Show Me the Money!

By: J.T. Evans

We recently had a member get approached by a publisher with a request for $4,000 to publish her short story. To be more clear: the publisher wanted the author to pay them.

This is not how the publishing industry is supposed to work. Money should flow toward the author of the work, with a few exceptions. I'll cover these exceptions at the end of the article.

The practice of the author paying for the privilege of getting his or her work printed via a publisher is called "vanity publication." It preys on the author's vanity and desire to see their word in print. Many "green" authors fall victim to the urge to get their words printed, and making a naïve move is something we're trying to get folks to avoid.

The practice of requiring the author to pay money is entirely predatory and abusive. When an author is approached with a deal along these lines, they should not walk away…they should run away.

There are a few resources online to check out publishers if there are questionable practices going on. Some of them are:

·       Preditors and Editors

·       Write Beware

The practice of requesting money from an author is not limited to these nefarious publishing houses. Disreputable agents (who are rare) may require their clients to pay "editorial fees" or "marketing fees" to them for development of their work. This is not how agents should work. Whether or not the agent does development work on a piece before submitting to publishers is up to the agent, the author, and their relationship. However, the agent should not charge the author for these efforts. The agent should only collect their agreed-upon percentage when the author receives payment from the publisher.

To check out agents, I recommend viewing comments from authors on Query Tracker or see if they are listed in the membership of the Association of Authors' Representatives.

If a deal with a publisher or agent comes across your desk, I highly recommend hiring an independent attorney who specializes in intellectual property rights to review the contract before signing away.

It's a great thing to receive a contract! However, take a day or three to sit back, breathe, consider the contract, and get in touch with an attorney before moving forward.

At the start of this article, I mentioned some exceptions to the "money flows toward the author" rule. If you are self-publishing, then hiring a professional editor, cover artist, layout expert, marketing guru, and other masters that will make your book better will cost you money. However, these folks are ones who you approach and hire on your own. They work for you in their area of specialty.

Like with self-publishing, if you are chasing down the traditional publishing deal, hiring a professional editor to assist you in polishing your work before submitting to agents and editors is not a bad idea if you can afford it. Again, this has a cost and will cause money to "flow away" from you, but this is entirely your choice and within your control.

Unfortunately, Pikes Peak Writers doesn't have an attorney on staff or within our volunteer ranks, so we can't offer specific legal advice on contracts. Regardless of our inability to offer legal advice, we can at least point out areas where contracts can be abusive or predatory toward our fellow authors.

Best of luck with your work, and happy writing!

J.T. Evans writes fantasy novels. He also dabbles with science fiction and horror short stories. He is the president of Pikes Peak Writers. When not writing, he secures computers at the Day Job, homebrews great beers, spends time with his family, and plays way too many card/board/role-playing games.

There's Dishes in the Sink Because Mama's in Her Office

By Deb McLeod
When the news came that Alice Munroe had won the Nobel Prize, the New York Times ran a picture online of her sitting at a kitchen table in her home. Behind her, the kitchen counter is cluttered with cups and glasses and there’s dishes in the sink. The day before the Nobel was announced, the title of this blog came to me. 

It was closing in on Writer’s Book Club night. I was leading, so that meant a close double reading of the month’s book to prepare a talk on emotion and plot arc which resulted in a twelve-page analysis and a long spreadsheet. I was prepping to host a NaNoWriMo kickoff at the library on the weekend, putting in time to edit the last 200 pages of my novel, planning a beat sheet for Novel Two that I plan to write during this November’s NaNo, organizing and updating the fourteen-day NaNo Prep campaign that would start in a week, trying to find someone in town that does pet tumor removal by laser for better odds that our beloved Patches would get the care she deserves, helping my daughter with a collage creative writing English paper, leading three writing circles, prepping and editing for a full load of writing clients, carving out a full day to go to a real estate deal structure class with my husband and, oh yeah, celebrating my birthday. 

So I fly downstairs to make my every three-hour small plate of food (health has become a part-time job, but that’s a subject for another blog) and I see the counter littered with dishes. We have a system that works fairly effectively until it doesn’t and the whole thing falls apart. It was me that let it lapse. There just was no time.

So I prepped my meal, added a knife to the dish mix and went back upstairs to my office. 

If you’re trying to establish a career or a business, if you’re trying to have a life outside of home and hearth, you’ve faced these weeks or busier ones. Everyone has read the tips and tricks of women doing it all—or trying to. Ninety-nine percent of my clients are women, so I know of what I speak. 

