ViralBestseller Website:
We are a new Literary Agency, but NOT new to the publishing, editing and fascinating world of literary and performing arts. We invite you to read the About Us page later.
I did check out the About Us page and I'm not seeing where your experience is to suggest that you can successfully represent books.
Chris Saxon Koelker's experience seems to lie in documentary film making (including documentaries for a text book publisher). That does not equate to agenting experience.
Candice Barley's experience apparently lies in acting (although for someone who apparently has has "major roles in film, television, commercials, print advertising and live performances", a quick search on imdb.com turned up zip. Regardless of that though, acting experience does not equate to agenting experience. I'm also concerned that her information on the About Us page says that she's keen on reading screenplays as there's no immediate evidence that she would be able to sell one.
ViralBestseller Website:
We are taking a very different approach to this industry. We don't expect everyone to understand our methods.
If you're taking a different approach to publishing and you want people to believe that you can pull it off, then you do need people to understand the reason for your confidence.
ViralBestseller Website:
Prior to launching, we will unveil our facebook, twitter and other social network platforms we will be using to get you recognized. We have chosen to keep our website as quiet as possible until our official launch.
How does using social media platforms in (presumably) the name of ViralBestseller get its authors recognised? There are many, many agencies out there that use social media, but they use it to promote authors' books following publication.
An agent still needs to have contacts within the industry to be able to sell their clients' books. If ViralBestseller is planning to just talk in cyberspace, then I don't see how it will be able to attract attention from all the other stuff out there.
ViralBestseller Website:
If you're worried about posting your work before you've landed a book deal, don't be and don't let the agency world that has ignored you thus far tell you that this is the wrong approach.
Erm, speaking as an English qualified lawyer, you absolutely should be worried about posting your work before landing a book deal. If your work has been widely disseminated in full on the web then it has technically been published, which means you potentially exhaust your first publishing rights. At the very least, ViralBestseller should specify how much work it is intending to put up for general information.
ViralBestseller Website:
New musicians play at venues prior to getting a record deal; writer/directors make movies that feature in film festivals prior to getting distributed. Point is, their lyrics, sound and films are in the public eye well before they've signed deals.
Performance copyright is different to copyright in words and music and film is very different to publishing. This is precisely why I am so concerned by the complete lack of publishing experience that the two founders of this "agency" seem to have.
When writers/distributors take their work to festivals, they are showing them to industry professionals for the purposes of wider distribution. The act of showing the film does not affect the underlying intellectual property. Similarly, when a group puts their performance up on the web, they are not losing their performance rights or copyright in the lyrics.
ViralBestseller Website:
ViralBestSeller.com and our agency has been created for writers who have received scores of rejection letters from Literary Agents and Publishing Houses.
From an advertising perspective, you might want to rethink this. It reads to me as "hey, no one else wants you but we might take you on!".
ViralBestseller Website:
We’re confident that there are best sellers out there that have been passed over because you’ve had to undertake the tremendously difficult task of summarizing an entire novel in a one page query letter. That being said, we’re excited to see your entire manuscript.
This misunderstands what a query letter is. It is not necessarily a summary. It is a couple of paragraphs aimed at selling an author's book via the premise. Now, I agree that there are some very good books out there that don't have great query letters. That's why most agencies will ask authors to submit the first few pages of their novel with it so they can see what the writing is like.
Speaking from experience, my own query letter was adequate but not thrilling. What got me my agent was the fact that she liked the written pages that accompanied it and asked for more.
ViralBestseller Website:
The only difference in our manner of operation is that your work must be submitted by someone other than yourself.
Say what now?
ViralBestseller Website:
It’s important that your writing has been reviewed by someone other than yourself. This is what we refer to as your "editing partner". Certainly, we’re anxious to give you a shot at being read. We know you believe your work is great, possibly even outstanding. The first step to having your work released to a waiting public is to have it proofread and endorsed by your editing partner. Your partner can be a professional editor, a fellow writer/author or a well-read enthusiast who would be willing to partner with you. There are many discussion and writer support groups out there that will trade stories with you... use them to get your work in front of readers anxious for the next incredible story! We don't expect you to pay fees to anyone during this process. If you're serious about your writing, you'll be able to find someone who will proofread your work and give you feedback. Your work must be publishing-ready or darn close. There's just no way of getting around this step in our process.
