by Gini Graham-Scott | May 21, 2015 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tips - Books
A recent trend among some major publishers is creating special imprints where writers pay to get published or asking for a pre-purchase commitment of a minimum number of books. These offers are coming from established companies with a tradition of paying writers an advance as well a royalty, even if it’s a low advance, or in some cases a no-advance offer. But whatever the specifics of the deal, the writer has not had to pay anything or make a purchase commitment.
However, now this pay to play offer has come about because publishing has become much more difficult for what has been traditionally called the “mid-list” book by a relatively unknown author. As a result, so sales have gone down, as have advances. What publishers increasingly want and are willing to pay for with big advances are books by well-known and celebrity authors with a high-profile platform.For example, authors like Hillary Clinton may make millions in advances, plus millions more in sales, while advances for mid-list book authors have commonly shrunk to about a third to a half of what they were. So instead of getting $15,000 to $20,000 for an advance, you may get offered $5000 to $10,000, or even less.
Paying lower and no advances are a matter of market economics and reflect the growing inequality/rich and poor divide throughout society generally. In publishing, too, the very successful high profile authors are getting more – often much more — in today’s celebrity and media driven culture, while other authors are getting less.
At least in low or no-advance scenarios, the writer is simply getting less. But in many instances, publishers are asking writers to be like self-publishers who are paying for their publication by committing to buy a minimum number of books. However, when this publishing is by an imprint of a major house, the publisher still is in control, though the copyright as it has traditionally, remains with the author. The main advantage of this arrangement compared to self-publishing with a company which just prints your book and leaves the marketing up to you is that the imprint is affiliated with the major publisher. So the book is normally distributed through that publisher’s channels, rather than being a print-on-demand or e-book available on your imprint or the imprint of the self-publishing company. Thus, with a pay to play deal with a traditional publisher, you may be more likely to get reviewed and distributed, though you are still paying a hefty amount up front, rather than the publisher paying you – or at least not making you pay for publication.
Commonly, these payment commitments range from about $10,000-50,000, which is a substantial amount – and unless your book sells very well, you are unlikely to make all of that money back or turn a profit. For example, one author was offered a deal from Wiley requiring a commitment for 10,000 books, which would cost at least $50,000 to $100,000 depending on the wholesale purchase price to the author. Three co-authors were initially offered a deal based on buying 3000 books, later negotiated down to 2000 books, at $15 each – a total of $30,000, so even if thought Wiley offered an advance of possibly as much as $5000, the authors would still have to pay $25,000 up front for the books. No wonder they turned down the deal.
A publisher’s rationale for this requirement to pay up front for books is that the publisher expects the author to do programs where they can sell high numbers of books, which will be a win-win for the publisher and writer. But if the writer doesn’t have such a platform, the writer will end up with huge piles of unsold books to be stored away somewhere like a basement or garage. Or maybe the books might make a nice charitable give-away.
Perhaps the main advantage of a pay for books arrangement is getting the credentials and bragging rights of having a book with a major publisher, which might open other doors down the road. But if the book doesn’t sell very well because you aren’t able to do much to support these book sales, this credential might not matter very much in pitching future books to other publishers. In fact, the low sales of a previous book might be a disadvantage in pitching the next book, since major publishers usually do little to promote these mid-list books; they depend on the authors to do much or most of the publicity and promotion, so low sales in the past can be a problem.
At least the publishers with these pay to publish arrangements are commonly still somewhat selective in what they publish, since they want to maintain the quality of their reputation. So they don’t offer these deals to everyone, as do the self-publishing companies who are essentially printers. So there is some selectivity. But you still have to pay.
Thus, be cautious when you are offered such a deal. Ideally, it’s best to get a publisher who will pay you to publish your book or at least offers a no advance arrangement. But if you aren’t able to get such a deal, under some circumstances it might be an advantage to go with a pay to play publisher for the prestige of publishing with a traditional publisher, as long as you understand you may get little or none of your payment back, though there is always the chance of getting more.
On the other hand, if a pay to play deal from a traditional publisher is the only option available to you, it might be worth considering self-publishing under your own or a self-publishing company imprint. These prices can range from nothing if you do it yourself under CreateSpace or Kindle or similar platforms to a few hundred dollars for help using these platforms or to a few thousand dollars from many self-publishing companies who charge more. Just be aware that you will still commonly need to do your own promotion and publicity to call attention to your book if you set up distribution through a self-publishing platform or company. But now with most publishers today, even those who pay, you still need to cover most or all of the publicity and promotion. Unless you are already a very well-known personality or celebrity, that’s the way of the publishing world today.
