Hey everyone! Long time no see, I used to love this page, but have gone away awhile to work on my first novel. I have some questions for the experienced novelists of this site, for myself and other new authors alike. I have my copyright through the library of congress, but am having a terrible time finding an Agent, I was told I really don't need one and that self publishing / POD is the way of the future. Also, I'm lost, I'm just about to finish my final, final draft, for anyone who writes, I know you know what I'm going through. I have no book cover and know you can't pull from virtually anything online, because it's all copyrighted / licensed. How do people make covers for their books, I am lost, lost, lost! Can anyone please help me, I am so lost and don't know what the next steps are once my book is completed, I am applying for an ISBN and have my copyright / an attorney whose protected the Intellectual properties of my work, but I can't get past figuring out what to do about a cover, how do people generate them? How have you all came up with them? Any advice would help me tremendously, As I know I'm coming to the right place because so many of you have proven yourselves so interesting, informitive and helpful before, I've met some of the most genuine, helpful and friendly people I've ever met on this site, please help me. -Daniel, of Pennsylvania.
Hi there, I spent some time designing covers in one of my classes in the publishing course I did over the summer, and I pulled my images from various stock photo sites (Stock.XCHNG, Corbis, etc). Just make sure that the ones you're using are royalty-free and check on whether the photographer wants to be credited. Many of these are kind of generic, so I'm not sure whether you'll find what you're looking for there...it depends what you're looking to do for a cover. I made a couple of fantasy covers using modified landscape-type photos. Adobe InDesign and Photoshop are the programs I worked with. I wasn't a terribly awesome designer, but some of my classmates managed to make very nice covers with stock photos. I don't know if that's helpful at all...good luck, though!
Right. First, some general comments; then I'll address your questions. You don't just have copyright through the Library of Congress. You have copyright as soon as your story has been written. Self publishing (or "indie" publishing, whichever) through ebooks and POD is indeed a shiny new trend, and it can indeed make a fair amount of income for writers. But you have to do your work researching before you leap into the fray. The blogs of J.A. Konrath, Dean Wesley Smith, and Kris Rusch should all prove useful. As for making a decent cover, there are many sites with pictures in the public domain, and there are artists who are willing to work with ebooks to make art for the cover. Heck, Wikipedia has a page of sites with work in the public domain, often pictures from magazines and novels published in the 1800s, but there are also artists' pages where you pay a flat fee to an artist and you buy the right to use a print of one of their works and modify it yourself into a cover. J.A. Konrath's blog has a link to a professional artist who does ebook covers. It's a few hundred dollars, because the artist is excellent, fast, and has a good sense of how to do stylistically similar covers for multiple books in a series. If your reaction is "What? Four hundred dollars to pay an artist to do a decent cover?" you need to do more research. Of course, you can also do covers yourself. You can use Photoshop, and that's probably better for quality purposes, but you can also use PowerPoint or a free program like GIMP and get a decent cover. If you have a digital camera or can borrow one, you can take pictures and use them (or aspects of them) in your covers. Also, seriously, do some Googling for how to make ebook covers. The search phrase "how to ebook covers" got a fair number of results, including several walkthrough guides. A steeper learning curve for you will likely be formatting. Just be aware of that -- I understand the usual procedure is to convert a Word document into a version compatible with eReaders, and then you have to go through line-by-line and fix any weird formatting. And when you're "done," and the book is "ready," it's a good idea to download it from the source and go over it again just to make sure the book is actually ready and to correct the errors you find. Of course, it also matters that you have a decent story. Best of luck, but for the love of the gods, don't go into e-publishing like it's the solution to all your problems. It's great, but you really sound like you need to learn more about publishing as a business (including formatting, cover design, how copyright works, etc.), so don't rest on your laurels. It's wonderful to have a finished story, but you need to make sure it's presented well, and then you need to get working on the next story as soon as you can.
You might not need an agent, but I don't think it is good advice about self publishing. Have you tried submitting your work to a 'real' publication house, without an agent? Do that if you haven't, and if you have been rejected your time will be better spent thinking about ways to improve your work. You have done the thing many aren't able to by finishing your novel. Improving it is the easy part. Really, don't rush for self publication. Have some faith and give yourself and your work some time.
