Hey, write for free!

 Why do publishers think it's okay for writers to not be paid for their work? I mean, really? And writer's aren't the only ones...my other daughter is an artist and has the same problem. Pardon me while I get on my soapbox.

Let's put some numbers out here. Let's say it takes 120 hours to write a complete novel. That's just an average, some take longer and some not so much. Now, if writing was a "paid" job, at just $10 an hour, the writer would earn $1,200.  But since no one is paying authors to write, it's actually costing the author that $1,200. 

For self-published authors who rely on their income to make a living, this is a big chunk. Now, let's add in cover cost, editing, and promotion. I pay on average $200 for a cover. And while I do most of my own editing, for the book I'm working on now, I paid about $1,500.(Totally worth it, by the way.) Promotion can range in the hundreds but for this post, let's just say another $250. It even costs to upload the novel document to the publishing platform, it's right at $50, at this time. So, the author has about $3,200 of sweat hours and other money invested in their novel. 

Now, let's sell those books. To make the math easy, let's say $10 each. Meaning, the author would need to sell 320 copies to break even. Except it doesn't happen that  way. Amazon takes their cut, IngramSparks takes a cut, and other distributors also take a cut. Again, to make math easy, let's just say that cut is $3.00 leaving $7.00 for the author.  Now the author has to sell 457 copies to just break even with time and money spent.

And, statistically, self-published books only sell about 250 copies over a lifetime.

Some do sell more, of course. The author gets out there, goes to book events or festivals and get some sales that way. But again, money is involved. Booth fees, travel, food, and of course the hours spent at the festival. I'm not even going to math that. But, booth fees range from $25 to $100, and those days are generally 12 hour days...so add another $120 in time invested.

Being a published writer is just plain expensive.

Short story writers are a different story. Let's say it takes 10 hours to write and edit that story. So, the writer has $100 bucks invested. Not a big deal, right? 

Author does some searching and finds a place to submit his story. His story is published and he gets nothing. Whoever published it says they pay in exposure. Well, you know what? Exposure won't buy gas for the car or food for the table.

And this is where this rant comes from. There is a themed anthology soliciting short stories. They don't pay anything and the author will get a "discount" for any books they purchase.

Let's play math, again.  Say 20 authors have stories accepted. 

The publisher provides cover, editing, and publishing. Since all this is done inhouse, there is no cost other than time. Yeah, there is a bit for the ISBN number and publishing platform but I've added things up and cost would be less than $100. If those 20 authors buy just 2 copies each, that's 40 copies. And at a discount, say, $10 each, that's a publisher income of $400, minus the costs, so about $300 profit for the publisher.

I don't have a problem with the publisher getting paid for the work they do. They should get paid. But so should the author. 

Now, I have written for free. It was for an anthology but all the profits went to Toys for Tots. It was for a good cause. I have also turned down being published because they weren't willing to pay. Like I said, exposure won't pay my bills. 

We don't expect lawn services to mow our yards without being paid. We don't expect lawyers or plumbers to work for free. Or we shouldn't. So, again, why should authors and artists be expected to not get paid? Why should we be expected to be happy to be taken advantage of? It's not right.

So, what about you? Have you been expected to work for free? 

Welcome back...

 It's been a little over 12 years since anything new was posted on this blog. And I seriously thought about deleting the whole thing and starting over, but even without promotion of any sort, it's still getting a nice number of visitors. 

So, since the publishing world has changed so much in the last few years, I thought it's the perfect time to take a new look at the industry and see just what's going on.

When I first started writing, self-publishing was something only those who couldn't get a real publisher did. I found this quote from one of the traditional publishers dated 2018."In the publishing industry, a self-published author is generally not considered a published author, anymore than someone who starred in their own home movie is considered a movie star." 

A real writer wrote, did the agent search thing, submitted query letters to those agents, did a lot of waiting, and hopefully ended up with a publishing contract. And then, in about two years, you had a book out. It was a long and difficult process and not everyone made it. We were told to grow thick skin to deal with all the rejection. 

My goal was a book published by one of the "Big Six" publishers. I stalked agents on their blogs, Twitter, and Facebook. I went to writer's conferences to meet agents and editors from those big publishers. I even spent a week in New Orleans studying with best selling authors, learning how to properly pitch a novel, and then had two days of meeting with top agents and editors. It was an awesome week, I learned so much, even though I didn't get a publisher out of it. 

Eventually, several years later, I decided to publish with a small press. She was still a "legit" publisher so there was none of the self-published tarnish, though things had gotten better for those who took the self-pub route.

Now, with more freelance editors, cover artists, and affordable software, self-publishing is a normal thing and most of the time, there is no difference in quality when compared to a traditionally published book. And that's a good thing. Sure, you still have some folks who rush the publishing process and don't edit as they should using homemade looking covers. But it's a much better product these days.

So, since there are several paths to choose, let's take a quick look at them.

First, traditional or commercial publishers. This used to be the "Big Six" but now, as of 2020, is the "Big Four." Here is where the author must query agents. This could take a while but if/once you get an agent, they help get your manuscript polished and then shop it around to different publishing houses. Again, this takes a while. Normally, the publisher buys all rights to your work. The author gets a royalty payment against future sales. Meaning, you get paid but won't get anything else until you earn out that royalty. 

Next, Subsidy publishers. Here, the author makes a commitment to subsidize part of the cost of publication. Rights purchased vary with the contract. I've seen it described as a partnership between the author and publisher. They aren't as selective in what they publish as the traditional publisher are but there is still a selection process.

Vanity presses, on the other hand, will publish anything submitted to them. The author pays all the costs including editing, design, marketing, and promotion, along with all sorts of other services. They tend to have different "packages" that vary in price and what services are provided. And, where other publishers make their money from the sale of books, vanity publishers make most of their money from the authors. Again, rights purchased vary with the contract.

And now, self-publishing. The author handles everything. Many times, the author will "sub-contract" work such as editing, formatting, and cover design. They still pay but remain in control of their book publishing process. 

One thing all these options have in common is the author is still responsible for promotion and marketing. Sure, the traditional publisher helps, to some degree, but the author still has to be active and involved. We'll talk about marketing and promotion in another post.

So, are you a published author? Which option did you choose and why? Would you do it differently?