Carolyn ’s answer to “I understand that cultural differences make editors opt for different UK and US covers and titles, …” > Likes and Comments
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Of course, but the question wasn't about that.
Well, then I guess that I don't understand the question. Of course, in this day and age, the publisher seems to have all the power and will do anything they want. From my understanding, with many publishers, once you sign the contract, you no longer even own the rights to your manuscript. Forget about positing ideas about the cover art - they don't want to hear that, either.
I suppose you're right. Unless you self/independently publish... But at least the right to choose the title, which should be unique e.g. in US/UK or FR/BE or DE/AT, not different in different countries that share the same language.
Self publishing has its own downside. You can control everything, but it is very expensive and there are no guarantees you'll make your investment back. Even if you get everything the way you want it, getting reviews and doing marketing is a full time job and you'll lack time to do more writing. I know this because my husband did self publish a book - a two-volume biography. It was a learning experience. We're not sorry we did it or that we spent the money (thousands), but the reviews and marketing were the walls we hit. Readers loved the books, giving them 5 stars. Publishing today is a closed system of agents, publishers and marketers. Unless you know someone who can refer you to an agent to even glance at your work, it doesn't matter how good the writing is. Look at the number of books we've all read - many people who post on Goodreads lament how poor the grammar and punctuation is for some books, and yet they got published. I could go on, but will stop right here.
Yes, I know. Publishing is no more what it was; it's now just a specific type of lobbying (influence peddling aka traffic of influence) which requires a well-placed agent.
OTOH, self-publishing with Amazon costs virtually nothing, and several smaller self-publishing houses are incurring minimal costs to the writer. Marketing is a totally different issue, and this is a real issue.
In "The Word Is Murder" and in "Magpie Murders," Anthony Horowitz hints quite a lot that without a literary agent, a writer is dead.
Amazon has its merits and drawbacks. If you self publish with Amazon you cannot sell through any other vendor, and globally, there are a number of others. Even then, Amazon exercises control.
If you publish through another outfit and want to sell through Amazon and others, Amazon will screw your launch by stating on your page that they are out of stock on the first day/week/month of launch. It happened to my husband's book and it also happened to Tucker Carlson (FOX News), who I'm sure has an agent. Dirty trick.
I've read the Horowitz books and know whereof you speak.
You might be slightly wrong with regards to Amazon. If you only opt for an ASIN, you can only send on Amazon. If you purchase an IBAN (through Amazon), they state (or at least this used to be the case) you can sell via many other channels.
We lived it in 2018. Maybe they changed since then. Anyway, I think we've beaten this topic into submission. Nice commenting with you. My wine awaits.
By the time I got to the end, I'd given up caring how many detectives there were.
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Ludditus
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Sep 24, 2020 10:38AM
Of course, but the question wasn't about that.
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Well, then I guess that I don't understand the question. Of course, in this day and age, the publisher seems to have all the power and will do anything they want. From my understanding, with many publishers, once you sign the contract, you no longer even own the rights to your manuscript. Forget about positing ideas about the cover art - they don't want to hear that, either.
I suppose you're right. Unless you self/independently publish... But at least the right to choose the title, which should be unique e.g. in US/UK or FR/BE or DE/AT, not different in different countries that share the same language.
Self publishing has its own downside. You can control everything, but it is very expensive and there are no guarantees you'll make your investment back. Even if you get everything the way you want it, getting reviews and doing marketing is a full time job and you'll lack time to do more writing. I know this because my husband did self publish a book - a two-volume biography. It was a learning experience. We're not sorry we did it or that we spent the money (thousands), but the reviews and marketing were the walls we hit. Readers loved the books, giving them 5 stars. Publishing today is a closed system of agents, publishers and marketers. Unless you know someone who can refer you to an agent to even glance at your work, it doesn't matter how good the writing is. Look at the number of books we've all read - many people who post on Goodreads lament how poor the grammar and punctuation is for some books, and yet they got published. I could go on, but will stop right here.
Yes, I know. Publishing is no more what it was; it's now just a specific type of lobbying (influence peddling aka traffic of influence) which requires a well-placed agent.OTOH, self-publishing with Amazon costs virtually nothing, and several smaller self-publishing houses are incurring minimal costs to the writer. Marketing is a totally different issue, and this is a real issue.
In "The Word Is Murder" and in "Magpie Murders," Anthony Horowitz hints quite a lot that without a literary agent, a writer is dead.
Amazon has its merits and drawbacks. If you self publish with Amazon you cannot sell through any other vendor, and globally, there are a number of others. Even then, Amazon exercises control.If you publish through another outfit and want to sell through Amazon and others, Amazon will screw your launch by stating on your page that they are out of stock on the first day/week/month of launch. It happened to my husband's book and it also happened to Tucker Carlson (FOX News), who I'm sure has an agent. Dirty trick.
I've read the Horowitz books and know whereof you speak.
You might be slightly wrong with regards to Amazon. If you only opt for an ASIN, you can only send on Amazon. If you purchase an IBAN (through Amazon), they state (or at least this used to be the case) you can sell via many other channels.
We lived it in 2018. Maybe they changed since then. Anyway, I think we've beaten this topic into submission. Nice commenting with you. My wine awaits.
By the time I got to the end, I'd given up caring how many detectives there were.
