Part of me is over the moon about landing my first book contract, but
I have also stumbled into the dark side of publishing. The press is angling to:
1) Change my title. Which every reader so far has loved.
2) Charge me if I go over the image quota –
and the charges would apply to the total number, not just the excess. (N.B. This is a
book about visual media. Fail.)
3) Stick me with the cost of indexing – either weeks of my
life or the fee for a freelancer.
Meanwhile, back in my department I am being primed to face
the fact that a book likely won’t score me a promotion even if I do fork over three months' salary to make it a perfect specimen.
Why do I do this again?
I splurged and paid for an indexer. I was glad I did. they did a good job and it saved me a ton of time...
ReplyDeleteWell, I swore I was done commenting here after Wombat's outburst and lack of apology, but this seems neutral enough. What you describe sounds pretty standard for a press, actually. You can stick to your guns about your title; just tell the press that that's non-negotiable. Presses generally do have quotas for images they'll do for free, and color plates cost a ton so those are on you. And indexing is usually the burden of the author. If you have grad students, a smart one can often do just as a good a job on an index as a professional for much less dough, with the added bonus that they can produce a conceptual index rather than just an index of things mentioned explicitly by name.
ReplyDeleteBut if it won't get you a promotion, it's only worth the $$ if you deeply want to be a book author and/or want another job.
Good luck!
It's true that the most ominous part of the rant is the part about being prepped for a letdown in the career advancement department. Which makes no sense, given the primacy of The Book in my field, but that whole system will no doubt be the topic of another rant one of these days.
DeleteMaybe I should look into getting a local indexer to work for less?? Or getting a grad minion to do it is a good suggestion. I'll have to look into it. The money I'm asked to plunk down on these things would probably not seem so onerous if I were being paid a FT salary back in the homeland, which would amount to probably twice what I am paid here. I earn better than decent money, relative to my adopted culture, but I've started to blanche a little at professional costs like publishing expenses and conference registrations (let alone the airfare to get me to said conferences...).
Plus there is zero institutional $$ support for this kind of thing, even though they push the finished book like crazy to advance their own reputation: campus newspaper, alumni magazine, website, the works. The gall it takes to promote my accomplishment as good PR without promoting me for accomplishing it is beyond hypocritical.
It's almost enough to make me throw it all away to become a freelance indexer.
F&T: Way to keep the bad feelings active!
DeleteI indexed a book for a prof at a modest fee--$300 20 years ago-- when I was a grad student and it was a wonderfully rewarding experience in that it helped me coalesce my thesis. Heck, it helped me ditch my original topic and head in a brand new direction, one I was far more passionate about. Look for a grad student who is bright and who needs the cash, and you will likely both come out ahead.
DeleteIf the book has no bearing on your promotion or job security, do you even have to tell your department/university about it? If I could, I'd publish it, but not mention it to them out of spite. I don't want someone using me for their benefit while not getting anything in return. I don't know if this is possible, but I think it is a good idea to publish it for yourself and, then, maybe somewhere down the line it could help you get a better job somewhere else.
ReplyDeleteMy department already knows about it, so total secrecy is off the table. My book contract will be going forward as my case for promotion, and if I get literally nothing from it, I will see to it that the name of my uni will be scrubbed from text, bio, etc. and will do my utmost to prevent PR exploitation.
DeleteI was thinking somewhat along the same lines as noirazul -- not so much avoiding the institutional publicity, because, unless your institution is downright disreputable, that helps you, too*, as thinking long term: even if the book doesn't help you at your present job, are you sure you want to, or will be able to, stay in that job? If not, given the valuing of The Book in your field, then having one under your belt could be very valuable down the line if/when you want another, better job. At least in my own field, and given the present job market, I'm beginning to think of it as a hoop that's almost as important to jump through as the Ph.D. itself; showing you can write a book may open some doors, or at least prevent them from being slammed in your face. That's not nearly as pleasant a way to think about the task as "this will get me recognition," or even "this might earn me [as opposed to cost me] money," but it's something.
ReplyDeleteF&T has far more direct experience with this than I, I'm pretty sure, but based on friends' experiences with book publishing, and the remarks of a family member who works for a university press, I, too, would say that both image limitations/charges and being responsible for the index are par for the course (and paying a grad student to do, or at least draft, a conceptual index is a really, really good idea -- more reasonable cost for you, good training for the grad student, who'll end up knowing the book well, and won't be surprised by the indexing requirement when (s)he writes hir own book).
*If you're feeling a bit passive/aggressive, you can always accept any interview requests from outside parties that result, then sneak in a line or two about what a shame it is that present budgetary woes at your institution don't allow them to support such activity. If challenged, you can always say that you were trying to help. If you don't have tenure, this may not be a good idea.
