I’ve been asked whether I’d be interested in writing a book. It’d be a very small, very local affair but I thought that, nevertheless, it’d be helpful to ask for a bit of basic advice from the several writers and publishers on here.
Couple of years or so ago I was at a local Arts fair and fell into conversation with a woman from a local independent publishing house. I said I liked the sort of stuff they do, and she asked whether I had any suggestions for anything else they could do. As it happened, I did have an idea, and so gave her a 1-sentence elevator-pitch and then suggested a title. She made a note, took my details, and asked whether I’d like to write that book. “Nah” I laughed, and wandered off to talk to someone else. I never gave it another thought. Until yesterday.
So yesterday, The Lovely Julie and I were in a cafe in town, up on the first floor, and she looked out of the window and made a comment about what she could see from up there. And I said “Y’know, I once told somebody that I thought there could be a book in that”.
And then today, out of the blue, less than 24hrs after mentioning it to TLJ, I got an email from this woman at the publishing house. She’d been sorting through some old papers and had come across the note she’d made, some 2+ years ago. She still liked the idea (and the title) and had I done anything with it? And if not, would I like to? For some reason, she included in her email the wording from her original note, which contained the words: ‘Author – 15%’.
Which obviously got me thinking.
So my questions are:
1. Does 15% sound about right? They’re a tiny press, with what can only be a very local, very small market, and their books on similar themes to the one I suggested retail at between £10.00 – £16.00, in paperback only. Should my idea get as far as publication, I have no doubt that it would be a very small print-run book. So, NotVery Many x 15% = £VeryLittleIndeed. I wouldn’t be going into this with the expectation of making any money, really, but see Point 2 below…
2. The book I have in mind would require quite a bit of research, correspondence, interviews, and photographs – that would obviously require a considerable amount of time, quite apart from the actual writing time itself. In my professional role I’m used to producing Proposals for Clients and so am comfortable about gauging how long any given task will take (and what it will cost, based on my day-rate), and over what sort of elapsed time, but how does a publisher approach this issue and how do they relate it to the fee payable to the author? Would they allocate Xno. of hours / days for research and expect me to do it all within that? What I don’t want to do is undertake a large number of hours of research /interviews etc for a book which can only ever be expected to sell in very small numbers. If I felt madlypassionately about this book and / or had a desperate desire to see my name in print. it probably wouldn’t matter that I’d be subsidising its production by effectively giving lots of my time free, but I don’t feel either of those things, to be honest – if it doesn’t come to pass, no biggie. Does that make me a soul-less Philistine? No.
So, I’d be really interested in your thoughts /advice, please.
*sigh* Bump.
Mike Thep’s your man here, Jeff.
But 15% looks ominously low to me. Especially as it’s 15% of what. This is one step up from vanity publishing. If there’s a book in your idea – it’s your book. Don’t sign anything until you’ve written it and punted it around for the best offer. Find an agent. An agent usually takes around 15% – the rest is yours. So this set-up is offering you an agent’s fee for your own work. Not so great.
I’d say go ahead, do it anyway, if it meant sitting in your room and typing brilliantly for a few days, but it clearly involves a bit of slog before you get to that. So my advice is – fuck ’em.
Thanks for that H.P.
I agree that it’s only one step up from vanity publishing, which is why I made the point about not being bothered about whether it comes to pass. Were I to write it and then leave the manuscript on a platform seat at Reading Station, I would be mildly peeved, nothing more.
As for writing it and then looking for an agent, nah, it really wouldn’t have any appeal /market beyond that at a very local level – and this publisher has that market in its pocket.
The more I think of it, this really is a book that’s crying out not to be written.
And don’t think I didn’t notice “…typing brilliantly…“; I know mailed-fist-in-velvet-glove encouragement when I see it.
Jeff, I’ve spent most of my life typing brilliantly. That’s not the problem – the difficulty is in getting someone else to read it.
Write something else, then. You’re clearly capable of it.
Thanks again.
I reflected on your ‘fuck ’em’ advice overnight, Aitch, and woke this morning resolved to act upon it.
