Copyright 1996 by Allan B. Lefcowitz

This is a Work in Progress.

Each week I will write up one or more new items from the list below. If you have a topic about which you need information, or an item you think needs further clarification, or find an error of fact, or have a disagreement with what I have written -- please send me an e-mail message:

lefty@writer.org

I don't promise I will respond right away but I'll get to it if I think that others may be interested in your question or problem or criticism.

I'll not define terms that you can look up in your dictionary -- for example, what is meant by a "first draft" should be clear to you. On the other hand, some people are not clear about what a "press" is. If your need for definition is too basic -- what do they mean by "revise"? -- I fear that you need so much help that I could not possibly respond in this work.

Note: Some of the cross-references will be to information only available to Maryland residents or supporting members of the Writer's Center. This service is funded in part by the Maryland State Arts Council (and so the citizens of the state) and the member's annual donations. So, help keep the doors -- metaphorically -- accessible. Supporting membership is only $30.00 a year and helps keep many Center services available. In fact, support of literary organizations and publishers will demonstrate your commitment to the writing business.

Acquisitions Editor

An editor who looks for manuscripts. The ideal editor would be, of course, one who looks for and helps develop manuscripts. In fact, most acquisitions editors are buyers of finished products. Notice how close the word is to acquisitive.

This contemporary fact has great significance for developing writers since one of two things are most likely to happen with your manuscript: (1) the editor will accept it and will never help improve it (and how embarrassing some of your writing will appear once it is in print; or will reject it without helping you to learn what you need to do to improve the manuscript specifically or your writing in general.

In effect, then, the writer has to turn to other places for good editing or good training. The development of graduate schools devoted to helping writers, writing centers, and other writers' resources is a result of this new dispensation in publishing.

Advance

is a part of your future royalty paid before the book is published. Remember that an advance will be deducted from your royalties. So your first payment after publication will be less than you might expect. A few people do get big advances but you are a beginner and won't get a front-page advance from a publisher. I hear that publishers have been stung often enough by non-performance of their big-advance writers that they are getting wary of giving large advances.

Usually, half of the advance is paid when the contract is signed and half when the final manuscript is delivered and the publisher accepts it as finished. Many agents argue that you should try to get as big an advance as possible because then the publisher will feel committed to publishing the book and to promoting it. Beware! The agent gets his or her percentage from the advance and, therefore, may hold out for a very large one and recommend against a smaller one. Remember that your agent is only gambling with 15% of the amount when he or she says hold out for the big bucks.

When you contract for your first book you probably don't have much negotiating room for an advance and a good agent will realize that. One strategy is to press for increased royalties after a set amount of sales to recoup publishing costs rather than a high advance. . . . .See also: Development contract

Agent

I see agents as peddlers, except they carry manuscripts in their backpacks rather than needles and bullet molds. They are supposed to know the needs and interests of the various publishers and have contacts with them (they had better or they are fakes). They earn their percent of the advance and royalties by acting both as seller and protector of the writer's work.

Some agents will even suggest projects to their clients, get ghost-writing assignments and other writing for hire, and in other ways act as the writer's promoter. Like all such middle people they make their living from the producer's (writer's) cut. This arrangement makes sense since you want the agent negotiating the contract for your benefit not for the publisher's.

What an agent does is to read the manuscript (or proposal), suggest ways to increase its appeal, peddles it to the right publishers, negotiates a contract, assures the contract is fulfilled, monitors payments, arranges subsidiary rights, and does all those other activities you would expect of a middle person. . . . See the sub-classes below for more information.

Remember that your relationship with an agent is a two-way street. Do not blindly do revisions that the agent wishes just because you are happy to have an agent. If your gut tells you no, say no. But, remember that a good agent has had long experience with the market and so consider carefully any advice he or she gives you. If an agent is not communicating, get another one. (But remember that the agent has a pack full of manuscripts to sell and is not calling because there is no news . . . or no good news.)

Be sure to read any contract with an agent carefully and show it to a lawyer. Agent's fees used to be 10% but these days are running 15%. Do not pay any money to an agent for agenting or editing. If your arrangement with the agent includes costs for copying and mailing, be sure that you have the classes and amounts of such costs clearly spelled out in writing (you are, after all, a writer). Arrange that costs will come from your advance and/or royalties . . . preferably the latter. See our scam kit on the BBS for ways to spot spurious agents.

Agent, do you need one?

