Friday, August 09, 2013

Self-Published Author Turns Down Publishing Deal with Amazon

Aubrey Rose turned down an offer from Amazon’s Montlake Press for her self-published title Me, Cinderella?

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?


Thank you for the response on Wednesday’s POST to my announcement of adding stock photos to the list of services I offer. I will continue to add more photos to my site over the coming months, so check back.




Today I leave you with some silly inspiration:


"A little help please? I think I'm stuck."

33 comments:

randi lee said...

No way would I sign that contract. Smart cookie, her!

Elizabeth Spann Craig said...

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.

Vanessa Morgan said...

I think Aubrey made the right decision. After all, she doesn't need Amazon in order to be succesful.

Steven said...

In the end we have to be true to our work and do what is financially savvy, so she absolutely did what was best.

Jemi Fraser said...

Good for her! Nice to hear she's making such great $ indie pubbing! Love it :)

Jo said...

Yup, I think for her she made the right decision. The book cover is very important too.

L. Diane Wolfe said...

Elizabeth, that would be my biggest issue.

Karen Jones Gowen said...

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.

Jess said...

I find news like this to be so interesting and often wonder what I'd do in the author's shoes. Thanks for posting!

~Sia McKye~ said...

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

Robin said...

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.

Notes Along the Way with Mary Montague Sikes said...

Sounds like she's doing well on her own!

Mary Montague Sikes

Rachna Chhabria said...

She made the right decision as she is doing well on her own.

Unknown said...

better on your own, my opinion.

Unknown said...

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.

Susan Gourley/Kelley said...

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?

L. Diane Wolfe said...

Susan, Amazon is trying to swallow everything. If it does, then authors are in serious trouble.

Carol Kilgore said...

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.

cleemckenzie said...

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.

Frustratedmama said...

I will keep checking out your photo site then.

Hugs and chocolate,
Shelly

Sheena-kay Graham said...

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.

DMS said...

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

L. Diane Wolfe said...

Lee, jury says not so smart cat.

Stephen Tremp said...

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.

Sherry Ellis said...

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.

Mark Means said...

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? :)

klahanie said...

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

Talli Roland said...

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...

Anonymous said...

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.

L. Diane Wolfe said...

Stephen, cute but deadly - LOL!

Gary, after humiliating him with several photos. I pulled the box off his head.

Nas said...

Though she made the right decision for herself, I may have signed!

Rawknrobyn.blogspot.com said...

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

Anonymous said...

Cats and their love of boxes.

I think she made the right decision.