An Author's Toolkit 15092779 by Emma Wray

An Author's Toolkit How to get your writing seen, published and sold

Lacuna

First published 2016 by UCL Press University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT ÂŠ 2016 Lacuna The right of Lacuna to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced or utilised in any form. ISBN 978-0-560-23231-3 @Lacuna lacuna@ucl.ac.uk 020 345 56543

Contents

1. Introduction ............................................................. 5 2. Why Get a Publisher? .............................................. 7 3. How to Choose your Publisher ................................ 8 4. Literary Agents ........................................................ 9 5. Contract Boilerplate ................................................ 10 6. Rights and Royalties ................................................ 12 7. Role of the Publisher ............................................... 14 8. Book Costings .......................................................... 16 9. Copyright Law .......................................................... 17 10. Reading List ............................................................ 18

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#1 Introduction

So... you want to get published? Becoming a full-time author is the number one most desired job in Britain, but it is also one of the most difficult to make a living from. Lacuna is an offshoot of the Society of Authors, specialising in trade fiction, and we aim to guide you clearly through the publishing process and fill in any gaps in your knowledge. Over the following pages, we will cover the advantages of obtaining a book deal with a publishing

house, the role of the literary agent, how to read a contract, breakdown royalties and rights, cost your book and summarise copyright. Filled with handy tips and practical advice this is your one-stop objective guide to becoming a published author.

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#2 Why Get a Publisher?

Why Not Self-Publish? In this digital age, the rise of eBooks and the increasing dominance of Amazon have many wondering why authors still crave a publishing deal, when you can upload your work to online retailors for free and get your work seen by a huge potential readership. Yet this is precisely why you need a publisher, the market for easily digestible creative content is over-saturated and an author needs the power of a publishing house behind it to create a high-quality book that will outshine its competitors.

Self-Publishing Advantages

Disadvantages

• Creative freedom • Able to pursue potentially niche genres and specialist subjects • If you’re publishing online you don’t need much capital to start up • Direct engagement with readers • Can quickly and easily change the plot or style of the text to respond to readers’ wishes

• Contractual terms can be changed by platform • Normally eBook only, extremely difficult to get your book into shops • No editorial support; books often contain lots of spelling and grammar mistakes • Now that Penguin Random House has sold off its own vanity press Author Solutions at a loss, no major publishing house publicly supports indie authors • Near impossible to sell the rights to your book in foreign markets • It’s harder to make a living from writing without a publisher – no advance so nothing to fall back on if you have low sales • Writing can be solitary work, it’s good to have a support network round you, editors offer encouragement and deadlines can help relieve writer’s block • It isn’t seen as prestigious. If you want to win a prize, you have to have a publisher • Many bloggers won’t review self-published books and it’s even harder to get reviewed by traditional media • Takes a lot of effort, you have to do all the work yourself, including marketing. This is the reason self-publishing superstar Amanda Hocking said she wanted a traditional publisher

Statistic Rundown: The Big Five traditional publishers now account for only 16% of the e-books on Amazon’s bestseller lists. Self-published books now represent 31% of e-book sales on Amazon’s Kindle Store. The UK is the world’s second largest market for eBooks Publishers still dominate the paperback and hardback market The average salary of a self-published author is £6,375 compared to £11,000 for a published author

“[Authors] need editors, and we need publishers and we need booksellers … I’m in the book business, the idea-sharing, consciousness-expanding, storytelling business, and I am not going to get out of that business.”

- John Green

Literary Agents

HOW TO GET A LITERARY AGENT

So you have the lovingly crafted final manuscript of your first book, now to get it published. The first step is to try and get a Literary Agent. Most publishing houses no longer accept unsolicited manuscripts (with the notable exceptions of romance publishers Mills & Boon and digital publisher Bookouture), so to even get your foot in the door; you need an agent to submit your novel for you.

What Does a Literary Agent Do?

