I finished draft three of BAD PENNY last week and have updated the progress bars.
I’ve given the book to my agent, but because there are some contract terms that I’m unwilling to sign going forward, I need to make sure she’s comfortable representing me on it. I don’t want her doing a lot of work and bringing back what she thinks is a good deal only to have me refuse it. I’d rather discuss these up front and make sure we’re both on the same page. I hope to have her response back this week.
I am now turning my focus to SERVANT and CURSE. I need to re-read both of them and then write up an outline of what I need to revise. I hope to finish SERVANT in June and CURSE in July. I’ll post my progress on the side bars as I go.
The cover artist I’d hoped to use for both of these is unavailable at this time, dang it! So I’m currently reviewing candidates. If you know of an up-and-coming artist who you think would be good, click on the Contact Me link under my photo in the sidebar or post it in the comments.
John, is there any chance you could say more about the contract terms you are trying to avoid, and perhaps about what changed with your previous Tor situation? I’d be interested to know what I should be on the lookout for in the future. Of course, I understand if you’d prefer not to discuss specifics, but I thought I might ask.
Greg,
With the Tor situation, it really was the vision thing and delays as I described in the post about that.
With the contract terms, a good explanation of the issues can be found on http://www.kriswrites.com. Look for the deal breaker posts in her publishing page. Read them all.
For me specifically, it’s a money versus what I get for the money. If someone wants to pay me boatloads of money and averages a lot of units sold, I’m willing to take 25% of net on ebooks (the industry standard right now) AND promise not to publish anything else in the series we’re working on together until I’ve delivered my manuscript. Heck, maybe until they put out their hardback. And I’ll be okay binding myself to them for a couple of books. But that’s only for LOTS of money. I DON’T want to do that for a low offer.
My understanding is that romance novel authors get an average of $4-5k on a book. The average for SFF authors is $7k. My advance from Tor was more. But I need to know what’s common in the thriller market. If it’s low, I’m not going to do it because I think I can do as good for myself going indie. If it’s substantially higher, then I think it will be worth while.