So at start-of-business I marched into their premises, knocked over the hatstand, kicked the office cat*, and tore the March page off the wall calendar. That fucking showed them!! 15% indeed!!
*relax, Afterword Sentimentalists – they didn’t have an office cat, and I didn’t kick it.
*whooosh* – and here I am.
1. 15% of what is the right question. Standard royalties were always 10% of published price until the collapse of the Net Book Agreement meant that the published price no longer had any meaning. So I suspect she means 15% of price received, ie from booksellers, which is low, but not that low, given the size of her operation. Which leads me to…
2. how does a publisher approach this issue and how do they relate it to the fee payable to the author? – is the wrong question. The publisher has no real interest in how you cost your time – she will offer an advance on royalties and (if you’re lucky) a certain amount of dosh to cover expenses, picture fees and so on, based on how many she thinks the book will sell. How you cost your time is irrelevant to her, sadly – your time is worth whatever the advance is. If you tell her you can’t afford to write it, she’ll understand that perfectly. But that’s your decision. And although it took a while, don’t forget that it was you who pitched the book to her, not the other way round, even though it was a particularly laid-back pitch.
Contra m’learned friend, this doesn’t sound to me like a book that will interest anybody other than the small, local publisher who’s actually interested. So I think you’re opening yourself up to a world of pain trying to find an agent and expecting him/her to shop it around and get you a significantly better deal. Is your town full of small publishers who will bid against each other? Are you willing to sit around for months waiting for your agent to do something? By all means shop it around yourself if you want to of course.
It’s up to you. Do you want to write this book whatever, because the subject interests you, for the fun and the glory? Then do it. Or are you not that bothered (which is what it sounds like to me)? Then don’t do it.
One point to bear in mind: the right local book on the right local subject can sell modestly well for a long time, particularly if there are local outlets to which it’s relevant – museums, supermarkets etc. It’s not actually that hard these days to publish it yourself for a few hundred quid. Self-publishing is now so prevalent that I’m not even sure you can call it vanity publishing any more. Certainly the social stigma that used to be attached to it has disappeared. A friend of mine published the Little Book of Cornwall herself – none of the big boys in that London would touch it. She’s sold thousands and thousands.
Sorry to have left you in *whoosh* mode for the past 18hrs, Mike – you must be exhausted.
This is all really helpful, thanks.
And the self-publishing thing was very interesting – that’s given me food for thought.
No worries, i had the occasional lie down.
The self-publishing thing is obviously more complicated than I made it sound, not least acting as your own sales force. But there’s plenty of advice online, eg http://www.cnet.com/au/news/self-publishing-a-book-25-things-you-need-to-know/
The sales force thing might be made easier if there is a local wholesaler who supplies the local shops. Certainly the case round here.
Thanks again Mike, and also Ernie.
I’ve now had a read of your linked article, Mike – very interesting, and useful. Having read it, and also having thought more about my suggested subject, I’m starting to think that a physical book (whether self- or professionally-published) might not be the right format. It strikes me that something interactive and more *cough* content-rich, accessible from mobile devices, would be much more interesting and have wider appeal. How to develop, fund and monetise that would, however, be entirely beyond my current knowledge, and probably also this local publisher’s. However, I’ll give it more thought and if they do come back to me then I’ll float that idea.
I wondered about that. But bear in mind that if the book has a then and now element, as you seem to be hinting below, quite a large percentage of the target market may not be tablet-savvy (except in the pharmaceutical sense, one for the olds there).
As for pix, the local paper should be your first port of call, and you may be able to do a package deal with them. Local camera clubs can be helpful too. I don’t know about where you live, but where I live/have lived there are very active Facebook groups posting old photos.
That’s a very good first point Mike, thanks.
And a very very helpful second one.
Great stuff, thanks.
Jeff, mikethep has covered a lot of what I was going to say – but if the book involves photographs or any kind of image from a secondary source, there are issues around that which you and the publisher need to resolve before you sign the contract.