Well, yes, you don't "need" an agent, in the sense that the law doesn't require you to have one. And, similarly, it's perfectly legal to self-publish your book. But that doesn't mean that self-pubishing is particularly likely to lead to even a fraction of the sales that you might have had by going through the traditional publishing process. Back when self-publishing meant physically printing the books, most self-publishers lost money, because they sold only a few copies. Now that you don't have to pay for printing ahead of time, you might not lose money, but that doesn't mean that you'll make sales. What do you have to lose, you may wonder? Well, you have your first publication rights--they're used up if you self-publish. Yes, it's theoretically possible to get a traditional publishing deal for a self-published novel, especially if you've had great sales, but it also seems quite possible that you might use up your first publication rights by self-publishing a novel that isn't quite ready, and then be unable to change your mind and polish it up for traditional publication, because no one wants it with (1) those first publication rights gone and (2) no high sales records to make up for that loss. In my case, I would not self-publish unless and until it came to the point that it was either that, or putting the book away in a drawer never to be seen.
I'm a bit disappointed, I just posted a very nice lengthy reply to you all giving my deepest gratitude and it told me I couldn't post then deleted everything, I'm so disappointed.So I'm going to try this again, I'm sorry it won't be as articulate, although I am more pressed for time now, so I'll be working more on getting the point across... I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your individual kindness, consideration and care when crafting your nicely composed messages, among writers I have found the greatest group of colleagues, the most genuine thread of individuals who are always ready to pitch in, never in my life have I found such a genuinely interested flock of people who just always seem to band together to offer up suggestions, share their stories and experiences of what they went through For the time you've taken to help me, now and in the future, I would like you to know I'll be eternally greatful. I've got a couple questions for you regarding what you've said...Though I did listen and go to ebay and bought photoshop, which sounds like it will be helpful, though I'm not really sure what it is or how it will really help? I'm sure with working with it, I'll figure that out. However, there's much talk about "FIRST PUBLISHING RIGHTS" AND WORRIES ABOUT LOSING THEM...WHAT ARE THEY? I AM LOST? I've even tried to google / bing the toopic and you always read unclear messages from professional pages, that's kind of hard to interpret, that's why I turned to the writing forums, because therein I have found the most genuine, caring and finest quality or thread of interwoven professionals always willing to band together and help each other out, share their stories, etc. So, I hope you don't mind my asking you all to elaborate and use my "Help" forum to post anything you think would be helpful to me or anyone else in the beginning stages or the process and help address my questions, "WHAT ARE FIRST PUBLISHING RIGHTS? HOW DO YOU LOSE THEM? AND BY THE SOUNDS OF IT, YOU MUST BE QUITE JUDICIAL IN HOW YOU "USE" OR "SPEND" THEM (USING THOSE TERMS LOOSELY) thank you all so much, from the bottom of my heart for helping me, this can be the most enjoyable experience ever, and also the most challenging, In addition, writers are the most friendly and more willing than any other field I've been involved with professional acting, modeling and NEVER have I enjoyed a group of people so much with such credibility that I have honestly never been more greatful and thankful in all my life, I've researched every word, every name, and site you've taken the time and respect to post, there's so much here I've still got to check out, but I've taken some notes on a legal pad and will be researching the words that I am so thankful you've taken the time to post, I hope my gratitude comes through for you all! With Writers, I have found the kinndest, most informative group of peers who always and so willingly share their kindness and individual stories, please know that I respect you and am so thankful for the time each of you took to craft your messages. Thank you, Daniel
daniel... first of all, it's very hard to read stuff in a solid block like that, so please make use of the 'enter' key when typing your posts, so we can make sense of what you write without having to deal with migraine... as noted above, loc registration isn't necessary, since your work is covered by copyright as soon as you complete it... seasoned writers don't register their existing copyrights, as there's really no need to... your publisher [should you get one] will do it for you... don't know who told you that, but it's not really true... you would do well to get an agent who will then hopefully snag a paying publisher for your work... paying to have your writings put into print will not make you a 'published author'... so if that's your goal, you don't want to self-/vanity-publish... there's no reason for you to need a cover unless you pay to have your book put into print or made into an e-book... and in that case, the company you pay to do it will also provide the cover, or at least help you come up with one... another waste of time/energy/money, unless you are going to print the book up on your own... you don't need that, either!... that's what a copyright is for... and it's free... listen to whom?... that's another expense you should have spared yourself, since you've no need for it unless you're going to pay to have your book printed and need to design the cover yourself... you can't lose them unless you post your book on the internet, in which case, you'll have used it up... so stop worrying about that! love and hugs, maia
Well, but if he self-pubishes, that also "uses up" his first publication rights, yes? And makes the book less valuable to a conventional publisher?