Some say yes and some say no. Obviously, if you can get a good agent you can focus on your writing and not have to market your manuscript(s). Still, you can get a reading at a publishers, particularly if you pave the way with a query letter. And you can negotiate a contract (if you check with a lawyer). So, you can still get published without an agent and while one may be desirable, an agent is not the sine qua non. I find that some people worry about getting an agent before they have written their book. Obviously an agent is not going to waste time on an unproven product. In fact, you may find it easier to get an agent after you have gotten a book accepted. In brief: An agent may be nice but you can get along without one.

Agent, how to get one

The most asked question at the Writer's Center. I can tell you how to go about trying but the process will not work until you have a track record in writing and publishing.

1. If you know someone who has an agent and if your friend (or mentor) is willing to recommend you, it is possible that an agent will take you on . . . especially if the recommender produces a nice flow of income for the agent. Of course, all you have at that point is a contact.
2. Another way to get an agent is to submit a book and have a publisher actually offer a contract. If that seems ass-backward to you, it's simply an extention of the universal law that the rich get richer.
3. You can write query letters (don't call) to a passel of agents asking them to represent you. Here is how you do it:
   1. (a): Check in Literary Agents of North America (your library might have a copy and if you are close to the Center you can use ours) to see which agents are interested in hearing from beginning writers or writers who don't have books already. Since you are testing your market and will not be sending the manuscript, you can query as many as you wish.
   2. (b): write a simple, brief query letter and send with it a proposal and chapter outline or synopsis of your book along with your resume (particularly pointing out your previous publishing history). I will place in the BBS information files a sample proposals and query letter.
   3. (c): enclose an SASE.
   4. (d): wait for one agent to respond. Some will, some won't. All you need is one. If more than one responds, only send the manuscript to one. Write a letter to the others saying that the manuscript will be send shortly. Let the agent to whom you did send the manuscript know that you have other indications of interest and would like a response in a month. Keep the lines open.

Of course, lightning might strike and you might have an agent call you when you were not looking for one. I have heard of writers who start publishing in little magazines or in newspapers and attract the attention of an agent who then calls them looking for a client with a proven record of publication.

If you are writing your family history or the one book you will ever write, don't waste your time looking for an agent. In 999 cases out of a 1,000, you are not going to provide enough profit to justify the agent's efforts. Market the book yourself. Remember, if someone says they will agent your single book, be happy but don't send money. See the scam kit on the Center's BBS.

A final word: Once you have an agent, you need to know the protocols for contacting them. Read The Introduction to Literary Agents of North America for useful practices and a fuller description of the agenting business.

Board

refers to the final layout of the page or pages (often on a special graph paper or cardboard). See also: page proof. If you are self-publishing, be sure to look at the designer's boards before they go to the printer. Check the positioning of type and graphics, as well as making sure that: () corrections have been put in and () nothing has dropped out. If you are self-publishing buy a book about the process and read it twice. . . . See Camera Ready

Book Format

see design and format

Camera Ready

refers to the material (boards on which have been layed out your copy, drawings, space for pictures, etc. in exactly the way you wish it to appear in your publication)is the layout) from which the printer will start the printing process. Around the expression has grown a great mystique and I have heard many a silly use the term without any real understanding of the process to which it refers. Anything that can be photographed is camera ready . . . . If you have a publisher, it is his problem. If you are going to self- publish, you will want to provide boards that are beautifully camera ready -- correctly positioned, good type, and so on . . . . Read a book about self-publishing before launching your project.

Chapbook

has become the word for "a small book" (fewer than 40-50 pages) of poems, stories, or whatever. It is often staple bound. Somehow the word has acquired favorable connotation, as if a "chapbook" is somehow more elegant than a book. In fact, the word comes from the "cheap" books of tales and poetry hawked on the streets of London by "chapman"--peddlers with whom one bargained (cheapened). Because stapled books cannot be displayed with the spine out (because, of course, they have no spine), bookstores often will not purchase them. If you intend to publish and sell the book yourself or don't give a hoot, then a chapbook may be worth the effort. Otherwise, arrange for a perfect-bound (see perfect-bound) book.

Chapter outline

(In Development)

Commercial Publisher or Press

is distinguished from non-commercial publishers/presses (small press publishers, university presses) by the normal standard: do they intend to make money and will they pay you gobs of money for your writing (in your dreams). Examples: Simon & Schuster and the New Yorker.

Non-commercial publishers, like University Presses or Independent Literary Press, would like to make money but typically -- if not always -- their main motive is scholarship, literature, and other publications that need daylight but are not likely to make a profit by capitalistic standards.