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Gini Graham Scott, PhD, is the author of over 50 books with major publishers, including two on the writing and publishing books: FIND PUBLISHERS AND AGENTS AND GET PUBLISHED and SELL YOUR BOOK, SCRIPT, OR COLUMN. She has written and produced over 50 short films, has written 15 scripts for features, and has one feature film she wrote and executive produced scheduled for release in February 2015. She also writes scripts for clients, and has several book and film industry Meetup groups which have meetings to discuss members’ books and films. She is the Creative Director for Publishers Agents and Films.
by Gini Graham-Scott | May 12, 2015 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tips - Books, Marketing Tips - Films
Sometimes professional writers are offered the opportunity to work as a co-writer. Should you do it, and if so, what the best way to protect yourself should problems develop?
Co-writing can be an ideal arrangement, when you have long been friends or business associates and you both share a passion for the project. Then, you can bounce your creativity off each other and create a great project together.
But what happens when you are approached by someone who thinks they have a great idea, and now they need a writer to make that happen? In many scenarios, this can turn into a paid project where the writer works as a ghostwriter and is paid on a work-for-hire basis by a client, or this can turn into a co-writing agreement when both parties work well together.
I believe starting with a work-for-hire agreement is an ideal arrangement when you are approached by someone you don’t know, because you don’t know how well you will work together or if you will share a similar vision for the book or a film project as it develops. This way, if the person with the project has the budget, he or she can maintain control of the project, while you write what the person wants. Then, if the relationship works out and you both want this, you can turn the book or film into a shared royalty agreement. One common scenario is for the writer to finish the project at a lower fee, such as less 25-35%, in return for a percentage of the royalty (commonly 50-50) after anything paid up front is deducted.
Often the situation of a shared royalty arrangement from the start comes up when the person with the idea, notes, or a rough draft has a limited budget. This shared agreement can work well, if you soon come to share the writer’s vision of the final project and you feel comfortable sharing in the project. Also, it can work well if the project is in your own field of expertise, and you feel the project has a good likelihood of getting sold, so you aren’t giving up the regular income you depend on in return for something that’s a risky bet.
However, there are a number of cautions to watch out for in co-author arrangements with someone you don’t know well, such as when you respond to an ad for a writer to be a collaborator or co-writer. One problem is that you may start off agreeing that this is a shared project, but then the original author becomes controlling and you start to feel like a hired hand, as happened to one writer who was enticed into doing some chapters for a book by a psychologist. The psychologist claimed she wanted someone to be a true collaborator and share the authorship and royalties. But then the psychologist turned into a tyrant, who was very critical of what the writer wrote, because she wanted everything expressed a certain way. Eventually, the writer was able to escape the nightmare with a signed work-for-hire agreement and got paid in full for what he had discounted to be a collaborator.
Another problem in a co-writer project occurs when the original author has less and less time to contribute to the project or loses interest, because of other commitments. So there isn’t enough information to complete and sell the project, and the writer is stuck with getting less or nothing, because of agreeing to a collaboration. For example, one writer faced this situation after writing situation when the client writing his memoir suddenly decided that he shouldn’t do this book now, because his psychiatrist thought it wasn’t a good idea. Besides, now if he did pursue the book, he wanted full control of both the book and the possible film based on it. Fortunately in this case, the writer was able to turn the collaboration into a work-for-hire situation for the work already done and get paid accordingly. But in many cases, a project simply dies at this point, and the writer doesn’t get paid.
The other big problem with a collaboration is that when the project is completed, it may not sell or may only bring in a very small advance, which is less than the author would get paid for writing the book, proposal, or script as a ghostwriter. Then, if there is a very low or no advance, any future work on the project has to be written largely or solely on spec.
Thus, given all these potential problems, my usual approach is to start off as a ghostwriter for at least the beginning stages of the project. Then, if the project is in a field I normally write about and we both feel a co-writing arrangement is desirable, we sign a co-writing agreement, and I reduce the total costs on the project by 25% in return for sharing in the proceeds should it sell. Thereafter, the original author is paid back in full for anything paid to me, before we share in the royalties 50-50. Such a deduction before sharing royalties is a typical arrangement, and I have found this approach works best for me.
