internet, radio, video and all new medias which have not been developed yet." Oh no. Be a businessman. Do you honestly think that Donald Trump made it big because he sold rights to medias that hadn't even been sold yet? Oh, I doubt it. Cross that out, initial it and give them only the rights you're comfortable giving to them after your research shows what they're capable of selling. If a new media comes out later on, then you're back at the bargaining table asking for more money. The leverage is on you.

Now let's talk strategy. You've got a series of books. You're so excited that you sold the first one, that you're willing to accept the contract for the first four. WRONG!! Sell the first two and go back to the bargaining table on the third and the fourth. This is a business venture and there is a piece of knowledge that you're still missing: Publishers know that an author's first and second books aren't the greatest. Sometimes the first book sucks comparitively speaking to the second and there's no comparison to the third. It takes a new author a while to get into the groove and publishers know that. If you sell them the first two books of the series, the "sluff" books, then on the book they really want, the third, you've got them by the strings. You're calling the shots. You've got leverage that you didn't have when you were a brand new author. You can throw statistics at them. Your first book has been on the shelves for two months now and you've made this many sales. Your third book will gain a little extra cash up-front, but the fourth will bring in a lot more extra cash. You'll have had an entire year--if you're the book in a year type--where the first book has been in the stores and a couple of months where the second book has been beside it. Remember that with most traditional publishing houses, it takes about 24 months for your book to go to print.

Now you know a little about what you're selling. You're selling your book. The publishers want you to sell your name, the print rights, the electronic rights, the foreign rights, the movie rights, and the rights to the next four books.

Make the rest of us proud. Think twice before giving away what somebody should be paying you for. Tell the publishers what rights you want to sell them and which ones you wont.

Special Article

ID: 959785 Title: Invalid Item  Description: This item number is not valid. By: Not Available.

Writing Reality

ID: 962092   (Rated: ASR) Title: The Word Count Monster  Description: Should you write and then count the words? Or count the words as you write By: Sasha

Grammar Corner

ID: 958446 Title: Invalid Item  Description: This item number is not valid. By: Not Available.

Advice Area

Sasha asks:

With my new writing gig I was told the magazine would hold only non-exclusive rights to my work. Writing.com states the same thing to all its members. What does that mean?

Gryphondear replies:

Basically, you grant non-exclusive rights to allow a "publisher" to show your work without giving up the right to sell your work to another venue, whether as a published-on-paper, e-publication, audio or video recorded or on whatever media. Writing.com has the following statement in their article on copyrights: "Writing.Com Copyright Policy" 

"Non-exclusive means that you may give these same rights to anyone else as well; for money or for free!" Even after your article is published by your magazine, you can re-sell your article to another magazine, an anthology or a movie producer.

Do you have questions you would like answered? Just ask Frankie is NaNo'ing . If she doesn't know, chances are she knows someone who does.

BRAG BOARD

Remember: tell Gryphondear your accomplishments and read them here.

mckenzie’s Love Bite will go up for sale on the Venus Press website http://www.venuspress.com May 4th.

Sasha was tapped to write a regular article for SpeedWorld, a national quarterly.

Gryphondear received a Grammar Merit Badge from Frankie is NaNo'ing .

Frankie is NaNo'ing received a Grace Under Pressure Merit Badge from Gryphondear .

MarNoWriMo produced a number of brags. All who participated are to be congratulated. More specifically, we congratulate:

         Puditat , who got a Novels merit badge for completing 50,000 words.

         Keri , who received a Merit Badge for reaching her commitment goal of 25K.

         paigeomalley on a mission! who received a Merit Badge for reaching her 35K commitment goal.

We also want to mention the reviewers in the Fantasy Forum, who posted reviews for 241 chapters for the week ending March 21, 2005.

Letters to the Editors

We love to hear from you! Keep those letters coming!

If you are not part of the writing.com community, you may e-mail us at: [e-mail] .

Are you interested in our back issues? Come take a peek at what we've already written. "Novel News " 

Would you like to subscribe to our newsletter? Catch us at: "Novel News Subscribers" 

This Month's Contributing Members:

Frankie Belleville aka Frankie is NaNo'ing --DOCTORS KNOW THEIR ANATOMY. WRITERS KNOW THEIR GRAMMAR.

Jan Combs aka Gryphondear --UTQUE NON LUDAT PATRISSIMUS

Marlene de Velasco aka M says chk AccomplicePress.com --I WOULD RATHER BE A FAILURE AT SOMETHING I LOVE THAN A SUCCESS AT SOMETHING I HATE (George Burns)

S.D. Grady aka Sasha --MAKE EACH DAY A WORK OF ART (fortune cookie)

© Copyright 2004 Frankie is NaNo'ing (UN: opto at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
Frankie is NaNo'ing has granted Writing.Com, its affiliates and syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work.