David Seow's Blog, page 22

How Do Commissioned Book Projects Work?

Let's face it, a full-time author is never going to have a stable income from book royalties unless you're J.K. Rowling. So what's a writer to do? One option is to do school visits and talks, but most schools in Singapore are reluctant to pay decent rates; the other option is to take up commissioned projects.

My fellow authors, Emily Lim and Linn Shekinah have successfully published  commissioned picture books for the Singapore Zoo and the Public Utilities Board among others. But writing a commissioned project is far different from writing your own story. Your a hired gun so to speak and you may or may not have the final say on how your project turns out.






So how does a commissioned project work? What can you expect? I guess it varies from project to project, but here's the general gist:

1. You're either asked to submit a proposal or the client/publisher will approach you about working on a project. 


2. You'll be provided with a project brief which includes topics to be covered and the timeline. 


The Brief

3. The client may then ask for a sample of your writing or an outline for your story idea for consideration.


The Outline


4. Once offered the contract,  then you will have to negotiate your terms of engagement: 

Fee: For a commissioned project the author is usually paid a flat out fee rather than royalty payments. 

Rewrites :  I usually limit the number of rewrites to two. You don't want to end up in endless rounds of rewrites!
Kill Fee: In the event that the project fall through and your services are no longer required, you should insists on  a Kill Fee clause in your contract. That means you will still get paid something for your time and effort. E.G: A couple of years ago, I was commissioned by a financial institution to write a series of comic book stories based on their original concept. The project fell through but I was still paid for my effort.

5. Once a draft is approved, the illustrator begins to sketch the story out.

A tight sketch


6. Be patient and compromise. You don't have complete artistic control over the content of your project as the client is paying you to tell their story. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't compromise your creative integrity. 








With this project, Gardens agreed to use the characters from my existing Sam, Sebbie and Di-Di-Di series, so I guess I had a slightly easier time than other writers as I was already working with the familiar.  

Having said that, the project was not without its challenges.  How could I make the educational topics entertaining and fun without being overly didactic while sticking to the client's criteria? Thankfully I was lucky to work with a brilliant editor, illustrator, project manager and publisher that was sorted out as much as possible.

The whole project- from concept to completion - took up almost an entire year. The books were published early this month and are sold exclusively at Gardens by the Bay at $S58.00 for a set of four. So if you would like a set head on down there today!

Self Publishing

This month's SCBWI meeting was all about self-publishing and so Catherine asked Sarah, Emma and I to talk about our respective experiences with the process. We had a quite a few new members turn out for the meeting, all of whom were quite anxious to embark on their own self publishing adventure.

So I started off by After the better part of a decade of publishing with traditional publishers, I decided to take charge of things by publishing my own stories. The first book I decided to publish was my story There's Soup on My Fly! 

I had to basically learn everything from scratch and it was pretty much by trial and error. So I'm listing the first things you have to do if you want to self publish your own books in Singapore.

1. Set up your own business. I set up my own sole proprietorship and registered with ACRA.

2. Look for a good illustrator/designer whose work compliments your story.

3.  work out a contract.

4. If your illustrator isn't a designer as well you'll have to look for a designer to work on the layout.

5. Apply for an ISBN number.

6. Look for an appropriate printer and book binder and work out the best deal for either soft cover or hard cover books.

7. My suggestion is to start with an initial print run of 1,000 copies.







As you can see, from the photos posted here, I took the advice of an acquaintance who had a book binding business and worked with a printer. Now, I didn't have a problem with the printing but the binding was terrible.  I printed about a thousand books and paid the printer/binder upon delivery, but to my dismay I found out that the book binders had short changed me by about 70 books because they ruined the covers and to my horror, upon inspection of the a lot of the books were bound upside down and back to front.

So before you pay your book binder/printer, inspect all your books. Thankfully I work with an extremely professional and efficient printer now.

7. Once you have your book printer you have to get them into the stores, libraries and schools. You'll need to have a distributor for that. Without one, the bookstores are unlikely to stock your books on their shelves.

8. Engage in Social Media. Build awareness for your brand via your website/Blog/Facebook/Twitter .

9. Good Luck.

Book Geeks Meeting

Last weekend, Amelia kindly hosted our monthly book club discussion and she made her famous tuna salad sandwiches! Yum! Our book of the month was "From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler"
Ken and I were the first to arrive, followed by Myra whose taxi driver thought I was her dad! Unbelievable! Felicia, Adan and Dave went to the wrong house and were greeted by a rather discombobulated helper when they asked about the book club! Amelia quickly redirected them and they arrived with booze in hand just in time to watch The Hideaways, a 1973 production based on the novel, starring Ingrid Bergman.
What a trip!  The soundtrack, the fashions and the acting were all laughable. Click the link to watch it for yourself.: The Hideaways Movie. I can't believe Ingrid Bergman went from Casablanca and playing Golda Meir to this!
Mum got Ingrid Bergman and got  this autograph in London around the time period
the movie was made.
Anyway, we discussed the differences between the book and its screen adaptation. I think we all agreed that the main character came across as a lot more annoying and whiny than she did in the book.
As usual Myra had to leave early but the rest of us hung around until about 10:30pm. Thanks for a fun evening, Amelia. Next meeting's at my place and I'm cooking!

