Time to Write

Red alert: Undead Press? Keep Walking!

Thanks the excellent Writer Beware Blog for a heads-up about Undead Press. Writer Mandy DeGuit submitted a story to an anthology published by Undead Press and when she got her copy she was astonished to find they had made big changes including giving the main character a memory of animal abuse and adding a suggestion of rape at the end.

When she wrote to the publisher to complain, here is what he answered:

"it clearly says publisher has the right to EDIT work. you signed it. are you saying you are a dishonest and immoral person and will now try to deny you signed the contract? well i have a copy right here and as for the story. the editor had a hard time with it, it was very rough and he did alot (sic) to make it readable. despite what you think, your writing has a long way to go before its worthy of being printed professionally. we did what we had to do to make the story printable. you should be thankful, not complaining. ah, the ungrateful writer, gotta love it"

Hmm, if a story is not ready to be printed, how about rejecting it?

Apparently other authors have had similar issues.

I wouldn't be caught dead submitting anything to a publisher with the attitude of Anthony Giangregorio of Undead Presss. How about you?

(What does Chekhov advise about showing rather than telling? You'll find out in my newest book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass," published by Nicholas Brealey and available now from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

Why non-fiction writers should beat the cannibals to the meal

I've just listened to a marketing guy who is selling people a program on how to make money by writing a summary of a successful book and publishing it as an ebook.

His advice is to pick books that are longer than three hundred pages, for which the publisher sets the price. Also not to use too many actual excerpts to avoid violating copyright, and keep your summary under 50 pages.

Is it legal? Seems to be. Is it ethical? Hmmm...yes, maybe reading a summary might drive a few people to buy the full book, but probably it will cannabilize sales more than it increases it.Frankly, I'd feel sleazy using this tactic. 

In fact, I wonder how the marketing guy would feel if I bought his course and then published my summary of it for $49 instead of his price of $97?

My suggestion: if you think your book might be a target, beat them to the punch. Create your own digest version; if people have the chance to buy a summary from the original author or from a stranger, they'll go for the author every time.

(For more respectable approaches to creating and marketing your work, see my book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon and other book sellers.)

 

Writer warning: Wise Walrus, John Twiggs, Ticktock Entertainment

The Society of Authors reports that Ticktock Books and Ticktock Direct and Ticktock Media have all gone into voluntary liquidation last year, but Ticktock Entertainment continues with a publishing imprint called Wise Walrus.

The Society suggest you get in touch with them before signing any deals with Wise Walrus or any company run by Managing Director John Twiggs.

I have no personal experience with these companies, but I have known of other companies that take your money, go into liquidation or bankruptcy, and then promptly start up again under a different name.

As a general guideline, always do a Google search of any company you are thinking of signing with. Be sure to go past the first page or two of search results because sometimes unscrupulous companies populate those with phoney blogs and websites.

(For more on how to take your idea all the way to a finished book and avoid the dangers waiting for unwary writers, get my book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon and other booksellers.)

 

The case of the writer's missing royalties

The Galleycat bulletin reports that author James Crawford, who published his book using Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, was delighted to discover one day that there had been a huge increase in downloads—more than 5000. He was not so delighted when he saw that Amazon had decreased the price of his book from $5.99 to zero.

The Amazon policy is to match the lowest price of any books they carry, and they thought that Crawford’s book was being offered free at the Barnes & Noble site. In fact, that site was offering only a few sample chapters free, not the whole book.

Crawford asked Amazon to pay him the royalties for those 5,104 books. Their reply: “We’re sorry, we’re unable to pay royalties for your sales when your title was listed at $0 on our website. As per our KDP Terms and Conditions, we retain discretion over the retail price of a Kindle book.”

Of course Crawford hasn’t really lost the royalties from 5000 books because he never would have sold that many at the full price. However, as a good faith gesture Amazon could have offered to pay  the royalty on however many books were downloaded at the full price during a comparable period. It would probably have been a small amount and worth it for PR value. 

On the plus side, Crawford now has 5100 people familiar with his work and who may be more likely to buy his next book at full price.

(Self-publishing is one of the many topics covered in Your Writing Coach, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon and other book sellers. It's a friendly guide to getting from the idea through to publication.)

 

Writers: is this a crisis, an opportunity--or both?

We are in the middle of tumultuous times for writers.

No, print is not dead, but the pace of change has surprised almost everyone. People are moving over to ebooks and online news sites at a very fast clip.

“So what?” some people say. “It’s just a different delivery system. Content will always be king.”

I wonder if they’ve been paying attention to the music business: About 95 percent of music downloads in 2010 were unlicensed and illegal, with no money flowing back to artists, songwriters or record producers, according to a spokesman for the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

But what about that guy who sold a million copies of his novels on Kindle? And that young woman who writes Twilight type novels, she’s made a small fortune, too. There’s gold in digital!

