Pub Rants

Author Archive

When A New Project Might Give You The Best Momentum

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Today was about foreign rights and taxes. One fun. The other not. I’m sure you can guess which is which…

What’s playing on the iPod right now? HOW TO SAVE A LIFE by The Fray

Last week we got a query from a writer who had published a fantasy series outside of the US. This person was looking for new representation to shop the series in the United States. There was only one problem. It sounded like the writer’s prior agent had already done so.

Just to make sure, I wrote the author to inquire about that. The return response listed a wonderful submission list with all the editors I would have gone to if I had repped the project.

This author is between a rock and hard place. The submit list was good and if it was rejected by all those places, there’s only smaller publishers to try and to be blunt, potentially not worth the agent’s investment of time.

I responded to the author to say so. What advice would I give in this situation? As hard as it may be, it’s time to write something new. Go out with a fresh project in the US. If that book does well, then the agent can always go back to that initial series and rekindle interest in a possible buy. (Good sales can do that.)

Unfortunately, this author did not have anything new to share but I did respond again to say we’d be happy to look at new future work.

Interview Tips

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Only 372 emails in the inbox at the moment. That’s progress.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? SHATTERED by O.A.R.

This probably won’t come up for the majority of my blog readers but just in case, I’m going to dispense a few more interview tips if you ever want to work at a literary agency.

Before the interview, visit the agency’s website. (I know—no brainer but hang with me here.) See what kinds of authors and books the agency handles. Then, in preparation for your interview, read some of the authors before your meeting. (Or at the very least see if you can find the first chapter on Amazon’s Search Inside or the author’s webpage so you can read a snippet of the work.) Then demonstrate that knowledge during the interview.

We were hugely impressed with candidates who did that.

Another bit of advice? Be prepared to ask some insightful and/or intelligent questions. At the end of each interview, we always asked the candidate if he/she had any questions for us. Good questions really stood out for us—especially if it showed the candidate’s awareness of current events in publishing (like the Google Settlement or anything else that may have hit the major newswires).

And one last bit of advice. Practice your interview with a friend (and have that friend make up some questions for you). This will allow you to think on your feet if you receive a question that is unanticipated. This will also allow you to practice your speech and conversational ability during the interview. The biggest killer for us in our recent interviews was the constant repetition of the word “um.”

Now we realize that people are nervous in interview situations. We do expect some “ums” (after all, anyone who doesn’t make a living in TV or radio will interject an occasional one here and there). It’s the excessive amount of “ums” that are the problem. Unfortunately, that can make a candidate sound verbally ineffective or tentative—not two qualities you want to project in an interview.

So be conscious of that possible verbal tic during an interview and if you practice before, you’ll have some answers ready and smooth. Trust me, that will impress.

When What We Are Looking For Is Not On A Resume

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Calling it a day.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? HEARTBREAK WARFARE by John Mayer

This past week we hired a new assistant. I cannot tell you how excited Sara and I were for this person to start. At the very least, the last 2 months without an assistant aptly demonstrated how much we need one!

During the process, I was talking about it with a friend who is an HR manager. She was absolutely appalled to learn that we planned to interview about 14 candidates (from the over 50 applications we received). After all, we obviously must not have specified the job requirements accurately enough. In her mind, we should only be interviewing about 5 candidates total.

On one hand, she’s probably right. But on the other, the one main criterion we were looking for cannot really be specified on a resume. Lots of our candidates had terrific qualifications. What we were looking for, however, was a demonstrated passion for reading—and not just for one type or genre of fiction. That’s not really going to show up on a resume. It’s only going to be apparent when we ask one specific question.

In our interviews, that one question was this: Tell me about the last three novels you read. Why did you choose those books? Did you enjoy them? Why or why not?

For candidates interested in working at a literary agency, you’d assume this would be a slam dunk kind of question to answer. A “no brainer” if you will.

Surprisingly, a lot of candidates struggled to answer this question.

We were not expecting that. We, of course, had other questions about how detail-oriented was the candidate and how they handled processes etc. but it was really the above question that was the most important to us. So keep that in mind if you ever decide to pursue this type of job path.

Luckily, in the end, we had several terrific final candidates and it was rather sad that we only had the resources to hire one person.

Friday Funnies

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Another quiet day as NYC gets socked by snow. Our marketing director who is based in New York hasn’t had electricity since midnight. In Denver, it’s sunny and supposed to be 50 degrees tomorrow. Gotta rub it in when I can.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? MODERN LOVE by David Bowie

My husband forwarded this link to me and it’s perfect for a Friday. I’ve been chuckling all morning.