Okay, quick summary of copyright and selling rights to people. (Very simplified and incomplete; the Copyright Handbook is a much more thorough and informative resource.) When you write something, you automatically gain copyright over it. As soon as you've finished a story, you have copyright. Same with novels. This means that the law will protect you from plagiarism and unlawful distribution; in other words, no one can steal your story and publish it under their name. They can't even publish it for free without your permission. If they do, you can bring a lawsuit against them and win. You're the copyright holder, so the law would be on your side. (This is very rare, though; publishers know the law, and will not steal your stories.) When a writer contacts a publisher -- a magazine, an anthology, a book publisher -- the writer does not sell the entire story to the publisher. Instead, they license (sell) specific "rights" to the work, so that the publisher can print the story or novel and sell it, and in return the writer gets money. These "rights" come in many flavors and varieties. There are electronic rights, and English language rights, and foreign language rights; there are first rights and reprint rights. Once you have sold the "first publication right," you can't sell it again, because only one magazine or publisher gets to publish the story first. By definition, once a story has been published once, any later printings are "reprints." (Yes, I'm simplifying. If you've sold the "first English language rights," but then a Brazilian magazine sees it and wants to print the story and translate it, you could probably sell "first Portuguese language rights," but for right now let's leave the complications out.) Even when you've let people license these rights, you keep your copyright. The stories will be printed with your name attached, or your pen name if that's what you wanted. Even after the story has been printed a hundred different times (like some editions of popular books), you keep the copyright. In other words, you don't sell your story. You sell the rights to publish the story, in exchange for money or credit or whatever. As for self-publishing and ebooks The world is changing. For half a century, the only people who self-published were failed writers who couldn't sell to New York publishers because their writing sucked. Now, the people who self-publish are a mix. There are still many, many writers whose work sucks, and they don't realize how badly their work sucks, and they want to self-publish electronically because they think they'll make it big. (Hint: readers can tell when a book sucks, and they don't buy it.) But there are also serious, skilled writers and professional writers who are e-publishing because they know they make more money per sale that way, or because they are tired of waiting two years plus to get a rejection from the New York publishers. So there are tons of people self-publishing through Amazon, and Sony, and Kobo, and CreateSpace, and Barnes & Noble dot com. Many of these authors will never sell well; their work just isn't good enough yet to sell many copies. But a few of them are selling decently -- enough to make a few thousand dollars a month -- and there have already been a few ebook bestsellers, like Amanda Hocking. She sold more than 100,000 books last December, and the numbers are climbing; unless her sales suddenly tank she will make well over a million dollars this year. She writes YA fiction, and fantasy, and paranormal romance. She writes & publishes a new book every few months. She has an agent negotiating foreign rights for her, and has already turned down an offer from a major publisher because she's making money hand over fist on her own. danielperson75: seriously, do your research before you decide to self-publish. If the book is good, you might make money, but if your book is good a New York publisher might take it too, and you wouldn't have to do as much work. Ebooks are, indeed, work. You have to buy the Amazon account, format the ebook yourself, edit the book / story, make a decent cover. And you have to keep writing, because most people who make decent money through ebooks are people who have a lot of work available. (At least ten books or short stories; 30 is a safer number. A lot of people who have 30 different stories up make at least a few hundred dollars a month.) Now, mammamaia isn't wrong, per se. As I said, for fifty years, vanity publishing was a sign that the person couldn't write well enough to sell their work professionally. But ebooks are growing in popularity, and they have the delicious advantage that a reader can download a sample before buying the book, so professional quality works can prove their merit to skeptical readers. Also, ebooks are cheaper, which readers like. (If you're publishing an ebook for more than $10.00, you're doing it wrong.) And ebooks have a pretty good royalty rate when they're self-published. Vanity publishing will likely keep its stigma for a long time. (After all, there are many bad writers publishing ebooks, even now.) But the "indie" publishing movement is growing, and there are now authors who are making a decent living off of the royalties from self-published ebooks. So don't write off ebook self-publishing yet. No "vanity-published" author I know of ever made $100,000 in a single month from their work -- until now. So let's wait and see, rather than condemning self-publishing in all instances.
