James Moore

Hardback vs Mass Market (pick a format, any format)

First, Happy New Year! May your year be prosperous, bring you good health and many reasons to smile.

Second, ow. Man, I learned an important lesson with that last article: namely, I learned that I should try to remember to sleep now and then and not write these on the 11th when they post on the 12th and I am sleep deprived. Sorry for the calamity. There actually was a point to that ramble, by the way, which was basically that you should be prepared to cover your own butt copyright wise as in the long run it’s your copyright, and that the market is in a state of flux that is more drastic than usual.

Having said all of that, let’s get back to basics for a moment, shall we? Let’s look at the format your work might show up in, the pros and the cons. Keep in mind, as always, that these are primarily my impressions and may or may not actually do you the least bit of good.

One of the biggest questions out there is what sort of market you should aim for. My answer: a paying one. Yes, that makes me a mercenary. It also makes me a businessman. Of course, after that initial answer there are a few others. For example you could also answer “any market that will publish me” and you wouldn’t be too far off. There are a lot of different variables.
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So, here  it is, another month gone by. It’s been an interesting month for me, too. First, there’s a new short story of mine up on the web. Yes, I got paid for it, so stop thinking you can catch me breaking one of my own rules. How much I got paid is no business of yours, but it was professional rates.

 

Second, for the first time ever, I have signed a movie option. You can chalk that up on the list of things I never thought would happen. Oh, sure, I have the same ambitions as everyone else, that doesn’t mean I ever expect them to come to fruition.

 

I have sold the option rights to my novel, DEEPER, for the sum of one dollar.

 

You read that right. One dollar.  Me, the guy who is most likely to bite your head off if you tell me you gave away a story, or if you decide to self-publish a short story collection. Madness, right?

 

Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous. If you told me you’d sold a short story for a dollar, I’d either congratulate you (first timer and potentially very, very naive), castigate you (apprentice) or call you many names and tell you to grow a pair (seasoned writer without a damned good excuse.).

 

Hollywood is a different beast. It’s not at all uncommon to sell a movie option for one dollar. It’s really a formality. What you’re doing when you sell a movie option, you see, is effectively giving other people permission to pursue the idea of getting your novel made into a movie. In this case, my first option is for one dollar. Second and third options are for substantially more. Each option is good for precisely one year, no more, no less. The only reason you get any money on the first option is to ensure that there is a legal and binding contract.

 

So far, that first option has cost substantially more than a dollar, by the way. Financially, it’s cost me personally nothing at all. For the potential producers, it’s cost a great deal more. See, first they had to hire a lawyer or perhaps a dozen for all I know, and have said

 

attorney(s) write a twenty-two page (just over ten thousand words, and I bet if the lawyers got paid by the word, they got a hell of a lot more than the standard minimum accepted per word rate that the HWA defines as professional) document in Legalese. Said document to be read and reread by me (and if I had an agent, said agent would have earned every penny of the fifteen percent on that contract, believe it) before I signed it.

 

Because they didn’t really want to inconvenience me, the guys I’m dealing with had the kindness to send me the contracts and pay the return postage. There are four copies of the contract and two had to be sent back. So, somewhere around twenty dollars in postage.

 

 You’re looking at a decent chunk of change before so much as a penny has changed hands.

 

Because the book in question is a signed, limited edition and one of the men involved wanted to make sure that the reading experience was pleasurable for his partners, he ordered a few extra copies. Three, to be exact. Count in the initial book and we’re looking at $180.00 for the four copies of the novel, give or take any discounts, and any postage and insurance.

 

The contract is very, very specific. The deal I had with the publisher was not so specific. There’s a small matter of the copyright numbers from the Library of Congress. Now, let’s understand each other: the book is already copyrighted. But it’s not copyrighted enough to satisfy Hollywood standards. So, after a little wrangling, we can add in the cost of three more books, priority postage for the delivery to me and then my copyright fees plus the postage to send the required number of copies of the finished product along with the requisite filing fees to the Copyright offices in D.C.  Legalese, boys and girls, legalese. Hollywood deals, often, with outrageous amounts of money. They also deal with preposterous numbers of frivolous and not-so-frivolous lawsuits that I have no doubt at all would send most of the lawyers in the United States running for dear life. There’s an entire industry of lawyers who deal exclusively with entertainment contracts, and the ones I’ve met almost always have the same haunted eyes as long time combat veterans.

 

If by some freakish miracle the book in question should be seriously considered by Hollywood, and I don’t have the right Copyright Number for the contracts, absolutely nothing happens.

 

 

Let me clarify. Nothing happens at all. No one starts preproduction, no one works on the script rewrites, no one calls for a good casting round up or checks into locations where the movie might be shot. Nothing at all. No sound tracks being scored and recorded, no monsters and special effects get designed. Nothing. Get the picture? It’s that significant a thing.

 

So, yes, the copyright is mostly handled. At this point I wait for the powers that be to get back to me.

