by Gus | Dec 25, 2014 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tips - Books, Marketing Tips - Films
One issue that frequently comes up in workshops or online forums is whether you need a copyright for your film or book. Occasionally people ask if they can use what is sometimes called the “poor man’s copyright,” where you send yourself your material in a sealed envelope, so you can later prove that you wrote it when you did.
First, the “poor man’s copyright” is perfectly useless. It is a myth that makes the rounds from time to time, usually because someone has just heard about it from someone else and wants to find out if it is true. Well, it isn’t. At best it might establish a date of mailing. But there are so many loopholes in that mailing to make a proof of anything problematic. A big problem is that one can easily steam open an envelope or mail an unsealed or empty envelope to oneself, and then put the document in the envelope and seal it up after the unsealed or empty envelope comes back in the mail.
Another misconception is that you need to formally register a copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office in order to have a copyright. But you actually have a copyright from the date of creation once you write your book, script, article, proposal, or anything else. You are similarly covered by a copyright when you draw something, compose music, record a song, or otherwise create anything and record it in written, visual, or aural form, though you can’t copyright an idea or title. A title might be covered by trademark, if you are using it or intend to use it; but that’s a more complex subject, since you can choose from multiple categories in which to register a trademark, and you can run into complications when you use a trademark in one geographic area and another person creates the same or similar mark in a different geographic area, depending on what categories you each are claiming. But for all practical purposes, if you write a book, book proposal, script or other written materials with hopes to get it published or produced, you are dealing with copyright law and the Copyright Office in Washington, D.C.
So essentially the question you are really asking is: “Should you ‘register’ a copyright?” with the U.S. copyright office. If you are writing a script, there is also a possibility of registering it with the WGA, either in Los Angeles or New York, though most register it in Los Angeles, and some producers and agents/managers may ask you to do this. However, that’s not the same as registering a copyright with the government; a WGA registration is more like just putting it on a list that establishes your date of conception, and then you have to renew the WGA registration every 5 years if you register it in L.A., every 10 years if you register in New York.
By contrast, registering a work with the Copyright Office gives you a registered copyright as of the day of registration. The most efficient and economical way to do this is to register online, which is currently only $35 for an individual copyright, meaning just one item is being copyrighted by one author. If there are more authors or this is a combined registration of different properties, it is $55 to register online. It costs more to go the old fashioned postal mail route — $85 — and it will take 2 months or more to get your registration. Ideally, go through the online system, where you pay and are walked through a step by step process to answer each question about the name of the author, date of registration, and other data. Then, your answers are entered into the copyright form which goes to you.
The costs can mount up if you have multiple items you want to register, so you might consider whether a copyright is really necessary. Take into consideration the fact that a copyright gives you the right to pursue your rights online or in court, but you have to take any actions to enforce your copyright, which can be time consuming and expensive. For example, the most cost effective way of using a registered copyright is to prevent someone else using your material online, such as by sending this information to the offending website owner or to a web hosting company which is hosting a website with your copyrighted material. You just send a take-down notice with evidence of your copyright, and normally the hosting company will take it down if the website owner doesn’t.
However, it is very expensive to take any legal action in court to enforce a copyright, so a registration won’t be of much use if you are seeking compensation from someone who has improperly posted your material online and they don’t have any money. But if you wait, maybe they will or they may arrange for someone else to use your material – at which time, you can inform them that you own the copyright and you aren’t giving your permission without a just compensation, whereupon you can negotiate the terms with them if they willing to do anything. Otherwise, you have the basis for taking them to court and claiming statutory damages, which may lead them to drop your material or seek an agreement from you.
In general, given the expense and limitations of a copyright, it is not necessary to register the copyright for a proposal or manuscript. The situation is different if you self-publish a book or if a traditional publisher publishes it and normally assigns the copyright to you. In this case, the publisher will generally take care of filing for the copyright in your name. If not, it is a good idea to file for copyright yourself, especially if you feel the book has a good commercial value for a general audience, since there is more risk of someone using your material or even filing a registration on a copy of your work.
