Electronic rights in book publishing contracts used to be a 50-50 split at worst. Sometimes the author could get up to 90%. But that was when electronic rights were only a minor part of the income stream. Digital Windfall Then along came the windfall provided by the digital age. Instead of sharing it with the authors, publishers decided they wanted it all. Here’s an example of what happened: Around the turn of the millennium, netLibrary became the first ebook publisher of any consequence when they began negotiating with academic publishers to scan back copies of their catalogs to turn into exact digital reproductions. The cost to publishers to participate was two books: one for netLibrary to tear apart and scan one for netLibrary to display in their hard-copy library of […]
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Are you publishing your book through an academic press? If so, let’s talk about book promotion. Worst-Kept Secret in the Industry Not every academic press publisher will tell you directly but they’re all thinking it. It’s known as the worst-kept secret in the industry: Don’t count on us to promote your book beyond listing it in the current catalog and sending out a few press releases and review copies. The traditional publishing contract is adversarial. It pits publisher against author in a win-lose arena, or just treats the author as nonexistent. It offers little in the way of promotional help. But it doesn’t have to be that way What They Should Do In negotiations, you have a right to expect a minimum promotional effort. For instance, although they probably won’t […]
If you’re so fortunate as to attract a publisher for your book, you will soon find yourself looking at the notorious boilerplate book contract. The boilerplate is the version of the contract that the traditional publisher sends you and hopes that you’ll sign without question. Unless you are an established author, a rising novelist, a criminal, a celebrity, or a politician, your boilerplate contract will stink, especially if it is with an academic press. The publisher’s lawyers have seen to that. But it’s a lot worse if you go into negotiations in ignorance. You don’t have to ever again, if you know in advance what to expect from your book contract, what the clauses mean, and how to negotiate. Understand Your Boilerplate Book Contract In upcoming entries, I introduce you […]
You can’t sell ebooks out of the trunk of your car. They don’t work as back-of-the-room sales. So what’s the best way to increase your ebook sales? Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, has a few ideas. Smashwords is the author-friendly ebook distributor that, along with Kindle, sells nearly all of my ebooks. The Smashwords website is loaded with free tools to help authors publish, distribute, manage, market, and sell ebooks. A Few Free Smashwords Tools To name just a few: Your author profile page links all of your books to an individual page for each book. You can post your bio, picture, and Smashwords interview; connect to Facebook and Twitter, your blog, and YouTube videos; and direct readers to the page where they can purchase the print version of your […]
Years ago, when my marketing budget bordered on zero, I was fortunate that multiple free press release distribution networks were around to help me expand my personal media list. I placed press releases on as many different sites as I could. However, I had little confidence that they were getting to anyone besides “Editor” or “[email protected].” I had no ability to pinpoint my press releases to the exact readers who would be most interested in their general topics. And I always resented that for each site I had to make another tweak to fit their unique template. So for my launch for You’ve Got the Time: How to Write and Publish That Book in You, I reserved funds in my budget to pay a reputable press release distribution company to […]