Goodreads Sci-Fi/Fantasy Authors discussion
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Anyine read ebooks and/or Kindle?
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There certainly seems to be a definite Kindle audience. My books are selling well on Kindle - have you read many? Mainstream titles or indies? What are your experiences?
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I couldn't give you figures yet, as my books have been there in print for a while but only in Kindle editions recently - still waiting on the first month reports. But RealmShift is currently ranked around 74,000 and has been into the 30s and MageSign is currently ranked around 60,000 and has been as high as 28. Obviously there's far fewer Kindles than print books (I'd love those kind of figures for the print editions!) but the books are obviously moving.
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If you publish to Kindle, does that preclude a traditional publishing contract?To publish on Kindle, is there a contract and submission process?
Not at all - Kindle is the same as self-publishing if you do it yourself. There are no contracts involved and you can pull it any time if a better offer comes along!Robin - I'm in Australia, so a partnership publisher manages my Kindle stuff in the US. I can't do it directly as Kindle is only available in the US at the moment. So I'm waiting on an update from them!
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To publish on Kindle, is there a contract and submission process?"
No, though most publishing contracts will want both print and electronic rights. But no worries you can "turn it off" whenever you want so do Kindle until you transfer the rights to someone else.
If you feel strongly you can try to negotiate the electronic rights out of the other contract. But it will depend on the publisher if they are willing to -I tried to keep electronic rights with AMI but they were concerned that they would have a stockpile of printed books if there were electronic copies out there - I finally twisted their arm on Kindle (and only Kindle) after several sales were lost at signings because we didn't have a Kindle.
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Ah-I see - ya many of these great Amazon programs need US residency - I'm glad you were able to get on this platform even if it was not directly.
Can anyone publish on Kindle or do they screen, like publishers? I would think it would be a great way to find out if your book is well received before really pursuing book publishing.
If you have faith in your book, pursue trad publishing anyway if that's your desire. Releasing something on Kindle, same as any other indie publishing, will require a lot of work on marketing, not to mention the initial format and setup. If you don't plan to go indie, don't bother with Kindle as a measuring stick - it will be inaccurate. Perhaps if you're unsuccessful with trad publishers, you could get some ms appraisals done and maybe then pursue indie with that work while you write the next. :)
Robin wrote: "No, though most publishing contracts will want both print and electronic rights. But no worries you can "turn it off" whenever you want so do Kindle until you transfer the rights to someone else."I'm going to contradict Robin's statement a little. Major publishing houses are primarily interested in First Rights. If you self-publish via POD or Kindle (or your website/blog), you are exercising your First Rights of Publishing, print and electronic respectively. You cannot turn around and "transfer" those to a publisher. (You can transfer copyright, but that is something else entirely.) It's pretty rare for a major publishing house to purchase reprint rights. Just something to consider in your decision-making process.
Kameron is absolutely correct, specific literary rights are requested by and granted to traditional publishers and typically include first print, electronic and (if able to exploit) audio rights. Rebecca, it may be helpful to know the loss of Electronic/Digital First Rights occurs with any availability of the book on the internet, whether for sale at an e-store or simply posted in entirety on a forum or website, and a publisher must be informed of this in the initial query. This may exclude or prevent a contract offer from a trad publisher.
M.C. wrote: "Kameron is absolutely correct, specific literary rights are requested by and granted to traditional publishers and typically include first print, electronic and (if able to exploit) audio rights. ..."
You said in its entirety, if I have a few chapters on Authonomy, in their completeness, but not the whole book could that be a problem for later?
No, that's no problem. And the first rights thing is correct to some degree. But this is a new world in publishing that is growing very fast. If you can sell 5,000 copies of your book self-published, it can open doors to better publishing deals than you might get otherwise. Take Jeremy Robinson as an example.There are no hard and fast rules any more!
I'm curious to know if anyone here has actually read a book on their iphone, and what that reading experience is like (I don't own one, unfortunately). Personally, I think it sounds kind of miserable. Although I gotta admit, if it ever catches on, it would be great for fiction as a whole...