 

While all of this is going on, the world continues to exist. Eight days ago as I write this, Black Wednesday occurred. That was the phrase the media and likely a few publishers immediately came up with for the job cuts, wage and hiring freezes and general culling of excess spending that body slammed the larger publishing houses on the day in question. A hefty number of executives lost their jobs, and more than likely a few sure thing deals that didn’t have contracts yet might stay that way.  Among my peers a lot of people were calling on their contacts to make sure that the editors and people they deal with in the industry (who are quite often friends as well as business associates) still had their jobs and their backs.

 

I know a lot of people who were stunned into silence. I know a few less that panicked, and I know a few people who lost their jobs in the face of the current economy. It’s not a happy thing, and the odds are decent that a few more cuts will be made before the entire thing stabilizes. IF it stabilizes.

 

And the deal I made for that digital edition of a forthcoming novel?  In the cureent marketplace, I’m glad for it. I’m glad for any chance to make a living. Who knows? Digital mnight one  day be the only available format, because the cost is so very much cheaper and right now the publishers are all trying to cut corners where they can.

 

That’s not meant to start any panics. Frankly the market could swing back around in five months and everyone could be living on easy street and merely choosing the McMansion of their choice.

 

The point here, I suppose, is that not6hng is written in stone. For every editor or person in the publishing field who is suddenly unemployed, there are probably a few dozen who kept their jobs and are very grateful for that fact. If it was ONLY the publishing industry, I might feel a reason to panic, but it’s damned near every company big and small who is risking a financial meltdown.  The publishers are, at least in a few cases, certainly more solvent than the big automotive giants who are even slower to pay attention to trends (a subject for another time,  that one is).

 

I could  be a LOT richer in the near future if the movie deal works out. Or, I could be a lot worse off if my editors get fired or move on. There are no guarantees at this time. Then again, there were none when I started writing, either. Some things never change.

Stay calm in the troubled times, folks. Accept that now and then something might get rejected and prepare it to send on the next publisher who strikes your fancy.

 

 Should anyone feel a sudden need to read fiction of mine, there’s a new short story online. It’s called “The Spiders of Hanover Street,” and is avialble until the end of December at Horrorworld.org under the Fiction section.

It’s December and the end of the year. I am guardedly optimistiuc aout the next one.

If I don’t hear from you before then, a very merry Chistmas and a happy Hannukah as well. We’ll see you next year!

James A. Moore

 

 

 

It’s almost Halloween so I thought I’d cover a scary subject. Well, scary for me and most writers.

I’m writing a novel right now. Yeah, I know, not exactly a huge surprise there. Every time we’ve spoken I’m writing one. Sometimes they’re even the same one I wrote about the time before.

So what makes this one different? That would be the scary part. It’s going with one of my previous publishers, Bloodletting Press in this case, and it will eventually come out as a signed, limited edition. But before that, it’s going to come out as a serialized e-novel.

Oh, close your mouths.

For those that don’t understand the term, I’ll clarify. A serialized novel is a novel that comes out in parts. This one will either be 4 parts or 6. That hasn’t been decided yet. The E part of the equation is that the novel will come out in the form of PDF files to be downloaded to either a person’s computer or a reader. There is a lot of discussion about how to ask for payment, but it’s looking likely that there will be one payment and then a new chunk of novel every week for either four or six weeks, delivered to the email address of certain folks. Or possibly they’ve have to go online and download it.

I’m not really sure about all of the finer details.

I am a willing guinea pig. I will be paid a handsome portion of every copy that sells.

Okay, that laughing thing you’re doing? It’s rude. Yes, I know all about the likelihood of the book selling in this format. Yes, I fully understand the risks of piracy, etc.

I also understand that things have changed substantially since the dawning of PDF files and downloadable fiction. There are new security measures, new ways to track copies that are printed from a particular person’s computer and of course there are new laws that are being better regulated than ever before regarding copyright infringement.
Again, I’m fully aware of the risks. There’s a real chance that five people in the world will scrape up the money to buy a copy of this novel, meaning that I will have put a lot of time and effort into a story that will almost never be downloaded.

But maybe I’ll get lucky and a million people will try it. You never know if you don’t take the risks.

Three years ago, I’d have laughed at anyone telling me everything I just wrote down. I’d have been justified, too.

Let me give you a fun summary of events which might enlighten a few people. Not all that long ago a major Hollywood studio put a preposterous amount of money into making Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings into a movie trilogy. They filmed the entire thing up front, paid for it and got to work with special effects, editing and the whole nine yards, working their collective asses off to make a masterpiece and a financial blockbuster of a trilogy that no one really believed could be pulled off.

And when they were done, they sent out promotional DVDs of the first movie to every member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (I think that’s the proper title: I’m too busy with a novel to double check) with the idea in mind of garnering a few nominations for an Academy Award to fifty. They’d certainly put enough into the movie to warrant a good attempt.

And one of the people in that prestigious gathering of Hollywood’s finest decided he should share his treasure with everyone around the world and promptly uploaded his copy to a movie site that allows illegal downloads.