Otherwise, if your work is unpublished, it may not be worth the time and expense, since publishers and agents are unlikely to use your material without you, since a key interest is in having you as the author be front and center to promote it. And normally there isn’t the kind of money in a published book as there is in a produced film or a recorded song. So with a book, unless it just makes you uncomfortable to not register a copyright, I feel it isn’t necessary – especially if you have written many books, because of the high cost involved. And even if you self-publish a book, it may not be necessary to register a copyright, especially if you have published multiple books, making it expensive, since most self-published books average about 150 copies in sales, and if someone pirates your book, it probably doesn’t matter whether your book’s copyright is registered or not, since it is unlikely you can do much more than send a take-down notice to the multiple sites offering free copies of your book and hope they take it down. But if they don’t, it’s not normally cost-effective to try to pursue matters any further.
Likewise, if you write articles it is not necessary to copyright each one, especially when you are making the articles available for free. Just use them for promotional value, though if you combine the articles together into a book and self-publish it, you might get the copyright then.
By contrast, if you complete a script, treatment, or TV series or show proposal, it is a good idea to register a copyright, whether or not you have sought a WGA listing. Many producers for their own protection will want you to have a registered copyright, and often any NDA document they ask you to sign will have some language about your having only the protection that resides in what you have copyrighted and not to any similar ideas they might have developed in house or which they obtained from another writer or other party.
Another reason for registering a copyright in the film world is because it is so competitive, and sometimes, if a script reader sees the potential in your idea, it could be shared with others, though it might undergo some further changes in the script. Then you could be out of the loop, although a registered copyright will make it more likely for you to be involved in the project going forward. Or it could lead to a payoff to get the previously stated rights under the agreement signed over from you.
In sum, in the case of books and articles, it is generally not necessary to get a copyright unless you have high hopes for a large commercial sale or are willing to pursue take-down notices or a court case against someone who copies and sells your book and has the money to collect if you win. But if you write a script, TV series or show proposal, or treatment, do get your material registered, since you will often need it to even get your script considered by producers, agents, managers, or others in the film industry.
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Gini Graham Scott, PhD, is the author of over 50 books with major publishers, including two on 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 SUICIDE PARTY: SAVE DAVE, which she wrote and executive produced, scheduled for release in February 2015. She also writes scripts for clients, is Creative Director for Publishers Agents & Films (www.publishersagentsandfilms.com), and has several book and film industry Meetup groups which have meetings to discuss members’ books and films and help them get published or produced.
by Gus | Dec 16, 2014 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tips - Films
I’ve recently started thinking about how to best distribute a film, since I have been looking for distribution for my first feature film: SUICIDE PARTY: SAVE DAVE. This is the first of a series of posts which describes what I have learned is the best strategy and what to expect in the offers you get, so you can get the best deal possible, based on what’s realistic for your film. I’ll discuss both DYI (do your own) distribution if you can’t find a distributor, as well as different tracks to consider in distributing your film through different channels. Eventually, these posts will be collected together to create a book on DISTRIBUTING YOUR FILM.
First, know the major players in the film distribution space. The ones to contact depend on what your goals are for your film, such as whether you feel you have a film that merits theatrical distribution, or you want to focus on distribution in other markets. These major players include studio distributors, independent distributors, producer’s reps, and sales reps.
The studio distributors are largely out of the picture for independent films, unless you have a big breakthrough at one of the top film festivals where the big distributors go (Sundance, Toronto, and Cannes, and secondarily Tribeca, and maybe Berlin and Venice, plus some distributors go to South by Southwest. Such a film breakthrough requires not only being shown, but also creating an exciting talk or buzz about your film with an advance media build-up. Moreover, if you are aiming for the big festivals, you have to premier there, which means waiting to find out if you are accepted before you can submit to other festivals. However, the likelihood of acceptance is very small unless you have personal connections, since not only do the big festivals select a small number of films from thousands of submissions, but generally the vast majority – perhaps 85-90% — of those accepted come from personal connections with the festival director or staff, leaving only about 10-15% to be accepted on their own merits. Then if you are accepted, you still have to create that exciting buzz for your film to actually get a deal besides simply showing at a big festival. In short, for most indie filmmakers, a studio distribution deal is unlikely, though possible, should you later develop a great deal of excitement, so the studio distributors want to take a look at your project.