What’s best for you? I suggest treating each co-writing arrangement on a case by case basis, taking into consideration the topic, how much you like both the project and the author, the potential for selling the book or film, and how much a sale is likely to bring. Then, compare that to what you would make as a ghostwriter, since normally the most you will earn on most books and films is what you are paid as an advance. Additionally, consider your own income needs and whether you can afford to take a chance on getting less up-front as a co-writer, and whether starting this project as a co-writer is the only option, because that’s all the original writer can afford.
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GINI GRAHAM SCOTT, Ph.D., is a nationally known writer, consultant, speaker, and seminar/workshop leader, who has published over 50 books on diverse subjects, including business and work relationships, professional and personal development, and social trends. She also writes books, proposals, scripts, articles, blogs, website copy, press releases, and marketing materials for clients as the founder and director of Changemakers Publishing and Writing and as a writer and consultant for The Publishing Connection (www.thepublishingconnection.com). She has been a featured expert guest on hundreds of TV and radio programs, including Good Morning America, Oprah, and CNN, talking about the topics in her books.
by Gini Graham-Scott | Apr 28, 2015 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tips - Books
A big issue for many writers is what to do after you get a publishing or job offer. What if the publisher or employer has a tight deadline, and to make the deadline you have to start writing before you get a payment or a signed contract? Should you get started and risk not getting paid or not getting the contract? Or should you wait, which could mean losing the job or the contract?
The answer is, as they say in the law, it depends. What to do depends on such factors as how much money is at stake, how much work you have to put in before the promised payment or contract arrives, and how solid and trustworthy the individual or a company is that you will work for. Then, too, consider that the person hiring you could change his or her mind or that the client might be a subcontractor for a client, so if the ultimate client doesn’t pay or changes his or her mind, you could be unpaid for any work you do before you receive any payment on the project.
I began thinking about this issue after I was hired by a client who was putting together a book and website for another client. Initially, this subcontractor just wanted a book and wanted a proposed fee for writing it. But after I bid and got the job, the subcontractor said he wanted a website included for that total amount. Not wanting to lose the job, I didn’t say anything about the change, figuring the website write-up would only take a few hours. Then, since the client had a short deadline on the website copy and his staff couldn’t send the contract and check until the following Monday, I agreed to start on Friday.
In making this decision, I even turned down an offer for a credit card payment, since Master Card would take 4%. But after I edited the Frequently Asked Questions section and got the go-ahead to do more, I found the instructions about the website copy unclear, and after I turned in a few pages for feedback, the subcontractor called to cancel the contract for both the book and the website. He said he didn’t have time to do any more reviews and no longer wanted me to do the book, so he wouldn’t be sending the contract or advance check. But I had already spent about 5 hours unpaid on the project.
At first, the client tried to get out of paying me, though ultimately he agreed to pay, saying my offer to accept $500 for the work I had done “sounded good,” though later he sent me a check marked “In protest.” After it went through, I decided it best not to respond to explain anything. “He’s just messing with you,” another writer told me. But the incident got me thinking about payments and contracts generally.
I’ve worked with dozens of publishers where it can take several weeks or even a month or two to get a finalized contract, and the payment often doesn’t arrive until 30 to 45 days after that. But the deadline for submitting the copy means I need to start writing it before the contract arrives. Whenever this has happened, my experience has been that the contract does arrive and so does the payment.
In some cases, where the publisher has a no-advance contract, so the first payment will be several months after the book has been successfully published, the book has almost always been published and eventually I have gotten royalties. So with established publishers, working before the contract or payment arrives has usually been fine. But with smaller publishers, such an agreement can be very iffy. The publisher has no initial investment, and so the publisher can easily decide not to publish.
I and other writers have also generally had success in getting paid after doing some work or completing a project with larger, established companies. Commonly, they hire a number of writers, as well as other employees and contractors, and have a policy in which writers do the work and submit a bill to get paid – generally within 10 to 30 days. Usually there is an agreement describing what is to be written, sometimes called the “deliverable,” and the writing usually begins after getting the contract, with the payment following within a short time after delivering the work.
However, when it comes to writing for individual clients or small companies, that’s when problems arise, and there can be little recourse if the individual or company doesn’t pay, especially when they are based in another state, or worse, another country. It takes time and effort to go to small claims court, and you can’t use small claims court for an out-of state or out-of country client, plus you can encounter many difficulties in trying to collect even with a judgment from a debtor who doesn’t want to pay.
Thus, I have come to realize that in working with private individuals or small companies, it is best to either get a retainer or set up a pay-as-you-go arrangement using a credit card. Then, whether or not you are getting a contract, don’t do any work until you are paid in advance. Clients may express a concern about paying you and then not getting the work, but they have an easy way to complain and get a refund if this is the case, by appealing to their credit card company or to PayPal. But if you aren’t paid, you don’t have the option. You have to depend on the client’s willingness to pay.
