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Payments and
Contracts
The anthologies I
publish offer shared royalties. That usually makes writers leery. But I'm a
writer first; I know what it's like to be told "shared royalties" and
never know if you get them.
I offer open-ended contracts, and I offer a
lot of money—typically $500 and up. My goal is to build a stable of niche
titles that, while they might not sell a million copies, will sell a few
copies a month and eventually generate revenues.
What this means is that, once an anthology
makes back the money I put into it, any profits are divvied up amongst the
contributors. In this way, if it takes 10 years to sell enough copies for
the contributors to make their contracted amount, fine; at least the
contract continues.
However, nobody is guaranteed to make
anything. If an anthology never sells enough copies to pay for itself,
then we all lose. It's a big world out there; POD makes it inexpensive and
possible for everyone to publish books. The problem is, everyone DOES
publish books, and the vast majority of them aren't very good. They need
editing, they need better layouts, they need better writing. It makes it
easy for those who have been unable to sell their works to put them out
there and satisfy their egos.
My anthologies are about quality and art.
They won't make us rich (although that would be nice), but they'll have
longevity, and they'll be well done. |