Then, there are the independent distributors, who come in all flavors. There are some who handle theatrical distribution, ranging from those who handle one or two films – generally their own films — to those handling a half-dozen or more. Many of these distributors will also handle distribution in other channels, such as to home video, cable, and foreign sales. Then there are many distributors who eschew theatrical for distribution in other channels.
Often if you want to seek a theatrical release, you will need a budget for P&A, which means promotion and advertising, along with the costs of any files, DVDs, posters, and local advertising, which you need for each theater, which can add up to $5000-10,000 or more per city, though normally you don’t pay the distributor. Rather, you typically make a split of the income arrangement, which is commonly 35-50%, though more often a 50-50 split, and in some cases, a distributor who wants your film enough will advance the P&A.
Some distributors may additionally ask you to have E&O insurance, which refers to “Errors” and “Omissions.” Even though your film is already produced, some distributors may still ask for this, just in case, such as one distributor interested in SUICIDE PARTY: SAVE DAVE explained to me. “Maybe a scene in the film might show a store or company in the background, and they object to the way they are portrayed. So this could trigger a request for a recut of the film or a lawsuit, but your E&O insurance would cover this.” On the other hand, most distributors I spoke to didn’t require this.
While some distributors will ask for worldwide rights, others just want domestic (which includes Canada as well as the U.S.), and some specialize in foreign. So everything is negotiable including what markets a distributor will handle, the percentage split, and how much P&A budget you will need if any.
Another major player is the producer’s rep. This is essentially a middleman who contacts distributors and foreign sales agents on your behalf and negotiates a deal for you. Commonly these reps handle a slate of films for different producers, generally about 5 to 20 other films, depending on the size of the rep’s company. Commonly the rep get 5-10% of the deal, occasionally 15%, depending on what they do. However, the reps should not take any upfront money from you, though some may ask for this. But they should only get an upfront payment if they are doing extra work, such as writing releases and creating posters for you.
According to Ben Yennie, a producer’s rep in San Francisco and the author of The Guerrilla Rep: American Film Market Distribution Success on No Budget, a good producer’s rep can help filmmakers connect with distributors and foreign sales agents, since they have built relationships with them. They can help you get a faster response from them, as well as assess and select the best ones to work with, since they better know the market. They can also evaluate the different offers and handle the negotiations for you, which can result in a better deal for the film. Additionally, they can help you get into the bigger film festivals if they know the director or staff member. However, Yennie cautions that a lot of reps are ineffective and don’t deliver what they promise, so it is important to look at a rep’s track record and expect the rep to give you a realistic assessment of your film’s potential and what the rep can do for you before selecting a rep.
Finally, there is the sales agent, also called the “foreign sales agent,” who handles foreign sales. In this case, it can be very valuable to work with such an agent, since he or she will know the distributors, exhibitors, and other channels in the territory covered, and so will be in a better position to make the contact and negotiate any sales than you. While some sales agents may have a network of agents in different countries, others will specialize in selected areas, so you need to learn the areas covered, as well as the channels in which the sales agents wants to pitch your film. In this way, you can make sure you don’t have overlapping exclusive representation by sales agents who are covering the same territories.
So now that you know the major players, the next step is to assess how you want to position and promote your film in different channels, as well as prepare the materials you need to get a distributor or sales agent, and in some cases, a good producer’s rep.
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Gini Graham Scott, PhD, is the author of over 50 books with major publishers, including two on 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, is Creative Director for Publishers Agents & Films (www.publishersagentsandfilms.com), and has several book and film industry Meetup groups which have meetings to discuss members’ books and films and help them get published or produced.
by Gus | Dec 10, 2014 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tips - Books
A recent trend among some major publishers is to create special imprints where writers pay to get published or ask for a pre-purchase commitment of a minimum number of books. A key distinction is these offers are coming from established companies that have had a tradition of paying writers an advance as well a royalty, even if it’s a low advance, or in some cases making 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 the 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, so sales have gone down, as have advances. Instead, 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.
