Attitude, Attitude, Attitude
Good morning and welcome to wwwblogs. Today, we’re taking about attitude, and how it’s not a good idea to flaunt it.
You just received your first contract. Hooray! You are about to take your first step in becoming a published author. Once the editor in chief responds after receiving your contract, you might feel a bit overwhelmed. Or not, depending on your attitude.
That all important contract has been reviewed and signed. You’ve returned it to the publisher that selected your book as one they want. Depending on the workload of the individual who offered the contract, or their assistant, you will be contacted with several things you need to accomplish while an editor is being assigned to your book. In most instances, these requests seem easy. Except the cover art form.
Some publishers will ask you to describe your ideal cover. Others will direct you to a stock photo website and ask you to make five selections of images you’d like to use. Most authors follow the directions for this important element to the letter. Others decide those rules are for other authors who don’t have as important book as they do. They give specific instructions on the models they’d like used to portray their characters on the cover, what sites the photographer will have to use. Or they’ll go through the images on the stock photo website, select several and point out they want the background from one, this part from another, and that part from yet a third photo. When told they must pick a five images that will be used as they come from the site, this author will explode all over the messenger, calling their cover art “juvenile” “trashy” “not fit for my very important book.”
The rage exhibited by this author will probably set the publisher’s staff back for a moment or two before they respond with a carefully worded response that may or may not defuse the irate author. This could go on for several days before the author is grudgingly accepts the cover art made by the publisher’s artist.
Once an editor is assigned, probably one of the best the publisher has in order to avoid another explosion of “prima donna author,” the staff cautiously holds their collective breath, hoping the early rage has been appeased. And in most cases it has, but there are still a few authors who are determined to be feted every step of the way and will create waves throughout the whole editing process.
This goes on until the author’s book is released, after which our darling author demands that his/her work must be promoted heavily by the staff on a carefully selected group of sites that will give this book the exposure it needs. Never mind the fact that the contract stated the author would do their own promotion. The response of the staff brings about another bout of rage until this special author decides they will wait out the contract and move on to a more receptive publisher.
Sound familiar? Have you ever been this author? Bear in mind that today’s online publishers have a small staff to service many authors. Their contracts are very specific what the staff will do and what the author is responsible for. The publishing world has changed greatly since the turn of the century.
About the K.C. Sprayberry
Born and raised in Southern California’s Los Angeles basin, K.C. Sprayberry spent years traveling the United States and Europe while in the Air Force before settling in northwest Georgia. A new empty nester with her husband of more than twenty years, she spends her days figuring out new ways to torment her characters and coming up with innovative tales from the South and beyond.
She’s a multi-genre author who comes up with ideas from the strangest sources. Those who know her best will tell you that nothing is safe or sacred when she is observing real life. In fact, she considers any situation she witnesses as fair game when plotting a new story.
Find out more about my books at these social media sites:
Website
Goodreads
Amazon Author Page
Google +
Manic Readers
AUTHORSdb
Readers Gazette
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