I have witnessed home life suck a client dry. I have seen the harried hope of writing a book wither as writers plunk down at their desks at 10:30 at night when the kids are in bed, the kitchen is clean and laundry is rolling in silent machines. Many times the only thing that gets them to that desk is my deadline—by noon the next day. I have heard of husbands who aren’t supportive, of families who "would die if they knew what I was writing.” I have seen the struggle from writers who want to but can’t claim their lives and their stories. 

“If you can give up writing, maybe you should. Maybe just for now. Maybe forever.” I have actually said those words to more than one person in my life, including myself. I did give it up, twice. But the desire, the fascination, the drive never left me alone so I came back. I surrendered to dirty dishes and a smaller income.

Like all things, writing is a matter of choice and honor. No matter which choice you make, it’s your duty to yourself to honor that choice and give it your all. If you have young kids and you want to write, know that it will get easier. That stealing moments when you can will lead to longer and deeper commitment when your children get a little older. 

Now that my daughter is grown, I’m in love with every single session I conduct at my desk, at Starbucks and in my writing circles. I love waking up at 4:00 AM excited for time with my book. I am addicted to the feeling of accomplishment. To making something. Claiming something. To finally being a part of the conversation. As much as I loved being a mom and a wife, for this I came. 

To Alice Munroe and her body of work: We thank you for giving your time.

About the Author: Deb McLeod, is a writer, creative writing coach and founder of The Writing Ranch. She has both an MFA and a BA in creative writing. She has been teaching and coaching for over ten years. Deb has published short fiction in anthologies and journals. She has written articles and creative nonfiction. Deb has been a professional blogger, tech writer, graphic artist and Internet marketing specialist.  

The Full Experience of Being a Writer - Bad Buffet Pizza and All

By Aaron Michael Ritchey

As a writer, I want the full buffet.  I want the good, the bad, the arduous, the brilliant, the tedious and the make-your-own-ice-cream bar.  If there’s pizza, I want a slice.  However bad that buffet pizza always is.

So that means at some point in my career, I am going to get screwed over royally.  We’re talking, they promised you fried chicken, and you got oven roasted.  Or that nasty, pasty macaroni and cheese that promises to be delectable and turns out to be dreck.

You’ll hear all sorts of horror stories in the writing business.  And I can’t really connect them to a food analogy because they are truly awful.  Truly horrible.  But we all get a chance at experiencing them and, like I said, I want it all.

That’s why I don’t do buffets.  I always eat too much.  That’s why I struggle through life—I want more from life than what life has to offer.  What I do get, I greedily slurp up the experiences and long for more.

Yes, I get to live an interesting life.  But it’s not a recipe for inner peace.  Not at all.

One of my closest friends just read my book and hated it.  He didn’t hem and haw, but when I asked him about it, he let loose with a torrent of “you suck”.  This wasn’t just some guy, but one of my best friends, who I invited into my creative process, who I trust, who liked my first novels (however bad), but couldn’t stomach the one I finally got published.

Now, this is part of the buffet of being a writer.  You will get bad reviews and, for some, you will have people you love not quite get your books.  It’s a rough one, but my job as a writer is to write books no matter what. 

My friend Linda Rohrbough, who writes for this wonderful blog (Hi Linda), says that being a writer is like being an orange tree: an orange tree’s job is to grow oranges and let them drop to the ground.  Some are sweet.  Some are sour.  Some grow new orange trees.  Others just rot in the weeds.  But the tree continues to grow and drop oranges.  Plop.  Plop.  Plop.

A few weeks ago, I was sitting at a table with a writer who wrote a book, landed a big-time agent, and had big-time publishing houses fighting over her book.  And guess what?  It all went away.  So she wrote another book.  Same thing happened.  The agent loves her.  The agents loves the books.  But the agent is having trouble selling her books.

So my writer friend was trying to work on her third book, but she was discouraged.  I told her that our job was to write books and let them drop into the world then get to work on the next project.  She cried, I cried, we all cried.

Yes, we need to consider our audience, and if no one can read our books (not even our mothers), well, we might want to look at that.

But if people are loving your books and you get a bad review, or a close friend gets all discouraging, well, chalk it up to a bad piece of roast beef at the buffet.

We all get ‘em.  But how lucky I am for getting to feel what it’s like to be a writer.  

About the Writer:  YA Paranormal author Aaron Michael Ritchey has penned a dozen manuscripts in his 20 years as a writer.  When he isn’t slapping around his muse, Aaron cycles to look fabulous, works in medical technologies, and keeps his family in silks and furs.  His first novel, The Never Prayer, hit the streets on March 29, 2012.