Mommamaia,and Heinlein fan,(Not to mention everyone else!!!) THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, I CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH FOR YOUR KINDNESS AND GENOROSITY TO ME! I agree with EVERYTHING you've said and deeply, personally, appreciate the time and energy you've taken to work that advice up for me. I can't thank you enough for adding your depth of knowledge and kind, personal touches here, you've really demonstrated such kindness to me, thank you, I never would have found this information on my own, when you google knowledge or keyword search terms, it always seems people will tell you what you're trying to learn in an A - to - C format, always skipping, but also always assuming you have all the knowledge you need to draw conclusions for yourself when you're lacking the "B" knowledge to draw your conclusions to "C". If that makes any sense. What in your opinions is the best way to contact publishers, is there a good site to connect authors with publishers? I would love to know what you think about this. I mean I've read online people just look inside book jackets, where the publishers name is and people just send their query letters and ten pages to the address of publisher inside, to me, that seems kind of blind, is it really the way people, or even perhaps I myself should begin? Thank you so, so much for the quality and time you'veput in to helping me cultivate my understanding of what we "do" and love so passionately.
I agree that the address-inside-book-jacket seems like trying to aim blind. I wouldn't submit that way, myself. Many publishers will have submission guidelines on their web site. Some publishers, particularly Young Adult novel publishers, are difficult to submit to without an agent's help. To choose a publisher, you should first look for publishers that work with the genre of whatever you've written. I don't know whether you've written a romance book, a science fiction book, or whatever, but you should submit your work to publishers who will know how to sell that kind of book. For example, if I wrote a science fiction book, I'd look at the following publishers: Forge, Roc, Orb, Tor, and Baen. If I wrote a sci-fi short story, and I thought it was really good, I'd send it to Analog, Asimov's, F&SF or Daily Science Fiction. (DSF pays 8 cents per word for stories, which is really nice.) Now, I've done my research, and I know some good market names off the top of my head, but I also pick and choose based on what I read. If I have enjoyed science fiction books by Baen, Tor, and Roc, they'll go on my list of sci-fi publishers. Obviously, if you're writing in another genre, your list of publishers will be different. I would go to the website for each of these publishers and see what their submission guidelines are. Forge, for example, says they want a cover letter, the first three chapters, a synopsis, and a stamped self-addressed envelope so they can get back to you more quickly. They also give their mailing address. When submitting a short story, you should submit a story to only one potential buyer at a time. When submitting novels, some people submit one manuscript at a time; others send packages out to five or so at the same time. (This may vary by genre, but some novel publishers now take more than a year to get back to writers, which is why writers submit to multiple book publishers at the same time.) If you've written a short story, look on Duotrope.com for markets. Many markets will accept electronic submissions these days. It's also possible to send stories to anthology markets this way.
