Thanks to digital technology, writers can now enjoy a reality where their out of print books from mainstream publishers never go out of print because they can become ebooks.
In the 1980s I wrote a series of 10 novels that featured Quin and Mike McCleary, married private eyes who plied their trade in South Florida. Back then, private eye novels were popular; nowadays, any private eyes that exist probably do most of their work on computers. The era of Dashiell Hammett and Agatha Christie has been rendered obsolete, except in the pages of fiction.
Ballantine was beautifully cooperative about reverting the rights for the seven titles they had published, but the last three titles with Hyperion were problematic. In the years since I had published the end of the series with Hyperion – a Disney company – they had sold their fiction imprint to Warner. Once I finally got an actual name to write for reversion of rights, I got a massive runaround from four or five people in the company.
Finally, something happened with the Department of Justice and an investigation into price fixing between Apple and mainstream publishers and Amazon. The behemoth – Amazon – published the names and email addressers of the CEOs involved in the investigation. And I found the name of the CEO for Warner’s. On a Friday, I emailed him a scathing letter about my three books that had been out of print for years and how I had requested a reversion of rights several times and been rebuffed. That Monday, I received a gracious letter of apology from him and a promise that my rights would be reverted. A week later, the rights to my three books were reverted, from the same woman who had given me the run around earlier.
I then turned over the three books to David Wilson at Crossroad Press.
Storm Surge, above, was the first of the three, and David Dodd designed a cool cover.
Since 2009,Crossroad has been doing something unique in publishing. They have been tracking down authors whose books are out of print and offering them an opportunity to bring their books back into print through ebooks, print, and audio, at no cost to the author. Other outfits that do this charge authors an exorbitant amount of money. But the Crossroad business model is vastly different. Even the royalty split is unheard of – 80 percent of the book’s price for the author, 20 percent for Crossroad. The typical publishing royalty split is 15 percent of cover price for hardcovers, 10 percent for paperbacks.
There is no advance, but the advantage is that from the sale of the first book, the author earns something. There’s no fancy accounting, either, and Crossroad pays each month rather than every six months, like mainstream publishers. Another benefit is that David Dodd, the illustrator, asks you for ideas about the covers. For an author, this is huge.
So many times over the years, an editor would send me the idea for a cover and ask me what I thought. And when I gagged, it didn’t matter. That idea became the cover. But David Dodd doesn’t rest until the author loves the illustration. And his partner David Wilson doesn’t stop until all of your backlist is back in print, each book priced reasonably – ebooks usually at $3.99
Rob and I have written several original books for Crossroad – novels and non-fiction.
So far, the books haven’t been picked up by Barnes & Noble because of their policies, but it hasn’t mattered. If you have a hook, late night radio shows are eager for guests and many of their listeners are book buyers.
In other words, the entire landscape of publishing is changing. And it’s publishers like Crossroad who are making the difference. I mean, think about it. If Crossroad and this technology had existed in the sixties, maybe Richard Brautigan wouldn’t have killed himself because he could no longer get published. Maybe his book Trout Fishing in America, which initially captured the revolutionary spirit of the 60s, would have been followed by Marlin Fishing in the 70s or Shark Fishing in the 80s or…. Well, you get the idea.
Sixteen years into the 21st century, no author has to commit suicide because he or she can’t get published. You still have to figure out how to market your stuff, get reviews, and do the usual stuff, but the point is that your creativity has a public venue.
I suspect that the Crossroad Press business model really is the wave of the future in publishing. Thanks to David Wilson and David Dodd!
It’s a good time to be a writer. So many choices.
It certainly is!