This entry might conclude here were it not for an additional fact: many beginning writers consider the commercial presses as the only major leagues of publishing. The effect is that beginning writers (particularly in poetry, fiction, and essay) tend to submit to the biggest and most famous commercial presses rather than winning their spurs in most accessible markets such as the small, independent non-commercial presses (see small press) which pay in copies and reputation and the adreniline surge when your work is accepted.

You need to learn about your total market rather than submitting only to the places about which you have heard. Most of all, you need to read the books and magazines that the publisher is publishing rather than just launching manuscripts onto seas where they are almost certain to sink. In fact, if you are not reading in the market to which you submit, you probably are not much of a writer. I -- and the publishers -- get quite aggravated by people who think we should pay attention to their efforts when they ignore ours. If you don't buy (or at least read) in the genre which you are attempting to practice, if you do not support the literary effort with your $$$, the publishers won't be around when you are ready to submit. Lecture finished.

Note: commercial presses do not usually own printing presses. The commercial press, just like the non-commercial press, is entrepreneurial, bringing together various talents and marketing their product. (Obviously this is not true of newspapers which are, if one thinks about it, commercial presses.) . . . See small press and university press, press.

Contests

Though most literary contests are legitimate, some are equivalent to a contest run by a seller of vacation property. Some are even worse. On the Writer's Center BBS you will find a "Writer's Scam Kit" I wrote. It describes how to spot and avoid rip- offs.

Also, read our warning before the list of contests on our BBS (available to Center supporting members and residents of the Maryland).

Remember the law of the publishing business: "let the writer beware." The more you have to pay to get published or see what has been published, the more likely it is to be a spurious contest.

Contract

In this wicked world, the publisher writes the contract and you have to fight for your rights. Most contracts are filled with boilerplate about which you need not be overly concerned. However, you should have a lawyer look over your contract (I assume your agent will do so if you have one). As a beginning writer you will have a screw-the-writer and a protect-the-publisher contract. Still, you can do some negotiating. Try to keep the copyright under your name. Insist that royalties be increased when the book has sold 5,000 or 10,000 copies. Ultimately, however, take what you can get, write the next book, and then get tough.

Copyright

(Also, see the information about copyright on the Center's BBS.) Copyright means that your work is protected against unauthorized use. Once written down (or in another permanent form -- carved on stone, tape, whatever) your work is copyrighted whether or not you formally register it with the copyright office. Be sensible about copyright. Assume that publishers want to find books, articles, stories that will make them money or grace their lists and publications. They are happy to pay you something and don't want the aggravation that would occur if they stole your work.

I often get calls from people who have not yet written their book, article, plays, or whatever about copyright. That call is premature and a signal of the caller's overweening ego and innocent. Since you can't copyright an idea (see below), write first and then you don't have to worry about copyright.

Should you register your writing once it is done? Suit yourself. If you have the money (the fee is presently $20) and like paperwork, do it. But remember that no one is going to steal your short story, article, or poem and pass it off as their own. The reasons are simple: (1) it isn't worth significant amounts of money in the first place; (2) if you have the drafts and manuscript copy, you can easily prove you wrote something. Of course, people will plagerize, but that is another matter. Neither copyright nor the 10 Commandments has stopped sin. Though I can conceive of someone stealing your play, novel, or non-fiction book, it is highly unlikely that someone will. Robbing a bank is probably safer and certainly more profitable. If you have heard cases of someone whose "idea" has been stolen, the most likely explanation is that (a) the idea was in the air; (b) the idea was obvious and anyone of 250 million people also might have come up with it (c) the person talked it all over town and did not write it. In brief, don't worry about the matter.

Because it does look rather nice, do place a copyright notice on the first page of your manuscripts:

Copyright [the year] by [your name].

To order copyright forms call: (202)707-9100.

Don't place the copyright notice on every page. That's a sign of an amateur.

I am often asked how long copyright is for. I used to know but I have forgotten. At least as long as your lifetime. After that, let someone else worry about it.

Note: You probably have no right in a work for hire beyond the pay you receive unless you negotiate for such rights. See "Work for Hire."

Cover letter

refers to the letter that goes along with your manuscript. That letter should be no more than one page and as simple as possible. I will publish a few typical cover letters soon on the Center BBS or you can find samples in any number of books about agents or writing. Don't forget the SASE for the publisher's or agent's convenience.

Do not comment on how interesting your work is, nor on how important it is, nor on how much you would like to see it published in "Cover Letter Magazine" or any other such garbage. You will sound like an amateur. You are, of course, but don't let them know it. . . . See query letter.

involves making judgements about the aesthetic qualities of a book, everything from the cover and artwork, through type style to format, to size, to ink . . . . everything. Think of the final design as the set on which your words will play. If you design your own book you may have hired a fool for a designer. Hire someone else to do it. Design involves so many choices and such attention that it will take you away from your primary task -- writing and marketing.

