{"id":22801,"date":"2023-11-29T15:24:43","date_gmt":"2023-11-29T20:24:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/?p=22801"},"modified":"2024-09-30T08:55:51","modified_gmt":"2024-09-30T12:55:51","slug":"is-my-traditional-publisher-book-contract-a-good-deal-more-publishing-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/2023\/11\/is-my-traditional-publisher-book-contract-a-good-deal-more-publishing-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"“Is My Traditional Publisher Book Contract a Good Deal?” + More Publishing Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today’s publishing questions come from a writer in South Africa who just received an offer from a traditional publisher. They have questions about the offer and contract and about publishing a book of short stories. Let’s address the book offer first, and in my next post, I will address the short stories.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"book<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

“I need help. First, I have a contract from a traditional publisher [for a how-to self-help book], and [sic] is offering me 12% of my book royalties; however, there is no advance.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Secondly, I have written 15 short stories that I need to publish. They are in English.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started by congratulating the author on the offer from the traditional publisher. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is The Publisher’s Book Contract Fair?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I wrote, “That sounds like a fairly typical deal for a first book unless you have a huge following. Nowadays, for the majority of first books, publishers tend to offer little or no advance. As long as the publisher is reputable, you should be okay.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"signing
Photo by Cytonn Photography<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a>\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the old days, it would have been at least 15% and 15% of the sale price minus transportation costs. Nowadays, it’s generally a percentage of the net. The problem is that publishers can inflate their costs by assigning high administrative costs, reducing the net profit. This is why having an agent or lawyer review your book contract is very helpful in ensuring you’re likely to get paid fairly. Typically, the royalties on a paperback book work out to a bit over or under $1\/book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As usual, I recommended that this author run the contract by an intellectual property attorney or literary agent. I met an intellectual property attorney and literary agent at the San Francisco Writers Conference one year, and she has been a godsend for those of my clients who have a compelling book proposal and received an offer from a small or mid-sized traditional publisher but didn’t have a platform big enough to attract a literary agent. This attorney has been charging $650 to review a book contract and suggest changes, and her changes tend to make a world of difference for my clients compared to the original contract they were offered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can I Distribute Books Myself? How Does That Work With A Traditional Publisher?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The author then asked, “What happens with the publisher if I want to distribute the book myself?”<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"traditional
Local bookstores may take a book on consignment. This makes sense if you self-publish.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

This is a great question. You won’t be able to publish the book yourself since the publisher will usually have the exclusive (unless you retain certain rights). Still, the contract usually includes a discounted price for you to buy books. So if you have a speaking gig, for example, you might buy 50 or 100 books at a 50% discount (or whatever the discount is. With Health Communications–HCI, my author discount was 50%, but that was some years ago). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might make additional profits per book in any situation where you meet people in person, such as a book signing, workshop, training, presentation, etc., and therefore can buy books at a discount and sell them at the cover price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For online sales, trying to fulfill the order yourself doesn’t generally make much sense, even if it’s allowed. It would mean buying books at a discount, selling them, and then fulfilling those orders, which includes mailing the book to the customer. A lot of work for not much more money after you pay the postage. You probably want to link to the book on the traditional publisher’s website or online retailers for online sales. You can see how I’ve set up the online links to buy my book here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to distribute all the books yourself, you should self-publish or use a hybrid publisher. Both of these services will come with upfront costs and, potentially, add-on costs, so have an attorney familiar with publishing look at any publishing contract before you sign it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How About Selling Directly to Bookstores or Libraries?<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"non-traditional
My Book signing and workshop at Barrington Books: The store ordered the books, and I brought award seals (stickers) to add to the covers)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Bookstores will order through the distributor (usually Ingram) or the publisher, not from you. They want to be able to return books that don’t sell, and Ingram offers that. Plus, it’s more hassle for them to buy from you directly. And your contract might not allow it anyway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might be able to sell to a library if your traditional publisher allows it. You might make more this way if you buy books at a discount. I was surprised to find that my local library usually orders from Amazon!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, it’s best to have books on hand if you are making a presentation at a library. Most authors who give a talk or presentation at a library bring books to sell at the back of the room or team up with a bookstore that handles the book sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The writer also asked, “How should I publish my short stories?” I’ll answer that question in a separate post in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What questions do you have about book deals\/publishing contracts, publishers, distribution, or anything else? Share your comments at the bottom of this post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s publishing questions come from a writer in South Africa who just received an offer from a traditional publisher. They have questions about the offer and contract and about publishing a book of short stories. Let’s address the book offer first, and in my next post, I will address the short stories. “I need help….  Read more<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21509,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1678],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22801","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-how-to-write-a-book","8":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22801"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":278652,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22801\/revisions\/278652"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}