@digtig: True, I forgot about that. I was thinking of novels, primarily. I hedged, of course; I said "in the last half-century" because there were a bunch of writers 'way back when -- late 1800s, early 1900s -- who self published because that's what book writers did back then. The fact that E.E. Cummings first self-published eighty years ago doesn't change the observation that 99.5% plus of self-published writers in the past half century have sold less than two hundred copies. Ebooks have changed things -- it's actually possible to list "indie" published (read: electronically self-pubbed) authors who are making a living from their work, from Amanda Hocking and J.A. Konrath, Aaron Patterson to H.P. Mallory. Hocking's sales numbers approach those any bestseller could wish for -- more than 100,000 sales in a week, according to a post of hers on the Kindleboards. (I believe it. She did a "pics or it didn't happen" post on her blog a while back, when she passed 50K sales in a month. And her sales numbers have just kept growing...) Successful "indie" writers have been selling gangbusters with YA books, horror books, thrillers, romance and paranormal romance, sci-fi and nonfiction. (Probably other genres too; I remember looking at sales figures for Jennifer Pournelle's sf ebook Outies, a new book set in the Mote universe, and being shocked that it was outselling Orson Scott Card's Shadow of the Hegemon on Kindle. Holy cow.) I keep going on about this because it seems like not many people on the Wforums have been watching the changes that ebooks have brought about. I mean, I think it's really fantastic that you can sell a book for $2.99 and make 70% royalties on it, and I think it's awesome that readers can download samples first -- letting the good stuff sell while avoiding dreck. And I think it's great that many readers are reading more as a result of having an eReader. The NYT ran an article a few days ago about the surge in YA ebook sales after this past Christmas, when many parents gave eReaders as gifts. Part of it's accessibility -- when you don't have to go to the store to buy books, you read more often -- and some of it's the price. ("Indie" writers have learned not to price the ebooks too high; many publishing houses don't get this, and continue to price their ebooks at $12.99 and up.) Big Publishing will, of course, adapt. But it'll take time. And right now, I really like that you can buy a $2.99 ebook and give more of that to the writer (70% royalty when self-pub through Amazon) than if you'd spent $17.99 and the author had gotten her standard 10% royalty. It's still more work, by far, than just sending out the manuscripts to the New York publishers. And I think danielperson is likely to do better (just starting out, at least) with a publisher who really knows how to sell books. I'm just saying that this is no longer the automatic best choice for people. If you don't know a lot right now, and don't want to spend a few weeks getting up to speed on how publishing works and how you can make it as a writer, better to go with New York publishing houses. But for some folks, ones who go into it knowing how much more work is required, epublishing through Amazon / Kobo / B&N dot com / SmashWords / PubIt isn't a bad idea.
It still seems to make it hard work for the reader, though, to find the good stuff amongst so much dreck. Traditional publishing provided a very useful (though not perfect, of course) filter. I tend not to consider e-books unless they've been published in paper form (in which case they usually turn out to be more expensive than the paper versions, so I still don't consider them),
not really... the major problem with a self-published book isn't connected to rights at all... it's that paying publishers are not going to want to spend money on a book that's already out there, unless it's selling like hotcakes, in which case they'll be happy to buy the reprint rights and put out a new edition of their own... the only direct way is with a good query letter... i have lists of publishers i'll be glad to send you if you email me... however, the best way is to get an agent and have her/him shop your book around to the publishers... it has a much better chance of being accepted that way and also will get you a better deal than you can do on your own... if your book is fiction, very few publishers will even accept an unagented query and having an agent is pretty much a must... while that's a good way to find publishers who deal in books like yours, it's still best to use an agent, if it's a novel... if it's non-fiction, then going directly can work, but you'd still do better with an agent... and sending ten pages isn't the way to go about it... each agent and publisher has their own submission guidelines that specify what you can and cannot send them... and most will only accept a query letter, will request sample chapters or the full ms if the query interests them... for a non-fiction book you will need to do up a full proposal... i can send you info on what that should contain, as well... love and hugs, maia maia3maia@hotmail.com
@digtig: It's a trade-off, really. Traditional publishing tends to yank books off the shelf after six seeks or so, because they need the shelf room for the next month's load of books, and in many bookstores the shelves are so crowded that your book might be a single copy placed spine-out. Yeah, that's really going to catch the eye, if readers don't know your name already. E-pub keeps the book out there for a longer time. At first, sales tend to be low, and then word of mouth and Amazon's "People who looked at X also looked at..." program starts to draw more readers in. If you're a short fiction writer, many of your readers will see your stories and then check Google for anything else you've written -- leading them directly to your Amazon page. They say that ninety percent of everything is crap, and it's certainly true that epubbed books are more like ninety-five percent crap. But it's really not that hard to read a copy of Asimov's, find a Kris Rusch short that's utterly fantastic, and then Google for her Amazon page where she has a ton of short fiction up. Reviews help, too; there are Amazon search functions that let you narrow your browsing to ebooks that are four-stars or above, for example. I'm not saying it's perfect. It isn't. It's a lot of work, ebooks are only 11% of the book market, and it dramatically favors those writers who a) write a lot, b) have good covers, c) are published professionally in some form (novels or short story magazines, usually) and who have a fanbase from that, and d) have the skill set involved in writing good summaries and blurbs. But long-term, I'd rather have five hundred sales a month ($1000 in royalties at $2.99 per sale) than sell four thousand books in six weeks and then go out of print. And I've heard of this happening to numerous writers -- or, worse, situations where the publishers send out Book No. 5 of a series but don't re-print the first couple books. It's just stupid; that sort of shenanigans can and does lower overall sales. Tons of writers do well with traditional publishing. Good for them. I'm just saying ebooks are an emerging alternative that shouldn't be dismissed.
