Debut author turned down $120,000, 3 books New York deal to self-publish

Printing may be small, but there is distribution or shipping and brick and mortar space if the book is retail. I'm sure the retail price has a big margin but the building and employees are not free.

Most retail books I buy are for gifts. I've mentioned before, I love our county library. And I believe you said you love owning the book.

 

Sure, but as long as the bricks and mortar stores exist, and people really do still patronize them, they are a key way to reach readers and purchasers of books. (Including books given at the Christmas scene, often without reference to whether the recipient will read them -- I'm not saying you do this, but for example, my parents do this, in that my FIL is difficult to buy for in that he has no interests or hobbies, so my parents keep getting books for him, even though he does not read and I keep telling them it is a waste of money.) There's also the marketing impact (although I have not seen it measured) of people seeing other people reading a book.

Maybe if we went completely over to a world where 100% of books were ebooks, maybe we would see the $2 indies competing a little more with the $10-$15 (or possibly, even higher, if there are no print books). But right now, I'm just not seeing the cheaper books taking away from the big-pubbed books, and in some ways, there may be people who would refuse to buy a book that was priced lower, as they would perceive price as wrapped up with quality and might only buy ebooks that were $10 or more, unless they were on some kind of super-special, like amazon had during the holiday season.

In the far, far, future, who knows?

 

I'm not the author or her agent. I have no association with her in any capacity. I don't know her and she obviously doesn't know me.

I have not even purchase the book in question. New Adult romance is not my reading genre.

I'm sharing this story because it's interesting. It has been shared on Mobileread and Writersbeat. It's another sign of the upheaval in the world of publishing. Similar to the Barry Esiler walking away from $500,000 book deal (for 2 books) to self-publish. Though he switched to Amazon when they made him an even better deal.

What this all mean is that there is an option for writers now that doesn't exist a few years ago.

The more options there are, the better it is for all authors.

 

I think the author made a very smart move.

Her first month royalties is $18,415.79. Best of all, the book is still selling very well. $10,000 on the second month is almost a certainty at the rate it is selling.

And she has book #2 and book #3 coming out in March and May this year (source: from her blog interview).

Best of all, she doesn't have to worry about the "no compete" clause, which will allow her to put out more books under her name. She has full control of her IP rights, her pricing and writing.

 

When it comes to someone, especially me, making more money, I like being proved wrong. What I don't know is what a book like this can make during its paper phase. Sometimes people do really well only to have passed up fantastic or incredible.

 

How do you know this information? Again, I'm just very curious.

 

Whether it's a "smart move" really will depend on how well she does with sales over the next couple of years, no? Even then, there's no telling whether or not the book(s) would have done well trade published either. I'm more a bird-in-the-hand type of person, so I probably would've grabbed the opportunity. As to that non-compete clause - anything in a contract is negotiable. Anything. And if you've got an agent who refuses to even try, you need a new agent. And of course, if the publishers were inflexible, then you walk away. But one shouldn't just accept/reject a contract on its face.

As to established authors going with self-publishing - of course there are. Just as there are established authors who have no interest in it. I wouldn't take either decision as "proof" of anything. It's only what some individuals decide to do. Established authors have an easier time, since their marketing/promotional base is already there, but they still have to deal with all the rest of the publishing aspects. Like with any author - some want to do that, some don't.

 

Her first month royalties is detailed here
http://brennaaubrey.net/2014/01/12/the-first-month-of-publication-a-reckoning/

She wrote that her second and third book will come out in the spring in a blog interview that I read. March for book 2 and May for book 3 if I remember correctly.

Here: I found that blog interview

http://theseasonforromance.com/wordpress/2013/12/interview-giveaway-at-any-price-by-brenna-aubrey/

 

Is it that easy to negotiate the removal of the non-compete clause?

http://www.thepassivevoice.com/01/2014/why-authors-and-trad-pub-dont-reveal-authors-earnings/#comment-163041

CEO of Kensington Publishing Steven Zacharius

Brenna in terms of non-compete are you referring to self-publishing books at the same time? Generally we do not want our authors writing in the same exact genre as we are publishing on their own or with another publishing house. We want to control how the books are released to the readers. We also don’t want to be competing against another publisher and have the chance of books coming out at the same time as ours. I’m talking primarily about print books. We shape our publishing program and we want the author releases to follow a set schedule that they can commit to. You might be surprised at how many authors don’t live up to their committed schedules which becomes a nightmare to handle.

 

I say good on her. I wouldn't sell out to a corporate publishing firm either, no matter how much they offered me. My stories are exactly that - MY STORIES. No way in Hell am I handing them over to be butchered and paraded around by a bunch of know-it-alls in suits that think they know my story better than I do, simply because they took a few college courses in business and continually look at what others do as a barometer for what should/shouldn't be said in a published work.

