February 24, 2020
What is the most unethical practice in the publishing industry?
The sad truth that this is even a topic for discussion tells you much of what you need to know about my decision to go indie at the start of my fiction writing career. It was not the only reason, but it played a part.
The biggest problem I see is the poor payment most authors receive. I’ve never signed a publishing contract, but I’ve heard about the minimal amounts signed authors get after paying off their advances. A quick search revealed that most authors get in the area of $1.25 per book that sells for over $20. And that’s after they’ve paid off their advance.
But the authors who work with the big companies know what they signed up for. So it’s not exactly unethical. What is shady is companies will use “interesting” accounting practices to count the number of books an author sells. And authors have no way to verify the figures provided by their publishers are correct.
All of that is bad, but not what I consider the worst. What I consider the
Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay
most unethical is how hard it is to authors with traditional publishers to get the rights back to their books. Publishers will only promote a new book for a short period of time (if at all) , but contracts give them rights to the book for several years. Even then, if the author is self-promoting their books and sells copies through the publisher, it extends the life of the contract. (And the number I was quoting by an author in this situation was low. Really low.) Meaning an author who works hard and makes their own success may never get the rights back to their stories.
I’m sure there are (unfortunately) other examples and that’s why I’m heading over to see what the other authors (with more experience in the topic) on this loop have to say. I’m sure it will reinforce my decision to be an indie author!
February 24, 2020
What is the most unethical practice in the publishing industry?
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I never realised the trouble authors have in getting the rights back to their books from traditional publishers. As you say, it ‘s much better to go Indie, as nobody can con you. There are so many shysters out there.
The more I hear, the more I realise that I was right to be Indie. I might not sell many copies, but 100% of the profit goes to me. And I’m in control.
Indies are not 100% immune from unethical practices. It can be argued that Amazon’s policy of allowing returns on books after 7 days is unethical. I can easily read a book in that amount of time, return it, and the author ends up with nothing.
I have also heard that traditionally published authors struggle to get the rights to their books back. I know a few who have managed to do it eventually. Great to read about other writers experiences.
Music Biz 101 – From Miles Davis to Herbie Hancock when Herbie was about to sign his first record deal. – Don’t care what they offer you, keep your publishing. Do not leave the room without your publishing rights.
And when it comes to publishing rights, you have to be careful. There’s foreign and domestic, print and ebooks, audiobooks, and movie rights. Dis I forget anything?
Not that I can tell. It’s like copyright – all physical, digital, broadcast by any method, reproduced in manner identical or in facsimile…blah blah…I read where a successful author was wondering why her South American sales were stagnant and it turns out her distributor was lifting the author’s work verbatim and publishing it under the distributor’s own name! There is no way to stop piracy. If someone wants a piece of your action, they’ll find a way.