Yep, and they’ve done it by selling massive quantities at a very low price—99 cents to $1.99. Have you looked at the Kindle offerings lately? Almost everybody except the already well-known writers has jumped on that 99 cent price point.

How many of them do you think are going to sell a million copies and how many do you think are going to sell 100 copies and take home $100?

In the meantime, we’re training readers to expect new digital books to cost 99 cents.

At the news and feature story end of things, Arianna Huffington sold her huge site, The Huffington Post, to AOL for $315 million…and the contributing bloggers got…nothing.

One of the bloggers has initiated a class action lawsuit asking for $105 million to go to the bloggers, but Huffington says the internet has changed the way writers work and that “Free content — shared by people who want to connect, share their passions, and have their opinions heard — fuels much of what appears on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Yelp, Foursquare, TripAdvisor, Flickr and YouTube.”

Whether or not this suit has legal merit, the point is that everything is trending toward free. It’s not yet clear whether publications fighting that with a paywall will succeed.

It may sound like I’m complaining about all this, but I’m not.

It is what it is.

If you try to fight reality, you lose.

My point is that we writers had better be paying attention.

If we are happy writing for free, fine; but if we want to make a living from it, we’d better apply our creativity to figuring out how to get ahead of that wave instead of finding ourselves carried along behind it—with empty pockets. How can we ply our trade in a different way, one that people are happy to pay for?

I wish I had the answers; all I have are a few clues that might help us figure it out.

One is the Grateful Dead model. The band didn’t just allow people at their concerts to make bootleg recordings, they actually encouraged it and made their money from concerts and merchandise. Is there a way that writers can give away part of what they do but create a more exclusive experience for those willing to pay?

It’s also worth keeping an eye on the current music scene—which bands or artists are finding new ways to earn income and how are they doing it?

Actually, I've just run across an example: Unbound Books uses a crowdfunding model (where people pledge a certain amount of money toward the production of a book, with rewards that escalate as the size of the pledge increases). Typically a small pledge gets you a signed copy of the book, a bit more might get you some exclusive videos of the author talking about the book's background, and so on.

Rupert Isaacson (author of"The Horse Boy") is taking it a step further by offering one radomly selected person who has pledged at any level for his new book the chance to spend half a day trail riding with him through the countryside that's the setting for his Unbound historical novel.

Another interesting development is the growth of interactive and site-specific theater. It’s not that the audience determines the plot but in some cases they mingle with the actors at a location where the drama plays out. Is there an equivalent for writers?

Another is the Banksy phenomenon, of art appearing unpredictably and gaining value from a sense of mystery. Again, could there be a counterpart for authors?

Finally, I’ve noticed more situations in which musicians and writers, especially poets, collaborate to create interesting products and events. Who else could authors collaborate with and what could they create together that people would pay for?

Another example from Unbound is a live event they're having on Sept. 12 at which ten authors will pitch their new projects and there will be a trapeze act and a band as well as a special surprise guest. TV crews from Channel 4 News, the BBC and Sky Arts will be filming at the event. The organizers are charging £20, which includes a £10 voucher to pledge to any of the ten authors on the night.

If you have any ideas, please add them here in a comment, or email me directly at jurgenwolff(at)gmail.com and I’ll feature them in a future post.

(One thing for sure is that we also have to get smarter about marketing our work. You may find two of my books helpful for that: "Do Something Different," published by Virgin Books with a foreword by Sir Richard Branson, and "Marketing for Entrepreneurs," published by Pearson. Both are available from Amazon and other online and offline book sellers.)

 

If you're a writer, you should be a member

Today, an unashamed plug for the Author’s Guild (no, I don’t get a commission). If you're a writer you should be a member. Why? Here’s one point, directly from the AG:

“Ask any experienced author: book contracts can be riddled with traps for unwary writers. Authors Guild attorneys have more than 45 years of experience with media contracts. We'll review your book contract before you sign, let you know whether it meets industry standards, and tell you how it can be improved. Have an agent? Excellent. Consider us another resource in getting the best deal possible.

Contract reviews are free for members. Dues are $90 for the first year – after that, dues vary according to writing income, but most authors continue to pay $90.

 Join 8,000 of your colleagues now, before you lay pen to contract. Visit www.authorsguild.org to apply.”

 Having them review one book contract for you is worth more than a year’s dues. Bargain! At their web site they also have a blog, accessible to you whether or not you're a member, on which they chronicle the major legal issues and cases relating to writing.

(Of course another useful tool is my book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon and other online and offline booksellers--it's also Brealey's number one Kindle title.)

 

What if your writing partner turns into Charlie Sheen?

I had an email from a reader who is starting to collaborate with a friend and wondered whether it's necessary to have a formal, written agreement. 

The answer is not only yes, it's YES!

What can go wrong? Well:

One of you could have a breakdown (there's the Charlie Sheen connection...)

One of you could die.

One of you could lose interest or get too busy with something else and want to quit the project halfway through.

