Tag: (business) Publishing Industry

Other Cool Blogs: Hollywood Reporter 4/14/2020

Erin Penn

Photo by Neil Soni on Unsplash

Keeping track of intellectual property law is essential for creators – whether photos, writing, editing, drawing, websites, programming, woodworking, etc. If created by mind and hand, knowing the rights and protections related to your income is essential to charging correctly for your labor. How courts interpret intellectual property protection within social media impacts advertising choices in dissemination to the potential audiences.

And last year had a biggee for the visual arts. “Court Rules Photographer Gave Up Exclusive Licensing Rights by Posting on Instagram” (The Hollywood Reporter, Eriq Gardner, April 14, 2020) — link includes the actual court Opinion. – https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/court-rules-photographer-gave-up-licensing-rights-by-posting-instagram-1290170/ (last viewed 4/6/2022)

TL;DR version – By posting on Instagram in public mode, the creator gave Instagram permission to share (with sublicense) content with its users royalty-free. Therefore Mashable could publish (and make money) on the work. In other words, post on media where everyone can see it, you have no content control and lose your intellectual property rights and income. The argument by the defending lawyer is Instagram is the only way to Advertise now-a-days. The answer by the courts is, yes, we see that but too bad.

How do you make a living without giving away samples your work and destroying your income base in the process?

That is the question. For me, it’s doing all my writing in a blog I pay for and control. I post links from Facebook and other social media locations to here. And yes, I know FB and the social medias throttle back posts with links that take you outside their application, thereby killing my ability to reach the audience without paying for advertising. My choice is retaining my intellectual property rights over the ability to create cash inflow.

What do you think? How can you reach an audience without destroying the value of your creativity?

Other Cool Blogs: Eric Smith 3/17/2021

Erin Penn

1426318 © Anna Chelnokova | Dreamstime.com
“I told people I’m open to having wheelchair people working for me, why hasn’t anyone applied?” 
“I don’t know, maybe because your store is on the second floor and there is no elevator?”
Has this happened to you? Have you opened your business to a minority group and they haven’t applied? For a completely random example, saying you want to publish Neurodivergent writers.
You did everything right, just like you always do. You put out the call. Paid for the FB ads, announced it at conventions. All the traditional means of reaching writers. You tell the group to just fill out things like normal through the query.
Metaphorically speaking, you are telling people in wheelchairs to come up icy steps, when you tell neurodivergent people to follow all the normal steps done by the neurotypical. If they could do the neurotypical actions, you wouldn’t need to reach out to them.
Eric Smith, a literary agent, went looking for neurodivergent writers to represent. When they didn’t respond with a title wave of query letters, he went to his twitter group and asked “why?”
The answer was “HOW????”
“Discussing Barriers in Querying and Pitching for Neurodivergent Writers” by Eric Smith, 3/17/2021. https://www.ericsmithrocks.com/blog/2021/3/17/barriers-in-querying-amp-pitching-for-neurodivergent-writers
I’ve discussed the barriers I face attending conventions and any other in-person interaction. This article covers a wider array of neurodivergent challenges. Read it.
Post script – remember that ND stories are not going to read like standard stories. You want a different type of writer, you are going to get a different type of story.

Other Cool Blogs: Payday – Do Authors Make the Big Bucks?

Erin Penn

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

Payday – Do Authors Make the Big Bucks?

Y’all see that picture of money up there. That looks like a lot, until you realize they are all one dollar bills. About 30, maybe as much as 32. Do authors and editors make the big bucks? Refer to the above.

There is a reason nearly all writers (over 80%) who can sell professionally (meaning they made money on their writing at least once), have day jobs. I do taxes, which just finished (May 17 – can we stop going into extra inning for the taxes? I’m so burn out). My lean months are about to begin. Fortunately, I have picked up a weekend package delivery job during the pandemic; it’s not like I can attend conventions right now, so why not? My lean months are not going to be as lean as normal.

Most full-time writers have spousal support, in that their spouse has a VERY good full time job which offers health insurance and  enough pay regular bills get met. (Price) The writer (usually the male in my experience) is the stay-at-home parent while also writing. 

For the most part, writing careers are like sports careers. Everyone learns to do sports/writing in school. Some show early promise and get extra support and instruction. In high school, those better than average join the special teams – if their schools have the funds and their family has the time to devote to special teams. In college, further breakout happens – partially by skill, moreso by money and privilege to give time for training and health support, starting with the chance to go to college instead of jumping into earning money for food, shelter, and clothing.

