Smith and others are spouting misinformation. There's just enough truth in it to make it sound plausible, but the mythbusters here on AW have determined otherwise.
1) Publishers are actively looking for the next Big Thing, but they are the last to know what that will be.
That should not discourage you from sending out work.
2) If they buy your book it means they think it will make them money. They could be wrong, but they're the ones taking that risk.
Meaning you get an advance check and can KEEP it whether the book tanks or not.
3) Of course they will offer a contract with clauses that will benefit
them, which is why it's a good idea to have an agent in your corner watching your back. A good agent will remove or negotiate clauses that are not in your best interest.
Ex: Media, merchandising rights, etc.
In the extremely unlikely chance that the book gets optioned by a production company (after it's been on the bestseller list), which is the first step toward a movie deal, your agent will have reserved those rights for you so you don't split them with the publisher.
I didn't have that on my first book contract and didn't know I could reserve them. As a result, 50% of the option money from Lorimar Productions went to the publisher.
That would be a whole $50.00. Gosh, I could have gotten $100.00 had I but known!
Ex: e-book publishing rights.
This is germane right now, as publishers are offering only 25% royalties on e-book sales, when Kindle and others are offering between 65-80% to self-pubbers.
Of course 80% of 10 sales is not a lot of cash.
When you have the publisher behind you on the print book, you're talking about some real money.
Publisher's Weekly--and you should get to the library and start reading it so you get a better grasp of the business side--has run articles on writers who signed deals where they kept the e-book rights, publishing those editions in tandem with the print books.
Not all writers can get that kind of deal. They have agents to do the heavy lifting and the agent is motivated by their cut from the e-book sales. If the publisher won't go for it, then shop to another house if you like. If you don't want to mess with that on your debut book, then don't. Should the sales be good, you can negotiate a better deal on the next book.
My agent is a good one, but a few years back--before the whole e-book explosion--the publisher sent her a rider to my original 18-year old contract. The rider stated I'd get 25% from any e-book sales and had a sales threshold that dictated if the book sold as few as X number e-copies per year it was still "in print." It was a low number.
I shouldn't have signed that rider, but too late now. I'm stuck with it. So is my agent.
We're both older and wiser now. That publisher has control of most of my backlist for as long as they choose to keep it. I want those rights back, but they're not giving them up just yet. Going over my taxes and 1099 forms I saw that my 2 self-pubbed e-books are making more than twice as much per year in sales as 12 books are making with the publisher.
Yeah, I'm not amused, but all future books deals will reserve those rights for me. That way I get the benefit of a professional edit job to put in the e-edition I'll do myself, a pro cover and the marketing machine, but I keep the better earnings from e-sales.
Many writers are opting for that kind of hybrid deal. The publishers are starting to accept that, because they want the books.
A debut writer may not have that option.
You need to read other blogs by other working writers. Smith has just one view and most of us here wholly disagree with it.
4) As stated elsewhere, no editor is going to butcher your work. If it needs butchering, they'd never have made you an offer in the first place.
The editor may and usually does ask for changes. They could be minor (you have characters with names Jim, Jan, Jon, Tim, Tad), word reps, grammar gaffs, awkward sentence structure and other problems. A good editor will point those out so you can change them. A not so good editor might rewrite some bits herself, but you get the last word on the topic.
In short--stop being paranoid. If you're so worried about someone messing with your set in stone words, then self-publish and be done with it. Just be prepared to deal with low sales.
5) Yes, people have done VERY well at self-publishing, but I can count on one hand how many were debut writers. The rest had a string of pro sales, knew about marketing and promotion, and had a solid fan base of readers.
It's a gold rush. Few neos are going to strike it rich. Having at least one professional sale gives a writer validation to readers.
If things are really this bad, then is it really is important to build a large "Clout" first?
Things might be bad for Smith. He's been in the trenches, slugging it out and isn't happy with how he's been treated.
To which I say, "Welcome to the club, Mr. Smith."
Writers love to kvetch about their mistreatment at the hands of e-vul publishers, but better believe that when we made that first pro sale of a novel to a house we were all dancing on the ceiling.
Were some of us screwed over? Yes, in retrospect, we were.
Can new writers avoid those problems? Absolutely yes. That's why you look for a good agent. Such an agent will already be working for writers who do books similar to yours.
Clout? You can't build clout until and unless you hit that bestseller list and you can't get there without selling a book to a publisher.
Many cite
Amanda Hocking as a prime example of a debut writer who sold tons of e-books then got a million dollar deal.
But that deal was for a
new book series, not the ones she'd self-pubbed. She signed to get the big check and the publishing machine in her corner.
Many cite
Barry Eisler, who turned down a reported 7-figure deal to self-publish. But the guy's got a LOT of readers and researched the market before saying no.
A debut writer doesn't have that.
I'd hoped for better when I sold my first book back in the day. I was pumped up by success stories of unknowns bursting onto the bestseller list. I fully expected to go on a paid for book tour, get my picture on the back cover, TV interviews, and be forced to wear sunglasses in public in a futile attempt to protect my privacy. I lovingly preserved all my early drafts, thinking that someday a library would have them in their special collection. I would soon be able to walk into a showroom, point at the most expensive car and say "I'll have that one in red, please," and pay the whole amount in one check. Then I'd ship it to my new private island...
Well, THAT never happened!
The reality dawned that I was a mid-lister with a good idea, great reviews, fair sales, and a chance to sell more books to that publisher. My foot was in the door.
But even that would not have happened had I not sent something in, which I did.
And guess what? Those same horror stories about greedy publishers and savage editors were around
then and will continue to be around, with variations, today and tomorrow.
The more you know, the better off you are, so read more widely than just Smith or Konrath or others. Get to the library. Read PW, read books by writers who tell how they made their first sales, read the blogs cited above.
The more you know on the business end the more you come to see a pattern of a few wild successes (and a lot more fails), and a number of "I was screwed over" stories.
You'll also see a solid block of sensible working writers who get on rather well at the end of the day.
I think you'll find this link to be enlightening:
http://www.marthawells.com/writingguide.htm