How Publishers Make Decisions About What to Publish: The Book P&L
Photo by gonzalo_ar / via Flickr Note from Jane: Last year, I wrote and published the following article in Scratch magazine. It has been edited and updated for my site. In a widely shared excerpt from his memoir, My Mistake, publishing industry veteran Daniel Menaker described his first experience trying to acquire a book at Random House. His boss told him, “Well, do a P-and-L for it and we’ll see.” P-and-L. When I started working at F&W Publications (now F+W) in 1998, P&Ls weren’t required before signing a book unless the book had to survive primarily on bookstore sales. As an acquiring editor, it was my responsibility to put together the P&L for every title I proposed and to make sure it would hit the target profit margin before wasting the pub board’s time with a proposal. Things have changed dramatically in the 15 years since I saw my first P&L. Click on the image to view full size. Title Data Why aren’t we going with hardcover? Author Advance and Sales Quantity Author Royalty Related
Here Comes Everybody
This article is about the book. For the fictional character, see Finnegans Wake. Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations is a book by Clay Shirky published by Penguin Press in 2008 on the effect of the Internet on modern group dynamics and organization. The author considers examples such as Wikipedia and MySpace in his analysis. According to Shirky, the book is about "what happens when people are given the tools to do things together, without needing traditional organizational structures".[1] The title of the work alludes to HCE, a recurring and central figure in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake.[2] Synopsis[edit] In the book, Shirky recounts how social tools such as blogging software like WordPress and Twitter, file sharing platforms like Flickr, and online collaboration platforms like Wikipedia support group conversation and group action in a way that previously could only be achieved through institutions. Key concepts[edit] Coasean Ceiling/Coasean Floor
The Authors Guild Fair Contract Initiative: A Preview - The Authors Guild
On May 28 we announced the Authors Guild Fair Contract Initiative. Its goal is to shine a bright light on the one-sided contract terms that publishers typically offer authors and to spur publishers to offer more equitable deals. This is not an abstract issue: today’s contracts directly affect authors’ livelihoods and ability to control their works. As standard terms have become less favorable to authors in recent years, their ability to make a living has become more precarious. Authors are among our more vulnerable classes of workers. “Standard” contracts—the boilerplate offered to un-agented (or under-agented) authors—are even worse than those that most authors with agents or lawyers sign. Why do publishers insist on offering their newest partners more than a hundred conditions so dubious that they’ll quickly back down on them if asked? It’s time for that to change. Fair Book Contracts: What Authors Need Non-compete clauses must let the authors writeAuthors must be free to write.
If I succeed, call yourself an asshole
David Paul Morris/Getty Images Everyone "knows" Steve Jobs, or thinks they do, in the sense that we saw him do those legendary on-stage product launches of the iPhone and the iPad. But what was Jobs like when he was off stage, when he wasn't changing history with Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates, Jony Ive and Tim Cook? There's an amazing thread on Quora, the question-and-answer site, for people to tell stories of the times they "randomly" met Steve Jobs. We've edited a few — there are many more on the thread, go look! This person told Jobs he would "ruin" Apple. Michell Smith tells this story: Prior to his return to Apple, it was obvious that the company was in trouble. I wrote an impassioned email to Steve at Pixar, pleading with him to find something else to do with his time. … And then he wrote the words I'll never forget: "You may be right. Mike Nudelman/Business Insider A childhood friend of Jobs pretended he didn't recognize him. He showed up, recognized me and called me over. ... Me: "Hello?"
James Mathe – Entrepreneur, Designer, Publisher
I run a Facebook group with over 5000 designers and run several prototype events throughout the year at , , and major conventions like GenCon and BGG.CON – I also run this blog about game design and publishing. As such, I have the ears of many up and coming game designers and publishers. I’m constantly asked about reviewers and who accepts what. The last column of the table tells you if they will pre/review Kickstarter products and if they charge for that service. If you would like to get on this list, please send me all the info through the contact link at the top of this page.
Unknown Future
Guardbridge Books
Independent publisher of quality Speculative Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction books and e-books. Guardbridge Books is a small company that produces high quality books. Our specialities are innovative speculative fiction and rigorously researched but accessible non-fiction. As a small company we can give individual attention to all our authors and their books, and personally attend to customers' needs. Listed here are the open calls we are currently reviewing. Myriad Lands An Anthology of Non-Western Fantasy Beyond the familiar tropes of knights and dragons, there is a whole world of possibilities for fantasy literature. This collection seeks to explore the stories available in non-traditional fantasy. We are looking for secondary world fantasy, where the world building and story telling is based on sources other than medieval Europe. LENGTH: 1000-6000 words. RIGHTS SOUGHT: First Worldwide print and electronic English Language rights. PAYMENT: £0.03/word (approx. 5¢/word US).
Make Meograph for Rafe Esquith
A Writer's Guide to Horses
An Equestrian Writer’s Guide by Susan F. Craft In this motorized era the majority of humanity suffers from equestrian amnesia. Thoughts on equestrian writing by Long Rider authors Jeremy James is a Founding Member of the Long Riders’ Guild. Far be it for me to presume how anyone might tackle such a subject, since we all have our own idiosyncrasies when it comes to what to spout upon the subject of horses, but if there were one suggestion I would advance it would be to stop and think about any piece of received wisdom that people tend to hoy about without further thought. CuChullaine O’Reilly is a Founding Member of The Long Riders’ Guild, who has spent thirty years studying equestrian travel techniques on every continent. Doug Preston is a North American Long Rider who rode from Arizona to New Mexico across the Despoblado Desert, retracing the equestrian route of Coronado, a 16th Century Conquistador. As fiction writers, we cannot be experts in everything we write about. Sex/Age