If you are working with a publisher, try to get a look at the design before the book is published -- especially the cover. Your name is going to be on it. If you are self-publishing, co-op publishing, or starting out as a publisher yourself, find a designer you trust. But remember that the designer is your designer. The pleasure the designer gets as an artist is not in the words but in the visual image of the book. You must insist that the look of the book not overwhelm your words.

Designers will pout, but be firm. If your instinct tells you that a purple cover with green ink and Broadway font type in yellow on chartruese paper is likely to be striking but will glow in the dark--say no. And when in doubt, choose the simple. You'll have to live with it a long time.

Hint: Present to the designer a single sheet of guidelines including: the purpose of the book, the audience, the image you have of the final product (and, perhaps, some models from books you have seen and liked), and specific suggestions about sizes.

If you are a self-publisher, you can be sure that typesetters and printers will charge you a premium for the smashing effects your designer has created for them to execute. In short, do not let him or her reinvent the book on your dime.

Generally speaking, design to standard book sizes and shapes because printers will have an easier time (and so be less expensive), booksellers will have an easier time shelving, and audiences will be more comfortable handling your book. Avoid strangely-shaped books for anything but strangely shaped content. Despite the old adage, I can tell something from the cover and I suspect others can. As a writer you want the book to be comfortable to carry around, easy to read, and unobtrusive (but attractive).

Standard trimmed sizes of book pages are: 5 1/4" by 8"; 6" by 10" and so on.

Desk-top Publishing

as you may already have discovered to your dismay is misnamed. Actually the process involves using a computer to layout a page (or pages) without resorting to scissors, razors, t-squares, wax and the other physical devices formerly used to prepare camera-ready copy on boards. At the time of this writing, any "desk-top publishing program" -- Ventura Publisher, for example -- will do a good enough job for the eye of most readers. Remember, however, that preparation of "boards" through desk-top publishing is about half (depending on the number printed) of the total costs for most self-published books.

Self-publishers should probably hire someone to do desk-top work for them unless they intend to do more than one book at year. Remember, your printer cannot overcome problems in design, layout, and type.

Development Contract

a contract with a publisher to work on a manuscript or to write a draft of a manuscript. The publisher does not have an obligation to publish the finished work but will lay out some money to have you try to write an acceptable book because something about the proposals is intriguing. Publishers may use such a contract -- usually involving small amounts of up-front money that will be taken from royalties -- to encourage a writer who has a work or an idea that shows promise. The contract and the small advance encourages the writer but does not overly commit the publisher. Typically, development contracts are for non-fiction works and the writer has some proven expertness in the subject.

Editor

refers to someone who is supposed to prepare the manuscript(s) for publication or supervise a publication (i.e. a magazine). In practice, however, the word "editor" has come to mean refer to a host of activities, from choosing manuscripts (see acquisitions editor ) to checking facts.

Beware the free-lance editor who promises to help you find a publisher or agent.

Publishers often hire free-lance editors to help style a book. Remember that everything that editor says is only a suggestion for you to consider. Don't assume that a hired editor always knows more than you do . . . particularly about the tone or details of your book. Don't assume that because they have looked at the text all problems have been caught. If you believe that, you believe in the infallibility of spell checkers. Your work is still your responsibility. Lecture done.

Editing Service

Beware of editing services. Check the credentials carefully, Ask for recommendations. Do not go to one for fiction or poetry unless you simply wish to have someone check conventions (grammar, spelling, punctuation). Actually, if you can get a publisher, the publisher will pay to have your manuscript copy edited. Remember, however, that you are still responsible for manuscript accuracy and consistency.

If you are self-publishing then you may wish someone who is objective (not your mother or best friend) to edit the text.

Beware the editor or editing service that promises to help you find a publisher or agent. Have I said that? If an agent offers to do editing for a fee, run to the nearest phone and ask for your manuscript back.

ElHi

is publishing talk for the market that includes all readers from ELementary school through HIgh school. Also known as the K- 12 group. People in the business like to talk that way and since I knew the term I thought I'd fill out my e-list with it. I really do think that part of your task as a writer is to learn as much about the business as possible. Learning doesn't make you a better writer but it helps you in marketing. Maybe in a subtle way, knowing something does help you write.

