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~ Where Writing and Faith Got Married

Michelle Stimpson.com

Tag Archives: publishing contracts

Most Valuable Quotes of My Writing Career

12 Tuesday Apr 2016

Posted by michellestimpson1 in Books by Michelle Stimpson, For Writers, Uncategorized

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

african american christian fiction, authors, christian fiction, michelle stimpson, publishing contracts, self-publishing, talents, writing, writing books, writing fiction

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  1. “We need to talk!” As a new author, I was very unsure about the culture of the industry. But one day Tiffany L. Warren and I sat around after a book signing talking, chatting, and comparing notes. It showed me that authors need to learn to stick together and share what works.
  2. “You don’t need to write like anybody else.” Fellow Walk Worthy Press author Stanice Anderson told me this before I had even finished the first draft of my first novel. Her advice freed me to just write what the Lord had put on my heart and not compare myself to others.
  3. “Get up!” If you’re sitting at your book table/booth at an event, do not sit down and hide behind your books. Get up, pass out your bookmark and meet people! Advice given by the late Francis Ray. She was also the first author to tell me that, often, the advance is the only money a writer will ever see, so negotiate for as much up front as possible when you’re dealing with a major publisher.
  4. “The best way to promote books and build your audience is to write more good books.” I learned this from following J.A. Konrath’s blog. I have never met him in person, but his blog was an invaluable resource to me when I went indie back in 2012. While I think the landscape of promoting ebooks has changed, this was such a fire-starter.
  5. “Write the books and publish them!” Vanessa Miller was ahead of the curve when it came to independently publishing ebooks on Kindle. When she and I sat down and really talked strategy as well as money, it made all the difference in my career (see #2)!
  6. “Either you publish these short stories or I will publish them and you can sue me later.” A co-worker whose students loved my short stories pushed me to start WeGottaRead.com, where I’ve published over 50 short stories and been read by thousands of kids/teachers worldwide.
  7. “I’ll find some stock art for the cover.” Okay. This is kinda bad and kinda not bad. Here goes: I was considering hiring this guy to do a book cover for me. He said he was going to charge me $600 and that he would find “stock art” to make the cover. I thought $600 was quite expensive, so I didn’t hire him. But that term “stock art” stuck in my head because it sounded like something…well…”in stock.” So after our meeting, I Googled the term. A whole new world opened up to me, and I knew there was no way I was gonna pay somebody $600 to go find a $20 picture for me and slap some words on it. Granted, there’s more to making a book cover than this, but this experience taught me to do my homework before hiring folks in this industry. Experts do need to be paid for their time/effort, but in my book, $600 is exorbitant unless the designer is actually having a photo session with models and the picture will be exclusive.
  8. “Are you ready to write your next book?” When my first publisher, Denise Stinson, spoke these words to me, I was like, “Huh?” I honestly thought Boaz Brown would be my one-hit-wonder. I was gonna write one book, be able to call myself an “author” for the rest of my life, and be happy. While this book is still of my most beloved titles to date, I didn’t realize that it was only the beginning. Denise’s question made me think differently about myself as a professional writer.
  9. “Can you bring home some milk?” On the flip side to #8, this is the question my daughter asked me on the phone after I’d finished telling her that I had been nominated for an award. Kids don’t really care what you do, how “famous” we are, or if we’ve been called for Oprah’s book club. They really just want to know that Momma is there and will take care of them. Having a family in the midst of all this writing has kept me grounded.
  10. “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life…” Psalm 23:6. Somehow, some way, this verse spoke to me when I was about 23 years old. I just took it straight out of the Bible and made it mine. So when I wrote my first book five years later and sent it off to the first publisher who came to mind, I wasn’t deterred by the rejection letter. I just sent it off to the next publisher, and they wanted it. In fact, they published it in hardcover (I didn’t know that was a big deal at the time). I also didn’t know how hard it was supposed to be to snag a deal with a major publisher, particularly as an African-American in 2001. In retrospect, I’m GLAD I didn’t know. Had I focused on all the difficulties instead of Psalm 23:6, I might have thrown in the towel before ever trying. Because of His love and His Word, I expect goodness and mercy, and that has made all the difference in my life as a writer and beyond. He is good!