• They sell your book • They sell rights • Negotiate licences • Read manuscripts and give editorial advice • Career advice – which publisher would be good for you, what genre you should write your next book in etc • Chase outstanding money and file paperwork • Do the accounts, sort out tax exemptions and VAT • IMPORTANT! All money is paid to the agency who will then pay you after taking off VAT and their commission The agent is there to look after you. They are a fixed point in the fast-moving publishing world. They are the person you can email/sob down the phone to when you have any problems with your publisher or queries about your book. They will then march into the publishing house and voice your complaints to make sure your book isn’t being neglected. Once the agency has fine-tuned your manuscript, they will send it to approximately twenty publishers, taking into account your preferences (e.g. you may not want your anti-capitalism book published by HarperCollins, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp). Then the agent will set a deadline for the editors to express their interest in the book. After this it’s a fast process; as the auction begins, bids are taken via email or phone, and after a series of rounds you will have your publisher! Be aware if you’re coming back to writing after a hiatus, the editors will look at sales of your previous book(s) on Nielsen Bookscan and base their judgement on that as well as your manuscript. If your last book didn’t do as well as you’d hoped, maybe try a pseudonym and start again with a clean slate. Rejection happens, try not to let it dishearten you as there will be a publisher out there that is willing to take a chance on you. Sometimes it’s just a waiting game. J.K. Rowling was rejected on multiple occasions, and the first publisher that rejected Harry Potter also rejected her first novel as Robert Galbraith, bet they’re kicking themselves now…. Well-known literary agents include: Curtis Brown The Sayle Literary Agency Peters, Fraser & Dunlop Felicity Bryan Associates

Hint: Publishing’s busy seasons coincide with the Frankfurt and London book fairs, so perhaps avoid submitting your manuscript in April or September for a higher chance of securing an agent.

If you are dissatisfied with your agency and want to switch, bear in mind that the original agency retains and gains royalties from your deal with them until the rights revert back to you. L

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#3 Publishers

HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR PUBLISHER So you have your finished book, an agent and an inordinate amount of faith that someone out there (other than your mum) will love this book as much as you do. But how do you choose which publisher to send your manuscript to? Here are some tips to help you pick the publisher with the right list. Publishers often ask themselves whether the book gels with the ethos of the company, has an original/ fresh voice, has a hook and an emotional resonance, is readable and most importantly whether they love it. Frustratingly, writing is subjective so there are no definitive rules for catching the eye of a publisher. Therefore, who you (or your agent) pitches to is extremely important. Here is a quick breakdown of what some UK imprints specialise in for fiction publishing:

The Big Five

Crime and Thriller

Commercial

Literary

Contemporary

Translated

Penguin Random House, Hachette, Mulholland Books, Serpent’s Tail Macmillan, HarperCollins and Simon & (particularly translated crime), Schuster Hammer Transworld, Canongate, Ebury, Headline

Salt, Vintage, Virago

Romance

Mills & Boon, Harlequin, Harper Impulse

William Heinemann, Jonathan Cape, John Murray, Faber & Faber, Weidenfeld & Nicolson Maclehose Press, Pushkin Press, Peirene Press Plus a plethora of small, independent publishers who specialise in a whole range of nich genres.

Sci-fi/Fantasy

Harper Voyager, Del Rey Books, Orbit Books

As well as genre, take into consideration who publishes authors you admire, perhaps the political leaning of the company and their reputation both in the UK and abroad. But don’t be disheartened by rejections, remember it’s all a numbers game and there will be a publisher out there that is right for you.

#5 Contract Boilerplate

Contract Essentials Congratulations! You are at the point of sealing the deal, the dream of having your book sold in shops, reviewed in the Guardian and sat on your shelf is tangible. However, even though publishers aren’t the most legal of eagles, there is still some fairly heavy jargon to get through in order to make sense of the contract. Below is an example we have drawn up that includes the essential clauses (there are more!) described in layman’s terms.

