Exploring Books, Life, and Writing
It’s a myth that coauthoring is easier than single authoring.
What every editor knows and few authors know is the myth of coauthoring. The myth stated simply is: Coauthoring is better, easier, quicker and less work than single authoring a book. The myth is false on almost all counts. Yet it persists. Why?
Continue reading “The Myths of Coauthoring”
I suspect that many readers of this blog have already run into the excellent article in the latest issue of Christianity Today on the state of Christian bookstores. (Full disclosure: The article is written by Cindy Crosby, wife of IVP Associate Publisher for Sales and Marketing, Jeff Crosby.)
Obviously there have been big changes in the world of Christian retailing in the last ten years. As Crosby writes, “The CBA (formerly the Christian Booksellers Association), a Colorado Springs-based trade association for retailers, says that as recently as the mid-’80s it had 3,000 members of an estimated 4,000 Christian retail stores. Today CBA has 1,813 members of an estimated 2,800 stores.”
Competition from big box stores and the Internet have forced many out of business. But not all is doom and gloom. Many are thriving with creative strategies and programs. Check it out.
At the core of every publishing project is the author contract. Here are some more tips from Tom Woll, author of Publishing for Profit, a book I’ve been reviewing serially over the past few months.
Continue reading “Putting Out a Contract”
Everyone is hailing it as a great innovation in publishing. Actually, it’s just an excellent example of bringing back a very old idea in a new context.
Continue reading “After a Hundred and Fifty Years, It Just Might Work Again”
Several years ago I loved reading The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes.
For my reading tastes it was the perfect combination of science, history, politics and World War II.
One thing that struck me, however, was how time and again during the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-centuries brilliant physicists like Niels Bohr would get stuck on a problem for months or even years. After working tirelessly they finally were compelled to take a vacation and—boom (metaphorically)—the solution would come. Remarkably, the author never pointed out the pattern.
Continue reading “Why You Should Leave Work”
Those who are biblically literate know that Genesis doesn’t say what kind of fruit Adam and Eve ate. No matter. Centuries of artists have known it was an apple. An apple with a bite out of it. Thus evil entered the world.
So the recent Wired Magazine article by Leander Kahney should come as no surprise.
Continue reading “Evil/Genius”
I met a pastor recently who introduced himself this way: “Hi, I’m John.” (Not his real name.)
“Hi, John,” I said.
“I buy books,” he replied. It was the beginning of a sad tale that sounds like fiction, except that it is true. John confessed that he didn’t just buy books. He was addicted to book buying. In fact, he had already bought over 850 of IVP’s 1200 books in print and was closing in on the rest. That doesn’t include Bible study guides or booklets, though he’s sorely tempted to pick those up as well. “Just to complete the set, you know,” he said. “Like Pokemon. Gotta catch ’em all.”
Continue reading “A Gentle Madness”
Perhaps the least number-oriented species of human being is that of editors.* Figures, subtotals, net present value, gross margin are as nothing in their sight. So should we just consign editors to the outer darkness of a numberless eternity? Is there to be no accounting for editors?
Continue reading “Is There No Accounting for Editors?”
Copyright is one of the more difficult and complicated concepts to wrap your mind around. That’s largely because it has to do with an intangible object—intellectual property. Over the years I’ve tried a variety of ways to explain it to authors and others. Here’s one of the best I’ve used.
Copyright is like real estate. If you own a piece of property, there are two things you can do with it to get some dinero. First, you can sell the property. Second, you can rent it.
If you sell the property, you are relinquishing all rights to the property in exchange for some greenbacks. The new owner may build a skyscraper on the land and make a gazillion samoleans (or lose same). In either case, it has nothing to do with you. You are not helped or harmed because you have no legal interest in the land anymore.
If you rent the property, you agree to allow someone to use the land for a certain amount of time for certain purposes in exchange for an agreed amount of shekels. But since you have transfered certain rights to the renter, you can’t just do anything with the property you choose. You can’t rent it out to someone else at the same time figuring you can get twice the rent. You can’t tear down the building on the property. At the same time you still have certain obligations. Likely you have to keep the building in good repair. In any case you still own the land.
With copyright you can also sell or rent. A work for hire is like selling your land. You transfer full, irrevocable ownership of and rights to the work you’ve created to someone else for some dead presidents. The new owner may make a mint or may crash and burn. You aren’t helped or hurt by this because you no longer have any rights in it.
Work for hire agreements are often used with employees (who get their salary in exchange for the intellectual property they create on the job). Freelancers often sign a work for hire agreement to do some work that is part of a larger work or collection.
You can also rent your copyright. You transfer certain rights for a certain period of time. But again, after having signed such a “rental” agreement, you can’t do anything you like with it. In many book contracts, all rights are transferred from the creator to the “renter” (or publisher). Now the publisher can exploit the work in a variety of ways and is obligated to compensate you, the creator, as agreed. You are limited in what you can do on your own with the work by the terms of the publishing agreement you have signed.
Now the work itself may be copyrighted in your name (indicating that you are the owner), but because of your (rental) publishing agreement, what happens to your work is now in the hands of another until the agreement comes to an end. That could happen when the work goes out of print or when some other event happens as defined in the agreement, such as the publisher failing to fulfill certain terms of the agreement.
So real estate and copyright. The analogy works for me. What about you?
When Chris got the report back about the manuscript, he knew it wouldn’t be good news for the author. While there was much to commend, the end result was that the whole manuscript would have to be rewritten. It had simply been done from the wrong perspective and wouldn’t work for the intended audience. And it wasn’t just one report that came to this conclusion. It was three.
So as the editor, Chris knew what he had to do. He called the author and asked if they could meet and talk about the reports. A time and date were set. When they got together, Chris was able to smile warmly and genuinely express what he appreciated and then deliver the no doubt unwelcome news that a large amount of work yet remained. He closed with appreciation again for the author’s hard work already.
The editor was following a principle I heard many years ago that applies well beyond the realm of editing: The worse the news, the more personal the communication should be; the better the news, the more permanent the communication should be.
So if you’ve got bad news to deliver, do it in person or (if that is not possible) on the phone. If it is good news, do it in e-mail or (preferably and if time allows) a handwritten note.
The message of good news offered in writing allows the receiver to reread it and come back to the compliment, word of praise, comment of thanks or report of good results more than once. It has a lasting, tangible quality that makes it feel more permanent. If it is spoken, it can easily fade from memory. Certainly we often want to–and it is appropriate to–get good news to people quickly, and in person is often best for that. But following that up with a note is a good idea.
With bad news, it is tempting to fire off an e-mail or letter and not have to face the unhappy recipient so directly. That may help you not feel so bad, but it won’t help the person you are contacting. With the personal touch, people are more likely to be responsive to what you have to say. At the least, one hopes they will feel they were treated with some respect.
The personal meeting between Chris and the author made all the difference. Certainly, that was not what the author wanted to hear. But because it was delivered in a personal, human way, the message was palatable. Work on revising the book began very soon.