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Regnery Publishing: Boon & Bane, Part II |
Well, now Alfred Regnery, former publisher at Regnery (and still a board member), now calls the lawsuit by the disgruntled authors frivolous. Here's what he said in his blog at the American Spectator, where he is now publisher:
"The merits of the lawsuit are hardly worth discussing. To anyone in the book publishing industry they're laughable. I'm a lawyer and know that the contracts they signed are clear and transparent, and are similar to the contracts used throughout the industry. I also know that Regnery puts marketing muscle and expertise behind its books like nobody else in the business -- something that each of the five authors involved benefited from enormously. These disgruntled authors are, perversely, complaining about that muscle. But it's one of the reasons why Regnery has the success it does in putting conservative books where the New York Times doesn't want them -- on its bestseller list."
One, he is correct, Regnery has put a lot of conservatives on the bestseller list. In that sense, they are a boon to conservative authors.
But, two, Regnery, like so many of the larger publishers, offers a contract that is not at all clear or transparent. Regnery should not get off the hook for offering a bad contract to authors. Neither should any of the other large publishers. They offer bad contracts that no author should sign without heavy negotiation. Agents have been doing authors a huge disservice for years allowing authors to sign such author-unfriendly contracts.
Regnery failed to discuss at all the central points of the lawsuit: the self-selling of Regnery books to Eagle at discounts that offer the authors little to no royalty. These sales do not affect the New York Times list. They are simply ways for Regnery to take advantage of authors who sign contracts that are not in any way clear, especially when publishers sell books to themselves at discounts totally out of range of honest business practices.
Posh, again, on Regnery for such self-serving deals.
Posh, again, on the authors for not reading their contracts more carefully and signing what they did. Al is correct in saying that the contracts they signed "are similar to the contracts used throughout the industry." As an industry member, I am not at all proud of that statement. Regnery should also be ashamed.
Posh, again, on the agents that allow authors to sign such bad contracts.
I really do wish publishers would treat authors better. That is the one point Regnery completely ignored. Why would he be happy that the key contributors to the content Regnery publishes are unhappy? What does that say about him as a board member? Let's call the authors fools so we don't have to deal with them anymore. Sad.Labels: agents, author contracts, authors, bad contracts, book authors, literary agents, Regnery, small book publishers |
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Regnery: A Boon and a Bane |
Conservative book publisher Regnery is being sued by some of its bestselling authors because it doesn't play fair with them. Regnery gives its authors a paltry, paltry, paltry royalty on books it sells to itself or gives away to its customers (via its Eagle-affiliated sister companies). Now the authors are mad and suing Regnery.
Posh on Regnery for giving publishers a bad name. Their treatment of authors on this issue is shameful. And then a lawyer for Regnery had the temerity to say, "These disgruntled authors object to marketing strategies used by all major book publishers that have proved successful time and again as witnessed by dozens of Regnery bestsellers." When what the authors objected to was not the marketing, but the self-dealing, author-robbing, underhanded, bogus deals Regnery makes with its sister companies.
Posh, of course, on the authors for signing such bad contracts in the first place. When are authors actually going to read the contracts publishers give them and negotiate the hell out of those contracts. Because, believe me, every publishing contract offered by a big publisher is full of such self-dealing, author-robbing, underhanded dealings -- even when those publishers are not selling to themselves like Regnery/Eagle does.
I don't object to publishers robbing authors blind -- if they admit to doing so. But they never do. Personally, I believe authors deserve such underhandedness for their inability to read and negotiate decent contracts.
Posh, of course, also to the agents that let authors sign such contracts. Posh, and be gone to such agents. Posh, posh, and be gone.
Well, now that I've angered authors, publishers, and agents, I guess I should attack the media and booksellers as well. That way I could get everyone in the industry mad at me. But I won't. At least not today.Labels: agents, author contracts, authors, contracts, Eagle Publishing, literary agents, Regnery |
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Copywriting Manuscripts |
A week ago, I spoke at the Learning Annex in Los Angeles to a group of about 30 authors. During my talk, I told the authors that they did not have to copyright their book before sending the manuscript out to publishers.
First, putting a copyright notice on your manuscripts marks you as an amateur.
Second, some editors will not look at a manuscript that has a copyright notice because if the publisher ends up publishing a similar book, the author will accuse the publisher of stealing (when, in truth, there's a good chance that the publisher might already have a similar book in the works).
Third, publishers hate dealing with paranoid authors. I've seen manuscripts sent to publishers where there was a big copyright notice on every page. Yuk.
Fourth, publishers can buy authors for less money than it would cost them to steal the author's book idea. Why? Because most authors are desperate to be published and sign bad contracts. And because the publisher would have to hire a professional writer to rework the book if they were going to steal the book idea. That would always be more expensive than buying the rights from a debut author.
Fifth, every manuscript is already protected by copyright without a copyright notice or official copyright submission.
Note: When an author signs a contract with a publisher, they should make sure the book is copyrighted in their (the author's) name. A very few publishers do try to sneak in a copyright under their name.
Well, one of the participants questioned my advice about copyrights.
She wrote me the following:
One of my contacts through The Hampton's Writer's Table asked his editor friends at the following book publishers about whether it was considered amateur to copyright a book. Their responses follow. John, with all due respect for you and your success, I must comment that advising novice writers to avoid copyrighting their material is..., well, the overwhelming response from the table was that you really shouldn't tell people such things, even if it is common practice among some publishers.
Meredith Books — I can't imagine that would be a turn off, but I don't know for sure. Sorry.
Simon & Schuster — I wouldn't think so… I doubt that anyone would pay much attention to it.
Dutton — No taboo. It's fine for authors to copyright their work.
Well, I still disagree. My experience with many, many editors and publishers is that they don't like working with amateur authors and putting a big copyright notice on a manuscript submission is a clear sign of an amateur. Professionals know they are protected.
It doesn't mean that you can't copyright the manuscript if you are really paranoid. If you must, you must, but don't make a big production of it. One small copyright notice on the title page is all you need. No extra verbiage. No paranoid wording. Simply the standard copyright notice: Copyright 2007 by John Kremer. You can use the copyright symbol, but I don't know how to get blogger to enter that into a blog entry.
But, again, here is my basic point: Publishers will not steal from an author. It simply doesn't make sense. Authors are far too paranoid. That paranoia if too explicit will turn off publishers.
Having said all that, if you'd like to see a list of more than 400 editors at major publishers who have bought a first novel from a new writer within the past two years, go here: http://www.bookmarket.com/newnovels.htm.Labels: amateur writers, authors, contracts, copyrights, Learning Annex, manuscripts, paranoia, professional writers, publishers |
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The best author website I've seen in a long, long time |
Here is a link to the best author website I've seen in a long, long time. It probably took the author an hour or two to put it together (probably longer than that to think of it and do some of the writing). What a fantastic idea!
See it here: http://www.noonebelongsheremorethanyou.com.
I wrote the above before I finished reading the entire site (takes about six minutes to read the entire site). Apparently, using her primitive technology, some things did take a bit more time, but she eventually discovered a faster way.
Please note that she does send you to another of her websites that is not nearly as good. Indeed, for book promotion or easy of reading, it doesn't work at all. To order the book, she sends you to Amazon.com. I think a lot of people will order her book. I'm certainly tempted.Labels: authors, creating a website fast, photos on websites, websites, yum yum |
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