1. West Orange High School
March 25, 2019

2. Intro J.A. Sutherland & Richard Grantham www.darkspace.press Books
Focus on business, not craft
Why talk about money?

3. J.A. Sutherland www.alexiscarew.com
>100,000 copies sold since 11/2014
>90% read through rate (Book 2 to Book 3)
>$350,000 earnings (through 2018)
J.A. Sutherland

4. Taxes and Storytelling
What does this have to do with storytelling?
How much are taxes?
Keep your receipts
Startup expenses

5. Craft & Writing
“Everything said applies mostly to the speaker, their genre, their writing process, their books, their experience, and only to the best of their knowledge at that particular point in time, and may not be at all applicable to you, your process, your market, or your story.”
-- The disclaimer I wish would pop up over the speaker’s head at every writers’ workshop
Example:
Cut in editing

7. The Writing Habit 1000 words / day 300,000 words / year
3 – 100,000 word novels
Form the habit
Keep the habit
It’s hard.
Train yourself:
Specific time
Specific place
Train your brain “When we are here at this time we write words.”

10. Critiques, Workshops, Conventions
Remember the caveat: Everything you hear is what works for them.
Workshop participants tend to be about how they would write the story.

11. My process … Try to write every day, 1000 words
First draft is in Scrivener (
Edit the whole story in Word
Two editors
Write in the morning, then edit and market later in the day

12. So now you have a story finished …
Perfect
Done is better than perfect
Minimum viable product

14. Making the decision … Are there norms for your genre?
Can you run a business? (Hint: You have to either way)
Do you understand the money difference?
The $500 myth
If you submit to publishers, you can always take it indie – not so much the other way

15. SCAMS Money goes from publisher to author, not the other way around.
If a “publisher” asks for money, run.
There are legit self-publishing “packages”, but they’re few and far between and you’re better off finding good providers yourself.

16. Traditional Process Complete manuscript Write a cover letter
Submit to agents
Wait

17. Start thinking like you’re paying them …
Reader buys your book for $10
You pay the Store $3
You pay the Publisher $5.25
You pay the Agent $0.25
You keep $1.50
$100, (10,000 copies)
$30,000
$52,500
$2,500
$15,000
$5000-$10,000 advance

18. Self-publishing Reader buys your book for $5 $50,000 (10,000 copies)
You pay the Store $1.50
You keep $3.50
You paid for a cover: $600
You paid for editing: $ $4000
$50, (10,000 copies)
$15,000
$35,000
$34,400
$30,000

19. Agents Bias and incentives Contract review & negotiation? Um …

20. Lawyers Work for you Paid one time
Can be fired without continuing to pay
Know the law

21. Publishers Have lawyers Are not your friend Have a short-term view
How much did we make last quarter?
Your mindset should be longer
Life plus 70

22. Contract Clauses
“The Publisher shall have the sole discretion to determine what, if any, promotional services the Publisher may perform for the work …”

23. Non-compete Clauses
“The Author agrees that during the terms of this Agreement he will not, without the written permission of the Publisher, publish or authorize to be published any work under this name or any other, including blog posts, short stories, nonfiction articles, novels or the like.”

24. Pride and Prejudice and Seth Grahame-Smith’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Book Contract
$4 million contract
Okayed by an agent
who made $600k
Reserve Against
Returns clause

25. Indie You have control … … which comes with responsibility
It’s full of contracts …
Covers
Editing
Publishing
Rights
No advance, you pay for cover & editing
Cover photo license
Royalty split company
Chinese company
Short story contest
allromanceebooks

26. Copyright Life of the author plus 70 years Exists at creation
Register it anyway
You sell pieces
First serial rights
Worldwide English language audio rights for seven years
Film options
Graphic novel rights
Merchandising rights

27. Indie Process Buy a cover Find an editor Format Upload Market
Write your next book

28. Why you shouldn’t write
You’re too young

29. Why you shouldn’t write
You can’t make a living as a writer

33. Visibility

34. You are running a business
Income/expenses
Taxes
Advertising/marketing
Self-published
Editors
Cover design
Contracts (and have reviewed by an attorney)

35. It’s hard. The habit of writing is hard. Editing is hard.
Marketing is hard.
Submitting to agents is hard.
Rejections/1-star reviews are hard.
Finding an editor is hard.
All of these are generally easier than most jobs.

36. How? Set and keep your writing habits. Read widely.
Read in your genre(s).
Know what you’re writing about.
Travel and experience things.
Talk to other authors.
Writers’ conferences and workshops. (keep in mind the caveat)
Understand your market.

37. Think about your favorite author.

38. Resoures www.darkspace.press Sutherland@AlexisCarew.com
(dangerous)
(strong bias against tradpub)
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