5 ms·

Really appreciate you sharing your perspective. I recently wrote a book as a passion project and have been sitting anxiously on a contract. I'm not concerned ab

Really appreciate you sharing your perspective. I recently wrote a book as a passion project and have been sitting anxiously on a contract. I'm not concerned about the money (I don't think my book will be a huge thing). My main motivation for going trad is the credibility as you somewhat alluded to. Do you think this is misguided on my part? Basically just so I can point at it in the future and say "a professional in the industry thought my book was worth printing with their name on it"

drakonka 3y ago
First, congratulations on finishing your book and getting a contract! That is a huge achievement. I do not think your reasoning is misguided at all. If you think a traditional publisher affords you more credibility and a sense of satisfaction, that is reason enough to go with trad - _especially_ since as you say you're not concerned about the money, so there is no reason to worry about a traditional publisher's royalty rates compared to other options. I believe your reason for wanting to go with a publisher is perfectly valid.
- atlasunshrugged 3y ago
  I have a question for you both (drakonka and turkeygizzard): Would you ever sell all or a portion of the rights to future earnings for your already published books to a third party? We've seen in the music industry PE firms basically acquiring known catalogues for the residuals and I'm wondering why that doesn't seem to happen in the publishing industry.
  - drakonka 3y ago
    It happens quite a bit! I mentioned it in another comment here, but one thing that publishers can be very useful for is audiobook rights and translations. These are very costly to produce and it sometimes makes more sense to offload that part to a publisher. That is definitely something I'd consider doing if the opportunity came along.
    - krisroadruck 3y ago
      I wonder how much longer this will remain true. Audiobooks and translations seem like near-term target for AI.
      - drakonka 3y ago
        That's a good point. I'm already in the process of using voice synthesis to narrate one of my books. It is still a huge time outlay to get to the quality bar I want, but much cheaper than paying for a narrator. One thing working in favor of human narrators is the fans. Audiobook listeners can get very attached to certain voices, to the point where they'll read _anything_ that narrator works on regardless of the book's author or genre. If I had the budget for it, I'd definitely favor a well-known human narrator over AI for the visibility aspect of working with that person. But most authors don't have the budget to hire popular narrators, which is where less popular or entry-level narrators may find themselves losing work to AI alternatives. The narration quality is still higher with competent humans at this time as well, but that'll change. For translations, I don't think I'll ever trust AI entirely (just like I don't trust myself as a human writer entirely!) I'd still be hiring a native-speaking human editor and proofreader if generating AI translations. Or more likely, I'd be hiring a human translator who is able to charge competitively by using AI in their workflows (and is also able to handle the quality checks etc for me).
        AlbertCory 3y ago
        True. On this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGchbES0DhU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGchbES0DhU 100% of the commenters are Matthew's fans. Did that lead to any sales for me? Not clear.
    - atlasunshrugged 3y ago
      Interesting! Do you have an email or way to get in touch by chance? I'd love to connect and ask more as I'm both writing a book and considering trying to build some stuff in this space. Alternatively, I'm at jb2956 at georgetown.edu!
spookybones 3y ago
Congrats. Is it fiction or non-fiction?

drakonka 3y ago

First, congratulations on finishing your book and getting a contract! That is a huge achievement. I do not think your reasoning is misguided at all. If you think a traditional publisher affords you more credibility and a sense of satisfaction, that is reason enough to go with trad - _especially_ since as you say you're not concerned about the money, so there is no reason to worry about a traditional publisher's royalty rates compared to other options. I believe your reason for wanting to go with a publisher is perfectly valid.

atlasunshrugged 3y ago
I have a question for you both (drakonka and turkeygizzard): Would you ever sell all or a portion of the rights to future earnings for your already published books to a third party? We've seen in the music industry PE firms basically acquiring known catalogues for the residuals and I'm wondering why that doesn't seem to happen in the publishing industry.
- drakonka 3y ago
  It happens quite a bit! I mentioned it in another comment here, but one thing that publishers can be very useful for is audiobook rights and translations. These are very costly to produce and it sometimes makes more sense to offload that part to a publisher. That is definitely something I'd consider doing if the opportunity came along.
  - krisroadruck 3y ago
    I wonder how much longer this will remain true. Audiobooks and translations seem like near-term target for AI.
    - drakonka 3y ago
      That's a good point. I'm already in the process of using voice synthesis to narrate one of my books. It is still a huge time outlay to get to the quality bar I want, but much cheaper than paying for a narrator. One thing working in favor of human narrators is the fans. Audiobook listeners can get very attached to certain voices, to the point where they'll read _anything_ that narrator works on regardless of the book's author or genre. If I had the budget for it, I'd definitely favor a well-known human narrator over AI for the visibility aspect of working with that person. But most authors don't have the budget to hire popular narrators, which is where less popular or entry-level narrators may find themselves losing work to AI alternatives. The narration quality is still higher with competent humans at this time as well, but that'll change. For translations, I don't think I'll ever trust AI entirely (just like I don't trust myself as a human writer entirely!) I'd still be hiring a native-speaking human editor and proofreader if generating AI translations. Or more likely, I'd be hiring a human translator who is able to charge competitively by using AI in their workflows (and is also able to handle the quality checks etc for me).
      - AlbertCory 3y ago
        True. On this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGchbES0DhU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGchbES0DhU 100% of the commenters are Matthew's fans. Did that lead to any sales for me? Not clear.
  - atlasunshrugged 3y ago
    Interesting! Do you have an email or way to get in touch by chance? I'd love to connect and ask more as I'm both writing a book and considering trying to build some stuff in this space. Alternatively, I'm at jb2956 at georgetown.edu!

spookybones 3y ago

Congrats. Is it fiction or non-fiction?