Traditional V. New Digital Publishing: Fight!

[mizkit]

I have a perpetual case of “Ooh, shiny!” in terms of wanting to do new projects; everyone, I think, knows that at this point. (And I am doing my damndest to keep it under control, but nevermind that right now.) Part of this is because new things are fun; part of it is unquestionably financially motivated.

At EasterCon, I was talking with Walter Jon

Comments

[chrysoula]

So... here's what gets me about the traditional publishing situation

[mizkit]

A month to get the contract ironed out? Really? Because, presumably, the contract has all sorts of things in it that publishers slip in as a matter of course and a contract-expert needs to slip right out again, etc, etc, yes?

Yes. And publishers are not above handing a boilerplate contract out in hopes of slipping one past one's agent, even if said agent always makes *at least* the same changes--a boilerplate of her own--and so on and so forth. And there are at least three people involved, generally: writer, agent, editor, where 'editor' may involve 'entire publishing team', as far as I can tell.

[idancewithlife]

Off topic (sort of), but I wanted to tell you that I backed _No Dominion_ because it sounded interesting. Before I read ND, I got all the rest of the Urban Shaman series on audiobook and *LOVED* them. They had twists I didn't expect, I wasn't sure until it happened who she was going to hook up with (although I suspected and hoped), the friendships in them are amazing, and the portrayal of magic is positive and accurate (based on the reading I've done) without being "cultist" in any way. My favorite was probably _Spirit Dances_ because...well, Morrison as a wolf...but also because of the whole idea of the dances as a way to heal society. I finished all of them in a couple of weeks and am now going through severe withdrawal waiting for the next one (I did find and read the shorts, also). I plan to read your other books as well (or listen to them), but I just wanted to fangirl squee a little, and tell you I'd certainly back any crowdfunding project you do for Urban Shaman, and probably for anything else at this point :-)

[mizkit]

Oh, <3. That is so cool. There's no real way for me to tell (unless someone like you tells me!) whether completely new readers came in through NO DOMINION, so wow, that's *awesome*. Thank you! <3

Truth is, aside from something as unique as NO DOMINION, anything Walker-Papers-related is likely to be sold to my publisher, rather than crowdfunded. :)

[idancewithlife]

I'll read them no matter how you get them to us. :-)

[deborahblakehps]

Publishing. Oy. A whole lot of hurry up and wait :-)

[burger_eater]

I think one of the benefits of putting out a book by yourself is that you can time it with a traditional release. Self-publish a month before your next NY book and let the backlist bump put extra dough in your pocket from that other new book.

Alternately, self-publish a month or two after the NY book and puff up the sales for your publisher.

As Tim Pratt said on Twitter, his traditionally published books are becoming loss leaders for his self-published ones.

[mizkit]

I've seen Tim say that too, yeah. That's kind of crazy. Welcome to the future. :)