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From 3.3b Get Your Author Biography Together

04 Saturday Jan 2014

Posted by michellestimpson1 in For Writers

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Tags

christian fiction, publishing contracts, self-publishing, talents, writing

This is the place to really toot your own horn on Amazon. Let your potential readers know that you are a real person. Share your professional background as well as a little information about you (i.e. he loves to spend time with his Yorkies). And don’t underestimate the value of a good story in the bio, even if you are writing non-fiction.

The 21-Day Publishing Plan: From First Draft to First Sale in Three Weeks or Less

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Five Things to Watch Out For in a Publishing Contract

24 Saturday Nov 2012

Posted by michellestimpson1 in For Writers

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

publishing, publishing contracts

In the past eight years, I’ve been around the block a few times with publishers. Four different publishers, to be exact. Below are a few of the lessons about publishing contracts that I’ve learned from my own mistakes as well as the advice of my agent. My prayer is that this advice will be helpful to a new writer who is about to sign a super-wonderful contract. Believe!

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1. No Linking Royalties

In a multi-book contract, make sure the royalties will be paid separately. Reason being: If you have three books and the third one doesn’t do so well, you don’t want the publisher to subtract from your royalties on the first two, which have earned over and above their advance. Everyone (including you) is taking a risk with every single book, so let each book’s royalties stand alone.

2. Reversion of Rights Policy

Make sure that there is a very specific way to know when you can get your copyright back. In a bad contract, the publisher will give the rights back whenever they’re no longer making a profit. A profit might be one book sold in a year’s time…who knows? Basically, they’ll give the rights back whenever they get good and ready. In the past, publishers might have been compelled to return rights once they ran out of books. But now, with e-books, they have no physical inventory to store, thus there’s nothing to lose by keeping the rights forever. If one e-book sells, they make a little. If nothing sells, they haven’t lost anything. You, however, might want to take that book, make some changes, re-release it as an e-book, give it a new cover and some new life, re-sell the mass market right to another publisher..the options are endless. But you can’t exercise any of those if you don’t have the rights. 

In a decent contract, you can request the rights after two or three consecutive royalty statements falling below a certain amount of money. Whatever you negotiate, don’t leave your rights out of your reach forever. 

3. Movie rights

Keep them for yourself if at all possible. If it’s in the contract, just cross it out and write your initials. Talk about or negotiate it later–only if the publisher questions it. 

4. Specify genre and word length for First Right of Refusal

In just about every contract, the publisher will include a clause that says you have to show them your next book first so they can decide if they want to publish it. They have a certain amount of time (weeks or a few months) to let you know if they wish to publish it. This makes good sense for everyone, especially if you’d like to do a series.

You want to make sure, however, that you’re very specific about the genre represented in this clause. If you’re publishing a full-length Christian fiction novel with this company, you may not want to publish a memoir with this same publisher. If you have to submit it to them first, you may waste a few months in your submission process. Also, if you want to write a novella in this same genre and self-publish it as an e-book or submit it to another publisher, you want to be free and clear to do this. The way to protect yourself is to make sure this clause doesn’t say you have to submit your next “book” to the publisher. “Book” is too generic. This clause should be genre and word-count specific, i.e. “full-length (85,000+ word) African American Christian Novel.”

You can also specify which type of work you want your agent to represent, if you wish to limit your agent’s involvement. 

5. Exclusivity

If you would like to write for more than one publishing house, you need to make sure you secure the right to do so in your contract. Once secured, work with both publishers to make sure that your release dates don’t compete. 

Well, that’s all that comes to mind now. If you have anything else to add, feel free to leave your contribution in the comments. 

Be blessed!

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