The First Commandment of Professional Writing
AKA Yog's Law
I hear this mentioned at every writing convention I’ve gone to, usually when the topic of vanity presses, Publish America, or self-publishing comes up. It is the most important thing to understand about being a professional writer.
Money flows to the writer.
It’s as simple as that. If you have any concerns/doubts/vague itching behind your eyeballs that some offer may not be legit, ask your friend Google by searching for “[company name] scam” and see what turns up.
A typical professional scenario is a publisher pays the agent, who takes their 15-20% for services rendered, such as getting the contract that sold the book to the publisher. The agent then pays the writer. Publisher’s Money -> Agent -> Writer = Good.
prison peeps
A typical scam is a writer pays an agent a fee to review their manuscript. Agent suggests writer is almost best-seller status, but manuscript needs a polish and here’s the number of an excellent book doctor the writer can pay to fix up that novel. Writer’s Money -> Agent = Bad. Writer’s Money -> Book Doctor = Very Bad.
A typical vanity press sells writer a publishing package of so many books and so much marketing material and tells them they will be listed on all the big online retail stores for a mere couple of hundreds of dollars. Writer’s Money -> Vanity Press = Horrible.
You can read more about the first commandment of professional writing in this Yog’s Law* post. Be sure to follow the links to the SFWA (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America) articles. These people *know* what they are talking about.
Teresa Nielsen Hayden gives details about why paying for copies of your own book from a vanity press is a direct violation of “money flows to the writer” rule. And she *knows* what she is talking about.
* coined by James D. Macdonald, repeated by professional authors everywhere
Capt. H.M. “Howling Mad” Murdock: What’s the first commandment, Franklin?
- The A-Team, “Trial by Fire”, 5.2
Oct 1, 2009
Categories: agents & editors & publishing | writing
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