It’s urban dictionary.

My favs so far?

that’s crazy!

It’s the perfect response when you haven’t been listening at all.It works whether the other person has been saying something funny, or sad, or infuriating, or boring….
Them: ‘my girlfriend’ dumped me last night’ You (thirsty, not paying attention): ‘oh man, that’s crazy’

dead cat bounce

Wall Street expression describing the phenomenon of a stock or share bottoming out to near zero and then recovering with a sharp buying spree from bargain hunters: the notion being that even a dead cat will bounce if dropped from a high-enough point.

darth breather

One who breathes loudly, sometimes unknowingly, sounding like Darth Vader.

TGIF! I’m out.

Redefining Net Receipts Where eBooks Are Concerned

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Lots to tackle today so getting the blog entry out early.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? THE BLACKEST LILY by Corinne Bailey Rae

And the fun of how electronic books are changing the publishing contract continues. Today, boys and girls, we are going to talk about net receipts in Ms. Kristin’s neighborhood.

In light of this new agency commission model where Amazon and Apple will no longer carry the product per se but have an agreement to sell titles via their site in exchange for a 30% commission on the sale (see earlier post to get up to speed), suddenly agents need to re-examine the whole definition of net receipts in publishing contracts.

The definition of net receipts (or amount received) for an electronic book is not the same as the definition of amount received for a physical book.

With the agency commission model, the biggest question is this. Will publishers deduct the 30% commission paid or will they absorb it when calculating net receipts and determining what is the total used to pay authors their 25% of net receipts? One major publisher has stated that their current thinking is that the royalty would be calculated BEFORE deducting commission. In current negotiations for contracts in play, I’m not seeing publishers as excited about redefining net receipts this way.

So what does redefining net receipts mean to the author? Let’s do a little math!

Let’s say a title will sell on Amazon or Apple’s iPad for $10.00 (might as well make it easy math).

Now let’s look at the difference between net receipts if the publisher absorbs the cost of the agency commission versus if they don’t in defining and calculating net receipts.

If Publisher absorbs commission:
eBook price: $10.00
25% of net royalty (all the rage with publishers as of late)
Royalty to author: $2.50 per title sold

If Publisher does not:
eBook price: $10.00
$7.00 received by publisher (after 30% sales commission to retailer)
25% of net royalty
Royalty to author: $1.75 per title sold

Yep, definitely worth the time to find out exactly how this term is going to be defined in the contract when it comes to electronic books.

eBooks and Royalty Statements

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Remember when I said we were reading a lot? Yeah, that was before the Olympics began. Bad Kristin but I can’t tear myself away from the TV in the evenings!

What’s playing on the iPod right now? HOLDING BACK THE YEARS by Simply Red

As you know from a previous post, I’m not all that enthusiastic about this move by Publishers to switch an eBook royalty rate based on retail price to a royalty percentage based on net amount received.

As I ranted about this topic previously, my issue is the lack of transparency on the statement. It’s impossible to track actual amount received by the publisher unless you can get more detailed accounting info

So what have we been doing? Asking Publishers to included language in the agreement that contractually obligates them to provide more accounting information upon request. The only way to verify the accuracy of the Publisher’s stated amount received is to get info such as a list of customers purchasing and disseminating the electronic product, the business model used (wholesale or agency commission or maybe something not even invented yet), the actual retail price, the discount, any deductions made to establish the Amount Received figure from which the royalty calculation will be based.

And I could go on.

Notice that yet again, the onus is on the author/agent to go out of their way to request this information. It won’t necessarily or automatically be stated on the statement.

If we are having such a revolution in publishing over the electronic book, is it too much to ask that publishers have a revolution regarding the info provided on a statement? You got to change the system anyway to account for these new royalty structures. Why not make the whole reporting process more transparent. Heck, why can’t all this info be readily available online and the author can access it at anytime.

Now that would be a step in the right direction.

Bonus Clauses—Another Item to Re-evaluate With eBooks?

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Anita, our new assistant, started her first day of work today. Hooray! We have so much work we could pile on but we are trying to be reasonable. Both she and Sara have colds. Oi! Knock on wood that I don’t catch whatever is going around.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? SWEET EMOTION by Aerosmith

Here is an interesting thought.

Agents will often negotiate bonus clauses with publishers. A popular one is a bonus (increasing the advance) for X number of net copies of the title sold during a certain period of time (12 months being a popular number).

Currently, the publisher ties the bonus to the specific edition. For example, if the title is published as an original trade paperback, then the bonus will be tied to X number of copies of the trade pb edition sold within that time period.