Date

Name of parties Author (aka the Proprietor) and the Publisher

Clause 1

Grants of rights and territories Here you assign the

publisher your copyright of the book in order to translate and print it in different countries. Normally, the publisher retains rights for UK and Commonwealth (excluding Canada) and will sell the other world rights to foreign publishing houses.

Clause 2

Delivery Here a deadline for the work to be delivered to the publisher is set, and it must conform to the standards agreed between you and the publisher. Failure to deliver means the publisher may terminate the contract and all rights will revert back to you.

Clause 3

Advance Normally non-refundable as long as you stick to

the contract. Often paid in quarters: first payment on signature of the agreement by both parties, second payment on delivery of the book to the publisher, third payment on first publication of the work or 12 months after the delivery of the manuscript (whichever is sooner!), and final payment on the paperback publication or 12 months after the first publication.

Clause 4

Publication Publisher will publish the book within 12 months of delivery of manuscript unless there are circumstances out of their control. Publishers agree to consult you about blurb changes, cover design and get your agreement to use any of your images or biographical information, they will also inform you of the length of the print run and will market the book as effectively as possible.

Clause 5

Warranty and indemnity You warrant that you are the sole

author of the book, the owner of all the rights, that the work is original and hasn’t been published in another format before in the exclusive territories agreed on, that it doesn’t violate any existing copyright, and that the work isn’t plagiarised nor contains defamatory or libellous content. You agree to indemnify the publisher if any of the warranties are breached e.g. if the publisher is sued by someone for libel and you claimed that the person agreed that their story could be included, then you will pay for the legal costs and damages rather than the publisher. L

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Clause 6

Hardback royalties

In Britain (and for export copies), you get 10% on the first 2,500 copies sold, 12.5% on the next 2,500 copies sold, 15% on all copies sold thereafter. If the books have been sold to a retailor like Amazon or Tesco etc, for a discount of more than 50%, you will receive 4/5 of the above. So 8% on the first 2,500 copies sold 10% on the next 2,500 copies 12% on all copies sold after that.

Clause 7

Paperback royalties

In Britain you get 7.5% on the first 10,000 copies sold, 10% on all copies sold thereafter. Export copies 6% on the first 10,000 copies sold, 8% on all copies sold thereafter. Those sold at a discount of 52.5% or more 6% on the first 10,000 copies sold 8% after that

Clause 8

Book royalties Publisher pays you 25% on the sale of all ebooks. NB as this is a recent phenomenon, this royalty will probably change, so keep a close eye on this clause!

Clause 9

Reversion of rights If the work goes out of print and if within

6 months the publisher does not release any new copies, then the rights revert back to you. BUT eBooks are pretty much always available so this clause will potentially change in the future. If the publisher fails to uphold their end of the contract, or becomes bankrupt the rights also revert back to you.

Clause 10

Subsidiary rights see the next page for more details.

Clause 11

Droit moral you are definitely the author of the work

Signatures

Signed by Publisher and Author

The reason why Clause 2 states that the book must conform to the publisher’s standards... 29 Feb. 1996 Jackie Collins v Random House

In the original two-book deal, Random House offered Collins $4 million and paid a $1.2 million advance, the rest payable on delivery of manuscripts. Collins turned in the first book which Random House claimed was “unreadable” and sued for the return of the advance. The court however, ruled in favour of Collins and Random House had to pay her an extra $1 million for the work she turned in! 11

Rights & Royalties

What Rights to Licence and What to Keep As an author you have a wide range of rights which you can licence to various individuals in order to make money from your original work. However, the tough part is knowing a) what rights you already have and b) who to licence them to. In this section, we’re going to walk you through the different subsidiary rights so you know exactly what you are dealing with.

Firstly, what are rights? According to Lynette Owens, rights are “ways of exploiting intellectual property by licensing content to third parties”. Why sell your intellectual property? - More money for you - Provides access to different markets - Extends your reputation - Ultimately improves sales of your book

Two types of rights: 1. Volume rights - handled by your publisher 2. Subsidiary rights - handled by your agent (so more money goes directly to you!)

