Jacqueline George is my guest today. I’m always interested in what an author has to say about the world of publishing. She’s also involved in a book distribution venture: Yellow Silk Dreams.
“You do not have to be in the writing business long before you realize there is one thing the book trade demands from authors. Not literature, not brilliant writing, not even commercial prospects, but exclusivity.
“Even agents are likely to demand that you park your precious manuscript with them for months without letting anyone else look at it. Of course, agents don’t have much stroke, but if a publisher condescends to look at your book, they will absolutely insist they have a free hand with it.
“A free hand to do what, exactly? Why do they need a guarantee of exclusivity before they add your book to their slush pile? They say they do not want to invest time and effort in your manuscript if it might be snatched away before they can secure their position. Fair enough but… time and effort? Oh, come on! We are talking about a lowly paid intern flicking through it, rejecting it if it does not meet the House Standard, and writing a short précis if it might. Doesn’t sound like much time and effort to me. And bear in mind that the author’s prize for getting past this stage is to have their book trapped in an approval maze, passing the secretaries of various august people, any one of whom might wake up with a hang-over and trash it.
“All the same, that sort of exclusivity is polite and genteel. It is when your book is accepted that the claws really come out. Now the default position is ‘All rights in the Universe, for the life of the copyright’. Really - the life of the copyright, which is until the author’s death plus 70 years. You will be in no condition to do anything with your book once the contract expires!
“And universal rights? They want the Bulgarian audio book rights? Forever? What for?
“The standard answer is that publishers need this sort of exclusivity to protect their investment. That is a sound commercial argument. If the publisher is going to spend in advance on promotion and marketing, they need to know only they (and marginally the author) will benefit from the resulting sales.
“This brings in the question of timing. If the publisher runs a marketing campaign, they will achieve peak sales in a year or two, and then numbers will decline to next to nothing as newer books are brought to the public’s attention. What happens then? It is dog-in-the-manger time as the publisher does not care anymore, and the author, who might achieve continuing sales in a small way, has no control over the book. At this point, exclusivity benefits no one.
“I’m not sure if exclusivity is needed for the vast majority of today’s books and publishers. Typically modern authors make all the investment and do all the promotion. Many modern epublishers limit their involvement to displaying the book on their site, and handling the money. I am not sure that is even publishing; probably we should call it distribution.
“Exclusivity is a way of tying up an author and grabbing a lion’s share of the revenue from a book. Fair enough if a publisher is doing his job and selling many times more books than the author would manage by themselves; daylight robbery if the publisher is lazy or forgetful.
“Exclusivity is an asset to me, and anyone who really, really wants a share of it had better come to the table with an equitable deal. Authors are waking up…”
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Jacqueline…..great post! Back in the day when I was querying agents, I immediately crossed any off my list if they had that “no simultaneous submission” thing going on. You want me to submit this to you, and no one else, and wait for 24 months to get a “no” back? Uh…..sure. Sounds great. For you. Not the author. I realized right away that most of the industry was concerned with everyone’s best interest, except for mine. The author. That’s one of the reasons that self-pubbing is so appealing to writers now. We finally have some control over our own content, release day, rights, cover art, marketing. Sure, we have to take responsibility for our own failures, too, but that’s fine with me.
Like Penelope I didn’t bother with publishers looking for an exclusive read. For an author it doesn’t make any sense. The e-publishers I’ve worked with had a short contract as far as rights. I could live with that. Some day I’ll be with a bigger pub that will require exclusive rights for a longer period of time. And all I can say is … if the terms are right, I’m all over it! Until then, I’ll keep submitting to various publishers.
Wonderful post Jacqueline. When I see “no simultaneous submissions” on a publisher’s submission guidelines, I picture an antiquated office with a little man in a bowler hat, tangled in typewriter ribbon sitting next to a vacuum tube-waiting for the exclusive submissions to arrive… “Paper submissions only” adds to the “Brazil” like atmosphere (Do you remember that odd Terry Gilliam movie?) lol
Just ignore these “exclusive” publishers and they will soon go the way of the whalers.
XXOO Kat
Kat - yes - when I see paper submissions only I’m blown away. How antiquated!
Nina - I agree. Makes no sense.
Penny - the hardest thing is that many agents never get back to you, that’s their rejection letter (virtual). But how are you supposed to know that?
First record companies then newspaper publishers followed by Arab tyrants and book publishers. The internet will bring them all to their knees in time.
How true, Yoshi…
Maybe they want the paper to discourage endless amounts of poo from landing in the pile. It’s easy to hit “send.” It’s a minor hurdle, but printing out a bazillion pages and mailing it is at worst a sign that the person is serious and not just waking up and saying “writing a book is easy.” Writing a book is to the 2010s what opening a restaurant or catering service was in the late 80′s (good cooks would say I’m going to open a restaurant only to find that it was grueling and with a really low success rate.)
I am not saying one shouldn’t pursue a dream but I do know people who just got up and decided they were writers because they love to read. And how hard can it be after all. EPub has made all the hurdles other than the writing fade.
JUST MY TWO CENTS and NOT MY BEST BIT OF PHILOSOPHY.
Actually Steph, I agree in part. Yes, good writing is key regardless of where you submit or publish. GOOD WRITING! But I think the paper submission thing is a holdover from the olden days (yeah, the olden days of 5-10 years ago). It’s just tradition and habit and discomfort with changing technology.
I, for one, don’t miss the days of paper because I went through so many ink cartridges I can’t even tell you - and those suckers are expensive, not to mention how much paper I wasted on rejected submissions!