2020 Finalists

Hi everyone -- In my 'other' life, I am a ceramic artist. Working in the studio and selling work are two different animals. But writing and getting published are worse. Getting an agent is difficult, and even when you do, getting a major publisher is a long shot.

I have a contract from Spectrum, an award from Page Turner. As far as small publisher contracts I'm told it's fair and typical. But the decision to sign is huge. Rights to the work is signed over for seven years. Does signing with Spectrum curtail opportunity with a more traditional publisher when I finish the sequel? Can I buy the rights back? How do they determine that value? So many questions.

Any comments? How are you approaching this?

Hi, Wckauf,

I'm pretty much in the same boat as you with a small indie publisher contract for seven year and a finalist award for my debut book. Since my publisher accepted my book, also the first of a series, I've not worried about the long term ownership of the rights. Being published by a traditional publisher (large or small), gives one's work the literary stamp of approval. If I held my own rights, I'd still have to do as much marketing in either case. The only benefit would come from the size of royalties/profit from each sale if I had instead self-published. But then I would have had to have paid for the cover, editing, etc. Letting an established publisher hold the rights and do the basic work is worth giving up the rights to the series. After all, the odds of getting an agent, and then getting picked up by one of the big five, and my series "taking off", are not good for 99% of books out there in my opinion. If my series does really well and a large publishing house wants to take over the series, they'd negotiate the purchase of the rights and get them, I believe. But that would be a real long shot!