VOLUME RIGHTS

SUBSIDIARY RIGHTS

- Hardback - Paperback (now that most publishers have ‘vertical publishing’, the same publisher normally prints both hardback and paperback) - eBook - Reprints - Anthology and quotation requests

- Translation - Audio - First serial – your work is serialised in a newspaper or on the radio - Film, TV, stage dramatisation - Merchandising

ROYALTIES What percentage of the income do you get for these rights? - Hardback, paperback and eBook rights have been detailed in the Contract Boilerplate - Audio 50% - Serial 90% - Translation 80% - Anthology and quotation 50% - Film, TV normally 10% author 10% agent - Merchandise is dealt with separately as it is outside of the publishing sphere

Remember to keep tabs on who you licence your rights to, you can’t sell what you don’t own even if it’s an idea stemming directly from your own book!

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Where your rights will be sold:

Yellow = UK and Commonwealth Red = The United States & its subsidiaries and the Phillipines Orange = Canada, either included with UK and Commonwealth rights or now more commonly included with American rights Green = Open market

When selling the rights to your book, both the publisher and your agent need to think carefully about what will and wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t work in overseas markets and in different media.

For example, what is your bookâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s USP? Is it in the same vein as the Hunger Games trilogy? Although it will be a popular read with an established YA audience, the film industry is over-saturated with dystopian teen fantasies at the moment, so is unlikely to get a movie deal. Or if your book is a literary novel set in 1990s Manchester, with many references to Mancunian landmarks and written in a Lancashire accent, it may not travel well across the pond to an American audience more used to the trials and tribulations of the Earl of Grantham. To help with these decisions, publishers and agents often use sub-agents who reside in different countries and are familiar with the tastes of that area. The book fairs in London and Frankfurt also play a large role in the division and licensing of rights.

Publisher’s Role

Role of the Publisher a

PUBLISHER The role of the publisher is pretty simple. They acquire authors, edit, print, distribute and finally market their books. Here is a breakdown of the various roles in more detail: Editor As well as the editor that you correspond with, there are a multitude of editors working on a book at any given time. There are those that influence the content of the book: commissioning editor and managing editor. They are the ones who will accept your manuscript and then do the following: Developmental and structural editing • Makes sure that the plot and narrative makes sense, is believable and logical. Eradicates plot holes • Clarifies the themes and keeps them consistent • Ensures that the characters are well-developed and attention-grabbing Line editing • Looks out for awkward sentences and poorly expressed phrases or ideas The editors that don’t change the content, but are still essential, are copy editors and proof readers: Copyediting • Works at the word level, looks out for grammar and punctuation errors and typos Proofreading • Picks up last-minute grammatical or layout errors before the manuscript is sent to the printers Designer Editors will send the design team a cover brief that will state the image wanted, a suggestion for the typeface, a summary of your book, the key themes and also a comparison of other covers from similar books within your genre Marketing and Promotion team • Create a marketing campaign to suit your book • Active social media campaign on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook but also Pinterest or Youtube • Get reviews for your book that are uploaded to blogs, Goodreads and Amazon • WARNING! Debut authors don’t expect a poster campaign on the Tube or cardboard cut-outs in WHSmith’s, these cost the publishers a lot and rely on the public already knowing the author Rights Team Will sell your work to the world

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and the Author (you!)

AUTHOR

Nowadays there is a lot of impetus on the author to create their own marketing hype using social media. For some this is an easy and fun way of helping your book get sales, for others, who still associate the word ‘tweet’ with the sound a bird makes, it can be a lot harder. So here is our ‘Social Media Good Practice Code’:

Don’t humble brag – yes be happy when an exciting opportunity comes your way, but it can seem ungrateful if you moan that you have to trek all the way to London for your appearance on Radio 4.

Thank people – has someone written a good review for your book or praised the cover design? Thank them, and credit anyone else who helped out!