Then the constantly narrowing pipeline tightens once more into pro sports, the adult career options – baseball, football, soccer, swimming, running, golf. And broken out from regional to national teams. A few superstars exist, paid tens of millions, but most of the team and the staff make much, much less. And the majority of those from back in high school, in the better than average group, most play sports on weekend with friends earning nothing. Maybe they do a marathon or something special to help raise money, and pay for the privilege. Some actually find a slot that gives them a day-job-with-sports overlapping: coaches, sport therapists, teachers, etc.

That constantly narrowing pipeline directs writing as well through native skill, monetary support, training opportunities, and availability of careers. Writing breaks out to bloggers, and newspaper writers, and fiction short story writers for anthologies, and editors of all sorts, and other support staff, as well as the highest prestige title “novelist”. Some of these categories produce enough work, like coaches, they can double as a day job, but most are, at best, part-time jobs. 

Most writers find something that lets them “play” on weekends writing; sometimes the writing “hobby” even brings in a little cash. And then there are superstars. But they are as rare as sports superstars, without the endorsement deals.

I managed to find a reviewing job along these lines – it’s not my first gig, or even my second gig, but it is a gig that when combined with my other 8 jobs manages to pay the bills. Specifically, in this case, my book bill, which is big enough having it partially supplemented makes a difference.

A survey of 5,067 professional writers showed a median income in 2017 of $6,080, with just $3,100 from book income alone (Nicolas, Steger-Strong). These are people who have been at it long enough to network into a professional organization. So “college graduate” level sports people. And bringing in less than half of a minimum wage job. And more than half of what they do make is from something related to writing instead of writing itself.

Like the editing and reviewing I do. Other options include blogging and ghostwriting. If you are an artist, web design and cover art can be added to what you do for others. (Rades)

So does writing pay the bills? For nearly everyone, no, it doesn’t. Does it pay some of the bills? Maybe, it could.

Some people garden, some people ski, some people bowl, some people do community theatre, some people do marathons. And some people, as their vocation outside of their day occupation, write. 

Bibliography

Nicolas, Sarah. “How Much Do Authors Make Per Book?” Book Riot. 2021 May 11. URL: https://bookriot.com/how-much-do-authors-make-per-book/ (last viewed 3/18/2022)

Price, Kalayna. “Full Time Writer? Leaving the Day Job VS Leaving the Career.” Magical Words. 2011 June 14. URL:

Rades, Alicia. “8 Smart Ways to Supplement Your Fiction-Writing Income.” The Write Life by selfpublishing.com. 2016 Sept 9. URL: https://thewritelife.com/8-smart-ways-supplement-fiction-writing-income/?utm_content=buffer97e4c&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer (last viewed 3/18/2022) ** COMMENTS ARE ALSO USEFUL 

Steger Strong, Lynn. “A dirty secret: you can only be a writer if you can afford it.” The Guardian. 2020 Feb 27. URL: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/27/a-dirty-secret-you-can-only-be-a-writer-if-you-can-afford-it?CMP=share_btn_fb

Editing Rant: Per My Last Email

Erin Penn

Image courtesy of the internet Hivemind

What … again?

Breathe Erin, breathe. This person is a new person and doesn’t know the emails you sent out to the other dozen people contacting the publisher.

You know what, I’m going to put the response on my blog under editing rants so at least y’all don’t write this email or a variation thereof. My blood pressure needs to have less wide-eyed innocents hoping to jump to the end without doing the work.

I was really nice in this response and went overboard on the explanation because of the writer’s age. The adults, especially those who mention degrees in Fine Arts or teaching English for decades, grind my gears. How did they get to the age they are without learning the basics of networking and doing background research in an industry you want to enter?

***

Cold Contact: I am working on a book series. I was wondering if you could tell me what I would have to do in order to have my book published. I am fifteen and plan on having 1,500 pages. I think it will need to be published in two books. Please, I would be grateful for any tips you may have.  (Note: specifics identifying the contact, such as phone number, have been removed.)

Response

Hello (fill in the blank),

My name is Erin Penn, and I am one of the editors at Falstaff Publishing.

The first step of getting published is exactly what you are doing – writing. So many adults skip that step and just try to sell us an idea. Publishers need a finished product, not an assembly kit from Ikea.

Second is introducing yourself to the community of writers and publishing, like you are doing right now. Networking is important on every job, whether trying to break into McDonalds or Penguin Random House Publishing.

Most of us started really connecting at conventions. I see by your area code you are somewhere in TX. I used to live in Waco Texas myself. One of my favorite writers’ convention in that area was ConDFW which happens in Fort Worth TX. This year’s guests of honor for this science-fiction and fantasy writing convention are Charlaine Harris and Yoon Ha Lee. The URL is here: (NOTE as of 4/26/2024: ConDFW is no more – 2019 was the last year, they were not able to recover from the 2020 cancelation.)