Download the Ebook for Adventure at Gardens by the Bay

Click this link to download:  

                  Adventure at Gardens by the Bay EBOOK

An Evening with SJ Watson

Last night I headed down to the Arts House for a World Lit session with best-selling author, SJ Watson that Kenneth was moderating. If you haven't read either of Watson's books, what are you waiting for? They're brilliant!

So it's not surprising that the event was fully booked with all the estimated 100 seats snapped up within a few days.  I arrived early to save a seat for myself and Claire, who was running late. Some fans on the waiting list turned up early, hoping to snag coveted places and luck was on their side. Two of Claire's friends were unable to attend so I gave up their tickets on the spot.








There was no sign of either the author, Kenneth or anyone else I knew  so I perused  the book table and snapped up a copy of Before I Go to Sleep for Claire and   a copy of Second Life for myself at the discounted price of $13.60. What a bargain!




As the minutes inched towards the appointed hour of 7:30pm, there was still no sign of Claire; I was beginning to panic. The last messaged I received was that she was on the MRT and was  still 18 minutes away. The room was rapidly filling with ravenous readers who were streaming in from both both entrances.  

It would have been terribly bad form if Claire had turned up late to take her seat in the front row. Meanwhile, Singapore Literature Prize winner, Josephine 'Phine' Chia and her fellow writers Emma Nicholson, Jo Furniss and Tracy Tristram had already anchored themselves firmly in prime positions for the night's proceedings.

Then,  just as Kenneth, SJ Watson and Lisa from the Arts House strode into the room, Claire slid into her seat next to mine.



Now, with his in depth knowledge of books and their plots, themes and other literary technicalities and his relaxed, engaging interview style, Kenneth, it seems, is fast becoming a favourite for events at the Arts House.

I think his questions must have stumped the author, because Mr Watson had to ask: "What was your question again?" midway through his answers. Maybe the author was just channeling his amnesiac character, Christine Lucas.

For the next hour, the author spoke about his inspiration for his book Before I Go to Sleep, and how an agent snapped it up,  How it got optioned for a movie before it was actually published and his experience on the movie set and watching the finished movie at the premiere. I was relieved to hear that SJ, or Steve, as he prefers to be called doesn't follow a strict writer's guideline when it comes to writing.  So I guess that I'm not the only one who does that, but then again, I ain't no SJ Watson. Oh and as a special treat, he read an excerpt from his book Second Life.




After taking some questions from the audience, it was time for his autograph signing. I, of course, ran to the autograph table as fast as I could to get my books signed. I. of course, shameless gave Steve a copy of my book A Day with the Duchess, telling him that he could use it as a doorstopper as well.


Claire and the author

Phine and SJ Watson
With books signed and photos taken, Claire, Emma, Phine, Jo Furniss and I decided to cap off the evening with cocktails at the Stamford Hotel.  Good job on moderating, Kenneth. I'm looking forward to the next author talk!


Steve and Ken

Coming Soon....Sam, Sebbie, Di-Di-Di and Xandy Gardens by the Bay series

Coming Soon....

A Special Somone

This is for anyone who is wondering what they are supposed to do...like I am and what they're purpose and role in life is. I've been looking for a long time and I wrote this some time ago but I just stumbled across it.

 A Special  Someone.
Pages 2-3One day the world needed someone special.So God made an extra special someone …
Pages 4-5He knew what someone would look likeand all the things that someone would do.Then he planned all the wonderful things he had in store.
Pages 6-7First he chose the best mum and dad anyone could ever have.And loving grandmas and grandpas for cuddles, cookies, cakes and more.
Pages 8-9He decided if there would be have any brothers or sisterson whom they would always depend.
Pages 10-11He picked a cozy house on a nice street …
Pages 14-15And school with all the teachers who would teachAnd and good friends who would be there till the very end.
Pages 20-21Then God watched over his special one.
Pages 22-23He smiled when his someone was nice. He frowned when his someone was naughty.
Pages 24-25He beamed when someone was brave.He cared when someone was scared.
Pages 26-27He was pleased when someone was helpful and kind.He was peeved when someone was selfish and mean.
Pages 28-29He laughed when someone was oh so happy.He cried when someone was oh so sad. iPages 30-31And whether naughty or nice, brave or scared, kind or mean, happy or sad…God will always love his special, special someone because that someone special is…
Page 32You!

The End.

Prayers for Tianjin and Bangkok

Prayers for the victims of the Tianjin blasts, the Bangkok bombs and their families!

The Most Fabulously Incredibly Awesome Singapore Books

So honoured to be part of this collection.