The Slowing Down Of Book Deals

Everyone's heard about how bad things are getting in the publishing industry and how clouded the future is due to the growth of electronic publishing.

I get the free version of the Publishers Lunch. If I get to a point where I'm selling to good markets regularly and/or have a book deal on the table, I'll subscribe to the full version in a snap. But the the free version does give you some interesting information.

The amount of deals being reported does not seem to be going down. Almost daily there are 30 or more deals done in the industry. Of course these are over the entire industry so include, fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, etc, etc, but 30 new book deals a day adds up. What it means in a nutshell is that publishing houses are still buying books.

The free version also lists a legend in regards to the type of deals:

nice deal" $1 - $49,000"
very nice deal" $50,000 - $99,000"
good deal" $100,000 - $250,000"
significant deal" $251,000 - $499,000"
major deal" $500,000 and up "

Hands up everyone who wants a major deal? Hands up anyone who wants any kind of deal? Okay, everyone, put both hands down. Cate, Carrie, and KC, get off the table. Getting your hands higher into the air won't help. Nat, I said hands, not feet.

Now, go have a look over at Janet Reid's recent deals that she has posted on her blog. Take careful note of the wording. Many state "in a nice deal" which tells us most deals are in the first category. You can stop dreaming about those in the "significant deal" section (for now).

I'm guessing for most people, getting a deal in the upper reaches of a "nice deal" would be equivalent to a year's wage (remember it's listed in US dollars). If this happened to you, would you be able to give up the current day job for 12 months, do the promotional stuff for the first book, and write the second book? Remember you only have a few months to write the second book this time, not the years you've had so far to pen the first book. After a few months it has to go to the editor, come back for revisions, and back , and more revisions, etc, etc, and then to the publishers, find a cover image, etc, etc, and then comes all the promo stuff for the second book while you're still trying to earn out the advance on the first one. Rinse and repeat for every year to come.

Oh the joy of the publishing industry - who wouldn't want to be a writer? No hands? Good.

So, if you are fully aware of what lies ahead, all the hard work yet to come, which will make the work you've put into your current manuscript look more like a picnic, then be assured that agents and publishers will still buy an excellent book.

Put in the time, put in the effort. Produce the very best work you possibly can. Polish it till it shines. Use feedback and crit groups and any and every other tool at your disposal. And maybe, just maybe, you'll get there.

Worry about the things you can control.

And good luck!

Just About...

Last night I finally got hold of the data I require to finish the assignment I need to resubmit. So I got home and worked steadily on getting it done. Reading the fine print on the requirements to ensure I did everything required, I was surprised when I noticed the clock - 12:20am.

I had to be up early this morning and it always takes me an hour or more to get to sleep. So little wonder the assignment is almost finished and I'm now at work with my eyes hanging out of my head.

I lugged the whole thing to work with me, so I can finish it off, package it up and mail it out today. Starting next week, I want to concentrate on my own writing again.

In other news...

As promised back on the 30/10 with the post Great Idea - I can now pass on my thoughts on subscribing to the free version of the Publishers Lunch: When I complete my first manuscript to a level I'm really happy with and I'm ready to shop it around to find an agent - I will be paying my fees and joining as a fully fledged member to this organisation.

If you want to be up-to-date with what's going on in the industry - this looks good.

But the free version is only a hint at what can be found with the membership. It's a teaser, an advertising ploy. There is a little bit of publishing related news, and it's mildly interesting to know there were 46 new deals done yesterday in the publishing world, but there are no details in the free version. It gives you some book titles which sold and the author's name but out of the 46 deals, it gave book title and author information on half a dozen. That's it.

There was three news items, 1 job ad for a position in New York, and two sections on the benefits of joining the organisation as a fully subscribed member.

I don't have a problem with it being an advertising tool. I can see it would be a worthwhile expenditure to be a member of when I am looking to sell a manuscript. Just not at the moment.

So the final judgement is to go ahead and register for the free newsletter as the occasional piece of information may be useful to you, but when you're ready to shop around your masterpiece, then join as a full member so you can avail yourself of the deal details, and who sold what to whom.

Lastly - still working on a YA link salad. Some very interesting stuff out there. Stay tuned.

BT

Great Idea

I was reading over at Alexandra Sokoloff's blog and came across this little gem:

Subscribe to Publishers Lunch, (not Launch as previously misread) a free newsletter that you can sign up for on the Publishers' Weekly site, and start a notebook in which you list agents who have sold books in your genre that week and the editors and publishing houses they have sold to.
Use the link to the the Lunch above as the link on Alex's site is wrong. Unfortunately, the free version only shares three stories from the days issue.

This seemed like such a simple and brilliant idea for every writer out there that has a manuscript and no agent. On further investigation, it seems you need to subscribe to the deluxe model to gain the benefits Alex mentions.

Pity.

I've subscribed anyway to check out in full what they send out. It was then I discovered there's up to a three week wait before I'll receive my first emailed issue!

I'll let you know what arrives and how useful it is.

BT