Melva Gifford

I attended the Live the Universe and Everything symposium. These are notes from one of the panels. Any misinformation is the fault of the note taker.

• What should you watch out for? How long until your material returns back to your jurisdiction. What of the intellectual rights in the long-term? If a publisher does not give you a contract and that is not good. Do not associate with them. Just walk away make sure the contract is addressed to the right person make sure specified how you will be paid.
• How are they paying you? When do the rights return back to you? Do not have in the contract right of the first refusal. This is a prominent shortcoming of the small press. Maybe limit this to only a novel of the same universe. In some will take a long time to make a decision like 10 years. You must have a specific time for response. When offering rights. Specify only English US, Canada, Australia, England.
• Do not sell the copyright. Work for hire sometimes will buy all rights but they already have ownership of that world. The author is playing in their sandbox.
• If a publisher asked you to pay money then that is a publisher only want to make money off you and they are not interested in your success. That is a vanity publisher.

What things do you want to look for in a contract?

• See what rights they are taking and when those rights are reverted back to you. Tell me how you getting paid. MI BN paid from gross or from net. Hollywood often uses net and it never seems to pay out to benefit the creators. Gross is the cover price. If you get an itemized list of what is net then you can see what you have been paid for.
• For short fiction, you don’t get royalties. In a contract for short fiction tried it make sure that you are material revert back to your ownership. This is often done within a year
• For novels see when the advances are paid out. Once you reach and meet the expenses of production. The gig and exit bands. The first advance might be when you sign the contract. The second might be when the book goes to print. Many publishers offer 10% royalty. Your advance is offset by your royalties. When you earn out your expenses you can get another dance. If you don’t earn out the publisher loses interest in you.
• If there is a large advance the publisher is more inclined to make more of an effort to publicize you so they get them an investment back. Nowadays new authors are getting smaller advances.
• Ask what is being paid for the e-book?
• Ask what is being paid for the audiobook?

What kind of resources or their contracts?

• SAIF LA: as a writer beware section that identifies scam publishers and agents. The author and publisher Katharine Roche has also done a number of posts on the topic of contracts.
• A good agent will know what to look for about what is good and bad about a contract
• always read your contract. If you don’t understand the section, you can ask the publisher. If it’s a contract for short fiction, any mention of Hollywood is a red alert. Have your agent review that section of Hollywood. It is anything related to Hollywood, then you need to communicate with a Hollywood agent. Those who write a contract to Hollywood will try to benefit themselves first.
• Some contracts will say that they have exclusive rights to your work. If that is the case in a seven certain timeframe.
• Have an option that if your story gets voted the best of the year it can be used in that anthology as it will promote their materials well. Get a definition of rights as long as the book is in print. Then needs to be a certain amount of print. Does include electronic. Nothing is considered in print it or rights lesson 2000.
• Have a stipulation in your contract that if a small press closes its doors does your work refer back to you.

I attended the Live the Universe and Everything symposium. These are notes from one of the panels. Any misinformation is the fault of the note taker. This is a continuat8ion of the previous presentation called selling your books:

Go to your table early. That will give you time to go around other people’s tables and see how they do their setups. If you like what someone does it’s all to your table to do that as well. Talk to your neighbors and other authors and see what they write so that you can promote them if that doesn’t mean what you do. This is good for your dog, not a good fit for what you’re is looking for. When others see you promote their work they will promote yours. Some may even post what you did on social media spotlighting you and what you did. That might influence some of their contexts to buy your material you also establish a relationship with those authors at future conferences and they may continue to promote your work and you theirs.

Bring a backup person to help mend the table if possible. Many conventions are willing to provide an extra set of badges.

Many authors are introverts. At the conference, You need to be out of character and be an extrovert rather than an introvert. At your table, you need to be high energy. Your audience will feel that energy and respond to it. At a bookstore start a conversation that talks about them, not about you. You are creating a value for them. You may ask what kind of books do you like to read? What was the latest book that you read? Why do you like that book? What brought them to the bookstore or the conference

the size of imagination is bigger than the budget of the world. While talking to them invite them to take a look and read that blog of the book. While the current person is looking at the book it would be a good time for you to add someone new what they like to read. You might say today at the conference the book is only $20. You create urgency with this.

If you have only one book, that might be a good time to share the convention space of the authors. Their popularity can bring others to the table and they might look at your books. If you have multiple books then that is the time for you to have your own table. If a buyer book, ask them, can I take your picture with me and maybe post it on my Facebook page? There might be friends of that person that sees the post and may buy your book.

Stand before the take your table you need to ask open-ended questions about what kind of books you like to read. If you can’t stand in the front of your table see if you can with the table back. Make sure you are standing. Be conscious of your presence at various events. You may have a certain kind of brand by how you dress.

If you are on the staff of various conventions, then they will want to promote you. They might even give you a prime spot in the dealer’s room.

At your table, you may have cheap candy, in the front. But as you establish a connection with someone maybe offer them the better candy from your private stock

one of the best freebies to put on the table? Many will put on the CR code that can be taken with the pitch of the camera. Many will have half-page flyers of their website. Some will have booklets of the first 25 pages of their book. MG: Mel was thinking that with multiple books I would provide the first five pages of several books. And then at the bomb of the book have a way to buy them. Maybe QR codes are assigned to each book. Conversation and a relationship are what sell the books. Being curious about the people who come. It does not hurt to be funny. If you can make them laugh that is a good thing. For example, if someone says that they like Western romance. Then say then you need to check out this book. This book has no romance and no Westerns. Invite them to read the blurb.

How do you address someone maybe even a fan from monopolizing your time? You might tell that you need to go to the bathroom and we’ll talk to them later. Or you may ask them to wait a moment while you talk to us of the customer. As the people that come if you could send them an email. You don’t want too many emails because I want up some unsubscribe. Only send an email when it’s relevant or important. One example of this might be if you could be appearing at a future event.

When pinching your fiction may be used movies or characters that people are familiar with. Be consistent with the brand of your presence. That way people will recognize you in future events.