Pub Rants

Author Archive

Author Camaraderie

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Finished up a deal negotiation and continued work on the accounting upgrade. I’ll be so happy when that is complete and all the reports are in order for my Tax CPA.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? I STILL DO by The Cranberries

There are some authors in this world who view themselves in competition with other authors for the ever-shrinkingbook buying dollar slice of the pie. And then there are authors who know and understand that this is a unique community, that book buyers will buy a range of authors if they are interested enough, and there is no reason not to support each other.

And let me tell you, it’s the latter authors who I want to work with. And nothing proves that good karma goes around and comes around more than what has happened for debut author Patry Francis.

Here’s the story if you haven’t heard it. Patry is ill with a cancer and knew she would not be able to promote the release of her debut as most authors do.

So what did the writing community decide to do? They decided to pitch in and promote it for her since she was unable to. Over 300 bloggers committed to participating in THE LIAR’S DIARY blog day.

Check this out by clicking on some links. Here’s an article in the Sun-Sentinal about the effort. Here’s some more at Red Room, Lit Park, and Backspace.

Look at all the links on Technorati!

Wow! And of course some of my authors joined the party, but here’s what I want to say. Don’t ever let anyone convince you that publishing is “an every person for him or herself” industry because it’s not. There is a real community of writers and if you haven’t got connected, ask yourself why not?

Grumpy About WGA Strike

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Mail arrived! Hooray. Huge stack too. And there were royalty statements and checks. I told you so.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? FIND THE RIVER by R.E.M.

Most normal people might be grumpy because of the dearth of interesting programming on the telly right now. I’m annoyed because it’s keeping one of my projects in film limbo because the script needs reworking. Since the screenwriters are on strike, no revisions allowed.

I got a call today from my film co-agent just to update me that there is no update. Good to know and I’m glad she called, just to stay in touch. (It tells me she’s still employed; there are lots of rumors about mass firings that may be imminent in Hollywood).

But I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking, “who do I need to bribe to get the parties back to the negotiating table?”

Starbucks anyone? I’m buying.

Mail, Mail, Where Can You Be?

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: TGIF! I concluded a negotiation today which always feels good. The author is, of course, thrilled.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? AIN’T NOBODY BUT ME by Supertramp

This isn’t a publishing rant per se but it’s rather indirectly related. On Monday, the office lobby floor was retiled. In order to do that, the workers moved our mailbox center.

Let’s just say it was resting sideways on the stairs when I came in on Tuesday morning. I thought it a little odd but I certainly wasn’t able to move it so there it stayed. Well, Tuesday afternoon, the mail person comes to deliver the mail (and with MLK in there, more than the usual stack). He was in a huff because he had to come to each office instead of putting mail in the box like normal. Just to clarify, my office building isn’t large. On the second floor, there are only 8 suites—several of which are currently empty and awaiting new tenants. I understand that it was an inconvenience and outside of what a mail person would normally have to do to deliver the mail but it wasn’t a big deal either and probably took all of 8 minutes to do.

But I guess it was because since then, I haven’t received another piece of mail all week—even though the mailbox center was put back.

Now, I know we do everything electronically here but seriously, not a day goes by where we don’t get a piece of mail. And we are expecting royalty statements and checks.

We had to call today and find out why mail hasn’t been delivered. I guess I’ll have to tell my clients that it was circumstances beyond my control on why their monies are late!

Fire Alarm Approach

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: It’s 7 o’clock at night and I’m trying to squeeze in this blog so I can leave the office.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? KID by The Pretenders

I just spent the last 4 hours with my accountant so my brain is mush.

Here’s what I want to say tonight though. Lots of authors are on chat loops. Normally this is a great thing; I encourage it.

But when rumors start to fly on those loops, it can create author panic that then translates into frantic emails to the agent. When that happens, that’s when I like to advise authors to send an email but take everything with a grain of salt and send a “not sure if you’ve heard the rumors but I know you like being in the loop so I’m sending what I’m hearing” email instead.

Works the same but without the fire alarm approach.

