Tips on How to Get Your Book Published
Tips on How to Get Your Book Published
Having your own book published, especially if you are a new author is a tough situation. You need to be psychologically, emotionally and financially prepared for the consequences of this task. With the right know-how, you will be able to succeed in this goal.
Publishing is noted as “the process of production and dissemination of literature or information.” It is an activity that makes information available for public viewing. There are authors who are already their own publishers. This means, they are already the developers and originators of the content which also provides media in order to display and deliver the content.
The term “publishing” also pertains to the distribution of printed work such as newspapers and books. With Digital information Systems and World Wide Web, the entire scope of publishing expanded. It now includes electronic resources such as electronic versions of periodicals and books along with blogs, websites and video games among others.
Publishing also includes certain stages of development, copyediting, acquisition, production, graphic design, printing and marketing its distribution via magazines, newspapers, literary works, books, software, musical works as well as other types that deal wit information such as electronic media.
As a legal concept, publication is also vital as the essential precondition of claiming defamation or libel, the copyright purposes which claim the difference between an unpublished and published work’s protection, as well as the process of providing the world with a formal notice on the intentions.
Tips on Getting your Book Published
With the advent of Digital Print-on-Demand and Web 2.0 technology, it is now very easy to have your book published. Here are a few simple tips and steps you can follow:
Identify your goals
This way, you will have a general idea about the appropriate publishing path you will undertake. Also determine the specific type of market you want to reach.
Identify your weaknesses and strengths
Having a book published is not like writing one. It is not a form of art but a business. If you do not possess the financial and technical capacity as well as patience, money and time to deal with the learning curve, it is best that you go through a company that can publish the book for you.
Know your publishing options
Publication has 3 main roads, namely;
Traditional Publication – This is where your book is accepted by a publishing company and even purchases its rights in exchange for a so-called “advance on book royalties”. However, you are still necessitated to market your own book.
Independent self-publishing – This is where you actually keep your book rights. After this, you will undergo the task of starting your own publishing company so as to print, distribute as well as market it respectively.
Full-service self-publishing with print-on-demand companies – This is where you can keep your book rights. Then, you can pay experts to do the publishing task for you. Even so, you are still necessitated to market your own book.
Recognize the disadvantages and disadvantages of traditional publishing
The obvious advantage is that they can pay you upfront for the book. The disadvantage is that traditional publishers are very carefully with the financial risk involved that they tend to only accept books either from authors with successful books or celebrities. They also take out your rights but still burden you with the marketing.
Recognize the disadvantages and advantages of independent self-publishing
One advantage is you still own the rights and you still have control of your book. The downside is that apart from being time consuming, it is a risky financial deal. Most distributors steer clear of one-time authors. This makes it harder to move your books to the readers. Aside from this, you need to be able to do this correctly otherwise you will be wasting more than ,000 of your hard earned money on nothing. It also requires so much time, more or less 20 hours per week. You also need to multitask and be an editor, accountant, designer, website designer and publicist at the same time. Others do not regard this as an adventure, rather a job.
Recognize the disadvantages and advantages of full-service self-publishing through POD
Most new authors have their books self-published via PODs or print-on-demand publishing companies. Similar to independent self-publishing, these authors are able to keep their rights. Aside from this, it requires a lesser financial investment, even lower than ,000.
However, this type shares similar marketing hurdles with independent self-published books wherein it is very difficult to get it to the hands of the readers. On a lighter note, most of these full-service companies offer wholesale distribution as well as online listings with several major e-retailers, assisting the new author on his feet.
Maximize resources
Since your manuscript will not be published by itself, it is important that you keep your motivation high in order to reach your dreams. Amongst all other steps mentioned here, the most important is still the 1st step which is to identify your goals.
In order to have your book traditionally published, you can start buying The Writer’s Market’s latest edition. It has all the valuable contact information you will need about every mainstream publisher. If it is a children’s book you are into, you can get a copy of the Children’s Writer and Illustrator’s Market.
In order to self-publish your book independently, you can get a copy of The Self-Publishing Manual. It has financial models as well as the technical specifications you need. Thus, in order to publish a black & white book via a full-service POD book publishing company, you can read a copy of Self-Publishing Simplified. If it’s children’s books, it’s Adventures in Publishing you should check-out.