The convention is scheduled for February, so you don’t have a long wait if you want to go. Attend as many of the writing panels as you have interest in.

Also of interest is finding a good critique group. In every art, creative people need feedback to get better. Sure you can do it on your own, but if someone has already walked that path can give you a road map, it makes the trip much faster. The challenge is finding the right people to give you the map. Someone giving you a map on how to write the next Great Gatsby novel when you want to write Twilight Zone episode screenplays isn’t going to be helpful. Listen to their feedback and see if they are providing directions to where YOU want to go with your writing. Personally I’ve gone through several groups as my needs have changed, with the first one being a bad fit.

Once you have people you trust to give your feedback, real feedback, that won’t hurt you too much (it will hurt some no matter what), start sharing your work and listening.

Do not submit to a publisher until you have at least three people who are not related to you and are the age range you are aiming the book at – if YA, teenagers, if adults, then adults – and given you feedback, and you have make the changes they have recommended IF THEY MAKE SENSE. Don’t change something from green eyes to brown eyes just because one of the readers liked brown eyes; do change it if you had every female character have green eyes (which recently happened with an adult book under contract I edited).

After getting things looked over, now it is time to do a proofread. This is where a good English teacher can come in handy. If you got one in your school, have him or her help you go over things. You will learn about things like sentence splices, independent clauses, the Oxford comma, and conjunctions. Again, do what makes sense. Sometimes writing is about breaking the rules. Break them. Bend them. Make them sing.

Now you have something a publisher can look at. And that convention you went to, whether condfw or a different one, you might have rubbed elbows with some publishers. Take their cards and now send in your work as they instruct on their webpage. Follow the submission guidelines, all of them. It’s like a job interview; if you can’t follow the directions on a website, the publisher can be confident you won’t be able to follow editing directions on your work. Don’t fail the job interview. If you attend a panel on editing, that will be the most common theme: follow submission guidelines.

So to sum up: write, network, feedback, self-editing your draft, then use your networking to send to a publisher.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any more questions.

Good luck,

Erin Penn

Editing Rant: Revise & Resubmit

Erin Penn

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In May’s Editing Rant on No Squiggles, I mentioned requesting a Revise and Resubmit (R&R) and said I would come back to it.

So here we are.

A R&R is when a writer has sent in a manuscript, either solicited or unsolicited, and the publisher came back with – “not good enough, try again” and here as some suggestions on how to do that based on what they thought was wrong.

Now what should the writer do? Make the change or leave it the same?

Remember the publisher has REJECTED the original submission. The writer is NOT under contract. There is no pay, no guarantee of acceptance, and no obligation to make the change on the writer’s end or accept it on the publisher’s end.

Some writers say never change a manuscript unless you are under contact. That is good advice. Why do changes when the publisher might reject those, and the next publisher might ask to put those changes back in? If the writer has a solid product, changing stuff to please instead of just sending it off to the next publisher is a waste of good writing time. Better to write new words while waiting on a sale than forever updating one book.

The question that must be asked is – is the manuscript a solid product?

Well, what changes are the editor/publisher asking for?

When they say things like “make the main character (a different gender) because it will sell better” – that one is a “no” unless the writer wants more than anything in the world to be published by that particular publisher. And really, the writer should rethink that – because it is a big world out there.

When they say things like “the ending is too abrupt, it’s missing the falling action and resolution after the climax. Did you mean it to be a cliffhanger?” And the writer answers the question, “No.” Then heck yeah, the writer needs to sit down and do an R&R and make the story what it was intended to be.

The problem is most R&R requests lie somewhere in between. 

So a writer should review the R&R request and see if the problems mentioned are the personal taste of the publisher or an actual weakness in the manuscript. And also see if the suggestions provided are good suggestions, or if the writer has an even better solution. The request to bump up the tension of the sagging middle by adding a fight between the love interest might be better resolved by adding a limited sidequest plotline with a time crunch – which would be truer to the story of soulmates in danger.

So what should you do if you get an R&R request on a submission. First celebrate – the publisher/submission editor cared enough about your submission to give it a second chance. They want to see if it can be made better.

Second, decide if what they want is something you want to do. If not, send them a thank you, but at this time, you will be considering other options in lieu of a resubmit. If yes, send them a thank you and the approximate date to get back the changes to them. Two to three months is an expected window. If it runs longer, get in touch again – this is important as editors can change and you need to keep current with where to send your R&R.

Good luck.