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book promotion, money, other bizness
Via Alison Kent a link to Agent Obscura, where an experiment is about to be launched to see how much impact readers really have on a novel's potential success. To be truthful, the post in question isn't clear on exactly what they'll be doing, but I'm interested enough to keep track for a while.
From Desiree these two questions:
1. Do publishers try to get an author under contract for another book? What if an author wants to work without a deadline hanging over their head (ie, no advance money)? Are the publishers receptive to that? 2. Do publishers agree to pay an author a given amount for the next book before receiving a completed manuscript? What if they are not happy with the manuscript even after edits? Are they still obligated to pay the author or does a book contract include some clause that gives the publisher an out?
and my answers:
1. My sense and experience is that if you sell a book to a publisher, they will try to get you under contract for your next book, or at least to get a clause that gives them first chance at your next finished manuscript. Because of course every editor is hoping that this new acquisition will be the Big One, his or her Harry Potter or Gone with the Wind, the purchase that makes an editor's career. And if it does turn out that way, they want to be able to hold on to you. So yes, they try to set up a future relationship. One they can get out of, if things go belly up. Also, you can write any many novels as you like without a contract, of course. then you have (1) no deadlines and (2) no advance money.
Say you write a three novel series, historical or crime or whatever, and your agent sends all three manuscripts off to six or seven select editors. If the series is well written with good characters, the editors are going to be very enthusiastic, because in this situation marketing is much easier. With the first three manuscripts already in hand they can go to town building a reader base.
But it almost never happens like that, as far as I know.
2. If an editor gets the go ahead to make an offer on a manuscript, and there's an obvious sequel waiting in the wings, they will often contract for that second unwritten novel right away. That's what happened with Into the Wilderness. Bantam offered me a two book deal, and so I had to go off and write the second novel in the series.
If the publisher contracts for a novel that is unwritten, there will be language in the contract about what they expect. What kind of novel, and how long. There will also be an out-clause, in case it doesn't turn out to their taste -- which does happen on occasion. When it does, the author has to come to some agreement with the publisher. S/he can pay back the advance and sell the novel to a different publisher; or sometimes, if the publisher really wants to hold onto the writer, they'll say: okay, not this one, but we'll take the next one if it's more in our ballpark.
If you've got a good agent, paying back the advance has been worked out ahead of time so you don't get presented with a huge bill. You'll pay it back in chunks over a certain amount of time. It's not a great situation, but if your agent has sold the novel in question to a different publisher, things will work out for the most part.
I'm still a little virus-woozy, so if this doesn't make sense, speak up, k?
November 21, 2005 04:24 PM
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Comments
Publishing related ... I recently learned of an on-demand publishing site (LULU.COM) that allows authors/artists to have their creations (books, cds, movies) published without an agent, editor, big publishing company. Currently, the content is heavily tech oriented, but the owner of the company is hoping to publish the wide spectrum of creative content. And the cost model is that the author/creator gets most of the proceeds from each printing. The marketing of the published work is the job of the author.
May come in useful for authors who really want their works published but, for whatever reason, aren't able to do it the mainstream route.
Posted by: Anne at November 21, 2005 06:08 PM
Anne -- self publishing is a complicated and contentious topic. I personally wouldn't recommend it, for a lot of reasons. I can go into this in more detail if people are interested.
Posted by: Sara Donati at November 21, 2005 09:23 PM
Thanks for the answers!
Posted by: Desiree at November 22, 2005 06:44 PM