Artistic Talents Of A Different Slant : Forum : Publishing Contracts do's and ..


Publishing Contracts do's and don'ts

16 Years Ago


One thing I learned from past experience is to make sure I not only read over a contract before I sign it but to also make sure that I research a publishing house before accepting a contract for a novel I poured my blood, sweat and tears in to. In May of 2005 I published a novel through Publish America. Stupid, stupid, stupid is all I can say. I believed the hype and was so excited for my novel that I didn't look into the company or what they would actually do to market my novel. They designed a bookcover that was not right for the novel. For one it was printed in paperback which did not make me happy and it was exstremely over priced at nearly seventeen dollars for a 120 page book and the novel was oversized. They really did nothing to market the novel. As the author you were expected to buy your own books, market your own books and drive people yourself to their website. Yes, it was exciting to see my novel on Amazon, Target, and other search engines but soon the bubble burst. My novel would never see a main stream bookstores shelves. I had fallen for a POD, published on demand. I was able to cancel my contract and got the rights to my novel back but two years later I find my novel is still being advertised on the web by the same POD company and I didn't even make a hundred dollars off of it yet. I learned from my mistake and shared this with the forum to hopefully save others from this same mistake. I'd like to hear from others who have had a publishing story happen to them or the dreaded rejection letter.