Dale’s Comments (group member since Sep 15, 2017)

Dale’s comments from the Navigating Indieworld Discussing All Things Indie group.

Leman wrote: "Thank you, Dale! I've noticed that the disclaimers often say "All names, places, etc. are fictitious," which confused me because there are some real-life names and businesses mentioned in my book, so the disclaimer wouldn't be entirely true. That's why I over-explained it a bit."

I think most of the time the only references are to characters, but one could use that if all the place names are fictitious. Obviously if they aren't, you don't want to say they are. ;-)

Leman wrote: "Hello, I'm on the verge of self-publishing a novel about travel and spirituality, inspired by my own nomadic life. It's a work of fiction but some places (beaches, cities, restaurants or clubs that..."

That's probably sufficient. The main thing when referencing real-life businesses and is to avoid saying anything that could be taken as negative. If you wanted to point out the real places, etc., you could, but it's not strictly necessary.

In my novels and short stories, I've occasionally mentioned a real business establishment, but I've only ever used them as a setting element and never say anything bad about them. I don't bother to include disclaimers about such references.

Magnus wrote: "My point's this - I think my fourth book could change all that (provided I get the prose right, of course; the concept is pretty bullet-proof) but only by ways of a traditional publisher since I am stubbornly unsuited to the self-publishing business, it seems. And my respect to anybody who can make a living out of it."

Neither avenue is easy, they just require different kinds of efforts. Traditional publishing requires a lot of work to get picked up (if you do at all), and indie publishing takes a lot of promotional effort to get noticed (if you do at all). Most of us never hit the big time, unfortunately.

Magnus wrote: " What if you're working on a book that you feel hits all the right nerves, is very NOW, but since it's not ready to be shown to anybody you have to bide your time?"

Generally speaking, you need to have a completed work before anyone will even consider your proposal. However, if you've already published, your editor might be willing to talk to you about projects at the idea stage, or may even suggest ideas to you.

Out and out plagiarism isn't all that likely, from what I understand. Ideas can't be copyrighted, only the actual execution, but even so, it's not so much the ideas that grab editors. It's your writing.

Is Ms. Rusch an indie author now? Last I heard, she was a traditionally published author. She'd be knowledgeable in that end of the business and she's right to advise caution, but some of what she's said sounds a bit muddled to me, and overlooks a few things.

There's a difference between a work's copyright and the rights the copyright holder licenses to others, such as a publisher. I would run away from any contract that transferred the copyright, but it's impossible to have a publishing contract that doesn't license out some rights. (Without such a license , the publisher isn't legally allowed to publish anything.) Publishers aren't stealing pieces of copyright from authors. The copyright is either yours in its entirety or it's not, and it's only not yours if you specifically gave it away or sold it.

Moreover, registration of a copyright does not give you the copyright. You legally own the copyright as soon as a work is created. Registration is only necessary in order to sue somebody for infringement, and you are allowed to register after the alleged infringement occurs. Registration does probably give you some evidence as to the time of the work's creation and thus when you owned it, but that's about it.

Publishing companies have always paid royalties of (roughly speaking) between 8% and 15% on book sales. That's not new. However, that's not a rip-off as such, because the publisher is the one who pays to produce books, so they bear all the costs of production, including editing, layout, printing, warehousing, distribution, etc. They aren't merely raking in 85% to 92% of the revenue, they are shelling it back out to get the book out into the world. Profit is whatever is left over. There is a big difference between revenues and profits. A lot of indies find cheap ways to do these things and keep as much of the revenue as possible, but if you paid market rates for all these services, you wouldn't be making more than 15% profit on most print books unless you managed to sell a whole lot of them. (Ebooks are less expensive, but they still cost some money to produce.)

Publishing companies have always tried to get licenses to as many subsidiary rights as possible. They should always pay royalties on such usages, and the rates should be specified in the contract. If they can sell them (which is a big if in most cases), then yes, they will probably make a lot. Film rights, for example, can net a publisher a great deal of money, but usually the royalty rates on such sales are higher, too, so usually authors make out pretty well on them. In fact, though, the chances of selling film rights are pretty poor. So mostly, nobody makes anything on them.

Obviously caution is a good thing if going the traditional route, as is having a lawyer. And I don't doubt that corporations are always looking for ways to boost their revenues and profits, so yes, buyer beware. But you don't give away pieces of copyright, you license specific rights. And the royalty you get from a trad publisher isn't directly comparable to what Amazon gives you after they take their listing fee (they don't actually pay you a royalty; they take a cut of your revenue for doing nothing more than listing your book on their website).

I'm not ranting. I'm just speaking as someone who has worked both sides of the street: writer and owner of a tiny little publishing company, complete with contracts, royalties, and subsidiary rights. I don't disagree with Ms. Rusch in principle, but I think the waters are so muddy that it pays to be as accurate as possible.