I don't even know where to begin with this.
Yes, it is a good thing to get other people to read your work so that you can work to improve it. However, not all critique partners are equal and in my experience, not all critique partners agree on what needs to be changed.
The fact that ViralPublishing appears to be relying on critique partners as some kind of filtering process is truly bizarre. I've heard of agencies encouraging people to get their work critted before, but never as a condition for review by an agency and to be honest, I can't see how this is going to work in practice other than on the "honour system".
ViralBestseller Website:
But please don't expect us to post anything that has serious grammatical issues, does not have a professional voice, cannot get the point across or that would embarrass you or our organization.
This would carry more weight if there weren't so many embarrassing grammatical mistakes on your website. I acknowledge that it's currently in beta format and not yet live, but if you're soliciting people to go and take a look at it, then it had better look professional. There are mistakes on every page and
that speaks to a lack of professionalism.
ViralBestseller Website:
We require that you include the copyright "©" symbol, the year you began writing your book - through the current year to date - and your author pen name (or legal name) on the title page and at the end of your manuscript. (Example: "© Title of Book by: Jane Doe 2009 - 2011").
Copyright runs from the moment your work is complete - not the moment you started writing it. By making this suggestion, you are actually compromising an author's copyright protection period (i.e. if an author started writing a book 10 years ago, you're knocking 10 years from their copyright protection). My suggestion would be to get a US qualified publishing lawyer to advise you on this and quickly.
ViralBestseller Website:
If it goes viral, this ensures it's ready for printing and protected as your own work that we are then in the position to sell for you.
The fact that a book has gone viral does not mean that it's ready for printing. Things go viral for many different reasons, including that they're just bloody awful.
Also (and to repeat the point), assuming that you've put a complete work up on the web, by having it go viral there's an excellent chance that you have exhausted your potential sales market meaning that it is less likely a publisher will want to publish it. (And before someone mentions it, I do know about the viral campaign behind Go The Fuck To Sleep, but that had already been acquired as a title).
ViralBestseller Website:
If you do not have a book cover designed, and we’re interested in posting your book, we'll design one for you
Why? It's an extra expense and the work should surely stand or fall by itself.
ViralBestseller Website:
If we agree to post your work on our website, you "the author" must sign a one year exclusive agent agreement with ViralBestSeller.com as your sole agent.
So your work could potentially be up on the web for a year without sale? Not a good deal for an author.
ViralBestseller Website:
If we're ready to post your work, and you want this to be a successful venture, you'll need to get yourself, your editing partner, and as many friends motivated as possible to help "shout out" the introduction of your newly published eBook on social networks like Facebook, Twitter or your favorite social media sites.
Okay, so what are ViralBestseller doing while all this is going on? And why does an author need them to do this? Surely an author can do it all by themselves, release the book in ebook format for a price that they set and at least make some money out of it?
ViralBestseller Website:
Most books become best sellers by word of mouth - yes it’s true. A book only makes it to the "New York Times Best Seller" list after it’s had proven successful sales that has been tracked for several weeks - or even months - at retail store-fronts and through online sales outlets. Those sales are only impacted minimally by advertising in trade venues, magazines, etc. Word of mouth is the key to making a book sell! Even if a big five company publishes your book - the author still has to do the sales themselves unless they have already proven themselves as money-makers. Most of the promotional push comes from readers and their excitement to tell friends about a story they’ve discovered! We’ll give you the platform, and together we’ll “shout out” your work!
Yes, but the NYT bestseller list deals with
sales to the
public. ViralBestseller is claiming to be an agent, which means that it needs to sell a manuscript to a publisher. Under the model as explained, it looks like they're relying on making a manuscript free to the public to try and generate excitement such as to make a publisher buy it. It makes very little sense.
ViralBestseller Website:
If your work goes viral, the chances increase that we can get you a deal that will take your manuscript into the stores as a printed book. With a minimum of 5,000 (give or take a few) followers worldwide, there's far less risk to publishers.
Nope.
Firstly, how do you determine whether someone has 5,000 followers worldwide? Do you need those people to be following you on Twitter or Facebook or is it something else?
Secondly, publishers do deals on a territory by territory basis. What they care about is how many books they can sell in that territory. 5,000 copies worldwide is not going to be financially attractive to them.
