pete.yule

Comment Threads

• Charlie Stross commented on CMAP #7: Miscellanea
  No data, alas. I haven't been in this game long enough for any of my novels to fall out of print and the rights to revert to me -- the closest I've come is "Toast" (now out of print, I'm going to revert the rights) and "The Atrocity Archive" (I'm getting the hardcover rights back because GG sold out and have no desire to reprint, but it's still selling well in paperback). It takes 8 or more years from frist publication for a successful book to go through this life cycle and I only sold my first novel 9 years...
• Charlie Stross commented on CMAP #7: Miscellanea
  Broca: no data, as yet. Publishers sell on net 90 day or 120 day credit terms. For a book that officially came out on March 16th, the stores don't have to actually cough up cash for sold copies until June 16th or July 16th. At that point, the publisher will get some idea of how many copies sold through, i.e. went out of shops and into the hands of end users. Before then, they can get a crude feel for it by checking on the volume of re-orders, but re-orders are tricky ... bookstores can re-order stock then ship it...
• Charlie Stross commented on CMAP #7: Miscellanea
  Neal, in my experience ... let's just say, having an agent has (a) boosted my advances by 400% over a decade (on titles that are consistently earning out), and (b) made a bundle of foreign rights sales I'd have been ill-equipped for. A bad agent is worse than no agent at all, granted, but being excessively greedy springs to mind as one of the traits of a bad agent; understanding how to build a career, and knowing when to stop demanding too much money, are as valuable to an agent in the long run as to an author....
• Charlie Stross commented on CMAP #7: Miscellanea
  Word of mouth is useful in choosing an agent. (It helps to be plugged in to other authors, though.) Foreign rights: in my case, I, too, have hit over ten. The difference ... those contracts I've seen where the publisher takes translation rights, they usually take a 50/50 split of the proceeds from re-selling those rights. My agent takes 20%, and seems to be more successful at selling the rights in the first place. (I'd argue that if publishers don't try to engage with the slushpile they'll go the same way as the music companies, and for the same reason:...
• cepetit.myopenid.com commented on CMAP #7: Miscellanea
  Think of it this way: "Agented Submissions Only" is the publishing-industry equivalent of "let's outsource all tech support to South Asia." If one looks at the immediate bottom line, it removes a potential cost center with variable-to-no-apparent revenue from the balance sheet. If one looks at long-run issues like potential harm to one's good will (another balance sheet item), the answer is... different. The key point is that in both instances, it involves trusting an outsider to perform essential judgment functions. The best example I can point to at the moment for that is Lehman Brothers....