The HEA Cafe

It’s late, my brain is focused on pain meds and a looming deadline. So I’m doing a rehash, because I’m betting there are more people who visit this blog than who visit mine. Why? Because I’m not popular and RWAOnline is! LOL

This post is about my ongoing experiences and process of  me as a new-to-NY author, and the process that happens from the time a book is contracted and put on the shelf. So all my posts are STRICTLY my personal experiences. Others may have different experiences.
RECAP

Two weeks ago I talked about the transition to NY from ePub. Here’s a brief recap

ePub – contract offers come in email. Contract runs about five pages. Simple straightforward contract with XX percentage on sale of eBooks off publisher website, X percentage on distributor sales and a different percentage if your book goes to print. Overall process with the contract takes just a few days.

NY – the editor calls with an offer to either the agent or the author (if the submission is from a contest, etc.) Once the offer is made, negotiations begin for final monies

However, NY contract negotiations are much different from receiving an offer via email with a contract attached. The contract is generally twice as long, with terms related to foreign rights, trade paperback, mass-market paperback, hardback, eBook rights, etc. The agent reviews and makes changes in the best interest of their client then the contract is sent to the writer. Once the writer, and then the publisher sign the contract, a check is cut and sent to the agent. The agent then cuts a check to the writer, minus the 15% commission.

This is simplified, but it’s pretty much the whole process with regard to the contract and the advance. An important difference in a NY contract is the breakup of the advance. I can’t say for sure, but my guess is that depending on the author’s selling power plays into how much of the advance you get up front. I’m not for certain though, and all I can attest too is what I’ve experienced.

I thought about working out a scenario of a fictional advance, but that didn’t seem to work well when I was trying to figure it out, so I thought maybe percentages of my deals will provide a decent picture without talking actual monies (per my agreement with Deidre). Because each contract is different, (both of my Berkley contracts are structured differently payout wise) and you don’t always get the same amount of money or distribution percentages. Keep in mind that this is my personal experience as it’s happening and not compiled scenarios of what goes on with other people. The data shown here is strictly to give you an idea about how the advance might play out.

Next Step – Show Me The Money

Explaining how an advance is paid out is difficult because every publisher and contract is different. For example, the breakout percentage wise for my two-book deal is different from my three-book deal.

Unlike I always thought, the advance is not paid out all at once. You get a certain percentage of the advance at different stages of the game. Below is an example of how my contract is paying out in terms of time frame and percentages

Contract signing paid – roughly 40% of the advance, paid about 4-6 months after initial offer
D&A Book 1 – roughly 17.5% of the deal, paid after the editor is satisfied with the final product
Publication Book 1 – 10%
D&A Proposal Book 2 – 5%
D&A Book 2 – roughly 17.5%
Publication Book 2 – 10%

Remember these are percentages of the overall agreed to advance paid to me for two books. So say the advance is for $100K.

That means the author would get $40K at contract signing, $17,500K on D&A, $10K on publication of first book, $5K for D&A Book 2 proposal, then $17,500K for D&A of Book 2 and $10K for publication of Book 2.

On my three-book deal, the allocation of the percentages are different in a screwy way, and I’ve NO CLUE as to why they’re different. An interesting point to note is that in my contract, if I miss a deadline, the publisher has the right to demand the advance back, and make me pay court fees if I don’t pony up the money. EXCELLENT incentive NOT to miss a deadline.

One More Step Forward

My first deadline was March 1st. I beat the deadline by a week. It’s my goal to do that consistently. I think it will be a great professional behavior to exhibit and it will also make it easier to keep ahead of the writing game. If I can finish a book at least a month before deadline, then I’m able to edit it and refine it in two to three weeks.

I was going to post from this point back, and then I realized a couple of things had happened. So I’ll add a bit more.

With Kismet turned in, I was chewing nails worrying about edits. Cindy emailed late last week and said she’ll only have line edits and that she loves the book. Whew!

UPDATE

Update to original post regarding deadlines – I’ve another deadline coming up and I’m running frantic. In fact, it’s so close, I don’t dare name the day in the event it scares the hell out of my muse and she disappears! Hence, the delay in the post as my new boss keeps me hopping where before I had time to do a little blog prep. *sigh* Suffice it to say, I think I’ll make it, but that incentive is definitely scaring the hell out of me.

My editor emailed me late last week and said she was getting ready to discuss covers with house artists. I’m thinking GOOD LORD it’s just March! But, the sooner I have a cover the better. Cindy asked what I thought about Susan Johnson’s new cover and if I was open to something like it for my book. O. M. G. Hell ya, baby!! I love Susan’s cover, so now I can’t wait to see mine. If it’s half as good that baby will fly off the shelves!

This week, Cindy emailed me with blurb copy. O.M.G. I LOVE the tag lines. The blurbs however need some work. The first thing that had to go was the line, “Until a Sheik rides in from the desert…” First thought? Blazing Saddles and the Sheriff riding into town. Umm…nope, I don’t think so! LOL I reworked the copy some and sent it back to Cindy, agreeing with the suggestion she had and offering up my own. She emailed back saying that she was sending it back to the copywriters. I now understand why Claire Delacroix said to be sure and write a detailed, exceptional synopsis.

