Quite the Life (and all in Times New Roman 10pt!)
What, you didn’t know I had a Substack?
Well neener neener on you, I do.
Phhtt!
Been doing it for a while, been keeping it quiet because I substack rarely.
Only when I have a thought I doubt fits in here.
Give it a look, let me know what you think.
And thanks.
Yes, I’m a Boomer.
I’d like to think of myself as more of a Budda-Boom than a straight Boom and, at my age, I’ll take what I can get.
In any case, Terry and I had a great time and covered lots of my history, writing, creating, and letting people know life begins when you want it to, not because somebody tells you it should.
Listen on Terry’s Kickass Boomers site.
or here
Take a listen and enjoy!
Make sure their in-house stylebook/author’s guide suits your work, human editors beat machine editors, and definitely make sure the editor they assign you is familiar with your genre
(oops! this was suppose to go out last week. my bad. sorry.
Part 1 of this series covered my entry into the world of noveling, and the first quote-publisher-unquote who wanted my premier novel, The Augmented Man. I shared three critical issues to ask any publisher before signing with them:
- Marketing – how would the publisher get word of my book out to potential readers?
- Distribution – how would the publisher get my book into potential readers’ hands?
- Career Development – what would the publisher do to help me become a better author?
This post deals with publisher #2 and critical issue #3 from the list above
I became careful investigating publishers due to my experience with publisher #1. Investigating before entering into any kind of agreement with an unknown entity (organization or individual) is called due diligence. I was learning that the publishing landscape changed since my 1980s-based experiences, and due diligence became one of my tools in seeking out publishers.
Before submitting to publisher #2, I asked around in writers groups, message boards, talked with the people I’d be working with, et cetera.
One anomaly occurred: Someone praised the publisher on one board. Their praise was so over-the-top I asked if they worked for the publisher.
No, they didn’t.
But when I looked through the publisher’s staff, there the praiser was. In charge of acquisitions. Meaning they’d have the deciding vote on whether to send my work up the chain.
So I asked via the message board if this individual worked for the publisher.
Well, yes they did, but they got the job slightly after they responded to my initial query.
Okay, such happens. Several 1980s trade-technical authors put me on their letterhead because I was so well recognized in the industry.
Onward and Upward.
Publisher #2 read my The Augmented Man and asked if I had other books ready to go.
Specifically, they asked if The Augmented Man was the first in a series.
“No, it’s not.”
Could I make it into a series?
“The protagonist completes his growth arc at the end of the novel. I’m not sure how to develop him further from there.”
Did I have other books available?
“I have Tales Told ‘Round Celestial Campfires and Empty Sky ready to go and two others ready for editing.”
They sent me a contract for a five book deal.
I was thrilled. I was ecstatic. I was humbled. I was honored.
Now let me tell you how I was damn near screwed.
Continue reading “A Tale of Six Publishers – Part 2”
Never do business with someone who threatens you
My novel publishing journey began in 2016. I’d had stories and articles published before then, almost all of which were business or neuroscience oriented. A few fiction pieces here and there, and only enough to keep me in the game, so to speak.
Prior that that, my publishing experience came from back in the days of Print (note the capital “P” Print). The late 1980s-early 1990s were my heyday, and specifically for trade-technicals (it was the height of the PC boom. Technical publishers offered book deals to anybody who knew how to program and could put two words together) and science fiction, fantasy, and horror short stories and novellas.
My strengths were a powerful, engaging, authoritative voice, and a deep knowledge of my subject material.
These two things carried over into my fiction writing. I’m repeatedly told I have a unique, engaging, authorial voice and a deep knowledge of what my characters are experiencing (when the PC book market collapsed, I studied a variety of things. At one point people referenced me as a world-class neuroscientist, mathematician, … I heartily denied then and deny still all such appellations. What is does mean, though, is when my characters talk neuroscience, it’s real neuroscience, when a scene involves AI, it’s real AI, when my characters do anthropological excavations, it’s based on real anthropological excavations, …).
What all this comes down to is I had some expectations about the publishing industry. Said expectations focused on three critical issues I learned from my previous publishing experience:
What I share now is how deeply erroneous those expectations were (although each was firmly rooted in my previous publishing experience), and why.
I’ll be covering five publishers who failed (and not due to unfulfilled expectations, due purely to a lack of business expertise, management skills, and, in two cases, downright deceit) and one who succeeded unexpectedly. I’ll post one per week starting today.
Continue reading “A Tale of Six Publishers – Part 1”
Long story short: When you see a line in your contract something like
Copyright shall be taken out by the PUBLISHER in the name of AUTHOR in the United States of America, and in foreign countries as the PUBLISHER and AUTHOR may deem advisable.
make sure your publisher takes out the copyright.
US-based self- and indie-publishers should go to Copyright.gov (non-US authors – look up the copyrighting organization for your country). Copyrighting your work is far less expensive and more profitable (in the long run) than having attorneys deal with publisher malfeasance.
I’ve attended classes and readings by “established” authors (ie, someone who’s written more books than you), publishers, and editors, and encountered something like
4. Don’t Talk About Copyright
Never say you have copyrighted your book with the Library of Congress. Your book is copyrighted the moment you put the words on paper. To have it done officially dates your material – forever.
Let the publisher do that.
Some of that advice is reasonable: Don’t say you’ve done it.
Want to know why?
Because most agents, acquisition editors, and their associated first readers aren’t lawyers, have no legal training, and to them this signals you don’t know what you’re doing.
Because when it comes to this, they don’t know what they’re doing.
Or, having copyrighted your work is a clear sign they can’t take advantage of you later on.
But the rest of the advice is dreck: Your work isn’t copyrighted simply because you’ve written it. Want a cheap alternative to Copyright.gov? Print out your work and USPO (or whatever mail service is in your country) mail it to yourself. Receive it and never open it…until an issue like this arises. You’ll still need a lawyer and the USPO’s processing mark because that mark shows the date your package passed through their system. You have proof of when you finished your project and a little evidence goes a long way when your publisher’s an idiot.
Read on for the details of my plight and an actual attorney – who deals specifically in intellectual property law – said about it.
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Bottomline
The bottomline here is obvious, me thinks: Copyright your work.
You don’t have to tell anybody.
Until you see them in court.