Not only that, but it's a political stand for me. I am highly against all forms of "big business" e.g. Wal-Mart, publishing houses, and other large conglomerates that run the little guy out of business with dirty tactics and pay their employees less than a living wage for working long hours in deplorable conditions. Watching the old part of Jefferson City and many other local towns dry up and basically drive our city into poverty after Sam Walton showed up with his stores more than solidified that viewpoint.

 

This reasonable enough to me.

 

I don't think I'd judge whether or not this was smart on how much cash she makes at any point - that's results-oriented thinking. If I borrowed $1000 to buy lottery tickets and one of them ended up winning me $1,000,000, that doesn't mean it wasn't a stupid thing to do.

It was a smart move if she understood how she was going to produce and promote the book herself, and after weighing everything up decided that the control was more important than the security of a trade publisher.

From the sounds of it, she did her homework, made the call and she's happy with it. Good on her.

 

Or the whole thing is a marketing ploy and the offer was fake. It's not hard to create a business facade and say some unheard of publisher is your publisher when you are that publisher. I can't find that her publisher has published anything besides her books.

Still clever marketing, but it should be considered as a possibility.

 

Possibly - in which case she had a plan, executed it and made a load more money than she would have done otherwise, so it was definitely a smart thing to do.

I seem to recall someone doing something similar in the past, though if I remember right in that case they were acting as their own literary agent, so they could get more notice from publishers.

 

So you are accusing an author of making the whole thing up? (marketing ploy / the offer is fake). What are you basing this on?

Is it hard to believe that a great book in one of the hottest selling sub-category of Romance right now (New Adult) can get a $40,000 advance offer from a NY publisher?

Is it hard to believe that the author wrote about her decision on her blog?


Also, you know that self-publisher can put anything as their publisher right when the fill out the form to self-publish the book on Kindle, Nook, Kobo etc...right?

You can put "GingerCoffee is the Best Publisher in the World" as your publisher if you want to. Some authors put their name as the publisher. Some make up a name as their publisher. Some just leave it blank and as a result, no publisher is listed. For example, this self-published New Adult that is currently selling around 2,000-3,000 ebooks a day on Amazon alone. No publisher listed.


File Size: 1417 KB
Print Length: 86 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B00HRH6HVU
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
Enabled
Lending: Enabled
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #21 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#2 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Coming of Age
#2 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Coming of Age
#3 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Romance > New Adult & College

The price is $2.99 which mean the author is earning around $2 per ebook sold. 2,000 - 3,000 sold a day would mean $4,000 - $6,000 royalties a day on Amazon alone. This is an estimation.


http://www.theresaragan.com/p/sale-ranking-chart.html
Kindle Sales Ranking Chart

The numbers below are based on MY experiences... I'm sure you can find other authors whose numbers are different from these...but the following s/b pretty darn close. The whole idea is to give you an approximate number of books you would need to hit the OVERALL Kindle List only.

Amazon Best Seller Rank 50,000 to 100,000 - selling close to 1 book a day.

Amazon Best Seller Rank 10,000 to 50,000 - selling 5 to 15 books a day.

Amazon Best Seller Rank 5,500 to 10,000 - selling 15 to 25 books a day.

Amazon Best Seller Rank 3,000 to 5,500 - selling 25 to 70 books a day.

Amazon Best Seller Rank 1,500 to 3,000 - selling 70 to 100 books a day.

Amazon Best Seller Rank 750 to 1,500 - selling 100 to 120 books a day.

Amazon Best Seller Rank 500 to 750 - selling 120 to 175 books a day.

Amazon Best Seller Rank 350 to 500 - selling 175 to 250 books a day.

Amazon Best Seller Rank 200 to 350 - selling 250 to 500 books a day.

Amazon Best Seller Rank 35 to 200 - selling 500 to 2,000 books a day.

Amazon Best Seller Rank 20 to 35 - selling 2,000 to 3,000 books a day.

Amazon Best Seller Rank of 5 to 20 - selling 3,000 to 4,000 books a day.

Amazon Best Seller Rank of 1 to 5 - selling 4,000+ books a day.

 

Considering possibilities is prudent and not the equivalent of accusing someone of each of them. Why are you so defensive?

I know how Kindle ranking works and said something similar above. You'll have a high rank for a good days sales, but that doesn't reflect on sales over time.

And I'm not saying the author is no good. I got the impressions from the reviews she writes fairly well, but some people thought the book was a familiar trope and didn't do as well in the second half as it promised in the first.

I would be ecstatic if I get reviews that good.

But nothing screamed the next E.L. James in the sales or the reviews.

You'll have to forgive me but a lot of your posts leave me at a loss. It's fine to discuss self publishing. It's an important topic for a lot of us. But you have two threads with similar subjects and very little else posted.