First rights

(see also, submitting your manuscript) usually refers to the rights you are selling for periodical publication. You give the editor the "right" to publish the article (poem, story . . .) once in the journal. You retain the right to use the material in further publications (a book, for example) and would require the editor to ask you again for the right to use your work in another place (an anthology, for example) put out by the same press. In fact, you could charge for the piece again. In non-commercial publishing, the usual practice is to return copyright to the writer as a matter of course.

Foreign rights

see subsidiary rights.

Formats

are conventional ways of typing a manuscript to send to an editor or publisher or film producer and of producing a book. At a later date I will "publish" pages of standard formats on the Center BBS. If you can't wait, look them up in market books or books about writing or design.

The Writer's Handbook (Simon Schuster, 2nd edition, 1994) contains sample formats for submitting manuscripts, as well as other useful information and instruction for neophyte creative writers. I can recommend it highly.

I am putting a note to myself here to say something at a later date about not doing cute stuff in your manuscripts. Don't try to be a designer and though your word processor can turn out something that you think looks like the book, don't go to the bother. I can always tell a neophyte from such manuscripts and I suspect other editors can also. In brief, use conventional manuscript form. If I haven't said something more about this by September 1996, send me e-mail to remind me.

Galleys

or galley proofs are long, unpasted up sheets of type or copies of those sheets (See page proofs). Often writers will be send copies of the galleys to proofread from publishers who are not yet up to the modern typesetting and design methods.

Avoid editing anything but facts or the most serious style errors in galleys. Usually your contract with the publisher will state that you pay for such changes.

Once upon a time, galleys were also used to dummy a book or magazine to see how the pages (or boards) might look before final paste-up. As publishers catch up with the 20th century, such practices (and even galley proofing) will disappear. But so much in the entire writing business will disappear -- perhaps printing itself -- that I won't waste tears over this change in the writing business. Worse are to come.

Ghost writer

is one who writes the work that appears under your name, does not appear, or may be you writing for someone else and you won't appear. The ghost writer may do all the writing, research, and even idea generating (playing off the name of someone famous like Newt Gingrich or Madonna or some other model of upright social behaviour). Or the ghost writer may only be an editor whose contributions to the work are confined to elements of style and organization. Between these two extremes are a wide variety of relationships between the person who is the source of the work and pays for it and the one who is the professional writer.

In many cases the ghost writer does not receive a credit (except for an ambiguous thank you in an introduction) and in some cases the work is presented as jointly produced.

The pay for the ghost writer depends -- as in all such matters -- on the ghost writers reputation and negotiating power. Normally ghost writers are used for non-fiction work only. But in these days of the celebrity, ghost writers increasingly are hired to create novels for illiterate people whose name may sell a rotten book. I know of no ghost-written novel that has not been quickly remaindered. Some decency stays in the publishing business. But the hope of a quick killing still stirs in the publisher's hearts. . . . See also "Work for hire."

Graphic

is the general term for all charts, pictures, art work, etc. that will go along with your manuscript or appear in your book..

Halftone

refers to the end result of preparing a photograph for printing. The printer has to create from the photograph another photograph in which the "continuous tones" of the original are broken down into thousands of dots for the off-set printing process. What you have to know is that making half-tones is no big deal and a printer who estimates a greatly higher cost because of half-tones is probably ripping you off. It is a bit more time consuming to print half-tones and if you have a hundred photographs certainly will make increase your costs significantly. But if a printer makes a big deal about half-tones -- unless you are making special demands -- get another printer.

What I have just written does not go for color half-tones. But they are getting cheaper to do also.

Note: Drawings can be treated exactly like your type and should involve no extra cost unless you are using colors.

Illustration

Index

ISBN

Kill Fee

A payment to the writer from the publisher for not publishing the article or book contracted for. (I know I ended the sentence with a preposition.)

Why pay and not publish? Because the publisher feels that the subject or approach is not suitable or the marketplace has changed. The kill fee is usually a specific amount or percentage in the contract. You may take the kill fee and also sell your work to another publisher. (Obviously, to receive the kill fee, the work must be of publishable quality and indeed the work you contracted to deliver.

LC number (See Library of Congress number)

Letterpress

Line shot

Line Drawings

Manuscript

Marketing

Multiple submission

Page Layout or layout

Perfect bound

Permission

Press (see publisher)

Pricing, for self-publishers

Printer

Proof

Proposal

Publisher

Rejection letter

Release

Royalty

SASE (Self-address, Stamped Envelope)

Self-publishing

Selling (see marketing)

Small press

Staple bound

Submitting your manuscript

Subsidiary rights

Subsidy publishing

Synopsis

Treatment

Typeset

Work for Hire

Writer's block