It may be fine to arrange for a check, credit card, or PayPal payment after you do the work once you have established an ongoing trusting relationship with a client. But until then, initially, it is better to get paid before or at the time you do the work, however the client wants to pay (check, credit card, PayPal, or even cash). As one writer associate put it, “I don’t put pen to paper until I am paid up-front and receive any signed contract that’s required for the project. And if the client has a tight deadline making it difficult to get me the payment or contract, then that’s the client’s problem. He or she should do better planning. I simply won’t write anything until I have at least a partial deposit or retainer up front.”
So that’s my recommendation. Use a “pay to play” approach in dealing with individuals and small companies, and try to get this arrangement with larger companies if you can, but if not, take the chance they will be good for the money, after you do some or all of the writing. You may lose out on some writing assignments from individuals and small companies as a result. But you will save yourself a lot of problems from clients who don’t pay after you have done the work.
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Gini Graham Scott, PhD, is the author of over 50 books with major publishers, including two on the writing and publishing books: FIND PUBLISHERS AND AGENTS AND GET PUBLISHED and SELL YOUR BOOK, SCRIPT, OR COLUMN. She has written and produced over 50 short films, has written 15 scripts for features, and has one feature film she wrote and executive produced scheduled for release in February 2015.
She also writes scripts for clients, and has several book and film industry Meetup groups which have meetings to discuss members’ books and films. She is the Creative Director for Publishers Agents and Films.
by Gini Graham-Scott | Apr 10, 2015 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tips - Books
When you are searching for a publisher for your book, don’t only target publishers who are interested in your type of book but the editors who handle that subject. The way to do this is by using keywords, such as “historical,” “relationships,” & “self-help”.
Although this is not a perfect science, since these searches will pull up some editors who still don’t handle that particular type of book within the category selected. But at least, this kind of targeted search will help to narrow the field.
When you do this search, there are a number of sources you can use, such as the Writers Market directories that come out annually, the Literary Marketplace, which has an online database of publishers, the Publishers Marketplace, or some companies that sell data. However, using such sources of information can be expensive and time consuming – and some data can be out of date.
For example, the Writers Market directories for publishers, agents, and children’s publishers and agents which come out in September for the following year are about $25 each. But because of the delay in publishing and distribution, some of the contact information may have already changed or some companies may be out of business. There is an online directory you can access after buying a book, but you have to do individual searches, and some of the information may not have been updated.
In the case of Literary Marketplace, you need a paid subscription to get more than a physical address, and the cost is $25 for a week, $399 for a year; Publishers Marketplace has a subscription fee of $25 a year. The other companies that sell data have other fees, and typically they only sell you a portion of their total database or allow you to send queries to a limited number of publishers who you have selected from their database.
But even if you have a direct access to the data, you then have to select the publishers to contact individually and create a mailing list or database from that. Then you have to do individual mailings unless you create your own database for multiple mailings.
By contrast, a company like Publishers Agents and Films has already bought the books and subscriptions has created a database with keyword codes to indicate what a publisher is interested in, do their own test mailings every 4 to 6 weeks to update their databases with the latest information, and can do targeted mailings for you within a day of getting your final letter. Plus, the company uses special software to personalize an email to the selected contacts and can use anyone’s email for the “send” and “reply” addresses, so interested editors and publishers think you have written personally to them and reply directly to you.
The big advantage is that you don’t have the time and expense of creating the contact list and you can quickly send out your personalized query letter to several hundred editors within minutes – not the usual days it might take you if you send out individual queries.
Also, consider the letter you send out. It has to be written well and have a compelling and specific subject line to get recipients to open the letter. Often writers who might be great in writing their books don’t know how to write a good query letter. Some common errors are writing a letter which is too detailed or too vague, uses sales or PR hype so it sounds too promotional, or doesn’t quickly convey what the book is about and offer to send more information (such as a synopsis, proposal with sample chapters, or the complete manuscript). Then, too, some writers put in information that is a deal breaker, such as describing a self-published book, which most publishers won’t consider, unless it has had strong sales of thousands of books. So it can sometimes by more effective to work with a company with experienced writers who can review your letter and make any suggestions for rewriting if necessary or can write your letter for you.
