From the Draft2Digital blog: One of the burdens shouldered by indie authors is the overhead of the business. With a traditional publishing contract, some of that overhead is mitigated. The author isn’t asked to pay directly for cover design, layout, or distribution—though ultimately the cost of these services is factored into the royalty deal between … Read more
From veteran publishing consultant Mike Shatzkin: When publishers decide whether or not to buy a book, or look back at a book to evaluate its performance, the analysis is done in a way that could be, and often is, misleading. This is almost universal practice, has been for at least a century, and may never … Read more
From MacGregor Literary: So a new year is here, and it’s time to make some predictions about what will happen in 2017. I do NOT have the gift of prophecy, but that doesn’t stop me from pontificating and making wild surmises, all while not really having a clue about much of anything beyond the concept … Read more
From veteran publishing consultant Mike Shatzkin: Many, if not most, of the people in publishing houses I know have what they feel is a pretty clear picture of the changes we’re seeing in the business. There seems to be a strong consensus that the ebook share is leveling off or diminishing as opposed to print. … Read more
From QueryTracker Blog: There are two kinds of lousy agents. The first is the scammer, the kind who wants to get money from authors without in any way performing the services an actual agent ought to perform. When you know the basics about the business, you’ll recognize those. They ask you for money just to read … Read more
From the Kobo Newsroom: Deutsche Telekom sells the tolino ecosystem to Kobo The tolino alliance welcomes leading global e-reading provider Kobo as its new technology partner tolino remains eReading brand for the German-speaking region Augsburg, Bonn, Hagen, Munich, Toronto, 2 January 2017 – The book retailers in the tolino alliance have a new technology partner. … Read more
From author Sarah Mayberry: When I was a baby writer dreaming of being published, the idea of holding a real, paper book in my hands with my name on the spine was the be-all and end-all. I wrote 8 full novels over nearly 10 years before I was finally accepted for publication under Harlequin’s Blaze … Read more
Attorney C.E. Petit, who focuses on copyright and author’s issues, comments on the letter the Association of Authors’ Representatives sent to the Department of Justice recently: [T]he trade association for literary agents demonstrates its inability to understand law — despite its members’ obligation to look out for the legal interests of its clients — and … Read more
From Kristine Kathryn Rusch: I have known for decades that collusive behavior exists in publishing, although I have not personally been involved in any “at the highest level.” I’ve seen it at lower levels, from editors warning each other away from writers because the writers are litigious or business minded or just terrible people to … Read more
The Bookseller had an article behind its paywall yesterday concerning agents’ complaints about high discount clauses. The proposed solution was to move to a royalty base of net revenues. Following is a reprise of a post Passive Guy first released several months ago that discusses how high discount clauses can screw authors out of royalties. The … Read more
From Cory Doctorow at Publishers Weekly: Talking with the lower echelon employees of publishing reminds me of a description I once read about the mutual embarrassment of Western and Soviet biologists when they talked about genetics. Soviet-era scientists were required, on pain of imprisonment, to endorse Lysenkoism, a discredited theory of inheritance favored by Stalin … Read more
From Don Linn at Bait ‘n’ Beer regarding a panel of publishing CEO’s at the Digital Book World conference: As I was reading through the program, I began to think about what I’d like to ask publishing CEO’s (not just this group) in January 2012…not in a combative or “gotcha” way, but because I’m genuinely … Read more
For new visitors, Passive Guy sometimes posts items with which he doesn’t agree. It’s his way to avoid the dangers of an echo chamber. From fiction writer and instructor Edan Lepucki: In a previous essay, I interviewed four self-published authors I admire, and I examined some of the benefits of that career path. Midway through … Read more
Long-time publishing pro Mike Shatzkin talks about pricing books and dividing the sales revenue: The division of the consumer’s dollar across the publishing value chain has a history of change. When I came into the business 50 years ago, discounts from publishers to retailers often topped out at 44% and even wholesalers seldom got more … Read more
Another excellent essay from Kristine Kathryn Rusch: Theodor Geisel, whom you all know as Doctor Seuss, stunned the publishing world by writing an original and somewhat controversial book for a strict formula book line. He had the task of writing a children’s book, using only 225 approved words. None should be above two syllables. He … Read more
Here’s a second the first of two David Farland posts for today (PG switched the order) with Dave’s usual combination of deep knowledge of traditional publishing with a willingness to move toward new opportunities. For those new to the blog, Passive Guy has mentioned before that Dave is not only a prolific and successful fantasy/scifi author (over … Read more