Related Book Publishers Articles
A Book Publisher’s Point Of View
A Book Publisher’s Point Of View
Many writers aspire to write books. Writing a book is a long, involved, difficult process. Book publishing is harder. A writer may submit his book repeatedly only to be turned down. The writer may eventually succeed. Wouldn’t it have been easier to get published the first time? Is that possible?
You can improve your chances of a publisher accepting your book manuscript if you understand more about what happens at the publisher’s desk. Book publishers are busy people with several projects bombarding their desks every day. They must decide quickly about what will sell. They must also delegate their time efficiently to keep the business running. Only occasionally do publishers actually seek out work. Let’s look at a typical work day of a publisher to help you understand book acceptance and book publishing.
PERSIST AND PERSEVERE
Writers must be persistent. Regardless of how many times a publisher rejects your book manuscript and throws your ideas in the trash, you have to keep going back for more discouragement. Eventually you’ll make it in the door. If you can get all the way through, you will finally get to a place where publishers accept more of your work. When working with a book publisher, the rule is the same. If you have a book that you know will sell, you must persevere to get the publisher’s attention. Most likely, you will be sending excerpts of your book, not the entire book, to a publisher. As you continually send your manuscript or book excerpts to publisher after publisher, you should try to market it in different ways. Publishers seek a particular kind of writing; they will dismiss anything that doesn’t meet their criteria and high standards. Variation in your marketing techniques may turn a rejected book into an accepted book.
WHAT DO BOOK PUBLISHERS WANT?
Book publishing is a strange business. People’s tastes are somewhat fickle. A book publisher has to keep up with what kinds of books will sell. It seems mysteries will always have a place on the bookshelves. Crichton and Grisham may tie up the book market until they are finished. That is just one example from one genre of books. Publishers have to keep track of what is selling in all areas of literature. The best way for you to get your work noticed is to make it look similar to what is already selling in the marketplace. Be careful not to imitate style or voice of another author. Write with your own unique words while imitating the use of popular public opinion. Another way to improve your chances of getting published is to find out who’s publishing what.
ARE YOU MARKETING TO THE RIGHT PUBLISHER?
Some publishers specialize in a certain kind of writing. If you are writing a novel, you’ll look stupid (and get rejected) if you send it to publishers who publish technical manuals. How do you find out who is the most likely candidate to publish your work? There are reference manuals, such as Writer’s Market, at your library that will tell you who’s publishing what and what publishers are seeking. It will contain valuable information leading you to children’s book publishers, novel publishers, and textbook publishers. If the handbook at your library is not up to date, your next option is to check out the new releases and best sellers rack at the bookstore. Buy a few books and read them. You’ll have a much better feel for the book market as a consumer first, and book writer second.
Book publishing is difficult to break into. It can be helpful to approach the issue from the direction of the publisher. Before you submit your manuscript again, improve your chances of acceptance by following these tips:
1) Change your marketing style so that you grab attention;
2) Make sure you are a book consumer yourself. You’ll get a better feel for what’s selling and what a publisher will buy. You’ll also find out who is publishing which types of books.
3) Finally, by buying the product you are trying to sell, you will improve the book economy all together. Publishers need to see people buying books before they can commit to publishing more.
Many authors begin their careers with the single goal of getting their book published by a reputable publisher. Book publishing is difficult to accomplish. It takes many months of work and extensive preparation. Writing a book involves intricately woven ideas. A book is a project, and it may contain many other projects that involve research, development, and marketing. Most authors are disillusioned about the intensive process of creating a full, coherent book. Writing a book and finding a publisher is like nothing you have ever done before. It will take extensive and intensive work and development. It will also probably include much of everything you know, and more.
http://www.book-marketing.moneybizhome.com
How To Get A Nonfiction Book Published: A Bulletproof Book Proposal For Publishing Agents, Editors And Companies
How To Get A Nonfiction Book Published: A Bulletproof Book Proposal For Publishing Agents, Editors And Companies
You have a great idea for a nonfiction book. Everybody thinks it’s a great idea. But will a book publishing company think it’s a great idea – enough to pay you an advance, commission you to write it, publish your book and sell it?