Finally, think about the stats for sending out your letters. How many letters are actually delivered? How many are opened? One company that monitors such stats is Publishers Agents and Films which has sent out about 1500 queries for clients. It has found that about 90-95% of the queries are delivered for book publishers and agents, and they open about 60-75% of these queries, with no unsubscribes or spam reports and a very small .20% bounce rate, because of the regular updates.
For more information on selecting publishers, along with writing an effective query letter, you can contact Publishers Agents and Films at www.publishersagentsandfilms.com. You can email publishersagents2@yahoo.com or call (925) 385-0608.
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Gini Graham Scott, PhD, is the author of over 50 books with major publishers, including two on the film industry: THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO WRITING, PRODUCING, AND DIRECTING A LOW-BUDGET SHORT FILM and FINDING FUNDS FOR YOUR FILM OR TV PROJECT, both published by Hal Leonard.
She has written and produced over 50 short films, has written 15 scripts for features, has three other films in preproduction, and has one feature film she wrote and executive produced in post-production for release in November 2014.
She also writes scripts for clients, and has several film industry Meetup groups which have meetings to discuss members’ films. She is a writer and consultant for The Publishing Connection.
by Gini Graham-Scott | Mar 19, 2015 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tips - Books
Since the development of the e-book and its growing popularity, the problem of piracy has become pervasive. The reason is that it is easy to copy and pass on ebooks, and a growing number of piracy sites have made these available. And many other sites which sell ebooks for authors and publishers have pirated books uploaded by others and they remain there, until the site owner is made aware that the material is pirated and is asked to take it down.
Even using digital rights management (DRM) does little good, although it is designed to prevent a user from transferring a file from one platform to another or sharing that file with others.
However, pirates can easily break that code. Also, it is now relatively inexpensive to scan a print copy of a book to make a digital file. I had a series of books scanned for only $2.50 a book, since the cut up pages can be put through an automatic feeder; there is no longer any need to scan them by hand.
Another difficulty in stopping piracy is that the dedicated pirate sites are often located in other countries, and the owners of these sites can easily put up new sites under another name. Moreover, once a book is pirated by one site, it can easily be spread to multiple sites – making the problem of getting one’s books off of pirated sites like a game of whack-a-mole – hit the mole down at one site, and it quickly pops up in another.
So what can you do to protect yourself from piracy? While you probably can’t overcome the problem entirely, here are some things you can do.
1) Register your copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office, which is easy to register online for only $35 for a single application; $55 for two or more authors. This registration will give you the authorization to send out takedown notices, though trying to enforce a copyright through legal action is unlikely.
2) Inform your publisher to send out a takedown notice or send out this notice yourself to the website owner. If the owner does not respond in a reasonable time, say 10 days, send the takedown notice to the service hosting the website. Normally, the hosting service will take down any infringing material within a few days, since if it doesn’t the service can risk being shut down or being blocked by search engines. You can also send a notice to Google about the violation of your copyright, since Google will lower the search rankings of websites that sustain a number of complaints, and if they get enough complaints, they will block those sites entirely. There are specific requirements for what to include in these notices which you can find online or in my book THE BATTLE AGAINST INTERNET BOOK PIRACY.
3) Find ways to adapt to this piracy to promote your writing or sell other materials, such as by including information in your books that direct those reading them to your website where you have other protected materials for sale or you are selling your writing services to others. Some writers also use piracy as a way to spread their name generally so they have a higher profile in selling other books to publishers.
While it is probably futile to pursue any litigation against the pirates yourself, since any action is extremely expensive and time-consuming, and only the bigger publishers acting individually or with other publishers can afford to do this, as did John Wiley in suing a pirate site in Germany for one of its Dummies books, at least there is some consolation in the risks of obtaining pirated books. In some cases, individuals obtaining these books end up with malware that opens up their computer to identity theft or corrupts some of their data. And sometimes pirates are targeted by a larger publisher or by law enforcement when their actions are especially egregious or they are involved in uploading or downloading material to one of these targeted pirate sites.
In sum, make sure your book is copyrighted by your or your publisher, send out takedown notices as you can, do your best to use the piracy to promote or sell your other work, and feel some satisfaction in knowing that many pirates will suffer their just deserts in the end.
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GINI GRAHAM SCOTT, Ph.D., is a nationally known writer, consultant, speaker, and seminar/workshop leader, who has published over 50 books on diverse subjects, including business and work relationships, professional and personal development, and social trends. She also writes books, proposals, scripts, articles, blogs, website copy, press releases, and marketing materials for clients as the founder and director of Changemakers Publishing and Writing and as a writer and consultant for The Publishing Connection (www.thepublishingconnection.com).
