(More) Ponderings on Fel Publishing

[Ymarsakar]

I've noticed a similarity between Fel's protagonists and his own personality. For some writers I know, the ability to be published is their dream due to the fact that they are no longer constrained to having another job, they can work fulltime on their hobbies, world making, characters, and fans.

But I think Fel sees publishing not as a freedom to be cherished, but as restricting his options. He would have to write the stories on set deadlines, and the dichotomy between deciding whether you are doing something because you want to and because it is fun or because you need to do it, comes into existence.

There have been writers that have pursued dual careers in writing and other fields. Robert L Forward or Vernor Vinge, professors so to speak. Instead of writing more thesis doctorates and research papers, they write novels in their spare time. But it becomes much harder for any other career that requires real time dedication, both because of the work required for the job and economic factors.

The big money in writing, using Ringo's model at baen, is in the agent-contract negotiations. Where established writers agree to a contract to write a specified number of books in a series or some such for a publisher. The publisher, having seen the success of the writer before, can afford to take such long term risks and investments. Although perhaps these days a writer can still publish his works without a contract, simply by selling the finished book. I cannot really say after all, since I am not and don't know any book publishers or agents in the field of fantasy/scifi.

Ringo for example, perhaps likes the money not especially for his own social advancement, but for the ability to provide for his family. Which becomes a higher consideration for a person as he moves on in life.

David Weber's Armageddon Reef was also a synthesis of Weber's career in some ways, combining his best works both co-authored and single authored in a new synthesis. He has certainly taken advantage of the focus and dedication of such a writing career, in order to produce better and more complex universes; which he might not have had the time splitting his attention.

I've seen other people that write as a hobby, but Fel is special in my consideration. Many people, such as Synova and various other authors I know of that have posted their works on the net, inevitably have trouble with finishing certain projects.

http://www.onlinefiction.net/Ashes/BitterAshes.html

Whether this is due to lack of inspiration, time, distractions, or family and careers is not clear to me; but it is certainly true that it affects many with such hobbies including the mod writers of Baldur's Gate Shadow of Amn.

Sir Kalthorine's Crysta project is perhaps an extreme example in this case.

Fel could simply sell his novel Subjugation to baen and then post it in Baen's Free Library as a published author. Under this relationship, I don't think it would change much of the status quo and it would still give Fel the freedom to write or not write as he pleases. This seemed to be what other writers did when they sold small stories to magazines after all, while they had other careers.

Edit by Spec8472: This post was moved from it's original location in the What's next: Surprise! Another Sennadar tale thread.

[Spec8472]

Fel could simply sell his novel Subjugation to baen and then post it in Baen's Free Library as a published author.

Several different sources say otherwise - I'm pretty sure even Baen themselves say they won't touch works where 'first rights' have been used.

Besides, as Fel says, Subjugation (and the others) need to be proofed, edited, etc, to fix up continuity and other issues.

[Ymarsakar]

I checked out the First Rights usage bit.

The first time a novel/article/story is published in any format first rights have been used. By this definition that includes self-publication to your own personal website. Technically you have used "first e-rights" and can no longer sell it as an unpublished story/article. This won't necessarily stop your article/story from being reprinted but if you sell it as an unpublished work and the publisher finds out it has been previously displayed on your website you might cause hard feelings that will keep the editor from using your work in the future. Honesty is the best policy here.

First rights are not synonymous with Exclusive rights. While first rights can only be sold one time, exclusive rights can be sold repeatedly. Exclusive rights refer to a set amount of time in which you are not allowed to sell the work for reprint. Read the submissions guidelines and contract carefully before you sign. Once the exclusive time is up, you may resell the story for reprint.

Now aside from the problems it listed, did Baen give any other reasons for its policy? And who was the source, Eric Flint or someone else associating or representing Baen?

http://www.fictionfactor.com/articles/rights.html

Baen's peculiar in the sense that Eric Flint and Baen set things up in such a way that they would actually get more sales by posting free unencrypted ebooks. Which is what most publishers don't want concerning why they want first rights. Perhaps they think on the basis that if people saw it for a lower price elsewhere or for free, that the total revenue wouldn't be enough to justify the risk of a new author. Except, Baen seems to function on the opposite philosophy, given what Eric Flint said concerning his library. Certainly Jim Baen had to have authorized the electronics rights for the free library, and integrated it into his publishing strategy.

Meisha Merlin is also a peculiar example. Another publisher having to close down, so they somehow got to sell their authors novels on Baen's escription service. Meisha Merlin I assume already had First Rights on their authors novels. Seemed to be some wheeling and dealing there.

As for proofreading, I will tentatively say that I remember less errors in Subjugation than Terry Goodkind's novels for Tor. But this isn't fresh memory, so it is only an impression. Perhaps a bad impression of the typos in Goodkind's hardcovers.

[Spec8472]

Baen's peculiar in the sense that Eric Flint and Baen set things up in such a way that they would actually get more sales by posting free unencrypted ebooks. Which is what most publishers don't want concerning why they want first rights

The Free Library isn't up for all books, and for the books that are up there - they've been out in paid ebook and/or paper versions for some non-trivial time period (months to years, from what I've seen).

So, they get their initial burst of sales which (ideally) covers costs and turns a profit - then as sales drop off, it might get added to the free library. Once they do, some new people will see the free version, decide they like it enough to buy the real thing as paper or ebook - so that's additional sales which may not have occured, which should be mostly profit.

As for whether they gave reasons for not accepting books which have had first rights used (again - I'm just going on memory, I can't actually see a page on their site which says they don't) - I'm not certain - but I imagine it runs along the lines of "It's already had its run in the 'market' - so sales are likely to be less than ideal."

*New* novels from well established online authors would, probably, be seen quite favourably (after they decided whether it was of sufficient quality). 'course, this is only my opinion.

[Texfire]

As for whether they gave reasons for not accepting books which have had first rights used (again - I'm just going on memory, I can't actually see a page on their site which says they don't) - I'm not certain - but I imagine it runs along the lines of "It's already had its run in the 'market' - so sales are likely to be less than ideal."

Sounds like there needs to be a new publishing model to match the new economics of digital publishing. Publishing a "marginal" book or a promising book that has already been previously published could be released online only to gauge interest, or generate further interest for not yet published works from the same author. Heck, Fel's got more material already written than some published authors.

Personally, as much as I'm enjoying reading the electronic versions of Fel's books on my Sony Reader, I'd be overjoyed to purchase a paper copy. I can't imagine I'm the only one who likes the tactile aspect of reading a good paperback.

Tex