That will depend largely on your book proposal. Here’s where you demonstrate persuasively that your idea has merit, and that the company will benefit from publishing your book. Of course, even a solid idea and a great book proposal can’t guarantee success, but they surely can tip the odds in your favor. But if either the idea or the proposal is weak, your chances of a sale are slim to none.
Book editors look for certain things when reviewing book ideas and proposals. To improve your chances of winning a book publisher’s contract, let’s look at the five key questions they ask and the best ways to answer them.
1. Is there a large enough audience interested in this topic to justify publishing a book?
You want to stay away from a highly specialized book, which draws limited audience. You want your book to be among the books that appeal to a general audience or at least to a large segment of the general population.
You must demonstrate to your prospective publishing agent that your large audience – of hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions – exists.
One excellent source of market data is Standard Rate and Data Service (SRDS), a book listing US magazines that accept advertising and their circulations. SRDS is available at your local library or from the publisher (tel. 847/375-5000). Look for the combined circulation of the largest publications in your book’s area.
However, keep in mind that only a small percentage of the intended audience will actually buy your book. And a major book publishing company hopes to sell at least 5,000 copies of your book. So if you’re writing a book that appeals only to the 44,171 branch managers working at banks nationwide (say, How to Manage Your Branch More Efficiently), and 2% can be persuaded to buy the book, you’ve sold only 883 copies – not nearly enough to make the project worthwhile for either you or a publisher.
2. Is this a book or a magazine article? Will it sell?
There are two substantial differences between a book and a magazine article, which will determine if the material you have will be accepted by a book publisher.
First, there is the matter of time: It can take 18 months to two years from conception to bookstore. If you have an idea for a book about Recession proof Business at the onset of a recession, like I had in 1991, that recession may be over by the time the book comes out and it would not sell. However, a magazine article’s time line of publication (or that of a small booklet) is much quicker (weeks to few months).
Second difference is in length: Do you have enough material for a book?
The average nonfiction book is about 200 pages in published form, with approximately 400 words a page. That’s 80,000 words; about 320 double-spaced typewritten manuscript pages. Most books range between 35,000 words (a slim, 100 pages volume) to 200,000 words or more. An article, on the other hand, can include anywhere from 300 to 2,500 words or so.
How do you know whether your idea is a book, article or booklet – and how do you convince a publishing agent that your concept is a big one? Here are some guidelines:
First, see if there are other books on the topic. The existence of a few similar titles indicates that this idea is big enough to deserve a book.
Second, go to the library and see what else is written on the topic. If you feel overwhelmed by all the magazine articles, newspaper stories, booklets, pamphlets, surveys, reports and statistics on your topic, that’s a good indication the topic is ‘meaty” enough to justify a full-length book.
Third, organize your information into chapters. Think about how you would logically explain your topic or present your information, and organize it into major categories. These will become chapter headings.
A full-length nonfiction book typically has 8-15 chapters. If your outline has fewer, the publisher may think there’s not enough information to fill a book on your topic. Shoot for an outline with at least nine chapters.
A detailed table of contents proves to the book publishing company that your topic is appropriate for a book, not just a magazine article.
3. What’s different or better about your book?
The first page or two of your book proposal must contain an overview of your idea, the book content and its target audience.
The first two paragraphs of your overview must tell the editor why and how your book is unique, different or better than other books already published on this topic.
The angle that makes your book different can take many forms: A slant toward a different audience, a better way of organizing the material, or inclusion of topics not covered in other books.
For instance, my co-author and I wrote a nonfiction book, Technical Writing. Structure, Standards and Style, because we wanted to create a handbook for technical writers that emulated the concise, to-the-point style and format of The Elements of Style, William Strunk and E.B. White’s popular style guide for general writers.
Our proposal called our book “the Strunk and White of technical writing,” which instantly communicated the key appeal of the concept. Our book agent sold the book – within three weeks – to the first book publishing company who looked at it.
Another section of your proposal that positions your book in relation to others on the same subject is the “Competition” section. Here you list and describe competing books; each listing should emphasize how your book is both different and better.