I got contacted by a lady that read RealmShift on her iPhone recently. She wanted to tell me as it was the first book she'd read that way, while commuting to and from work, and she said she really enjoyed it. It was apparently quite a liberating experience for her. She enjoyed the book too, which is nice.So, people are starting to do it. In fact, my books seem to be selling better in Kindle editions than print editions at the moment. I expect more people in the US have iPhones than Kindle readers right now, so looks like the e-book revolution really is beginning this time.
Alan wrote: "I got contacted by a lady that read RealmShift on her iPhone recently. She wanted to tell me as it was the first book she'd read that way, while commuting to and from work, and she said she really ..."Ha ha, yes I suppose its good when someone likes the book and not just the technology!
I came across this article in the New Yorker a while back: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/20...
Apparently, reading books by phone is a big deal in Japan. The article is a bit overly long, but it's interesting to see how reading via phone has affected Japanese publishing (and the stories that get published).
Ha, I tend to agree with your views on that particular topic.
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Exclusive Publication Right. Author hereby grants Publisher, its successors and assigns, during the term of this contract including renewals thereof:
Exclusive license to print, publish and sell Author’s Work in book, e-book, and pamphlet form in English language in the United States of America, the Philippine Islands, and Canada, and to sell the same non-exclusively for export to all other countries except India, Pakistan, Burma, Republic of Ireland and the British Empire (other than
Canada).
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I've "peeked" at a few - because I don't own a Kindle so I get "samples" that way using the "free download" - I've not had it been a problem but then again I'm not reading 3 hours in a row that way.
Robin wrote: "My husband's contract doesn't care about "first" rights just "exclusive" rights over a certain period of time. Specifically his says...Exclusive Publication Right. Author hereby grants Publish..."
The Work must be presented as a Reprint at the time of submission, for the usual publishing contract is not only an agreement of covenants but assurance The Author represents and warrants to the Publisher that the Work is not in the public domain and the Work has not heretofore been published in whole or in part.
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But your point is valid - obviously some contracts are going to care that it has been pbulished at some point.
Robin wrote: "I'm sure you are correct for some contracts - the contract that my husband's publisher uses did not mention anything about "previous publication". Not saying all contracts are this way - just saying that this one is..."You've pushed the point, so I'll state plainly now for the benefit of other authors that the contract your 'husband's publisher' offered does not qualify as valid information regarding typical contracts: Your husband's recent book is released with a company owned/operated by you, Robin Sullivan.
The notion of posting info for authors is to aid them, not to promote concepts or hide truth that may mislead and possibly damage their chances for acceptance with a publisher. If you do indeed accept reprint submissions and there is no contract clause for first rights, then that information would be helpful for many authors.
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Why would I want to mislead or damage people's chances of sucess? What would I benefit from this?
I agreed with you that there are "some" (heck for all I know it could be "most") contacts may have a stipulation about first printing rights but the two contracts my husband has been offered (one he signed and one he did not) did not have clauses to that effect so I'm reporting about 2 contracts I've had first hand experience with - nothing more nothing less.
Both of his books were signed by Aspirations Media Inc. a small press in Minesotta that has NOTHING to do with me or him. The quotes I put on here were from THOSE contracts - I did not make them up, or have any hand in drafting them they came from AMI and I negotiated certain changes before signing - that had nothing to do with the point being argued.
Yes we recently (as in 2 weeks ago - so yes very recently) "reclaimed" his rights to book 2 Avempartha (Book 1 remains under contract with AMI)and it is being published by our own comapany Ridan and I have posted here on Goodreads the circumstances that led to that (http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...) - namely that AMI was hit by the finacial crisis in such a way that they could not afford to print Avempartha even after they sunk thousands into it for editing, proofing, cover design, and layout. We negoatiated back the rights to the book so that we could continue to have the continuity. This is only a temporary stop-gap measure and I'm in discussion now with some other publishers to take it back over from me and again neither of them are concerned with the "first" aspect so ...at least in my limited experience it has not been a big deal and I'm only reporting MY experiences.
Lastly for Ridan's contact - I didn't even bring it up but it because it is of course written by me and therefore is not a subjective third-party contract. But it also does not concern itself with first, only exclusive and therefore our contract would permit a signing of repritning. I've actually explored a few books along this road but ultimately did not find them at the level of quality I wanted so I did not sign them. But again Ridan's contract is not germaine so I did not even mention it.
