Published authors and percentage income

[Gary Compton]

Ok no probs. I understand but I'm glad its going well

Happy writing.

PS: Just slap me when I get too nosy!

[Scarfy]

Originally Posted by Teresa Edgerton

my amazon numbers are much higher now than they were before, print and ebook combined.

That's excellent! Do you have plans for your other books, or are those still with the original publishers?

[Teresa Edgerton]

Most of the rights are with me, and in the case of one of that isn't, I am sure it is just a question of asking.

And yes, I do have plans to publish the sequel to GM by this summer, and some of the others soon after. I hope. It seems to me that things always take longer than I think I will.

[Scarfy]

What are your thoughts on new books? Will you sell them all yourself, or will you favour working with agents and publishers in the first instance?

[Teresa Edgerton]

Oh, I think I'm done with deadlines. I'm very bad at keeping them, which has made my publishers justifiably unhappy with me.

If I were to write anything with the idea of sending it out to publishers, I would do it on spec so I could sell them a finished one-off book or a completed series. I think everyone would be happier that way.

But for now, I'm going to go with self-publishing. If the reprints are successful, I will stick in a new book every now and then.

[Scarfy]

Fair enough. I think I might find the deadlines quite crushing, too. I've got ideas for two books I want to send to agents and publishers, but, like you said, I think I would want them to both to be near-perfect before offering them.

It takes me about two years to write a book. Granted my latest to stupidly long, but still...

[Teresa Edgerton]

Publishers do prefer books no longer than a year apart, so if it takes you two years to write a book, it would probably be better to have something finished and something half done.

Since my life went all to pieces, I would be glad to write a book every two years. I have one I've been working on for a long time that I hope to finish this spring. We'll see how that goes. In the meantime, the backlist should allow me to publish books at a steady rate.

[Boneman]

At risk of a slap, there were 4 years between a certain favourite author of mine's first two (of a trilogy) books. For any book, I'd rather wait and see the author get it right, than see them rush it out and it's wrong... sometimes the publisher should take the blame for confusing art with business.

[Scarfy]

Originally Posted by Boneman

there were 4 years between a certain favourite author of mine's first two (of a trilogy) books

The Wise Man's Fear..?

I'm guessing you're not talking about either A Dance with Dragons or The Republic of Thieves...

[Teresa Edgerton]

What publishers want to know before they will sign you up (another book is in the works) and what they are willing to put up with after there is a contract in place (it takes much longer to finish that second book than anticipated) are two different things.

When the first book is as popular as The Name of the Wind, I am sure their patience stretches even further.

[TL Rese]

Originally Posted by Boneman

For any book, I'd rather wait and see the author get it right, than see them rush it out and it's wrong...

yes, exactly! i've read some stuff w/ self-publishing, about how you should crank out four novels per year, or something like that, in order to ramp up sales. sure, if you could produce quality at that speed, then go for it. but if not, then what are you to do?

personally, i'd like to produce a novel every 1-2yrs, or thereabouts, maybe even longer. i'm not a slow writer per se, but i'm planning on putting in a Lot of effort into future books (researching researching researching, editing countless drafts, etc.) if i have to move back in w/ the parents and teeter on the brink of starvation because no one's buying my books since they can't wait over a yr, then so be it. =(

[Anne Lyle]

Originally Posted by Teresa Edgerton

What publishers want to know before they will sign you up (another book is in the works) and what they are willing to put up with after there is a contract in place (it takes much longer to finish that second book than anticipated) are two different things.

When the first book is as popular as The Name of the Wind, I am sure their patience stretches even further.

Exactly! You need to have at least one book finished and polished to the best of your ability, because frankly anyone can start a book - finishing it's another matter.

Personally I like deadlines, as I'm basically rather lazy! I took four years to write my first novel, but most of that was the learning process rather than the physical act of writing. I just spent nine months doing what previously took me most of those four years, and am about to embark on replicating that feat