The seventh entry in the Josie Prescott Antiques Mystery series has just sold to St. Martin's Minotaur (St. MM). This book, yet to be titled, will feature antique dolls and will be published in April 2012. During the negotiation, a second publisher, Severn House, expressed interest in acquiring the series. That, I must say, was fun.
More good news: The large print and United Kingdom rights of the sixth in the series, DEADLY THREADS (out in April 2011), have sold. (Large print to Thorndike and U.K. to BBC.) All books in the series are available in these editions, although some are with different publishers.
Finally, a point of interest: St.MM agreed to pay an ebook royalty of 25 percent. Further, St. MM agreed to "retrofit" all past contracts to include that new, much higher, royalty rate.
7 comments:
Congrats. Very interesting, re: ebook rights. I was just reading that others find even 25% to be too low. Here's one fellow who "walked away" from a publishing deal over ebook royalties:
http://quixoticprod.blogspot.com/2011/02/maybe-mayans-were-rightbut-they-were.html
I guess we'll find out if this Kindle-only business will work out for him and the others trying it in a year or so!
My agent tells me that the only publishers who are currently willing to go higher are all-digital publishers.
I'm sure they are—those publishers have tons of overhead, after all. I'm wondering whether ebooks will be so vital to the future that more midlist writers will gamble on ebook-only self-publishing to get that 70% royalty straight from amazon.
Congratulations! That must be exciting. (Way to state the obvious)
I have mixed emotions... if a series isn't taking off (sales-wise... the reviews have always been good) after six books, should you call it a day and try something new? Obviously I sell well enough so the pubisher wants to continue the series, but looking at the issue from my career point of view, long-term, is this the wisest use of my time? I could argue either side.
In my experience, there is no excitement, no feeling of accomplishment, no high that equals selling your FIRST novel. I have a feeling you'll be experiencing that emotion soon, Friskey!
Let's hope you're right. As for yours, I'd do what you want to do. If you like being Josie, be Josie. None of us car a bit about the money, do we? BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...
Congrats! And yeah, I'm looking forward to that first book high....
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