i am looking to send a book to publishers, if they contact me with interest, has anyone negotiated a contract with them? any advice/tips? Do they just pay a flat fee to buy the book, or do they pay a royalty for each copy sold?

All Answers To Questions

NO PUBLISHER WILL READ AN UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPT. NONE. YOU NEED A BOOK AGENT AND THAT COSTS A BIT OF MONEY. IF YOU WANT TO SELF PUBLISH, IT WILL COST EVEN MORE MONEY AND THEN YOU NEED PUBLICITY...........GOOD LUCK

no

Try and stay away from agents. They really are a pain in the b*tt. I sent my first book to a small publisher who liked it and sent me a contract. They offered to buy the manuscript outright for a sizeable sum or offered royalties on each book sold. I opted for the royalty deal. The publisher pays for everything to do with publishing, proofreading, cover design, ISBN number....the lot. Every book sold earns me 10% of the retail price. I get paid quarterly throughout the year. Should the publisher not reprint or not sell more than 80% of the first print run within 12 months (likewise with all subsequent print runs) then copyright reverts back to me. This way of doing a deal worked well forme as the book has sold a lot of copies. I earned far more money than had I sold the rights to publish for a set fee. I was lucky! Also, the only rights the publisher has is to publish the work in book form and in English only. All other rights remain with me. I strongly advise all would be authors to contact small publishing houses to begin with. The big ones won't touch an unknown writer. Do try to avoid agents, they really are money grabbers who don't do anything you can't do yourself, despite what many people write on here. Good luck. If you want to know more have a look at www.stephenleather.com PS.....I am NOT Stephen Leather! I read his books and found his web site very useful....esp the bit about agents! My sentiments exactly!

If you send an unsolicited manuscript to a reputable publisher, and they show interest, my advice would be to take the offer. You may want to negotiate on some minor details, but a positive response to an unsolicited manuscript is very rare, so you probably want to deal. Do make sure the publishing house is reputable, though. The contract should be for royalties. They may give you an advance, but small publishing houses sometimes can't afford this. If there is an advance, it would be against royalties, so, for example, if they give you a $5000 advance, your book has to sell enough to earn back this amount before the publisher gives you any more money. You may want to get yourself an agent, even if you manage to get a positive response by yourself. This is because an agent can often get you more money than you could by representing yourself. He or she can also divide up the regions in which you sell rights so you might see more advances. In other words, when negotiating rights on your own, I assume you would have no choice but to give international rights to the publisher because you would not have the means to sell your book outside the country. An agent can limit your domestic publisher's rights to your own country, and pitch the same book to publishers elsewhere, which, if successful, might earn you an advance each time you sign a contract. I've sold three books to publishers. For the first two, I represented myself, but I found a terrific agent who spared me a lot of frustration when I published the third.

You will receive a percentage of every book sold. If a publisher shows enough interest to publish your work, you can ask them to recommend an agent, or you can contact an agent on your own asking if they'll represent you. Once they know you have an interested publisher, they will probably consent to represent you. Don't try to negotiate a contract on your own. This is what an agent does. There are agents out there who are also lawyers who understand intellectual properties. Good luck