Can I just say WOW!...You guys are phenomenal! ...WOW...so much to consider from you guys...youre the greatest!
Daniel, you sound like you are in a bit of a panic!!! Calm down. You just went out and bought Photoshop? At least you are dedicated. If you have trouble with anything, then PM me as I use photoshop on a daily basis in my job. Or if you want I will mock up some book cover designs for you for free. I just need spec (eg book title/your name/dimensions of cover). I would recommend istockphotos website as you can use their images for books on a cheap standard licence for upto 500,000 copies. I'm not sure what the minimum sign on fee is as I do it through a business account, but they cost about 79p (UK pence aka 79% of one £ sterling ) per image. Hope that helps
Sprirj, Wow! thanks so much for your kindness! I appreciate the offer to help me with my cover SO much, yes, I have to admit I am kind of paniced, because much of this can be very overwhelming but thanks to kind people like yourself you've made this journey, much easier, much more fun, and a lot better because I've got to meet, befriend and learn from the knowledge you all have shared, thank you all so much, and I very well may pm any of you at any given time asking for favors, hahahaha! I hope you don't mind! LOL! I sure haven't minded posting infinite posts on the forum, lol! I appreciate you all so much, I just with you knew the depth of my gratitude! -Daniel
Spirirj, Istock photos were incredible, I actually found several I liked, They all have the words "istockphotos" all through each photo, when you subscribe, or even purchase one, do the words disappear and you have commercial rights to it? I'm not sure I understand how this site works???
The words across it or 'watermark' is just to stop people using them without paying for them. Once the image is bought (you can buy various sizes at varying costs) you can use it on your book cover, and probably online also (but ask the customer support or read the contract) you do not have the commercial rights, in that you can not resell the image, on posters or mouse mats etc, but book covers are fine, because you are selling the book, not the image. I hope that makes sense, I know the law is confusing around such issues, but they are designed to protect, but all the answers are on the istock webpage.
Glad to see someone else on this forum who recognizes the growing relevance of independent publishing. I am traditionally published currently, but plan on releasing a self-published book this year. While I do think self-publishing is dangerous for those new authors whose work is not ready for prime time, it's an excellent opportunity for those of us who want more control over our books and a bigger slice of the pie. I've been surprised by the comments I've seen about self-publishing on this forum recently. This is something that is changing fast, true, and the rising validity of self-publishing is only a recent development, but still. Keep an eye on where publishing is heading, because it is most definitely in flux. What was true five years ago is no longer true, and will probably never be true again. All that said: don't self-publish simply because your book isn't good enough to attract a traditional publisher. And if you do, expect that sales and reviews will reflect reality.
Thanks again, I appreciate your comments so much, they help tremendously!!! I love hearing the conflict in opinion, the options you present and the helpful advice you lend! Thanks a million!!!
VM80 I am so happy it's helped, that was my point, I'm usually pretty shy but thought not only could I help myself with some useful questions, I could help others as well, so thank you, I'm happy to see it's helped!!!