Theodore wrote: "Well, the alternative, as you've found, is to submit to one agent, wait two or three months (or whatever they stipulate), receive a rejection (or not), and start all over again."

Of course. And I'm not saying one shouldn't do simultaneous submissions, only that one should (as you said) follow the rules for them and be aware that they may not always receive the same level of attention that serial submissions do . . . which generally don't receive that much attention to begin with. :-P

I agree with Carole. If you're not into it, you're not going to be able to do it justice.

Theodore wrote: "Dale wrote: "Evelyn wrote: "Dale wrote: "Evelyn wrote: "Agents and publishers all over the world have a couple of model paragraph rejections that, if you are lucky, they send. It is rather sad that..."

That's one strategy, although I've heard that some places that accept simultaneous submissions are a bit less eager to actually accept them, since even if authors notify everyone, they could be preempted by someone else. I don't know how much that actually affects anything, but it's what I've heard.

Evelyn wrote: "Dale wrote: "Evelyn wrote: "Agents and publishers all over the world have a couple of model paragraph rejections that, if you are lucky, they send. It is rather sad that those supposedly interested..."

Yes, there are businesses that do that, but they also have staff largely dedicated to that function, I would guess. It also depends on what "personal interface" is about. Editors and manuscript readers are in the business of finding good material to purchase, not dealing with customer issues or complaints. The author is a salesperson, trying to interest the editor/reader in a product. It's the author's job to make the pitch. It's not really the editor's/reader's job to explain why a given pitch didn't succeed.

I don't see form rejections as discourteous. There are only so many ways to say, "Sorry, not interested." A lot of writers want details specific to their own work, not just, "Sorry, not interested." But that isn't the editor's/reader's job. Their job is make selections, not to justify to the salespeople (authors) why they didn't make the cut. Anyway, it can be hard to explain why a work doesn't grab you. Some editors have used forms that allow them to quickly check off common reasons for rejection. But where well-written submissions are concerned, it's often just, "Sorry, not interested."

I don't think it's worth getting tied in knots over this stuff. If you get a rejection, just move on to the next submission. The odds are always against you, unless your name is something like Stephen King, but you might get lucky someday.

Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "Dale, It seems I was in the right place after all, just confused. Still, I hope I voted correctly. I liked that cover the first time I saw it. Good luck. Hugs!"

Thank you!

Today's offering: The Day Halloween Died: How a series of unsolved killings in 1982 changed the holiday

Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "Dale, I haven't read the book, so how do I submit my cover vote without a review? I can't see a place to just vote for the cover. Sorry if I'm overlooking something simple. Thank you. Hugs"

Yeah, I hate their user interface. What you do is, click on the cover. That will take you to a page with just my book and a very non-obvious button under it that says something like "Vote/Submit Review". Click that, then you'll be given a form. What you're reviewing and voting for is the cover, not the book, so it really doesn't matter if you've actually read it. It only matters what you think of the cover.

By the by, feel free to be honest. If you hate the cover, don't vote for it. ;-) But if you like it, a vote would be nice.

The cover for Ice on the Bay is listed as a semifinalist in the AuthorsDB 2018 Cover Contest. I think that means it got a couple of votes. There are 150 semifinalists, which seems rather a lot.

Anyway, if you wouldn't mind, please hop over to https://authorsdb.com/2018-cover-semi..., look me up, and vote for me. I'm on page 5. (You may have to register if you aren't already.)

Thank you!

Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "Alex, as grateful as I am to be accepted as part of this group, unfortunately, not being a published author, I have NO information to share and truly feel bad about that... like perhaps I really do..."

I wouldn't tell you what to do, but I think we are richer for your presence, and maybe you gain a little by being here, too. Anyway, you're at least published on Medium . . .

Evelyn wrote: "Agents and publishers all over the world have a couple of model paragraph rejections that, if you are lucky, they send. It is rather sad that those supposedly interested in promoting creativity rel..."

It's just a necessity. If you're getting hundreds of submissions per month and have to send hundreds of rejections per month, you don't have time to write personal responses to everyone.

Submitting to agents or publishers or magazines (for shorter works) is a painful process for most of us. Quite aside from whether or not a writer's work is up to snuff and happens to align properly with the agent or publisher's interests, there is the small matter of how many submissions they get.

We usually don't see the numbers, but one publication I submitted to had a tracker that showed you your place in the queue. My story started out at something like 600 (if I recall correctly), In other words, they are probably receiving upwards of 8,000 submissions every year for a publication that will print maybe 100 stories every year, if that. Even if every submission were a stellar work that they absolutely loved, they would have to reject nearly 99.99% of what they received.

You have to be good to make a sale, but you also have to get incredibly lucky.

Another flash fiction piece: The Cave

My next flash fiction cross-post: The Sign of the Hawk

The Writing Cooperative has published my latest: Tone, Mood, and Dark and Stormy Nights.

Another expanded version of a flash fiction story: Driftwood