Include in the Competition section those books that cover the same – or very similar – topics as your book; that are published by major publishing houses; and that are no more than five years old.
How many books you list in this section will be important. The presence of two to six competitive books shows there’s a market for this type of book, while still room for one more. On the other hand, if there are seven or more books a publisher may think the field is overcrowded, and you’ll probably have a difficult time making the sale.
4. Will people pay .38 for this book?
According to Albert N. Greco, professor of marketing in Fordham University, the average hardcover nonfiction book sells for .38; the average trade paperback edition – for .40. Your book must be interesting or valuable enough to make readers part not only with their money, but with their time as well.
A how-to or reference book proposal should stress the benefits readers will get when they buy the book. If your book is biography, journalism, history, or any other form of nonfiction written primarily to entertain, your proposal should highlight some of the more fascinating details of the book.
5. Why should the publishing agent hire you to write it?
Your proposal must show why you’re uniquely qualified to write the book. Such qualifications fall into two categories: writing credentials and expert credentials.
Writing credentials establish your expertise as an author. In an “About the Author” section of your book proposal, write a brief biographical sketch of yourself, and include information about your past publications (publishers and dates of publications, excerpts from favorable reviews and sales figures – if they’re impressive).
Expert credentials establish your position as an authority in the topic of your proposed book.
In my experience, your expert credentials don’t need to be in-depth. Editors understand you can research the topic, and they don’t require you to know everything about it before buying your book. They just want to convince their editorial board – and buyers – that you know what you’re talking about.
Of course, having a published book to your credit is one credential that always impresses the book publishing companies. And that’s a credential I’m sure you’ll soon have if you follow the five key points covered in this article.
For additional information about book publishing and other ideas of survival in a down economy please visit www.bly.com/reports.
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Leave a commentSocial Media And The Book Publishing Industry ? Doom Or Salvation?
Social Media And The Book Publishing Industry ? Doom Or Salvation?
Social Media has a stronger impact to books than the movable type had, launched six centuries ago. Social Media makes information producible, accessible and spreads it easily, quickly and without barriers of entry. Is Social Media the paradigm shift which will the publishing industry alive? In any case changes will come. Big changes.
The Publishing industry provides the creative with resources not available to them, namely: production of books, the distribution, the pricing, marketing and sales.
Book Production
Looking at the emerging landscape of online publishing all of the mentioned contribution is available to authors online and seems much more economic by nature than the capital-intense publishing industry – it seems digital content makes production a commodity. Making use of online collaboration and web 2.0 technology lots of crowd-sourced book sites like FastPencil allow authors to skip the traditional publishing route entirely (and control their own promotion) to self-publish their eBooks. FastPencil claims this allows authors to have access to the broadest distribution possible as well as the promise that the digital files will be able to adapt to any eReader that is introduced in the future. Another company called Blio is intending to offer publishers/authors the opportunity to create digital files at no cost that can preserve the format of previously tough-to-digitize tomes such as cookbooks. On top of that as a author you can:
Embedded multimedia – inserts web pages, videos, and other interactive content into selected areas of text toenhance meaning.
3D book view which includes realistic page turning
Reading out loud: TTS (text-to-speech) or a synchronized audio track
Translate to or from English in an imbedded translation window
This is all pretty impressive stuff and can create a user experience much more enhanced and engaging than paper books. Presumably this in the next years to come this will put some traditional offline publisher under pressure.
As part of the digital publishing revolution the way a story of a book is told even is about to change; transmedia is the buzzword here. Readers and writers engage and connect with each other to create the stories which are delivered then in systematically dispersed junks across multiple delivery channels. You can choose between chunks of text, watch a video story update or even, as in Girl Number 9, catch up on Twitter, where you can interact with characters and receive clues and updates. This means basically books are changing from being content sandwiched between two covers and organized by chapter to a many-to-many interactive storytelling. I like that.
Book Distribution
A trend noticeable is distributors or retailers are becoming book producers the same time. AmazonEncore for instance is not just a huge book store and recommendation engine to unearth exceptional books but they also partner with authors through marketing support and distribution into multiple channels and formats, such as the Amazon.com Books Store, Amazon Kindle Store,Audible.com, and national and independent bookstores via third-party wholesalers. So if you can produce you eBook for free and get marketing and distribution support by your retailer, who needs publishers?