What is it with agencies and new initiative announcements this week? First, Bookends does less than well in announcing its “Strategy for Self-Epublishing” and now The Knight Agency screws up its “Assisted Self-Publishing Initiative.” Do all you people buy your bottled water from the same source? Are these examples of your online savvy and how … Read more
Passive Guy has a hard time keeping up with all the reports of all the changes in the publishing biz. He will give two good posts less of a treatment than their content deserves. The first, from Dean Wesley Smith with his latest take on Indie/Traditional: The Problem Right now the problem is that a … Read more
Passive Guy missed a great essay from Kristine Kathryn Rusch a couple of days ago. The topic? Negotiating a publishing contract, something close to PG’s heart. Excerpts: First, the rules of negotiation: 1. Know What You Want. 2. Ask. 3. Be Prepared to Walk Away. 4. Stay Calm. 5. Never Reveal Your Entire Hand. 6. Don’t … Read more
Agent Kristin Nelson discovered something that will make Random House authors want to double-check their ebook royalties. Excerpts: Since we’ve been speaking of 25% of net receipts and it would have been easy to miss, if you publish with Random House, you might want to take a look at your April statements again. Random House … Read more
Passive Guy has received a rapid-fire education on all things Harlequin since blogging about Harlequin royalties four days ago. PG is particularly interested in one reported practice of Harlequin. Here’s a summary from attorney/agent Elaine English: At this point, it’s necessary to make a side-trip to discuss a bit about the organization of Harlequin before … Read more
It’s been five months since Passive Guy started this blog. The original business purpose was to build a platform to support some PG works of fiction that won’t see the light of day for awhile (PG has issues with letting go of backstory). Since his readers are his constituency, PG decided to provide a State … Read more
The Dystel & Goderich agency has announced it will be assisting authors in self-pubbing. Unlike other agencies, however, it will be acting as an agent, not a publisher, and charging 15%, not 50%. Joe Konrath is a client and says he’ll use their services for an upcoming novel instead of going pure indie. Excerpts from … Read more
Okay, so J.K. is an indie author and you’re an indie author. Then it must follow that since J.K. had her books made into movies, it’s time for you to do the same thing. Dave Farland tells you how much your movie option is worth: So let’s say that you’ve written a short story or … Read more
Another good email on the publishing business from Dave Farland just arrived. I’ve picked up a ton of new readers recently (Welcome!) who may not know about Dave. He’s a long-time prolific author and taught university creative writing courses for Stephanie Meyer and Brandon Sanderson and many other successful authors. Check the David Farland category … Read more
Kristine Kathryn Rusch has written another important essay on the changing face of publishing. I’ll intersperse some excerpts with my comments, but this is one you’ll want to read in its entirety. There is, as always, a link at the bottom. As will be abundantly clear from Kris’ examples, traditional publishers and the new agents-turned-publishers … Read more
Publishers Lunch has some more news about Amazon’s new publishing companies that has to be driving Big Publishing crazy: Barry Eisler announced that, rather than self-publishing, his next John Rain novel THE DETACHMENT will be published by Amazon’s new mystery/thriller imprint Thomas & Mercer in both digital and print formats. “What Amazon has offered is … Read more
After reading about how you could be on the NYT bestseller list and almost qualify for food stamps with Big Publishing, let’s move over to indie world. As those who have read The Passive Voice for awhile (the first post was less than three months ago, so it hasn’t been that long) know, Joe Konrath … Read more
Indie author Scott Nicholson tells why he didn’t pursue an opportunity to move from the indie life to being an author for Big Publishing and why he thinks Amanda Hocking made a big mistake. Excerpts: A successful writer friend recently gave me a “hot tip” on an emerging book sector–it was all the rage at … Read more
Last week produced two major stories in the indie publishing world. For those who see traditional publishing and self-publishing in a duel to the death, each side found something to cheer about and reason to mourn. The first story was an announcement by bestselling author Barry Eisler that he had turned down a $500K two-book … Read more
Recently, Random House announced that it would join the five other big publishers in implementing agency pricing. What is agency pricing? It’s a reaction by publishers to what was happening to their pricing, particularly for best-sellers, on Amazon. Amazon was aggressively pushing pricing down on big books by selling hardcopy New York Times bestsellers for … Read more
Passive Guy is a former country lawyer, city lawyer, entrepreneur, tech executive and writer. He has permanently retired from everything but writing. During the latter part of his professional life, PG was involved in high-stakes intellectual property litigation. He started The Passive Voice as an anonymous blog so his snarky remarks would not show up … Read more