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News You Can Use – June 18, 2013

June 18, 2013 in News You Can Use, Steve with 3 Comments

Self-Published eBooks Account for 12% of the Entire Digital Market – Watch the stats for trends.

How People Read Online – Does this mean I have to shorten my blog posts? And if I do will you still skip the last 2/3rds of what I write anyway?

Three Scriptural Cautions Against Self-Publishing – Do you agree or disagree? (and then read the next link below)

Three Reasons to Support Self-Publishing – A rebuttal to the previous link. I appreciate careful discourse and debate that does not devolve into chaos. This point-counterpoint is a wonderful example of how to conduct this type of conversation.

Did You Forget to Pay Royalties for Singing “Happy Birthday”? – A fascinating article which tells of a company who is suing to get “Happy Birthday” declared public domain. Ever wonder why restaurants all have their own song for celebrating birthdays? They don’t want to receive an invoice from the copyright holder who makes $5,000,000 a year in royalties.

3 mistakes to avoid when following up on a pitch – This article can be applied to pitching editors and agents too.

10 Blogging Tactics To Maximize Long-Term Results – Excellent advice from Heidi Cohen. I get this kind of question a lot from authors trying to use their blog to market their books.

The Overwhelming Force of “Gradual” – Seth Godin talks about building low and slow for maximum success.

D is for Dispute Resolution

June 17, 2013 in Contracts, Publishing A-Z, Steve with 3 Comments

by Steve Laube

Pray that it never happens to you. But if there is a situation where you find yourself in a legal battle with your publisher regarding your book contract there are terms that will dictate how that disagreement is handled.

Here is one version from an old contract:

Any claim or dispute arising from or related to this Agreement shall be settled by mediation and, if necessary, legally binding arbitration in accordance with the rules of a mutually agreed upon alternative dispute resolution service. Judgment upon an arbitration decision may be entered in any court otherwise having jurisdiction. The parties agree that these methods shall be the sole remedy for any controversy or claim arising out of this Agreement and expressly waive their right to file a lawsuit in any civil court against one another for such disputes, except to enforce an arbitration decision.

Regardless of the place of its physical execution, this contract shall be interpreted under the laws of the State of XXXXXXXXXX and of the United States of America.

If you read this carefully you’ll see it lays out the rules that keeps a dispute out of the court system and forces the two parties to use binding arbitration instead.

Fun Fridays – June 14, 2013

June 14, 2013 in Fun Fridays, Steve with 7 Comments

Wouldn’t if have been a blast to help put this together? Makes me want to create one of my own.
Watch the world’s longest book domino chain:

News You Can Use – June 11, 2013

June 11, 2013 in News You Can Use, Steve with 3 Comments

How to Launch a Bestselling Book – Michael Hyatt reveals some tremendous tips to have your book make a big splash. One of our clients followed some of these ideas along with some of their own. They sold out every online bookseller in the country withing four days (Amazon, B&N, Ingram, Books-a-Million, Lifeway, ChristianBook, Mardel, etc.) It can work if you have the right platform established ahead of time.

7 Minutes to a New You – Simple exercises you can do in your office to increase your health.

8 Myths About Audiobooks – Have you ever made any of these assumptions? Well done article.

The Art of Book Stacking – I have to admit to being a little geeky about this post. These are the kind of towers I used to build when I was in the bookstore business. I still remember the six foot mountain we built out of a new Frank Peretti novel using nearly 500 copies. The key is to make is so the customer can still buy a copy and not feel like they are playing a game of Jenga.

Twitter is Changing the English Language – Do you agree or is this an overstatement?

Man Writes the Entire Bible in Longhand – Took him four years. If you’d like to do this kind of thing yourself on a smaller scale, check out the Journibles from Reformation Heritage Books. This is a very cool way to devotionally hand-write books of the Bible like using a journal. Try out the booklet on Psalm 119 to see if it works for you (only $4.00).

C is for non-Compete

June 10, 2013 in Contracts, Publishing A-Z, Steve with 18 Comments

by Steve Laube

Both Tamela and Karen wanted “C” to stand for coffee or chocolate since both seen to be must-haves for any writer. Instead I’m going to fudge a little (pun intended) and write about the “non-Compete” clause in your contract. This clause has become the latest playground for negotiations.

Here is a simple version of a non-compete clause:

The Author will not publish or authorize the publication of any other work which would adversely affect the sale of the Work without the Publisher’s prior written consent.

Seems fairly innocuous, and it is. This publisher is basically saying “don’t write another book similar to this one.”

Take a look at this language from another publisher’s contract:

Author will neither publish nor authorize the publication anywhere of any Competing Work, including any Competing Work co-written by Author, in any form equivalent to a Physical Version, Digital Version, or in any form hereafter devised. A “Competing Work” shall be any work on the same or similar topic contained in the Work, treated in the same manner and depth, and directed to the same audience.

Imagine you have written a book about anger in the workplace and then later want to write about anger as a parent for a different publisher. Are those “competing” works? Would the second adversely affect the sale of the first?

Fun Fridays – June 7, 2013

June 7, 2013 in Fun Fridays, Steve with 2 Comments

Rhett and Link have provided us with a song to celebrate the Graduation season.
They composed this as part of the commencement address at their alma mater last year. So many wanted to hear it again they produced the song and then this video, which was done in one take.

Happy Graduation!

News You Can Use – June 4, 2013

June 4, 2013 in News You Can Use, Steve with 2 Comments

Special Days in June to Market You Book – Edie Melson does it again! Did you know this week is “Fishing Week”?

Publishers Should Invest In Authors, Not Just In Books - from Forbes magazine online. What do you think of what she is saying?

The Seven Deadly Myths of Digital Publishing – I found myself nodding in agreement while reading this article by Bill McCoy the executive director of the International Digital Publishing Forum.

Are You Ready to Contact an Agent? Take This Short Quiz and Find Out - A clever way to ask yourself some key questions in your pursuit.

Free is not the magic number: New trends in ebook pricing - This is an ongoing debate within the publishing community. What is the value of a book? $2.99? $5.99? $0.00? $9.99? The implication have enormous economic consequences.
Note how one self-published author uses Pulsing and Pacing in her ebook pricing strategy.

21 Platform Building Insights from Authors and Experts Who Excel at It - Wow.Far too much good advice to absorb in one sitting!

B is for Buy Back

June 3, 2013 in Business, Publishing A-Z, Steve with 16 Comments

by Steve Laube

open-book banner

Many authors are also speakers and as such usually have a book table in the back of the room where the audience can purchase a copy of their book during an event. This can be a very valuable source of income for the author if they have negotiated a “buy back” price (also known as the author’s discount) at the time of signing their book contract.

Check Your Contract Restrictions
It is crucial that you read your contract if you plan on selling copies of your book. No publisher will allow you to resell your books to a commercial account. In other words don’t try to buy thousands of books at your author discount and then re-sell them to Wal-Mart at a special price. That is a no-no. And is a logical restriction.

Also, there are a couple publishers that do not allow you, by contract, to sell your books in any public venue. If you scoff at this after signing the contract and are caught, you are in breach of contract and could face the consequences.