Yay us!
DAW is talking about a 5-book contract.
by CJ | May 18, 2018 | Journal | 29 comments
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Fantastic! Congrats to you both.
Ayyy! Glad to hear it
Woot! Woot! Woot
CJ, without giving details can you explain the mechanics of a typical contract in this situation? For example is it an agreement to provide 5 books over a certain period of time, for an upfront consideration?
Obviously there will be lots of Ts&Cs, but I’m interested in how this sort of agreement works.
And congratulations, because you are obviously pleased about it!!
We agree to do them one at a time, fairly well on a set schedule, and payment is split between contract signing, turn-in, and publication, sometimes split again between pub of hardbound and pub of paper, and when a book ‘earns out,’ ie, earnings exceed advance, then additional payments. What percentage is where is negotiable.
I’m curious about such agreements and like looking at (or thinking about) how they affect quality and time – a hangover to my time in engineering projects.
Jane Austen sold S&S on commission, meaning she (or rather her brother) effectively underwrote the publication. After S&S was mildly successful she strangely sold the copyright of P&P for £110, a bad move in 20/20 hindsight. But they desperately needed the money at that time.
15 years earlier JA was one of 1,000 subscribers to Fanny Burney’s ‘Camilla’ at the grand price of 1 guinea (£1/1/-), a high price for a novel in 1796. This old form of crowdfunding was *very* lucrative for Burney, resulting in what was probably the most profitable novel in the 18th century.
THey could be a problem if there were a deadline and time limit. DAW is very understanding in that regard for books not yet firmly in schedule. I know that, for instance, Alliance Rising is locked into schedule and in production, so I give it absolute priority over the next Foreigner book (which is finished and undergoing Jane’s read-through but not yet turned in) in getting the AR text vetted in semi-final form (it’s before copyediting) and back to DAW in a timely way. You never, ever, ever want to cause a delay that loses the book its issue date. That’s a way to screw up sales, and your career, bigtime.
On the division of which percentage of the contract gets paid at which point, I learned a cautionary tale from ms.Lee’s blog (of the Liaden books by Lee and Miller).
They were very happy when the ACA “Obamacare” came to Maine as they had trouble affording healthcare, so they signed up. Not without difficulties, as it didn’t seem to be designed for people with such variable and hard-to-predict income. Finally, they were allowed to sign up based on their income over the past three years, instead of their uncertain projected income for the coming year.
That year the husband developed heart trouble and needed surgery and lots of medication, and they were so happy that thanks to the ACA they could afford it.
Then in december, after much uncertainty, their publisher offered them a five book contract, and they were very happy with how things had turned out.
But then the signing-on payment for all five books, that was supposed to be 1/5th of their income for the next 5 years (enough to live on in the upcoming year while writing the first book) was paid at the end of december, and the ACA and medical insurance company decided they had to pay everything back because their income over the past year had been too high to qualify for their health insurance through the ACA (and maybe a fine on top for mis-estimating, I seem to remember, but not with certainty).
So all the advance they received by the end of December was gone on the medical bills by the end of January, instead of being able to live on it for most of a year while writing the book.
My indignation over this stupid system of healthcare in the USA, that penalizes independent creators and lets people die if they can’t afford the inflated prices your hospitals and medical/pharmaceutical companies and for-profit insurance companies extort (that Martin Shrekli person is so awful, but not the only one taking unfair advantage of your laws that don’t allow for collective bargaining!), is what started me on supporting some American authors who’s work I enjoy on Patreon.
As Jane’s not of an age for getting Medicare yet, this might be something to keep in mind during the negotiations of which percentage when.
Yowza! As DH says, “Guaranteed employment for the next several years!” Not to mention keeping one’s fans most pleased.
Great! Congratulations!
Well done, you two.
Will they be books of your choosing, or in a particular series. I know the “Foreigner” series is highly successful, but you’ve had so many other series that I like, I wonder if any of those five books would be in another series. Perhaps Morgaine? or the Fortress series, or Chanur?
Yes, if you can say, I’m curious about how the books will split among your various universes as well. (Why does a plural for universe even exist??) Congratulations!
There is even the potential for a whole new ‘Verse to bud off! *clutches head* I have enough problems keeping my own worlds straight, unless nand’ CJ feels like making a new one.