There may or may not be truth to the rumors and why be upset over something that might not be true? Trust me, when it’s proven to be true, your agent will be plenty upset and pissed off on your behalf.

Interminable Length Of Time

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Don’t mind me. I just took an extended MLK holiday! Seriously, I just forgot to blog yesterday. I had 3 meetings and the third one didn’t end until 8 p.m. I kept thinking I was forgetting something but it didn’t occur to me until this morning that it was the blog entry.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? ORANGE COLORED SKY by Natalie Cole

Very few of my blog readers probably suffer from the misassumption that publishing moves quickly once an offer is made.

But just in case you do think that, let me make it clear for the record that publishing moves at a snail’s pace that probably wouldn’t be tolerated in other industries. And lately, it seems, publishing houses are moving at an interminably slow pace when it comes to mailing out contracts for deals recently made. Ninety-five year old grandmothers on the highway in their Buicks move faster than publishers. And personally, I don’t think claiming “the holidays” is enough of an excuse.

Let me give you just a sampling of what agents like me are dealing with.

In November (2007), I concluded the deal points for two offers. Just this week I received a contract for one of those deals, and I’m still waiting on the contract for the other. And trust me, it’s not like this delay went unnoticed. I’ve been prodding since early December.

So what I’m saying is that my job often entails loud and frequent whining.

Here’s another example. For a deal “concluded” in late October, I received the contracts the first week in December (which isn’t too bad actually). It took my contracts manager and me about a week to review and then write up the letter to the contracts director at the publishing house.

Now we have been waiting a month and three weeks for a response. Yes the holidays were in the middle of that and yes, I can be flexible but when we are three weeks into the new year without a response, the you-know-what has hitteth the fan.

So what can an agent do? Well, we can give an ultimatum (as in if I don’t have the contract by XYZ date, the deal is off) but that is rarely what an author wants. After all, they have accepted this offer for a reason. Sometimes, it’s necessary though and when push has come to shove and a deadline has been given, response time quickens remarkably.

Funny how that happens…

Boilerplate Item Du Jour (take 2)

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: TGIF! I have so much to do this weekend…

What’s playing on the iPod right now? CRASH INTO ME by Dave Matthews Band

The best defense is a strong offense.

What do I do about Publisher insistence on assuming that graphic novel rights is a boilerplate item? I immediately make it clear that it is not at the BEGINNING of each negotiation so there can be no misunderstanding early on.

That also establishes to the publishers that regardless of what they think, where my agency is concerned, graphic novel rights is not a boilerplate item.

I do the same thing at the beginning of a negotiation for a possible multi-book deal. Right when the editor calls, I announce that my agency does not do joint accounting so are we talking about one book or two?

And that takes it off the table right from the start. It won’t be a point of dissension for later.

Now graphic novel rights aren’t quite the same thing as joint accounting so I still expect a discussion or argument but my position is at least clear from minute one.

Have a great weekend.

Boilerplate Item Du Jour

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Every day it’s another piece of good news for Ally Carter and her Gallagher Girl series. Today, it’s the news that she just debuted on the Publishers Weekly Top 15 children’s bestseller list (Jan. 14th issue) and if that weren’t enough, I’D TELL YOU I LOVE YOU has just landed on the USA Today Top 150 bestselling books (granted at #148) but that’s still big news because this list encompasses children’s and adult fiction titles. So quite the coup.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? HOME by Michael Bublé

Sometimes I just want to shake my head. About a year ago, Random House did a big push to say that US-only Spanish language rights would now be a “boilerplate” item on all their contracts. Do you remember this? Maybe some enterprising reader can look up that entry or series of entries and provide the link.

Agents pushed back and said, no, it’s not a boilerplate item; it’s a granted right—just like UK, translation, audio etc. It’s not automatically granted to the publisher. It must be specifically requested and included when discussing the event.

So the new boilerplate item du jour is graphic novel rights. A year ago, never saw this. It was never even mentioned or brought up in the deal points negotiation. Now, I’m starting to hear publishers say that this is a “boilerplate” item and corporate policy.

Here we go again.

