Book Contracts

I have been enjoying reading about contracts lately. I know, I know, that claim may seem less than plausible, but I think that book contracts may be infinitely more fun to read about than to read.  At least, if you're not a lawyer.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Passive Guy (from The Passive Voice) -- a retired lawyer -- have been blogging about book contracts and, generally, helping to raise the awareness of new writers on the subject.

In that spirit, here are some links to posts about contracts that made my jaw drop.  I had no idea what rights certain agents were trying to retain for themselves.  On that note, if you are a writer who has signed a book contract lately, Passive Guy is collecting them, trying to get an idea for what's going on in the industry these days.  I'm eagerly awaiting that series of blog posts (or, hopefully, ebook!).

From the blog of Kristine Kathryn Rusch:
- The Business Rusch: Writing Like It's 1999
- The Business Rusch: Advocates, Addendums, and Sneaks, oh my!

Kristine Rusch has many more excellent articles on the business of writing, but her website is well laid out so if you go there they should be easy to find.

From the Passive Voice Blog
- How to Read a Book Contract - Agency Clause
- How to Read a Book Contract - Agency Coupled with an Interest If you are a writer with an agent and, like me before I read this blog post, you have no idea what agency coupled with a interest means, this is a must-read post.

Here is what Kristine Rusch had to say about these two posts:

If you have an agent, please read these two posts even if you think you understand the agency clause. It is my experience that most writers do not understand what they’re signing in their book contracts, and some agents have been misleading writers as to what these clauses mean.

Also of great interest to me were:
- How to Read a Book Contract - Somebody's Gonna Die
- You Just Signed with a Big Agent? Oh, I'm So Sorry.

See also:
- Self-Publishing Basics: The Copyright Page

Podcasting on the iPad

After writing my last post, How to record an audiobook at home, I came across a link to Steven Lewis's Taleist blog, a blog I'm now subscribing to, and read his terrific post 5 ways to stuff up your author podcast.

In his article Steven Lewis recommends a program called Hindenburg. I went over to nsaka.com to take a look at what Hindenburg can do. It looks impressive but costs $66.50. For what the program does I'm sure that's cheap but right now I don't have $66.50 to spare. Then I noticed they have a version out for the iPhone called the Hindenburg Field Recorder.

Now, I don't have an iPhone but I do have an iPad (which I think is completely awesome and that I am in love with) so I went to have a look. The app seemed great but cost $29.99. That's more in the ballpark of what I can afford but I didn't want to pay $30 for a program that I hadn't taken for a trial run. Enter the Hindenburg Field Recorder Lite. It has all the functionality of the Hindenburg Field Recorder but is free. Yay! Free is good.

I downloaded the app and started playing with it. My first impression is that it was very easy to use and extremely fun. I'm not sure what the quality of the sound would be like but I think it would be exciting to take my iPad out into the city and do interviews, sort of podcasting on the go.

I'm not sure if I ever will do a podcast, but it has been fun learning more about them, and I've discovered a great blog in the process!

Oh, before I close this post, I would like to share a link to Steven Lewis's podcast of his interview with Karen McQuestion. Karen was (at least this is my understanding) the first indie author most folks heard about who made a good living off self-publishing her books. It is a great interview and Karen gives many tips to new writers concerning marketing and promotion. Also, it is interesting to compare the quality of Steve Lewis's audio (I'm assuming he has set up a home studio) and Karen McQuestion's (I'm assuming she hasn't).

Cheers!

How To Record An Audiobook At Home

For months I have been toying with the idea of making an audiobook, but I didn't know how much work would be involved, or whether I could do a recording with the equipment and programs available to me. I started to research the subject and then thought, "Hey! I could do a post about this!"

ACX.com

The first place I looked for information was ACX.com. (If you would like to learn a bit about ACX, here is a link to their FAQ.)  ACX has a great section entitled: Video Lessons and Resources.  On that page are links to five video tutorials that will take you, step by step, through everything you need to set up a recording studio in your home.  The downside for me was that if I followed the advice in these videos I would have to spend hundreds of dollars on new equipment. :-(

My search continued.

