News & Blog
Publishing Books
Writing | Posted by Carole on Wednesday 28 February 2007
I got an email from a reader who asked me if it costs anything to get a book published. I thought it was a good question and other aspiring writers might be interested to know the answer.
A writer doesn’t have to pay a publisher to print their book. Writers have expenses of course (I have to pay for paper, ink cartridges, books, train fare to the library etc.), but when a publisher accepts a book that you have written or has commissioned you to write, they pay you for the right to publish the book. The writer gets an ‘advance’, an amount of money before the book is in the shops. (Though it usually isn’t enough to live on for a year or however long it takes to write the book.) Then the writer gets a percentage of the money earned from book sales.
It is the publisher who pays to get all those books printed. They are the ones who invest money in a book. I only invest my time. The publisher pays for the paper the books are printed on (an expensive item for a print run of thousands of books), cover design, marketing, distribution etc.
Some people think that it is the writer who owns all the books that you see in the shops. That’s not the case. Though the writer still owns the story, it is the publisher who owns the actual books. As part of the contract between the writer and the publisher, the writer gets a number of free books (I get 20).
Self-publishing is another way to get a book published. That’s when you pay for the printing yourself. I don’t know much about self-publishing, but I imagine that (unless you are very rich) you would print something like 500 books, a lot less than a publishing company would print.
Comments (9)
Ned’s Letter
News | Posted by Carole on Friday 9 February 2007
With all my attention on getting Dragon Moon finished, I haven’t mentioned my latest book: Ned Kelly’s Jerilderie Letter. This is the second book in black dog books’ series called True Tales. [For readers outside Australia, Ned Kelly was a bushranger (outlaw, bank robber, cattle thief) who is nevertheless something of an Australian hero.]
So if Ned wrote the letter and Dean drew the illustrations (I hear you say), why is my name on the cover of the book? Well I edited it, took out the repetition, added some much-needed punctuation, clarified a few points. The original letter is a rabbling rant. I tried to make it easier to read. Ned had a real way with words, so I tried to retain his wicked sense of humour and wonderful turn of phrase. The letter gives us a window into the mind of this (in)famous Australian. Gives us an idea of what made Ned tick.
This is what the cover looks like. There are some illustrations from the book on the black dog books site. The State Library of Victoria owns the original letter. On the library website, there is a soundscape that enacts the activities at Jerilderie when Ned wrote the letter.
PS Garden of the Purple Dragon was published in UK on 2 Feb, along with the paperback version of Dragon Keeper.
Comments (5)
Dragon Moon at the printers
News | Posted by Carole on Wednesday 7 February 2007
Dragon Moon has finally gone to the printers. We had put the finishing touches to it on Sunday night, fiddling around with maps etc. Then at 4 am on Tuesday morning I was woken by a loud noise. I sent my husband to investigate. I have this bell, given to me by Korean friends, that is suspended from the mouth of a brass dragon. It’s quite heavy. A large book on Egyptian archeology had chosen that moment to fall sideways and knock the bell off my bookshelf.
As I lay there trying to get back to sleep, something popped into my head. I realised there was a mistake in the book. Not a big one, but something I wanted to fix. Ali, my long-suffering editor, was very calm when I rang and told her. (Though I’m sure she was less calm on the inside.) I suppose printers must be used to this sort of last minute drama and factor in time to allow for it. We were able to make the changes and now the book is definitely “at the printers”.