God Bless International Tax Attorneys

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: I’m generally annoyed but can’t really talk much about why. Maybe later. In good news though, Ally Carter is still on the NYT list. Yahoo! CROSS MY HEART has been on for 8 weeks and is at #6. I’D TELL YOU I LOVE YOU has now been on for 3 weeks and we’re holding on to the #2 spot. Now that never fails to bring a smile to my face.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? THE BIG SKY by Kate Bush

IRS—that should sum up my day. Do you know what I did this week? I paid a nice hefty sum to my International tax attorney to write me up a memo that clearly outlines what the agency’s responsibilities are for tax withholding and reporting for my clients who are citizens of Australia, Ireland, and Canada.

This is something that should be accomplished via a free phone call to the IRS but after the fourth transfer and conflicting answers (see previous blog about this), I decided it was worth the money to confirm the letter of the law from an expert (and no, that would not be an IRS representative).

I have to say that Cara, the International Tax Attorney, is my new best friend. The minute I asked her my questions, it was clear that I was not speaking in a foreign language and she knew exactly what I was talking about. Such a pleasant experience.

This was a fifteen page memo that I’m really not going to sum up in one blog entry but I can hit on the high points.

And folks, I’m just sharing this for fun. This in no way substitutes for tax advice from a professional and should not be considered so.

1. Ascertain the foreign author’s country of permanent residence and whether they are a citizen there.

2. Check the tax treaty for specifics on what is the withholding percentage allowed as well as what type of royalty income is covered by the treaty. (For example, Ireland has 0% withholding on everything. Canada is also 0% withholding except for royalties earned from film/tv. Such fun to keep this all straight.)

3. Have foreign author complete W7 form for an ITIN (international tax id number) which will be needed for the W8BEN form which must be on file.

4. Have foreign author fill out the W8BEN form correctly. If they don’t, agency must withhold 30% for U.S. taxes regardless of what the tax treaty says (so this is crucial)

5. Report to the IRS amount withheld or not withheld on form 1042-S. If withholding was done, monies need to be sent to the IRS at a specific time and with a whole other form. The IRS can’t tell you what you actually need to do but woe is you if you don’t get it there in time.

So basically what I’m saying is that I’m good to go with any foreign author clients from Australia, Ireland, and Canada so query away.

If you are a non-US citizen and resident of somewhere else, it’s back to Cara and a whole new memo…and no, that wouldn’t keep me from taking you on but I’d have to especially love your manuscript to take on the trouble.

Got Trilogy?

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Note to self: don’t eat wasabi peas until your lips start burning.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? SUBTERRANEAN HOMESICK BLUES by Bob Dylan

I haven’t dispensed any query letter words of wisdom lately so I’ll toss this one out there. Lots of writers are writing trilogies. Excellent. I have great admiration for those of you with a big enough vision and an outlined game plan to see the full story unfold over 900 potential pages and in three books (seriously, I’m in awe.)

But here’s what you need to focus on in your query letter: book one of the trilogy. If you can’t get an agent interested in this book, it’s rather a moot point that you have two sequels if you get my meaning.

So in your query, focus your pitching on that first book. If you want to mention in your query letter wrap-up paragraph that you envision this as a first book in a trilogy, no worries. Mention it but that’s it. No plot summaries for book 2 and 3.

Sell me on book 1; then we can talk.

Redux: To Deal Or Not Deal Lunch?

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Soon (she says hopefully) the accounting upgrade will finish and life will be happier.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? CARUSO by Paul Potts

Someone in the comments section was nice enough to provide a link to my former post on this topic. When I took a look at it, I realized there were a couple of other reasons why an agent might not want to post sale news on deal lunch that I hadn’t included.

So, other reasons to keep the news on the down low (so to speak).

1. An author may be concluding a contract with one publisher but has already sold and established a new contract with a new publisher for future books. In order not to lose support from the current publisher, the author might prefer that the new sales information is not shared.

2. An agent has just sold a timely book project on a hot topic that might have competing titles in the works. The sale is kept under hat so as not to tip off the competition. The point is to hopefully have this title release before the others do. (This is more of an issue with nonfiction than fiction.)

If I think of other reasons, I’ll share.