Podiobooks.com

The next place I went for information on making an audiobook was podiobooks.com. After clicking various links pretty much at random I came to a page titled: Postcast101 - Creating and Hosting an Audio Podcast. The information on this page is for people intending to transmit their books via an RSS feed so it contains a lot of information not applicable to me, but from what I can tell one can record an audiobook using only:

Your current Mac or PC
A Microphone
Audacity
Levelator
iTunes

If you want to include music anywhere in the audiobook you could take a look at ccMixter.

Tutorials

Here are tutorials that give the nuts and bolts of how to record an audiobook:

Step 1: Creating and Editing an Audio Recording
Step 4: Levelating the Podcast
Step 5: Encoding to MP3 Format

I think I would like to try making an audiobook one day, but it looks like a lot of work. I have a new appreciation for all the folks who have done it.

UPDATE (February 25, 2013): I've written another article that builds on this one:
- How To Record Your Own Audiobook: Setting Up A Home Studio

Other articles you might like:

- Podcasting on the iPad
- How To Write Short Stories
- Michael Hauge On How To Summarize Your Novel

Self-Publishing Tips

Here's a great article by Marie Force on how to format a manuscript for Amazon: Self-Publishing Tips for the Uninitiated.

Also, I would like to recommend Zoe Winter's book, Smart Self-Publishing: Becoming an Indie Author. I have read this book and use it now as a reference.

Although not about the nuts and bolts of formatting, etc., Joe Konrath's blog, A Newbie's Guide to Publishing, is a must read for anyone thinking of independently publishing their work. Not only will it introduce you to other indie authors but Joe gives excellent advice on how to market your book(s).

Although not directly related to self-publishing, Dean Wesley Smith's blog, especially his Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing series, contains invaluable information about the business of writing. After reading his blog posts, I'll never think about writing the same way again.

Dean's wife, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, has her own blog where she discusses, among other things, the business of publishing (contracts, etc.)

Another blog I have found a wealthy of information on is The Passive Voice, especially when it comes to anything to do with contracts.

There are many more blogs I want to include here but I need to run or I will be late for my day job! Cheers!

Dean Wesley Smith Kills Cows

And by cows I mean what he calls "the sacred cows of publishing," so no actual bovines are in danger.

Dean Wesley Smith's latest post is brilliant. I highly recommend it, and his book, "Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing," to any writer but especially to new writers like myself.

Here is an excerpt from his post:

Writers, especially newer writers are hungry for set rules.

This business is fluid and crazy most of the time, and the need for security screams out in most of us. So in the early years we writers search for “rules” to follow, shortcuts that will cut down the time involved, secret handshakes that will get us through doors. It is only after a lot of time that professional writers come to realize that the only rules are the ones we put on ourselves.

Writers are people who sit alone in a room and make stuff up. The problem we have is that when we get insecure without rules, we make stuff up as well.

When we don’t understand something, we make something up to explain it. Then when someone comes along with a “this is how you do it” stated like a rule, you jump to the rule like a drowning man reaching for a rope. And when someone else says “Let go of the rope to make it to safety,” you get angry and won’t let go of that first safety line.

In all these chapters that’s what I will be trying to tell tell you to do: Let go of the rope and trust your own talents and knowledge.

Writers are Odd

I woke up this morning, looked out the window, and saw paradise. The sun was shining (and in Vancouver that is a rare a sight), birds were flitting, Disney style, between trees, flowers were blooming and the scent of freshly baked cinnamon buns wafted up to me from the bakery down the street.

It was heaven.

What did I do? Did I go for a walk? Did I go for a (much needed) run? Did I make myself coffee and sit by my open window to enjoy the sights and sounds of spring?

No. Of course not. I'm a writer.

I booted up my computer, drew the curtains, and picked up editing a scene I'd been editing on and off for the last three days. I did, eventually, take a coffee break and, when I did, got to thinking about writing and its relationship to good mental health ... and whether there was one.

Who but a writer would spend a beautiful sunny day locked in her apartment punching away at little black buttons for hours on end? I guess a case could be made for writers, necessarily, being a bit ... let's call it eccentric.

Okay, that's my self-reflection for the day. :)

Contracts: Avoiding the Gotchas

The writer of The Passive Voice blog, a lawyer who no longer practices, has written a must-read blog post about how to avoid getting stung by nasty little clauses that a publisher or agent may try to sneak into your contract. Passive Guy calls these clauses "gotyas". Here is an example of a gotya clause:

“For services rendered and about to be rendered, the Author does hereby irrevocably assign and transfer to said agent and said agent shall retain, a sum equal to 15% as an agency coupled with an interest….”

