She cited concerns of her lack of control over such items as the cover. Rose’s erotic romance story focuses on BBW - Big Beautiful Women - and she did not want a thin girl on the cover.
Money and exclusitivity were the other deciding factors. From The Guardian:
“Rose was offered $5k, with 35% royalties, a post by the author on Reddit confirmed . But that turned out to be "less than I had made in my first month of sales", Rose wrote on her blog.
“She added that Amazon "couldn't guarantee anything – from cover image to pricing to marketing … ‘As I looked through the Montlake catalogue, I saw a mix of breakout hits and complete flops … And I would have to pull my book from every publisher except Amazon.’”
I’ve always been leery of exclusitivity on Amazon and wouldn’t want to take a pay cut either.
Several of you are self-published - would you have signed the contract?
Today I leave you with some silly inspiration:
"A little help please? I think I'm stuck."
33 comments:
No way would I sign that contract. Smart cookie, her!
Love the cat in the box!
Hmm. Well, not if I'd made so much self-publishing the book first.
Those royalties are better than other trad publishers...but the main issue here is the exclusivity. That's a real problem with this contract.
I think Aubrey made the right decision. After all, she doesn't need Amazon in order to be succesful.
In the end we have to be true to our work and do what is financially savvy, so she absolutely did what was best.
Good for her! Nice to hear she's making such great $ indie pubbing! Love it :)
Yup, I think for her she made the right decision. The book cover is very important too.
Elizabeth, that would be my biggest issue.
She was wise to turn it down. $5K isn't much of an advance for handing over the rights to a book that has proven sales.
I find news like this to be so interesting and often wonder what I'd do in the author's shoes. Thanks for posting!
Are you sure he wouldn't like a bit of milk with that cereal? lolol!
As for Montlake...I don't know if I would or wouldn't. It's something I'd have to really look at, weigh the facts and decide. One of the things would be their marketing ability but for sure exclusive would only be for that piece...food for thought.
Sia McKye OVER COFFEE
She crunched the numbers and made a smart financial decision. AND she gets to keep control of all the aspects of her book. It sounds to me like she chose well.
Sounds like she's doing well on her own!
Mary Montague Sikes
She made the right decision as she is doing well on her own.
better on your own, my opinion.
Examples like this are interesting to read. It sounds like 1) she was smart and did her homework so she knew what odds were in her favor and 2) trusted her gut to take the leap on her own. It paid off. I think applying those two steps are the best any of us can do.
I would have definitely turned it down if I was making more per month on my own than their offer.
Will Amazon swallow everyone and everything?
Susan, Amazon is trying to swallow everything. If it does, then authors are in serious trouble.
Love the cat!
I most likely would not have signed that contract. I don't see the wisdom of offering less than proven market value without offering something else to compensate.
Smart author! And the cat. . .well, the jury's out on that one. However, I'm trying to think of a book I could write that would have this on the cover.
I will keep checking out your photo site then.
Hugs and chocolate,
Shelly
She was right not to sign, I mean they could at least give her some power with the cover. Along with better payment but publishers need to start leeway somewhere. Glad you feel encouraged to continue your venture and that picture was funny. Poor cat.
What a great post! I enjoyed learning more about the self-publishing world and it seems like she made the right choice. The comments from everyone were very helpful! Thanks!
Also- love the picture of the cat in the box. :)
~Jess
Lee, jury says not so smart cat.
Not a chance. I'm glad she did better the first month alone.
I'm outlining a new book and I'm going to change the color from gray to black. Cute, but deadly.
I think she made the right decision. If she's doing that well with sales, there's no reason she should have to give up part of her royalties by signing a contract.
In hindsight, she definitely made the right decisions but, for me, I might have taken the deal.
Of course, I've never published before so what do I know? :)
Hi Diane,
I most definitely would not have signed such a contract. Everything I write is done my way or no way.
Hopefully, the cat's out of the bag...
Gary
I definitely wouldn't have signed with Amazon if I hadn't been offered at least as much as I could have made myself self-publishing. I think she made the right decision for her. That said, Amazon does have huge marketing power...
Tough call. She made the right decision if she wants to keep control of distribution/content, but the promotion will continue to be her job as well.
Stephen, cute but deadly - LOL!
Gary, after humiliating him with several photos. I pulled the box off his head.
Though she made the right decision for herself, I may have signed!
Go, Aubrey!
That cat looks like mine. I might be tempted to leave him there, so he stops meandering through the food in my cabinets. He/she is very cute, though.
Be well, Spunk.
xoRobyn
Cats and their love of boxes.
I think she made the right decision.
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