She has been a featured expert guest on hundreds of TV and radio programs, including Good Morning America, Oprah, and CNN, talking about the topics in her books.
by Gini Graham-Scott | Feb 19, 2015 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tips - Books, Marketing Tips - Films
Co-writing and ghost writing arrangements for both books and scripts can be great when you and your co-writer or lead writer have a shared vision for the project and you bring to it complementary skills. Besides writing my own books and scripts, I have worked with several dozen clients on co-written projects.
A first step is understanding what the person seeking a co-writer or ghost writer wants and clarifying what you will do. In reaching this understanding, determine this person’s goals – is this to be a proposal for a books and some sample chapters, a complete book, a treatment for a film, a complete script, or whatever else the person wants written.
Also, work out the financial arrangements, including whether the client will be paying for this as a work for hire or as a co-writing arrangement, or if this is starting out as a work for hire, which will be transformed into a co-writing project if you mutually agree. Then, too, determine how the client will pay – based on a per word or per page basis or an hourly rate – and if it is per page, clarify approximately how many words per page this will be, based on the type font you are using.
Additionally, determine up front how the client will pay. Some like a contract, where you get a certain percentage down (ie: 20-33%), another percentage after you complete a certain amount of the manuscript (ie: another 20-33% after you complete ¼ to ½ of the manuscript), still more at the next percentage point, and at the end. Another common alternative is to use a pay as you go model, where the person pays you a set amount via PayPal or check for each segment of the project before you do it or where you charge that person’s card a certain amount before or after you do each section.
With more established companies, a common arrangement, if you don’t have a contract for money up front for each section of the project, is for you to bill the company, after which they pay you within 10 to 30 days. And usually they do. While such a billing arrangement may be fine with larger established companies or with a client with whom you have an ongoing long-term relationship, I don’t recommend this for new individual clients, especially if you haven’t met them personally or they are in another state or country. The big problem is that you can do the work and they don’t pay you. Then, you have little or no way to collect, because the client is out of state and this is too small amount to pursue through legal means, plus then you still have to collect if you win.
Sometimes clients may argue that they don’t want to pay anything up front because they aren’t sure that you will complete the work or that they will be satisfied. One good response to that is to assure them that they are protected if they pay you by credit card, because they can ask for and obtain a refund from their credit card company for non-completion of the project, whereas you have no such protection if they don’t pay you. As for their comment that their payment hinges on whether they will be satisfied, this could be a red flag that you are dealing with a difficult person who is hard to satisfy, and they could refuse to pay you for that reason, too.
To deal with that issue, I generally respond that I don’t work on spec and that I can limit what I do to a small number of pages (say 5-10 pages). Then, they can provide me with their comments so I can revise what I have written if necessary, and if satisfied, they can give me the go ahead to do more. But otherwise, I get paid for what I do, and I will do everything I can to make sure they like what I am doing, before I do more.
Another arrangement I will enter into with some clients is an initial co-writing agreement if the project is in my field and I think I will like working with this person, if the person insists on such an arrangement to do the project. Then, I will deduct 25% from my usual charges in return for a credit and splitting any royalties or fees for selling the project, after deducting whatever the person paid me upfront, though I give the client the option of turning the project into a work-for-hire before pitching it for sale by paying me the additional 25%. But ideally, I prefer to start as a work-for-hire arrangement with the option of turning this into a co-write down the road. This way, it is very clear that client is in control from the get-go, and as the project goes along, we can mutually determine if a co-writer arrangement would be mutually beneficial. Otherwise, the client is in the driver’s seat, steering the project, so he or she knows the destination, and my role is to help the client get there. The advantage of this arrangement, I have found, is that there are no problems of co-writers discovering they have different shared visions of the project as they go along, since it starts with the client’s vision and can always turn into a co-write if this vision is shared.
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GINI GRAHAM SCOTT, Ph.D., is a nationally known writer, consultant, speaker, and seminar/workshop leader, who has published over 50 books on diverse subjects, including business and work relationships, professional and personal development, and social trends. She also writes books, proposals, scripts, articles, blogs, website copy, press releases, and marketing materials for clients as the founder and director of Changemakers Publishing and Writing and as a writer and consultant for The Publishing Connection (www.thepublishingconnection.com). She has been a featured expert guest on hundreds of TV and radio programs, including Good Morning America, Oprah, and CNN, talking about the topics in her books.