That example comes from Kristine Kathryn Rusch's blog post: The Business Rusch: Agents. Here is Kristine's commentary:

Oh, my God. I wouldn’t have signed that as a twenty-one year old newly birthed nonfiction writer. It sounds scary because it is. It means that the writer has assigned his agent—irrevocably—15% of the book. “An interest” is a legal term and (lawyers, you can correct me), it means that the agent now has a piece of that property. 15% worth to be exact.

I am not a laywer and nothing that I say in this post is legal advice. Having made that clear, the way I read Passive Guy's post, he is saying that if you aren't sure that you or your IP lawyer have ferreted out every single last gotya clause in the contract you're thinking of signing, one way to smoke out these dastardly clauses is to add an avoidance of doubt clause (or two, or three, or ...) to your contract.

The Passive Guy gives a great explanation of what an avoidance of doubt clause is, so I'll just refer you to his blog post for that. As I understand it, though, the basic idea is this: Explicitly state what rights you seek to retain and if the publisher or agent who gave you the contract demands that one or more avoidance of doubt clauses be removed then you know that there are hidden gotya clauses in the contract and which ones to look for.

Here are Passive Guy's examples:

For the avoidance of doubt, no provision of this contract shall:

1. Give Publisher any rights to any present or future work of Author other than new books with the same characters as the Work.
2. Prevent Author from publishing any of Author’s present or future books with another publisher or self-publishing such books except for books with the same characters as described above.
3. Give Publisher any rights to electronic versions of the Work except for an ebook version of the Work with features substantially identical to those being sold at retail by Publisher on the date of this contract.
4. Give Publisher any rights to versions of the Work in electronic or other formats that are not being sold commercially at retail by one or more major book publishers on the date of this contract.
5. Give Publisher any rights to past, present or future creations of Author that are not books, including adaptations by Author or others of the Work into a form that is not a book or ebook.
6. Give Publisher any rights to modify the content of the Work as initially accepted for publication by Publisher without Author’s express written consent in a document separate from this contract.

I believe there is a lot of truth to the old saying, to be forwarned is to be forearmed. I highly recommend reading Kristine's three part series on The Business Rusche:

The Business Rusch: Surviving The Transition (Part One)
The Business Rusch: Publishers (Surviving the Transition Part 2)
The Business Rusch: Agents (Surviving the Transition Part 3)

Publishers are under-reporting electronic book sales

This is what well-known and respected agent Kristin Nelson wrote yesterday on her popular blog, Pub Rants:

Publishers are under-reporting electronic book sales in any given period on the royalty statements we are seeing.

That's a fact.

Wow! This is big. 

(By the way, Kristin's post wasn't primarily about publishers under-reporting ebook sales, it was about one of her authors, Courtney Milan, deciding to turn down a deal from Harlequin to self-publish. For more on Courtney's decision see her blog post on the subject as well as her interview over on the site Smart Bitches, Trashy Books.)


A few weeks ago I read Kristine Kathryn Rusch's blog post, The Business Rusch: Royalty Statements Update, where she wrote that publishers are under-reporting their ebook sales. (I also blogged about it.) I talked to a few of my friends after I wrote that post, they weren't writers, and they flat out did not believe that any reputable publishing company would under-report sales.

Well, it looks like publishers are indeed under-reporting ebooks sales.  I respect Kristine Rusch but she was just one person saying it.  Now it's two.  Two very respected people in the book industry.  I have no doubt that neither of these women would make this claim publicly if they weren't sure and if they didn't have proof.

It will be interesting to see this subject develop.

Xtranormal: How to Write a Romance Novel

I discovered these videos a few months ago, so they're not new, but they are too good not to blog about. These videos are for anyone who has ever either a) wanted to write a romance novel or b) wants to know the basic structure of every romance novel ever written (or, okay, maybe just 99.98 percent of them ;).

Enjoy!

So You Want to Write A Romance Novel: Chapters 1-3


So You Want to Write A Romance Novel: Chapters 4 - 10


So You Want to Write A Romance Novel: Chapters 11 - 15


So You Want to Write A Romance Novel: Chapters 16 - 20

Self-publishing is 7% of book sales worldwide

Wow!

From Publisher's Weekly: BEA 2011: New Kobo and Other Points Rise Up at IDPF