Thirdly, followers do not equate to sales. If an author had self-published a book and said they'd made 5,000 sales in a month, then a trade publisher will probably take notice of that. However here ViralBestseller is making work available for free, so there's no way of determining whether someone has written something that the public will pay for. Anyone will read something for free or which is very cheap.
ViralBestseller Website:
Once your work goes viral (reaches 5,000 verified downloads accompanied by at least 2,000 positive reviews within approx. 90 days), we’ll begin to charge a standard eBook fee for download sales.
Firstly, ViralBestseller claims to be an agent, but if it's charging fees then it's operating as a publisher.
Secondly, if you're only charging after 5,000 downloads, then the chances are that you've tapped out the market.
Thirdly, what have 'reviews' got to do with anything?
The whole thing seems very poorly thought out to me.
ViralBestseller Website:
In some cases, if we feel strongly enough about a writer’s work, it’s possible we may be able to interest a traditional publisher regardless of your manuscript’s viral status.
If you're claiming to operate as agent, then your first priority should be to get the interest of a trade publisher. That's where you should be making money for you and for your authors.
ViralBestseller Website:
Technology has remade the traditional publishing industry in the last five years. There are literally millions of readers who want to experience your book.[/QUOTE]
Technology has opened new markets for trade publishing but the structures remain basically the same. There have always been millions of potential book buyers out there. The trick has always been getting your book in their hands.
ViralBestseller Website:
If your book is downloaded at least 5,000 times within 90 days (give or take a week or two), we'll work on getting you that book deal you deserve!
If you're only giving a book 90 days to go viral, why do you need a 1 year exclusive contract? What happens at the end of 90 days if my book hasn't gone viral? Does the contract expire or can I terminate it?
ViralBestseller Website:
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Authors, this is not a slush pile site we expect our readers to wade through. As a result, we won't post more than twenty five great books per specific genre at a time. [/FONT]
If you're putting up 25 books under each heading, then that sounds awfully like an author mill to me. In fact, when you go and have a look at all of the categories that you seem to be contemplating here:
http://viralbestseller.com/eBooks.html
You're potentially putting up thousands of books. That's a slushpile.
ViralBestseller Website Terms and Conditions: (BOLDING MINE)
For clarity, you retain all of your ownership rights in your Content. However, by submitting Content to ViralBestSeller.com, you hereby grant ViralBestSeller.com a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the Content in connection with the Service and ViralBestSeller.com's (and its successors' and affiliates') business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the Service (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels. You also hereby grant each user of the Service a non-exclusive license to access your Content through the Service, and to use, reproduce, distribute, display and perform such Content as permitted through the functionality of the Service and under these Terms of Service.
I'd want this clarified. By submitting my work to you for consideration, I am not automatically granting you the right to publish and disseminate and you should have no rights with regard to the same unless and until I enter into a further agreement (on negotiated terms) giving you such rights.
The effect of this wording is to give ViralBestseller a right to use and reproduce your work before they've actually accepted it.
ViralBestseller Website:
The books you discover here can’t be found on Amazon, any other bookstore online or, for that matter, anywhere else in the world because they haven't been published yet, and are being featured here for the very first time.
No, they're being published on the website.
ViralBestseller Website:
We don't have anything against editors... our co-founder is a talented editor herself! But, for example, how exciting would it have been to be one of the first 5,000 readers to read Twilight in all its unedited glory?
You're kidding, right?
On the one hand, you seem to be saying that you want books to be well written. On the other, you want books that still need further work.
Candance:
We are not publishers, we are agents.
No you're not. Agents focus on selling books to trade publishers. You seem to be some kind of display site/ebook publishing hybrid that won't actually be charging for content until you hit 5,000 downloads.
Candance:
Allowing others to view an authors work in an effort to establish a fan base is not considered commercial publishing.
A fan base consisting of people who haven't paid for the content is a fickle thing. Amanda Hocking got her deal because she was selling her work and generating word of mouth so publishers could see that there were sales to be had. You guys are just throwing stuff up there for free on the basis that you might possibly be able to get a commercial publishing deal (even though there's nothing on your site to explain how this will happen).
At least with self-publishing, the author makes something. I honestly can't see how your business model is supposed to work either for you or for the author concerned.
MM