You could literally download the movie onto your computer the same day it went into theatres. There was a legend at the bottom of the video that stated it was for private use only, for consideration of the Academy and that it was illegal to copy and distribute it. That legend popped up about every five minutes or so for the entire length of the movie. When the second movie came out a year later (Or was it six months? It’s been a while.) The same member of the Academy did it again. And then the third movie came out and he did it a third time.

And shortly after that, he was arrested by the FBI. And While I don’t know all the details, I understand he’s not only lost his membership in the Academy, but that there were impossible to match financial restitutions and a good bit of jail time offered as the closest thing he would ever get to a plea bargain.

See, what the makers of those DVDs did not announce was that there was a “fingerprint” on each of the DVDs that they sent out. It took a while, but they found out which copy of the discs had been ripped and set up as downloadable files.

And then they came down with all the biblical wrath they and an army of lawyers could achieve, which was considerable.

I understand the technologies involved in the electronic files work along the same lines: Easily identified, impossible to remove (or at least damned hard to remove and rather costly in time and monies alike) and unique for each file that goes out.

Neat. Prosecute away as far as I’m concerned. I’ve never believed anyone should get away with copyright infringement. I supported Metallica when they went after Napster and I support the rights of the music industry to waffle stomp people who’ve downloaded preposterous amounts of music for free from sites that shouldn’t have the stuff up in the first place.

Times are changing. The book as we know it is not dead, not by a long shot, but Kindles and Readers are becoming more commonplace all the time and working better than they did in the past. But there’s another reason I think the electronic media isn’t exactly a bad thing. It’s called “overhead.”

Books cost money. One of the smallest costs is actually what is paid to the authors (and yes, I acknowledge there are exceptions to that rule.). Paper costs a fortune. Layout isn’t exactly cheap in a lot of cases. Editing takes time and money. You pick an artist, you pay the artist, you send the entire laid out, edited and prettied up manuscript out to the printers, who then charge a great deal of money to make the books and send them back to you. It’s a tried and true method.

It’s also costly.

In addition to the actual cost of manufacturing the books, there’s also the cost of shipping them, storing them and making sure they get where they are going. Throw in the middle man distributors and the cost goes up just so the publisher can make a few pennies per copy. Also, don’t forget that Mass Market Paper Backs (MMPBs for short) are designed with the understanding that if copies don’t sell quickly enough, they’ll be thrown away after the cover is stripped off to be shipped back fpor credit from the publisher. That cost has to be factored in, too. Oh, don’t misunderstand me, I’m still pretty sure the big houses in New York are making more on a book than I am. I’m hardly as dumb as I look, after all.

But there’s a lot of cost involved.

Oh and here’s a fun tidbit. All of that stuff gets moved around on vehicles that use gasoline or diesel fuel. You know, the stuff that the oil companies insist costs them so much that they can justify raping our wallets to fill the tanks. That cost rolls downhill too.

You can cut all of that out with the electronic format, and then you can sell it for a much more reasonable price. It’s not meant to take the place of books, this new format. But it’s a damned fine option for the electronically savvy who want to go that route. Kind of like I-Pods seem to work in place of CD players. Cheap, portable, downloadable. Hell for a lot of people I know it just makes sense to have the files on their computers. I personally prefer to read a book in my hands, but on the other hand how many of the people reading this article are taking the time to print it out and bind it first? See my point? Changing technologies and changing mentalities means it’s a matter of time before new formats grow more comfortable. I’d rather be stepping forward now than missing the opportunity completely.

So I’m taking a chance and changing with the times. Worst case scenario, the book will be coming out when the serialized e-novel has had a chance to run around for a while.

What? I mentioned that, didn’t I? I do believe in trying new things, but I still believe in getting PAID for work. So I worked out a deal with the publishers, and the hardback signed limited edition will come out later.

And I’m good with that. Like I’ve said before, I expect to get paid for my work. It’s called being a professional. Listen, I wouldn’t even consider this with a few of the publishers I know. I’d hem and I’d haw and I’d talk my way out of it because I don’t know that a lot of publishers would have thought this out carefully enough for my satisfaction. Before I said yes to this proposition, we talked over all of the details and worked out a tentative schedule. Since then we’ve discussed who’s dong the artwork (yes, there will be cover art and everything) and we discussed what might be a reasonable amount to charge. Ask too little and a few people will lose money. Ask too much and a lot of people will simply walk away.

Even the decision to serialize the work had to be considered. The idea is to deliver the electronic novel in easy to handle chunks and make sure it comes out fast enough that people don’t get too antsy waiting for the next part. There’re a lot of factors. Most of them are out of my hands, but at least I was asked for input.

So that’s my Halloween fright for the year. Well, that and the cost of the candy I’m handing out.

James A. Moore

On a side note: The very same publisher, Bloodletting Press, wil be releasing a collection of related novels by yours truly: The Jonathan Crowley Library, which will have the vast majority of the novels involving the character Jonathan Crowley (not to be mistaken with the author by the same name) and several short stories and novellas as well. I’m delighted by that anouncement because until now all of the books have tneded to come out from various publishers and now the collectors out there will be able to get a matching set. Also, I’ve always wanted to see the books come out in hardcover and now they will.