Anyway to sum up. I'm not attempting to mislead or damage anyone's chances I'm just reporting MY PERSONAL experiences with the contracts we have been offfered or signed and it was not an issue. I contend that it MAY be an issue for other publishers etc and so I think you did a great job by pointing that out.
Hi Robin--Thanks for clarifying the status of your husband's two books re the AMI publishing house. M.C. does have a valid point, based on my own experience with two "traditional publishers" and that of a group of fellow scifi authors, with whom we all shared each other's contracts. In short, if a book has appeared previously in the retail market--as an ebook or a hard copy book--then yes, in future representations to other publishers it should be noted that what is being offered is "reprint rights". Of course, if the book's appearance--as in Avempartha--did not make it to hard copy print, well, then, first publication rights are then available. Depends to a degree on what your family printing biz has done with Avempartha. As another person has said in this thread, the "rules of the game" are changing and fluctuating wildly. What M.C. and I have shared reflects mostly a "traditional" hard copy printing contract as used by the New York/London publishers. Hope the above helps. And as I said elsewhere, I >love< the covers for the two books. They're great! Tom.
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T, In reference to your comment on another thread about my posts here, "It appears [MC:] made a few assumptions about you and your hubby's books that were not correct." I would like to indicate the two reasons why I concluded Robin's husband's book was released with Ridan. 1) Robin's use twice of present tense describing her husband's contact:
#22 "My husband's contract doesn't care about "first" rights just "exclusive" rights over a certain period of time. Specifically his says..."
#25 "...the contract that my husband's publisher uses..."
2) The posting/publication of confidential contract details, for if they were not her own to disclose as she wished, Aspirations Media Inc. could take legal action against Robin and her husband:
#22 "Specifically his says...
Exclusive Publication Right. Author hereby grants Publisher, its successors and assigns, during the term of this contract including renewals thereof:
Exclusive license to print, publish and sell Author’s Work in book, e-book, and pamphlet form in English language in the United States of America, the Philippine Islands, and Canada, and to sell the same non-exclusively for export to all other countries except India, Pakistan, Burma, Republic of Ireland and the British Empire (other than Canada)."
Even though I wanted to support my reasoning (as above) after her continued posts, I made a decision to let it lay. Alas, she appears to need not only the last word, but to bring this to another thread, hence my response.
A question about Kindle and self-published books: I have two e-books on lulu.com. Can I put those e-books on Kindle too? Or do I have to pick one or the other?
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Rita wrote: "A question about Kindle and self-published books: I have two e-books on lulu.com. Can I put those e-books on Kindle too? Or do I have to pick one or the other?"Lulu is a self publish company which means an author does not sign a contract for grant of rights but for publishing services. The author retains all rights so you are able to sign with Kindle.
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I use an ebookwise reader for ebooks now. before i was only able to read them on my computer, which limits the amount of time that I have. I am very fond of my ebookwise reader, my husband got it for me for Christmas after i did some research on what was available. For me, the Kindle and Sony were just too expensive and it would be entirely too tempting to download books willy-nilly and get myself into trouble with the wireless ordering the Kindle has. My ebookwise reader can hold up to 200 books and I can also upload my own documents to it for free and with less hassle. In the end, though, it was the price that tipped me. it was $150 for the ebookwise reader, including the memory card versus $300 or more for the Sony or Kindle, not including the memory card.
Some people would say it is a drawback to have to convert books from PDF to .doc and then upload them to my server and down to my device, but I don't see it that way. I have bought and downloaded books from Fictionwise, Ebookwise, All Romance Ebooks, Ellora's Cave and Baen free books and still am less than 1/2 full.
I am currently working my way through Avempartha and the Twilight series.
I even made myself a cover for it when I did not like the one that came with it.
Goodreads Sci-Fi/Fantasy Authors
Books mentioned in this topic
Realmshift (other topics)Magesign (other topics)
Well, these are the print versions, but you can link directly to the Kindle Edition from there.
Aaaanyway - anyone reading ebooks here?