Congratulations Edna! Good luck with the finish. It's a crapshoot how your book will be received, not just by the public or the discipline, but also by colleagues, t&p committees, etc. Sometimes you get lucky and the college embraces your success; but I've seen other folks get run out on a rail out of envy. (Not me...my colleagues have always been aces.)
ReplyDeleteMy first 2 books were with Prentice Hall before Pearson swallowed them up, and then my next 2 were with much smaller publishers. The amount of freedom I had on the last 2 was thrilling, and all the kinds of concerns you're mentioning were much more easily handled.
But, despite the problems with the machine grinding the author down, the increased distribution process, marketing, and promotion that you get with the larger houses is worth the trouble.
Oh, indexing. Awful. But it does provide you the opportunity to include all sorts of odd, funny, and arcane entries. (I gave a shout out to "pork and beans" in one book. I don't know why that pleased me so much, but it did.)
Cal, Now I'm curious what "pork and beans" was referencing...
DeleteI try not to be an apologist for the publishing industry -- lord knows we've got our problems. But if your publisher's recommending that you change your title, Edna, you might want to hear them out. I'm sure that it captures the essence of your work and that it's been a hit with your manuscript readers, but can imagine your publisher wanting to change it for any of these reasons:
ReplyDelete1) Your title is too similar to the title of another work that they already publish (or that a competitor publishes).
2) Your title, on its own, doesn't clearly signal to the layperson what your book is about and what course it's suited for. At the major publisher where I work, our reps are responsible for selling to every discipline in the arts and humanities. The title, author, and existence of your book are about all you can reasonably expect a publisher's rep to remember about it on a given day (unless the first two are "Psychology" and "David Myers," or somesuch). If the sales force can't remember your title, or if it signals to that it's intended for Survey of Hamster History to 1865 when it's really meant for Special Problems in Hamster Studies, they'll try to sell it to the wrong people or simply not sell it at all. And that'll hurt your bottom line, not just the publisher's.
Points 2 and 3 are annoying, but the upshot is that if the publisher has to absorb those costs, the price of the book goes up and you consequently lose potential sales. That's especially true of point #2 because of the skyrocketing cost of permissions. (See under the custom publishing debacle at OCAD some weeks ago -- the alternative to online-only images was a textbook that would have cost $800 due to the cost of acquiring the rights to all those images for such a small print run.) It does stink that they want to assess a fee based on the total number of images and not the overage, though--definitely press your publisher on that.
Point #3 is a standard provision of my publisher's contracts. I like F & T's suggestion of enlisting a grad student; many of my authors have done that.
What they want to do to my title goes completely against conventions in my field, which is why it irks me so much. The editor listed exactly the same points you did, UUfUSR, and I hear them, but I still can't fathom how those same rules haven't been applied to every. major. book. that has made a dent in my subfield (especially the legendary, bestselling ones!)
DeleteRe: images -- it's precisely the total vs. overage idea that galls me. I wouldn't mind forking over my own $ for a few extra images, but if that means I'm charged for what would have been free then forget it. The press isn't budging on this. Thankfully they are all B&W to begin with...I should count my blessings there.
The business of charging not just for overage, but for all the images if you go over, is puzzling. All I can think of (and it's completely a guess) is that they have reasons of their own for maintaining a standard maximum number of images in works they publish. But assuming they publish a variety of works, that doesn't seem very smart. Nevertheless, it sounds like you should probably aim to work within their parameters. Can you think of workarounds -- e.g. a way of directing readers to stable, relatively easy to find online versions of some of the images?
DeleteEasy! Just plug in blank spaces where the images should go like that other publishing company did!
ReplyDeleteI don't see a problem.
The indexing! I've done indexing on four projects for books in my field. It is hard work, but in each case I was told by the author that I did a better job than they could have; they appreciated another perspective. After you've done all the hard work, Edna, let someone else do this labor.
ReplyDeleteAnd congratulations!!!!!
Congrats on your book. It would be good to know these things before publishing and expecting things to go smoothly! But you have a book deal!!! *jumping up and down*.
ReplyDeleteI spent weeks indexing my first book and am glad I did it myself because I was a control freak about it and would have looked over someone else's work anyway... but after that first time, I didn't do it again.
Thanks, everyone, for your support. I'm the first in my dept to go through with an academic book contract in the homeland, so your advice and perspective are deeply appreciated. CM community FTW!
ReplyDeleteHire an indexer! One with experience indexing material in your field. Indexing is a skill that takes years of practice and study. It's not always something anyone can do well just because they are familiar with the subject.
ReplyDelete