Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Researching Your Publisher

I have been very silent as of late. With the exception of yesterday's poem, I haven't kept up with my posts as I should have. But don't get angry with me yet, there's a good reason for it! I can't divulge too much information without getting myself in a pickle, but I will attempt in the most sly way possible to pass on what I've personally experienced.

I have been published for three years exactly now. I will never forget opening the email offering to put my baby in print. It was one of the happiest moments of my life, a real dream come true. After only a few rejection letters from other publishers, I was elated that I got a bite so quickly. I was happy, excited, proud, and most of all, ignorant.

You read it right-ignorant. I had no clue that I shouldn't take the first offer thrown at me. In the midst of desperately wanting to get published, I lost sight of the fact that you shouldn't trust just anyone with your creative work. Naivete at it's best.

Don't judge me just yet! I did do the initial research, albeit blind, but I did it. I bought the current Writer's Market Guide and read every page. Every. Single. Page. I circled the publishers I would submit to. Then I checked out all their websites, googled until my eyes googled, and even called a few for good measure. I thought I was being thorough. But hindsight is twenty-twenty. It wasn't thorough enough.

Here I sit, three years later, with not a single royalty paid to me from Seven Days Normal, and with only one incomplete sales report which I believe to be falsified, and not in my favor.

So what advice can I give concerning such a phenomenon?
1. Don't go with the first publisher until you have done extensive research. Do more than just google. Do more than just call. DO MORE!
2. Check out how many books they've sold within the last five years or so. Have the numbers fluctuated significantly?
3. Contact other authors to see how happy they are with the way they and their work has been handled. Many authors have a Twitter account, Facebook page, or website that you can post to.
4. Always have a lawyer look over the contract(which I did, but that's for another post).
5. Check out how much publicizing or marketing they do for their authors. If it's zilch, pass. That's right, move on. At the least, they can send you a $50 advance to place ads on Goodreads.com. If they don't want to work with you there at all, tell them to kiss your work goodbye.

The moral of the story: don't get ahead of yourself and go with the first publisher that hands you a pen to sign that pretty contract without first making sure they are legit. And by legit I mean they aren't going to stiff you on your royalties, shirk your phone calls, ignore your emails, make empty promises, blah, blah, blah, you get it. Be smart about your work. Seeing it in book form is absolutely awesome, but having it in print means nothing if you are stuck in contract with a publisher who doesn't uphold their end, and has found the loopholes to legally do so.

I'm stuck in limbo, with four more years in a contract that will do nothing for me. I've written another novel and started the third, with no one to submit them to, because I bit when I should have turned. But writing is my happiness so I'm turning back to my blog. Yay! I'll try to keep it current, I promise!

Write on and ink well!

Monday, December 28, 2015

Deception

I'm bored and snowed in so I shall write a poem. And go....


Deception
He comes and he goes,
like a comet in its throes,
bright for a second,
with only one intent,
to wreak a blind havoc,
with every life spent.
Does he not know
I am privy to the light,
with my own cosmic chaos,
quickening and bright?
Deceit is not a charm,
but instead a fading star,
destined for sudden harm.
Yet wait, and he will come again
to burn and to blight,
but I am the charmer,
master of the fading light.