One of you could decide the other isn't doing their share of the work.

I know it can be awkward to bring this up with a friend. It's a bit like a prenuptual contract. And it may never actually be needed but in case things go wrong you will be very happy you made the effort at the start. I'm not a lawyer, so this is not legal advice but I recommend that you write a simple document that includes:

* The names and addresses of the collaborators

* The name and a brief description of the project on which you are collaborating

* A brief description of what each of you will do on the project

* The terms of the collaboration in terms of the share of profits (usually 50/50, but if, for instance, it's a screenplay based on a book one of you had already written, it might be different)

* A provision for what happens if there is a dispute you cannot settle (for instance, "In case of a dispute, we agree to arbitration by a third party acceptable to both of us and agree to be bound by the recommendations of that party")

* A provision for what happens if one party no longer wants to or is able to participate (can the other person buy that one out? On what terms?)

That doesn't cover every possible development but it does address the main things that can go wrong. If you can afford it, consult an attorney to draft the agreement--ask him or her to keep it simple or else you'll end up with a fifty page monster. Get it witnessed and put it somewhere safe.

If things go well, you'll never need to look at it again. If not, it'll be there to help.

(If you want support setting and achieving a writing goal--like finally writing that book or screenplay you have in mind--sign up for my Writing Breakthrough Strategy Program. Find full details at http://www.jurgenwolff.com.

Who owns your Tweets?

Do you use Twitter? Do you consider your Tweets your literary property, or would you be happy for them to be made public as part of a book?

OR Books has collected Tweets from the revolution in Egypt and quickly packaged them into a book, "Tweets From Tahir." The book comes out in late April, only two months after the events it chronicles. It will be issued both as a paperback and an e-book. 

 They are contacting the people who posted their thoughts in order to get permission, but not coordinating with Twitter. It raises the issue of who owns Tweets. Should they be treated as essays and subject to copyright, or does making them public this way, combined with how short they are, make it arguable that they're in the public domain? If it's a collection of one person's work then it seems reasonable to consider it subject to normal copyright, but what if it's a collection of hundreds of Tweets on a particular subject and only one or two from each individual? It's hard to cite "fair use" of an excerpt when the whole thing is only 140 characters long.

 Interesting questions that probably will come up sooner rather than later!

 

Advice for the writer as businessperson (from 50 Cent)

From whom do you want some business tips? How about 50 Cent, rapper and executive, and Robert Greene, author of "The 48 Laws of Power"? They've collaborated on a new business book, "The 50th Law." In an interview with Fortune Magazine, Greene said this about his co-author:

"Something 50 talks a lot about is the importance of owning yourself. Whenever he has a business decision, he doesn't concern himself with the upfront money; he's thinking three years down the line--how he can own the material or own the company or get equity instead of being a promoter."

Greene suggests following this line of thought whenever possible, even within a company: "You're thinking, 'How can I get to a place where I actually own this project or even this information that I have learned and people have to come to me to get it.'"

As a free-lancer I've tended to opt for the potential back-end reward rather than a guaranteed upfront amount several times, but you have to be careful. It doesn't pay to do that, for instance, with a Hollywood studio in terms of profit-share because their accounting makes sure nothing ever makes a profit on paper. For me the gamble has paid off about 50% of the time, but a couple of those times it was with a very generous back-end reward, so I believe it has been the right choice.

(If you're interested in marketing yourself skillfully, there are two books you will find helpful: "Do Something Different," published by Virgin Books, and "Marketing for Entrepreneurs," published by Pearson. Both are available from Amazon and other online and offline booksellers.)

Is that writing contest a scam?

I've written before about how important it is to read the fine print when you enter any kind of writing contest (or other contest, for that matter), but I feel it's worth repeating.

Here are the three key points to look for:

* If there's an entry fee (and there usually is), how much is it, relative to the prizes being awarded? If the entry fee is $5 and the prize is $1000, that's not bad; if the entry fee is $35 and the prize is $250, not so good. It's understandable that contests want to cover their expenses but some of them are out to get and keep as much entry fee money as possible, so be aware that you are financing their profits.

* Is there an "about" page or other way of knowing exactly who is behind the contest--name, address, email address, phone number? If that's missing, your entry fee may also be missing soon.

* Does this contest have a track record? Of course every contest had a first time, but if they say they've been around for a while, do they list previous winners in a way that would make it possible for you to contact them (even if only by doing Facebook search)? I don't think previous winners would object to a brief, friendly email asking them if their experience with the contest was satisfactory.

* Are the terms and conditions clear and--this is the big point--do you lose the copyright to your material by entering or by winning? If so, run away. The Writer Beware Blog recently mentioned a short story contest at ShortStoryBook.net, which states that the copyright to entries that are published on the contest website goes to the website. Very naughty.

(for my free report, "Seven Things that Stop You From Writing and How to Overcome Them," click here: 

http://goo.gl/bWjb)