If you’re interested in reading more about the process, visit my blog or myspace blog every week or so as I record my experiences.
Monica

Monica Burns – http://www.monicaburns.com
Dangerous, Available Now 4.5 Stars, RT BOOKreviews
Mirage,06/09 | RT Top Pick | 2009 EPPIE Best Historical/Western Erotic Romance
Kismet, Berkley, 01/10

This is the Mother’s Day Card which is part of my MEGA MAY “A Celebration of Mother’s” on my blog  www.strongwomenbravestories.blogspot.com
I will send one to any special woman in your life IF you send me her name and address before April 15th. Drop by my website www.LynCote.net, then click “Meet Lyn” which will bring up the drop down menu with “Contact Lyn.”

Click there and send me an email with the information.Of course, I would never give or”sell” anyone’s address. I don’t like it when that’s done to me so feel confident, your information is safe with me. (Unless they put a gun to my head. Then you’re on your own!)

I will fill your name into the blank and sign the postcard. I have 100 of these for this purpose and would love to send out all 100 of them.

Also during MEGA MAY, a Celebration of Mothers’ on this blog, I am
going to feature stories sent to me by readers about the strong women in
their family history and those from other authors.

Already Jane S. has sent me the story of her mother which will be the
first on the blog in May. So send me your story or your mother’s, etc.
If you don’t want to tell a story, drop by and comment on someone else’s
story. Because then you will qualify for my MEGA May prize.
Finally I will be giving away a MEGA basket of goodies and autographed books in a drawing of all of those who have participated during May on my blog.

Don’t miss this! I think it’s going to deeply meaningful and fun too!

Image via Wikipedia

One of my favorite shirts from the recent presidential campaign said “Change in Which We Can Believe”.   You can find it at CafePress under writers, editors and grammarians for Obama.

Of course, the slogan heard nationally was “Change We Can Believe In”.  Catchy, but not grammatically correct.  I mention this because today, March 4, is National Grammar Day, so proclaimed by the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar.

I do not like to call myself a grammar snob, because I make mistakes.  I sometimes (but seldom) misuse “who” and “whom”.  I find my Southern heritage creeping in with “towards” rather than “toward”.  But I am educated enough that grammatical errors in others’ work tend to leap out at me, and this can be a problem. I was reading a historical last week by a well-respected author, and the sentence “He wanted to lie her down…” hit me like the sight of the proverbial turd in a punch bowl, taking me so far out of the moment I was tempted to not finish reading the book. I had already forgiven the author her misuse of “who” and “whom” in an earlier scene, but this was going too far!

There’s the possibility that it was not the author’s error, but the editor’s error.  If so, that is even sadder.  I depend on my editors to keep me in line, to catch those errors that might slip past me, like whether I should have used the word “may” instead of “might”.   The editors I know, the ones who have managed to cling to their jobs in an age when editing appears to be considered a luxury for academic presses, but not necessary for publishers of mass market fiction, I honor those editors.  They are fighting the good fight!

So as you go through your day today, red pen in hand, Elements of Style by your side, be ready to fight the good fight yourself!  Grammar counts!  Spelling counts!  Punctuation counts!

We owe it to our readers.  Someday they’ll thank us for it.  Maybe.  Regardless (NEVER IRREGARDLESS!!!), it’s the right thing to do.

Oh, and if you spot any grammatical errors in this post, please let me know.  I would appreciate it.

Am I the only writer who seems to find whatever part of the process I am currently working on is the WORST part? I admit there is a certain excitement about starting a story, a delightful sense of urgency about getting the first draft on paper and a thrill of completion when I reach the end. (I always feel a little bit like Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally–ready to cheer, full of release though no one else can see the cause. LOL.) But there are also times in each stage when, as my critique partner says, I bleed from the ears. The agony and ecstasy of writing.

Recently, I read an article from www.writersdigest.com called 10 Disciplines of a Fiction Writer, by James Scott Bell. He suggests a number of things that make the writing less of a struggle. The suggestion of Super Tuesday really resonated with me. He says, “I have designated each Tuesday to be exclusively a writing day. I have other duties during the week, but I work it out so I can leave Tuesday completely free. I don’t schedule appointments or pleasure trips or anything else on that day. My goal is to blow through my usual quota of words. Sometimes I see just how far I can go. The result is often that wonderful feeling you get when you’ve been in “flow.” Time speeds up. You have done a great day’s worth of work.”

I love the concept of giving myself one day when nothing else matters. The bills can wait. The errands in town can be done the next day. So I gave myself a Super Thursday. It went very well. I did about 7500 words. That’s a healthy portion of a manuscript.

I guess I need to find ways to challenge myself and make each part of the process fun. Any suggestions?