No one else seems to mention it, but I’d *so* like to know what happens in the Union/Cyteen end of the Alliance universe after Regenesis. There are so many enticing “what-if” questions left open (sociological, political, and personal)–and I happen to *like* the characters, including Ari II (as I gather many people don’t).
Congratulations! Now you ‘just’ have to stay healthy and pace yourselves.
GO Women GO! (Gently on yourselves, of course, as pointed out by Nand Teasel.) Congratulations on getting the notice you deserve. Huge hugs and offers of assistance (yeah, right, from Ohio, but you know what I mean!).
Huzzah!
This probably gives you more freedom to look ahead in the very least. Can’t wait to see what develops. (And for me my Dad’s next five Father’s Day gifts sorted. Whew.)
Ooh, I need a new superlative! Awesome! Shiny!
I’m curious if these are in a single series or plural, i.e., Foreigner and Alliance-Union or others or perhaps an as yet unseen, brand-new series.
Hmm, although possibly you didn’t tell us in order to keep us in suspense and guessing and surprise us. 🙂
Oh, who am I kidding? I love this news whatever the answer is! (My guess would be a split of Foreigner and other-than-Foreigner.
YYAAYY!
If shiny no longer appeals, how about glister?
Not for me, thanks! That sounds like salvecoated wounds to me, not at all attractive!
Weird, the associations from some simple synonyms.
Gilden?
English does such weird things from its older dialects. I can’t help but read glister with both the S and the T, as if it were blister, as Hanneke alluded, even though I know glister is a spelling related to both glitter and glisten, in which we pronounce the latter as glissen, like listen, as if that were lissen. Or whistle pronounced as whissle. It’s odd that neither American nor British English has updated the spelling. And there are plenty of other words with odd exceptions to the usual pronunciation rules. (They’re more like guidelines.) I’m usually good with spelling and pronunciation. My head must be filled with all sorts of “rule and exception” cases memorized for English. (French isn’t a lot better about that, but it is (usually) more consistent.)
Hah, I still like Firefly’s “Shiny!” — But how about “Scintillate,” that sounds good. Hey, Foreigner title: scintillator! 😉
Gilden? I s’pose that could work, yeah. (Though it seems awfully close to the sound of guilt or geld to me, both of which, kinda nervous-making, haha.)
Golden or silvern or coppery or bronzed? Those are nice. 😀
Still walking around with a smile knowing 5 more books of whatever series (plural or singular) are confirmed.
Cupric!
FIVE books! Congratulations! (Does happy dance! Throws biodegradable confetti!) This is wonderful news!
Yeah, I’d have my druthers about which series I would like more books of, but frankly, since the early 1980’s, if it has CJC’s name on the cover, that’s all I need to know about it.
BTW, at about 8 pm this evening, we got torrential rains and the bejezus hailed out of us chez moi. Hailstones about olive size ricocheting off the slant of the neighbors roof, bouncing off my front porch and caroming into my storm door. I have three windows on that side and I was seriously worried the hail was going to break one of the windows in my office, under which I have internet modems and whatnot, and a strip I can’t get to the plug of to yank out of the wall. But we got quite a lot of wonderful rain out of it. There’s this one playa lake here that has multiple floating jet fountains in it to keep the water aerated, which they’ve had to turn off because the fountains are sitting on the bottom of the lake. That’s how low the water level is, and how dry it’s been for quite a while.
Most excellent news. I’m looking forward to all 5 of them.
You have made me one happy fanboy!
Wow, good for you! Congratulations!
I’m eagerly looking forward to enjoying the fruits of your joint efforts!
Gee, DAW is offering a pretty lengthy commitment to you both.
It must be testament to many years of hard work and excellent results.
What delightful news … heartfelt Congratulations to you both, CJ and Jane!
How exciting it must be for you and Jane, best wishes, I see I have much more enjoyment to come for my bedtime reading sessions, thank you for giving me (all of us) a place to go that helps lighten the load. One Son and a Grandson are reading the Atevi world now, they love your ability to bring the characters to life and we all love Bren and his ability to humor his Atevi associates. It is fun to discuss the story and where they are in it, a great thing to share as a family so again, THANK YOU!!!