These lower and no advances are a matter of market economics and reflect the growing inequality/rich and poor divide throughout society generally. Likewise, in publishing, 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 these low or no-advance scenarios, the writer is simply getting less. But in many instances, publishers now are asking writers to be like self-publishers who are paying for the cost of their publication by committing to buy a minimum number of books. However, when this publishing is by an imprint of a major house, the publishing house still is in control, though the copyright as it has traditionally, continues to remain with the author. The main advantage of this arrangement compared to self-publishing with a company which just prints your book and then the marketing is 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 own imprint or an imprint associated with 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 something – or at least not making you pay for publication.
Commonly, these payments 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 the publisher offered an advance, 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 rationale for this requirement to pay up front to buy books is that publishers expect authors with a platform to be doing 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 somewhere like a basement or garage. Or maybe the books might make a nice charitable give-away.
Perhaps the main advantage of such a pay for books arrangement is getting the credential 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 prove to be a disadvantage in pitching the next. And today major publishers 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 can be a problem.
At least publishers with these pay to publish arrangements are in most cases still somewhat selective in what they publish, 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 actually wants to 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 aura 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 this is the only option available to you from a traditional publisher, 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 Gus | Dec 1, 2014 | 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, or possibly this can turn into a co-writing agreement when both parties work well together. A
I believe starting with a work-for-hire agreement this 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 similar ideas for the book or a film project as it develops. This way, if the person with the project has the budget for it, 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 get-go 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 what the final project should be and you feel comfortable sharing in the project. Also, you feel the project has a good likelihood of getting sold, so you aren’t giving up the regular income you depend on as a writer in return for something that’s a risky bet.
However, there are a number of cautions to watch out for in co-author arrangements, when you respond to an ad for a writer to be a collaborator or co-writer. One problem is that you may start off thinking 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. She 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 get paid in full for what he had discounted to be a collaborator.
Another problem when you agree to be a co-writer is that the original author has less and less time to contribute to the project or loses interest, because he or she has 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, if he did pursue the book at all, he now wanted to have full control of both the book and the possible film based on it. Fortunately in this case, the writer was also 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 simply 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 done essentially 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, and thereafter, the original author is paid back in full for anything paid to me before we share in the royalties 50-50. This kind of deduction before sharing royalties is a typical arrangement, and I have found this kind of 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, and the potential for selling the book or film and how much a sale is likely to bring, versus 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. Then, too, 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 being a co-writer from the get-go 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 Gus | Nov 25, 2014 | 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 get 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, there is consideration that the person hiring you could change his or her mind or the possibility that the client is 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 doing the whole project. But after I bid and got the job, the subcontractor said he wanted a website included, too. But 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 he 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 a 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, saying 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, he 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 then 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. But 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, which means no payment until several months after the book is successfully published and generates sales, 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.
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 located 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 too, 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 payment by check, credit card, or PayPal 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, if they pay 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 Gus | Oct 30, 2014 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tips - Books
When you are searching for a publisher for your book, it is important to not only target publishers who are interested in your type of book but the specific editors who handle that subject. The way to do this is by using keywords, such as “historical,” “relationships,” “ self-help,” and so forth, 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 search for publishers 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 directors 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; and 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 have to then select the publishers to contact individually and create a mailing list or database from that, and then you have to do individual mailings unless you create your own database for multiple mailings.
By contrast, a company like The Publishing Connection 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 mailings every 4 to 6 weeks, to update their database of publishers 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 use anyone’s email for the “send” and “reply” addresses, so any interested editors and publishers think you have written personally to them and reply directly to you. So the big advantage is that you don’t have the time and expense of creating the contact list in the first place and then 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, and often writers who might be great in writing their books don’t know how to write a good query letter. Some common errors are that it’s too detailed or too vague, uses sales or PR hype so it sounds too promotion, or otherwise does 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. Thus, it can be extremely 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? The Publishing Connection has started keeping such stats after sending out about 5000 queries, and has found that for book publishers, about 90-95% of the queries are delivered, and about 75% are opened, 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 The Publishing Connection at www.thepublishingconnection.com. You can email hipshire@thepublishingconnection.com, or call (415) 358-1601.
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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.