Don’t criticise your editor – seems pretty straightforward but many do this. The old cliché of ‘don’t bite the hand that feeds you’, still rings true today. Support your fellow authors – congratulate authors that you know personally or even those represented by the same imprint. Publishing is a friendly industry and it’s nice to show camaraderie whilst expanding your networking circle. Let your followers know how your book is progressing – not necessarily a blow-by-blow

account, but perhaps tweet a cover reveal, or when you have finished the last chapter or maybe hint the main themes in your book.

Useful hashtags: #amwriting #litchat #romance / #thriller (basically # whatever genre you’re writing in) #Goodreads #Fridayreads #WriterWednesday #kindle (if you have a daily deal on Amazon for example)

3,657 LIKES

Even invent a hash tag for your book, but don’t be overzealous with these, you don’t want your tweet to get bogged down in a mire of hash tags. It still needs to be a clear and concise 140 characters.

Book Costings

Book Costings - The Breakdown How do publishers come up with that £7.99 paperback pricing? How does it affect your royalties? Here are all the facts and figures you’ll ever need to know.

UK Book Sales

A £4.3 billion industry Last 5 years (during the recession), total value of the book sector fell by only 5% 3.5 3.4

3.3

Billions of pounds

3.3

2011 2012 2013 2014 UK Book Sales 2011-2014 (no data available for 2015)

Split between eBook and print book sales

Ignore the naysayers, publishing is neither a dying industry nor is it being destroyed by the ebook market

£7.99 Average RRP for a paperback Author (15%)

£1.20

I know it doesn’t seem like much right now, but once you factor in sales, royalties and rights, the picture becomes a lot bigger

£0.79 (10%)

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Wholesaler

Retailor £3.60 (45%)

Publisher £2.40 (30%)

#9 Copyright

Copyright Law Now that your book has been published, you need to protect and exploit your Intellectual Property (IP). Publishing is a tricky industry that relies more on precedent than lawyers, so it is important that you know the basics.

So what is it?

Copyright protects authors and their works. It gives the author the right to licence and distribute your work and prevent others from doing so without your permission. More technically it is: “The exclusive statutory right to exercise control for a specified period of time over the copying and other exploitation of those works.”

Publishing Law by Hugh Jones and Christopher Benson

It gives two rights: 1. A positive right to copy and exploit their own works or licence them to other people 2. A negative right to prevent anyone else from copying their work without consent and the legal remedies for copyright infringement if they do so Copyright is only given to original works, but the work doesn’t have to be unique (think how many Gone Girl-esque psychological thrillers have appeared in the last year!). But, an idea can’t be copyrighted and is not considered intellectual property until it has been extracted and used to create something that can be. Checklist, do you own (or have licenced) the copyright for the following that may occur in your book: • Original text • Quoted text • Index • Overall compilation • Databases • Typographical arrangement • Jacket text and illustrations

Copyright in the UK lasts for life of the author + 70 years. Unpublished works are protected for 50 years. Once your book is out of copyright, it can be used by anyone!

The consequences of breaching copyright laws: If someone plagiarises or illegally distributes your book, they can be taken to court and can potentially get up to 10 years in jail.

Your publisher is there to help you if you see anyone reproducing and distributing your work without your permission.

#9 Conclusion

Further Reading To finish off this authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s toolkit for trade fiction publishing, here is a handy list of websites and books that delve deeper into the subjects covered here:

Websites Copyright http://the1709blog.blogspot.co.uk http://www.ipkat.com http://www.publishers.org.uk Finding a Publisher http://www.findyourpublisher.co.uk www.agentsassoc.co.uk Facts and Figures UK book sales http://www.booksellers.org.uk/BookSellers/media/SiteMediaLibrary/IndustryNews/UK-BookSales-2003-2014.pdf Self-publishing Statistics http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/pw-select/article/63455-surprising-selfpublishing-statistics.html www.authorearnings.com http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/may/24/self-published-author-earnings

Books Rights and Royalties Publishing Law by Hugh Jones and Christopher Benson Selling Rights by Lynette Owens

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