Make sense?

Well, eBooks are changing the landscape and are often released simultaneously with the original edition (be it hardcover, trade pb, or mass market).

So my thought? Why not count and include the sales of the electronic books in the total that is triggering the bonus clause? True, it is considered a separate edition but it’s rather unique in that it mirrors the original edition and doesn’t need a separate performance creation like, let’s say, an audio book.

Brilliant! Oh I’m sure Publishers will be stampeding to this point of view (not) but it is an interesting discussion, no?

My guess is that now we need to start creating bonus language specifically for sales connected to the eBook—especially as this format becomes more prominent and the sales start catching up or outstripping the other main format editions.

Fun fun!

You Need A Reserve For Returns For eBooks Like You Need A Hole In Your Head

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: I had a To Do list a mile long but I buckled down and just concentrated on it. The fact that I only got 70 emails rather than my usual 120+ today made a big difference in accomplishing what I did.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? HEY, SOUL SISTER by Train

It’s been awhile since we’ve talked about contracts. I know. Your favorite thing but to be honest, contract language is ALL I’ve been thinking about for the last 3 weeks since Apple made their big iPad announcement, Amazon pulled the links for Macmillan titles to flex some muscle, and publishers such as Macmillan and Hachette moved solely to an agency commission model for the sale of eBooks. (See sidebar tags for “publishing contracts” and “electronic books” to get up to speed on these past events.)

The hardest part about being an agent right now is figuring out what dang language to put in the contract when terms are changing, literally, every week.

But today’s topic is a no brainer when it comes to contract terms that need to be revisited in light of the ever-changing eBook landscape.

Publishers, in the old school world of actually selling physical copies of the book, like to hold a reserve for returns on any given title. This reserve is usually specified on the royalty statement (although some publishers do not include that info and then we as the agency have to specifically request it). Because publishers sell books to booksellers who can then later return them for full credit or refund, they have to hold a certain percentage in reserves to account for the possibility of all these returns. Publishers like to hold reserves on each specific edition of the title.

Got that?

But here’s the interesting thing. Some publishers are holding a reserve on the eBook edition.

Right. Explain to me how somebody would return an electronic book. They can’t. eBooks are non-returnable so why would a publisher be holding a reserve for returns on an electronic edition?

What a good question. They shouldn’t be. So now we’ve implemented policy here at the agency to make sure that no reserves are being held for eBooks on any past contract where that was not specified (which means we are having to ask when each roy. statement arrives and make sure reserves are not held). Oh what fun!

And on future contracts, we are including specific language that no reserves will be held on the electronic edition. And yes, if you don’t specifically raise a ruckus about this, some publishers are holding a reserve on the eBook (not all, mind you, but some are).

Oh, I’m going to be ranting about this kind of stuff all week so stay tuned. Those of you who are agented authors, aren’t you glad somebody is worrying about this stuff on your behalf?

HESTER by Paula Reed At The Tattered Cover Highlands Ranch, CO

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: TGIF and an author book event. Hooray!

What’s playing on the iPod right now? Nothing At the Moment

Dashing out the door to head south to the Tattered Cover Highlands Ranch, Colorado. From downtown, I want to give myself plenty of time.

Even if you haven’t RSVP’d , you can still join in the fun tonight.

We are at the Landsdowne Arms, Library Room from 5-7:15 p.m. Then the signing will be at the Tattered Cover (right next door) at 7:30 p.m.

See you there!

State Reading Lists

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Snowing like crazy in Denver right now. What a concept. Snow in Denver. I thought that only happened on the East Coast. Grin.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? WALKING IN MEMPHIS by Marc Cohn

My authors love it when I have to eat my words. And today I had to do just that.

So let me tell you the context for today’s entry. Two years ago when I sold PERFECT CHEMISTRY by Simone Elkeles, I actually agreed with the publisher that a trade paperback edition was the perfect format. We pretty much envisioned that it would be teens shelling out their own hard-earned dollars for the novel.

After all, given the uh, rather salty language (all in Spanish!) and the rather um, shall I say realistic content of the novel, there was no way I could see state reading lists picking up this title.

For those of you who don’t know, individual states vote on reading lists that will be required (sometimes just suggested) reading for all school librarians, teachers, and students in the state. As you can imagine, this can be a huge factor for long-term sales success for any titles that land on these reading lists.

Well, given what I mentioned above, I didn’t see it happening for this novel. Well, I’m eating my words because PERFECT CHEMISTRY has been nominated for the Pennsylvania Young Readers’ Choice Award.

Silly me. I won’t underestimate our educational system again.