If the photographs are copyrighted, the publisher will require written permission from the rights holder to use them in the book, and proof that any reproduction fee has been paid. And they won’t go ahead with publishing the book until they have those documents, because they don’t want to get hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit.
Most publishers will ask the author to get the rights and pay any fees for photos they want to use, and I would expect that to be true for a small independent publisher. You can ask for a contract in which the publisher gets the rights and pays the fees, but whether the publisher agrees to this will depend on what resources they have. It can be *very* time-consuming to track down the rights holder and to get permission to use the image – and fees to use images, even ones from photo libraries, can be quite high.
For the author, it may come down to a trade-off between whether the book will “work” without the images, or whether the investment (time and money) to get the money will pay off in sales. I know some authors who have worked on books that used photographs, but decided not to go ahead with the book because the cost of the reproduction rights was higher than what they anticipated they would earn from sales of the books.
Thanks again, grateful. This is information is very helpful – the book would be meaningless without photos, and though I’d probably take the ‘as it is now’ pics I’d also need to be making use of lots of old ones (and also old illustrations). So this sets me up well to raise this issue with the publisher. I acknowledged her email last night, and signalled a degree of interest without committing myself.
Thanks Mike and grateful, I’m grateful (no, I’m grateful – no, I’M grateful – wait, who’s on first??).
I’d actually logged off and bogged off before your replies came in and so have just seen them. I’m tied up today so will reply properly this evening (NH time).
You should write a bestseller Jeff, then they’ll be all over you. Mark my words.
Apologies Jeff – going straight for the cheap laugh isn’t always appropriate.
You have me at a disadvantage, MC – whatever the cheap laugh was, it clearly whooshed straight over my head.
But in case it was a cheap laugh at my expense, I’ll take the precaution of telling you to fuck off.
I’ve learnt a lot about how publishing works from the advice excellent advice given on this thread.
Mike’s anecdote about The Little Book of Cornwall was particularly interesting. There’s a lot to be said about any book, fiction or non-fiction, which is of local interest. The local media are probably delighted to have an author living in the area that they can write about and will be generous in their coverage.
I suspect the excellent Swedish crime writer, Johan Theorin, made a wise move in locating his first books on the island of Öland, where he spent his summer holidays as a child. He became something of a local hero nd from there has gone on to far bigger things.
So, Mike, when are you going to write The Little Book of the Afterword? You’ve a guaranteed readership. Of at least 10 people!
Will there be three more from him later?
The Little Book of the Afterword would be the ultimate toilet book.
*insert own bog paper joke here*
I was thinking more of a slim, stylish, elegant volume which one might leave discreetly positioned on the coffee table.
Do you really go toilet on the coffee table, ‘dad? Sheesh, Sweden eh?
@Jeff– a local book for local people via a local publisher.
Well, if it ever gets to publication, and whilst I’m only guessing what the subject matter might be, I reckon you’d sell at least one copy.
I’d buy it
(if I’m not reading too much into mention of Reading Station, and ‘as is now’ photos).
Best of luck with it if you do take the plunge
You’re my wife now, Rigid Digit.
Ha ha, yes you’re right, I have been making it all sound incredibly parochial haven’t I?
Many thanks for your support and encouragement, I really appreciate that. But you’re wide of the mark in thinking it’d be about the history / recent re-development of Reading station (extremely impressive though that was). No, my earlier comment about “…leaving the manuscript on a platform seat at Reading Station” was a reference to this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Pillars_of_Wisdom
You’ll have to copy / paste that link into your browser, but it’s worth it.
Oh, the link worked! Wasn’t expecting it to.
In the Wiki article, scroll down to ‘Manuscripts and editions’, and read para 2.
aah … now I get the reference
(ignore anything I suggested, except the “I’d probably buy it” and “Best of luck” bits)
Thanks again.
Yee-hoo, I godda pre-order!
A number of ( very) local books have been published where I live. Most have a large number of old pictures and photographs. Most are 100 years or more old. Don’t know whether this is coincidence or to dodge copyright issues. For the most part these some to come from local collectors ( either known to the author or via the local history group) and/or local postcard collectors.
Very helpful, thanks once more, Ernie.