It's fine if that is what is most interesting to you at the moment. But because someone asks about you and/or your posts, there's really no reason to believe they are attacking you. I'm not. But I also wasn't voted the most likely person to buy a bridge in high school. I am suspicious, though not resentful of how authors manage to increase market interest in their books. One would hope dishonesty is not a favored tactic.

I don't see a lot of evidence backing this author's claims up. But I don't find the claims out of line either. Could be true, maybe not. I don't recall the woman said which publisher offered her the money, did I miss that in her blog?

Because if it was Silver Griffon Associates and I can't find they have published anything but this author's books, I think you can see why that is odd.

 

Hello, the author in question here. I just registered this account here because I've been seeing this link in my stats all day. I wouldn't normally butt in to your conversation, however the last time I sat back and did nothing while people made suppositions about this being a publicity hoax, it all went south very quickly. I'd rather clear the air now before people start trawling the Internet for every last scrap of info about me again. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I referred to the incident briefly in the 2nd blog post.

I don't want to sway or influence your conversation for or against self publishing in any way but I do want to clear up some questions. Silver Griffon Associates is the name of the DBA under which I publish my own works. It is not a publishing house. It is me. I did not offer myself a six figure deal from my own DBA. That would be silly. The 6 figure offers came from 2 of the Big 5 publishers in New York. I won't be more specific than that for reasons of professionalism.

Other things to clear up. I did not post this link here. Believe me, I'd rather not be discussed in the 3rd person at a forum where people wish to suppose that I'm a fraud. I do not know who SciFiwriter is, but he isn't the first person to post links to the blog in various forums around the Internet. I have no problem with people having an open dialogue about the merits and determents of indie publishing. I do have a problem with people making suppositions about my character.

If you want more info, I'll be glad to point you in these directions:

http://www.hughhowey.com/brenna-aubrey-a-case-study/

I did an AMA on Reddit (for basically the same reason I registered this account here... it was being discussed in not so flattering terms so I decided to go over and clear the air)

http://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/1v5qj9/im_brenna_aubrey_author_who_turned_down_the_6_fig/

Please feel free to continue on with this discussion as if I'm not here. I don't want to butt in. If you have specific questions for me, feel free to ask. But I covered most of it in my blogs, in the comments to my blogs and in the AMA.

Have a good evening.

 

The removal? Probably not. But adjusting it? Certainly. Publishing is, after all, a business. Any two parties doing business together are each going to try for a contract that benefits them the most. That's where the negotiating comes in.

 

I have to wonder who you've been talking to about trade publishers - or which trade publishers you've dealt with. Stories can't be "butchered" - I'm assuming you mean edited and/or revised - if the author doesn't agree to it. I also hope we aren't going to get a WalMart diatribe every time you talk about publishing, 'cause y'know - two already is getting old since it has nothing to do with publishing or writing, for that matter.

 

DBA, that confirms what I thought.

I'm also not surprised to see other people are doubtful about the publisher deal.

But I also don't care. I think your marketing is very clever and I wish you well.

 

My story has been verified by several credentialed authors. I really don't have anything to prove. Many self published authors use a DBA for many reasons (feel free to do your research on those reasons). You seem to imply my use of a DBA means a "false business front" (your words above).

And in spite of your implications, the blog post wasn't part of my marketing. I did, however, discuss my marketing plan in the comments, when asked about it. Check those out if you're interested.

Again, not here to say one way to publish is better than another. Just trying to clear the not-so-subtle aspersions being cast.

 

I wish you the best, but I'm not going to apologize because I posted what I thought about what I saw and frankly still see. But why should you care what I think?

It looks like you have a lot of good reviews on your first book. I think that's great. I hope you do well. I mean that sincerely.

I shouldn't matter to you that I said I don't see any evidence of a publishing contract for $120K. You might have had that offer, I have no way to say you didn't. But why get upset because people don't just take your word for it?

Surely you yourself don't believe everything people on the Net claim without any evidence do you?

 

Uh. Ok.

So anyway, if anyone else has any honest questions for me, feel free or just follow the links I left above.

I leave you to your publishing discussion

 

Thanks very much for posting here, Brenna - and good luck and good wishes to you with this and your future work.

Sadly, as you see, the views of some of the less-well-informed members here are so deeply entrenched that rather than admit the possibility that anyone could ever have any success with self-publishing, they'll even publicly impugn the integrity of people about whom they know nothing at all. It leaves a very unpleasant taste in the mouth, naturally, and it's a remarkable testament to you that you can respond to it so coolly and calmly. (As you may know, this forum has rather a long history of ignorance and prejudice on some publishing-related subjects, hence certain other discussions here, and indeed hence the forum's comparative lack of participating members at the moment).

 

@lex, that isn't true! I participate a lot...unfortunately much more than I write. That gives me several people to blame, other than myself.