Hi Old Hack,
You should have the books to you this next week. We have had issues in the past shipping to the UK, please let me know if you have not received the books by next Friday.
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The question of what changes are being made is a good one. As of right now TZPP is getting back to our core program.
1. We have folded excess imprints, and refocused our energies on those areas with strong and immediate prospects.
2. Bolstered the ratio of editor to author. Previously I had allocated 24-48 authors per editor. We have reduced that to 8-12 authors for each editor. Allowing them to provide more attention to each author.
3. Grew our Managing Editorial department (copy edits, proofing, reviews, typesetting, art & design) from 3 last year to 17 staff presently.
4. We are growning our marketing staff to 7 and in the process of bringing on a national sales staff of 10 for the North American Market.
5. Systematically putting each book through a standard and tailored marketing program, which now includes:
a. Preparing a comprehensive marketing kit (interviews, press releases, pre-written articles, ad banners, etc)
b. Sending a Monthly Newsletter out to Bookstores, Retail Partners, Influencers, Print and Broadcast Media.
c. Blog and Review Tours
d. Radio Z (blogtalkradio[dot]com/radioz)
e. Blog Z (zharmaeblog.wordpress[dot]com)
f. Consistent and engaging social media marketing
g. tailoring additional marketing activities to each book
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I agree that the better you promote a product the easier it is to find and engage with that product's maker. As I had said in my previous posting, my quip to Victoria was a personal feeling related to the current situation, I would not call it indicative of a systematic problem with publishing better books or the quality of books that we do publish.
Again, I would call this situation what it is: a large private market (Ralan) that is relying on the word of an individual affiliated with a union (Victoria and the SFWA). Ralan will not list us without Victoria's approval. Victoria won't give approval because she has personal and moral reservations against several sections of our contract.
If this were really about letting authors make up their own mind about our contract then this would not be a problem. But I am suggesting that this is something else, because Victoria and the SFWA by proxy are keeping us from Ralan's market of good sci-fi writers.
The assertion that we are being kept from the market because of them is not ridiculous, it's true, and it does impact who see's us. Yes, we still receive quite a bit of material and every month our submissions grow, but not being listed with Ralan has stymied the number of passive quality submissions that we receive.
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I don't know that everyone understands fully the language related to rights licenses and grants. I think on the surface people do, but they use the word "sell" in placing rights with publishers. My experience suggests otherwise.
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ROI is referencing the long term viability of work. The author who is being paid an advance will see an immediate ROI on their work when they receive the AAR. I am saying that with the new economics at play, coming into the industry as a younger publisher, 3-5 years is a more appropriate ROI expectation, especially when we are talking about the myriad of rights that are available for exploitation in a book.
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So I've seen a lot of authors who question the value of working with a publisher, and I've discussed this with other colleagues in the industry, authors are moving publishers almost as much as publishers are moving through authors.
The Agent represents the author to the Publisher yes, but it is the Publisher's job to represent the author and their work to the public, which was my meaning in the word representation. And you are right, this is a reference to not overextending ourselves beyond what we are capable of supporting.
I don't agree that the reversion clause should be a tool for anything other than the business aspect of the relationship. TZPP's reversion clause is author initiated and is based solely on the performance or lack thereof of the book - if the book sells less than 100 units in a year, the author can request a reversion. I have reverted several authors whose sales failed that benchmark - all of those were author initiated. I have several authors who have not yet to sell 100 units, and I have no plans to revert them unless they request that I do so.
I have mentioned my goal of working with the author for the duration of their career, many times on this thread, this is because growing an author is a long term investment in a talent oriented resource. It appreciates in value overtime. As a Publisher, I get a better, more stable ROI by investing in the author over 20 years than I do by squeezing out a short term return over 2 or 3 years. Because we work with all staff, artists, and authors on performance based contracts, everyone else in the process also benefits by the longer term nature of the relationship. I know this is always a concern of an author, but I have no intention of removing a book from publication, doing so is inconsistent with TZPP's long term goals.
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@RoundTwo
(1) Where did you get that 3-5 year figure?
This figure is based on TZPPs internal revenue model. Obviously the goal of any publisher is to return the expense of publishing a book during its Frontlist period, and earn profit in the backlist. Because TZPP is revenue nuetral, we don't have that same immediacy in need and are able to cost out the ROI over a longer period, with the model suggesting long term consistency in ROI via backlist sales.
In our model 3-5 years represents the first 3-5 books they publish, we assume that we will have a 20 books from the author at minimum over the average length of their relationship with TZPP.
Frontlist sales goal is 2,500 units. Backlist minimum sales target is 100 units/year. We figure (and this is becoming our experience) that Rights Buyers begin initially being interested in work with the first in the series, but really want to see a few years performance and audience build-up before making a commitment to the work.
(2) Are you able to put a dollar amount on "seriously make money?"
By year 3 most serial work is well established, is building a loyal audience, and the author is beginning to move onto their next series. We have begun to prep bibles for film producers and are actively engaging other rights buyers. The audience build is strong enough to realistically begin promoting the audio rights to outside buyers. Language Rights will already have been licensed or are in a position to do so.
A dollar mount, conservatively on this would be the effective cultivation of subsidiary rights and actual profit return to the Publisher and our Investors. TZPP does not earn a profit on any of the books below 2,500 units sold, in fact I personally absorb losses on all books below that threshold.
Ideal minimal revenue per title, per year, is $15,000. Preferred Performance of each author per year is revenue of $250,000.
I can achieve this in 2 ways:
1 - Cultivate as many opportunities for each of the authors that I publish.
2 - Focus on fewer rights and publish more authors.
The first method is the current model we operate under, and requires a longer relationship with the author. The second model is simpler but would significantly shift the production quality of work we put out, along with the sales expectations.
Under the second model I would pay advances but that would be based on a sales expectation of 50-100 units. It would also negate author access to Editor and Publisher.
The costs of publishing a book using FMV are significant ($11k for a completely freelanced book), and the peculiarities of the publishing industry and the limited and unfriendly distribution channels make it very challenging (PPB is another $6k and factoring in the costs of Marketing and Sales staff is even higher). My pockets are not as deep as a lot of people might think they are.
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I look forward to more comments and questions.