Having mentioned the Amazon’s Kindle e-reader, obviously the upcoming launch of the new iPad (any future mobile device really will turn into an eReader) and the trend to eBook distribution/consumption in general (in Dec 09 the number of digital books sold on Amazon surpassed the paper editions) shines a brand new light on the traditional publishing industry. New technological capabilities enable companies like Wired Magazine (see the video of the iPad version of the magazine below) to raise the bar of publishing (multimedia) content to a new unmatched form. This will certainly provide the users with a new level of experience of information consumption and will make the switch from print to digital media consumption easier, more tantalizing and much more readers will use it. Especially if you compare this approach to the content you get by using some clunky black and white eReader.
Book Sales and Marketing
No doubt publishers are facing are tough time with pressure coming from authors, distributer/retailers as well as readers. To me it seems the current value chain for publishers is breaking. The landscape of content/books will get a lot more crowded and there’ll be a lot more competition for eyeballs. Authors can self-publish books and utilise social media and word of mouth marketing to sell their books. Distributors are beginning to dictate pricing and thread the availability of books on their platforms as seen in the case of Amazon vs. Apple vs. Macmillan (seeApple vs. Amazon: The Great E-book War Has Already Begun). Also they have a huge information head start when it comes to customer needs or buying behaviour (they collect and utilise all the buying behaviour data online). Not to mention the ever demanding hunger of readers for new authors, different formats and sophisticated multimedia content. This is true especially for next generation of book buyers won’t understand why they can’t access any information they want in a digital format.
Social Media and Book Publishers
Book publishers are at an enormous advantage to corporate or consumer brands. They have a vast amount of content, they have an existing, passionate community who want and love their products. On top of that, book fans are author/brand loyal groups of people. Books raise discussions and bring people together…and online can help augment the book experience by bringing the readers into the inner workings of the publishers and authors on a daily basis.
So what to do here are some simple social media ideas to think about if you’re a book publisher:
Become a social brand
Set up social monitoring systems around the places your customers (readers, authors) hang out. Listen what they talk about, find topics which would make a good book and find emerging authors.
Using social media channels effectively
Engage with communities and leverage the influencers. Books are an emotional topic and readers trust the recommendation of peers much more than ay advertising. When it comes to book there are countless vibrant online communities, forums and bloggers consisting of deeply engaged readers and authors. So for new books for example find the bloggers opinion leaders and reach out to them. Do the same thing on Twitter and LinkedIn to create buzz and word of mouth campaigns. Make use of facebook fanpages for each author and create facebook groups around topics and feed them with your content arsenal. Leverage live streaming – now within facebook – and provide weekly live readings of new books/authors. Have your authors interviewed on a regular basis and publish the content on internet radios or video portals.
Create platforms and a social media hub
The re-thinking of becoming a social brand as well as providing the authors with resources requires undoubtedly social media platforms. The publishers website needs to become a social hub where the authors will be promoted and can execute their own social media marketing. Obviously the authors can use their expertise in their field to produce excellent content for their publisher site inherent blogs for any kind of inbound marketing and/or SEO strategy. Create forums covering topics or authors – readers are very much interested in authors, they want to interact with them and authors have much more to say then what is published in their books. Enable the offline interaction – let your fans know where your authors are, where to speak to meet them in flesh!
Involve the reader into book development process
Monitor the social web to find hot topics for books. Enable authors to produce transmedia content or ask your community what to publish next to help developing ideas.
Create new formats and test them
Utilise technology to empower production of books in different formats and for different channels. Paper books, eBooks, mobile apps, multimedia, etc. and test what works best for which topic or audience. Not all will work the same way but publishers must have the flexibility to quickly produce and disseminate content/books to emerging upcoming distribution channels.
Define the niche
You’ll need for the different content/book topics of your authors different social media strategies. Since you’ll have completely different audiences with corresponding different user/reader behaviour you’ll need to adjust the strategy accordingly.
And then?
When you got your head around that, you can begin engaging in the communities in earnest. Invite your authors into the discussions. Invite other passionate folks at the company. Stay friendly, and stay passionate and you can be sure your audience and community will grow over time.
