a publishing company wants to publish my first novel and intends to split the costs of production with me 50/50.
Is this normal? I've asked my country's author's society but they won't give me an answer until next week and the publisher wants to sign the contract ASAP.
What's the point of a publishing company then? Might as well do it yourself.
Wait bedore signing the contract. 50% manafacturing costs is likely beyond your means.
I want to be published, I don't want to do an author's edition. Their reasoning is that, because it's my first novel, it's a financial risk. Other novels I'd write, they'll bear all the costs.
Also, they say they can put me in FNAC stores and book stores across the country and that's kind of important to me. People in my country buy a lot of books in FNAC stores.
It's really not actually. my half is 2600 euros which I can pay.
I really want to be happy but I feel I should be cautious.
Si tu peux payer fais le, un livre n'est de toute facon pas fait pour gagner des thunes, c'est un livre de quoi ?
I'm not french. what is Thunes? Could you post again in english please?
No, that is not normal. A legitimate publisher won't make you pay a cent, because they judge your work good enough to net them money. Turn the publisher down, and focus on getting an agent for your work, who can then find a reputable publisher for it. If it's good enough.
ho sorry i assumed you were since fnac is french, anyway i think you should do it, you're not writing a book to get money out of it, think of it as a gift to yourself
I used to work for a vanity publisher.
If you said you can only afford a partial payment right now, I have no doubt they would "make it work".
Thanks for your opinion. I understand that. This is a very small publisher and recent publisher and they publish a lot of shit, mainly books from people who want that ego trip. They have an editorial board though, and members of their editorial board, who work for other reputable publishers, told that my book was a lot better than the average stuff they publish and that they should publish my book. It's a first book, I don't inted to make a lot of money out of it - or hardly any money at all. I just want to be published, and being able to put my book on large retailers and book stores - that exposure - is worth more than the dream of having a yes from a more classical publisher, I think. The main goal is to be published, really, to break that barrier.
Thanks for your opinion. It's not really a gift to myself. I want to have a career in writing, I want to be a writer, period. I see it more as a necessary first step to enter the literary world.
a good test would be asking this and asking for references from some of their currently published authors.
What do you mean?
And yes, it's partly a vanity publisher but first edition numbers being printed are good for the market (in my country) and I do see their books in the web pages of bigger book stores.
the covers are atrocious, though. I'll try to make mine a little more aesthetic with a graphic designer who's a friend of mine.
That's not an opinion he's giving you, those are facts. You seem intent on getting scammed for some reason despite the warning signs being obvious.
I mean they will drop the sales price as a way to get you (or your money) in the door.
So you think I should say no?
Maybe I can negotiate.
Thank you. you guys are being super helpful. As long as I don't sign anything I'm still good. I just feel I should rush towards the dream. Have had a few rejections before, of course... might have me extra thirsty.
I meant that if they drop the price they are reeling you in, and that shows a dedication to money, not to quality.
That's how these scams work, by tell you you're special when you're feeling down about rejections so you buy into it. Getting something published that an actual, non-vanity publisher will publish is breaking the wall, paying someone to publish your work, when it's not even good enough to publish traditionally, is not and will just make you look foolish. Both for being scammed and for putting out a sub-par piece of work.
Thank you. I'll be extra careful. I've already submitted the contract that was given to me to my country's author society. I won't do it unless I have a clearly defined plan made by the publisher.
Thank you everyone for cooling my head a bit.
I imagine they'll tell you what we have, which is why the "publisher" is trying to push you to sign before you find out. The sooner you sign the less time you have to research and consider your options.
Obviously a scam. You're retarded if you couldn't figure that out yourself.
Thanks. I'm starting to realize it now.
I used to work at a vanity publisher. We would charge about 1k to create a website for the individual, and do a hardcover short expose on their business. We would then run them another 3-400 on overages.
The website was generated by alogorithm after a chinese data monkey poked in some data, and the "hardcover" was a digitally generated package that was posted on twitter. Our "shared" expenses were around 40 bucks a package not including my pay.
What about the book itself?
We would bind like 40 of them together and charge an extra 200 for it