For more information about social media and the book publishing industry please visit my site.
Posted in Book Publishers | Book, Doom, Industry, Media, Publishing, Salvation, Social | Leave a commentCalifornia Super Literary Agent and Publishing Power Lawyer Discusses The Changing Book Publishing Industry
California Super Literary Agent and Publishing Power Lawyer Discusses The Changing Book Publishing Industry
The publishing world is changing rapidly. No one knows what the book publishing and book selling landscape will look like if Borders Books were to disappear or if they will be closing only a few of their stores. But Borders, which is said to control about 10-12 percent of the bookselling market, is already closing some of their stores around the country. With the worsening recession and the decline of the music bricks and mortar stores where albums and CDs once were sold prior to the purchase and download of individual songs and music sharing over the internet, Borders has reportedly seen its position in the retail of books and music seriously erode the past few years, which is good reason to start purchasing books at Borders. No one in the industry wants to see major players disappear and one can only hope that years from now, they’ll still be around.
If you have a publishing, entertainment or literary rights legal matter, visit our website at http://www.sebastiangibsonlaw.com and call us at any of the numbers easily found on our website.
But there is also the affect on the publishing business by the “big-box” merchandisers such as Wal-mart, Target and Costco that now account for 30 percent of the book market. These stores carry a limited number of titles and reportedly sell them for below cost as a “loss leader” to attract people inside their stores. Book publishers also wholesale their books to these large merchandisers at a discount.
Independent book stores combined only account for approximately 10 percent, Barnes and Noble approximately 20 percent and Amazon the rest. With those numbers, if Borders disappears completely, book publishers have little leverage to play one bookseller off against another in order to sell more books. One can only hope that the economy turns around quickly and that Borders as well as other independent booksellers survive.
Large publishing houses have been laying off their employees as they have seen their sales decrease. While in some cases this is the result of the recession, in other cases it’s the result of bad bets by these publishing houses as to the type of books they have gambled will appeal to the general market. When a publishing house provides a large advance to an author and the book does not recoup that advance and all the other costs of publishing and distribution, the book publisher suffers a loss that can be substantial. If they make too many of these bad bets, they can go out of business.
In addition, Google has been increasing its databank of books. Google scans books and makes them available on their search engine and pays book publishers for the right to do so. There are already over seven million books already scanned by Google.
On the positive side, one can look at the increase in online reading and the flood of people coming into public libraries as a result of the recession to come away with the belief that the demand for books in the future will experience a considerable growth. Libraries can’t keep purchase enough copies of new books to satisfy their ever-growing number of patrons. On top of the increased numbers of people flooding into libraries, reading rates among Latinos and young people in general are rising rapidly.
Amazon has also seen it’s sales grow for all media products, and books in the romance category at all booksellers have recently been enjoying a 7 to possibly 10 percent growth (no one is quite sure since Bookscan, the industry tracking service, doesn’t track sales at the “big box” retailers. It’s believed that Bookscan only tracks about 70 percent of book sales as these “big box” retailers now account for 30 percent of the market.
Some book publishers, however, fear that with Kindle, Amazon may be intending some day in the not too distant future on being a vertical publishing conglomerate of it’s own, avoiding any middlemen, any publishers, and taking the entire business from acquisition to the purchaser. The future of going straight from acquisition to Kindle is already here with two recent biographies going straight to Kindle before ever being published. Simultaneous releases, however, may turn out to be only a short term experiment that is soon forgotten.
There is also concern that if Amazon were to corner the market, they could force publishers to accept whatever they demanded, and many if not most publishers simply would no longer be able to exist. Some agents see the demise of book publishers if Amazon with their Kindle and other acquisitions in the publishing industry take over 10 to 20 percent of the book publishing market in addition to their already strong bookselling dominance online.
While Kindle is the leading product in the e-reader category and now prices it’s books at just under , the Sony Reader is also attracting attention and one can only suspect it won’t be long before Apple and other companies join in the competition for e-readers. Recently, Sony joined Amazon in charging a flat price of .99 for books on its e-readers and lowered the prices of its newest models.
While some publishers are expressing alarm about Amazon and the effect the growing use of e-readers may have on the industry, others are less worried. Some publishers believe they will still be able to charge the same amount to Amazon which it is believed takes a loss on the books that it then sells at a lower price. Book publishers still get approximately half of the hardcover retail list price. Consequently, other publishers fear that eventually Amazon and Sony will become tired of losing money on the books they sell on their e-readers and demand that publishers take a discounted price for the books they wholesale to them.
While Kindle and other e-readers may in the future offer more books released simultaneously in hardcover form and on digital form, the increased availability of these books could lift sales across all forms of distribution, just as audio books did. It is more likely, however, that with e-books selling at the discounted price of .99, if Amazon and Sony demand lower wholesale prices, publishers will want to delay the release of books on e-readers just as film studios delay the release of movies to DVD in order to capitalize on the higher prices for hardcover books. This leverage is what the publishers have on their side to counter any demands by Amazon or Sony for lower wholesale pricing.
At least one publisher’s imprint is trying to work out contracts with booksellers and authors capping advances at 0,000 and reducing the number of returns pitching profit-sharing proposals to authors as the way of the future. Some independent publishers sees the future as one where eventually, books will be produced and distributed electronically for little cost.
Just as the music industry suffered under its years of transition to the current situation where individual songs are downloaded or shared and the sale of entire albums or cds will never again see sales of the magnitude of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” album, so to in the publishing world, as their world changes around them, some publishers will adapt to change, some will not, and some will die a slow or surprisingly fast death depending upon how fast e-publishing takes hold and Amazon gains market share, how quickly they adapt to the changes in the publishing industry and depending on whether they continue to make good bets or bad on what they believe the public will want to read.
While the bar may be raised for new authors to have their works accepted by mainstream publishers as these publishers become more careful in what they publish and the advances they offer new writers, there will always be independent publishers willing to take chances and able to take advantage of the opportunities offered when those mainstream publishers focus on more established authors.
One thing is clear. The industry is changing and change will come faster than most can imagine it. The other thing to remember is, books will always be with us. They may be in different forms as e-readers gain in popularity and audio books continue to be popular, but in general, new technologies tend to help an industry rather than hurt it. In this case, the new forms of distribution will probably help the book publishing industry to become more flexible and reach a wider audience than ever before.
Visit our website at http://www.sebastiangibsonlaw.com and call us if you have an entertainment, publishing or literary rights legal matter and wish to retain attorney Sebastian Gibson.
As a California publishing lawyer and literary rights attorney with knowledge of the changes taking place in the publishing industry, Sebastian Gibson provides legal services to his entertainment clients in the literary and publishing world. A California lawyer for writers and authors, Sebastian Gibson is a knowledgeable attorney in the publishing industry and experienced negotiator. Sebastian Gibson does not accept unsolicited submissions. Indeed, unsolicited submissions must unfortunately be returned unopened and certified mail submissions are regretfully refused.
Only those authors who have been unable to secure the services of a literary agent willing to represent them for a percentage of their book royalties and who have the ability to pay for attorney fees and who still wish to seek the services of Sebastian Gibson for his assistance may send an e-mail requesting such services. Writers should keep in mind, however, that hiring an attorney to perform what may amount to scores if not a hundred hours or more of an attorney’s time is a costly venture.
A return e-mail to writers seeking to hire Sebastian Gibson on this basis will provide a cost estimate for the assistance of Attorney Sebastian Gibson in editing the author’s cover letter for submission to publishers and editors, the editing or revision of any book proposals, editing of the manuscript, copying charges, materials and/or determining which agents and publishers are best suited for the author’s project. Additional attorney fees are charged for submitting the project to publishers for the sale of foreign translation rights, and submissions for television and film rights.
A power attorney or super literary agent such as Sebastian Gibson represents writers and assists them in having their manuscripts and projects bought at auctions by editors on behalf of their publishers and either for a flat fee or based on his hourly rate, will assist an author with preparation of a book proposal and its submission to publishers in the U.S. and abroad. Attorney Sebastian Gibson will also assist an author in selling foreign translation rights, dramatic film and television rights, multi-book deals, and the negotiation of all contracts and the terms such as the royalty percentages and the author’s advance.
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