Business and Legal Forms for Authors and Self-Publishers by Crawford Tad & Fitzgerald Stevie & Gross Michael

Author:Crawford, Tad & Fitzgerald, Stevie & Gross, Michael
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allworth Press
Published: 2015-06-02T00:00:00+00:00

Contract with Book Designer

FORM

12

The author with a finished manuscript must choose between two roads. One road leads to the world of commercial publishing where the author submits the manuscript to publishers (and perhaps agents) and hopes for success. The other road, less traveled (but becoming familiar to more and more authors), leads to the domain of self-publication. Here the author does not give up control of his or her manuscript. Instead, the author oversees the processes of design, printing, and sales, using contracts like Forms 12 through 15 to establish successful business arrangements.

Should an author self-publish? Subjective factors weigh heavily in this decision. Is the author someone who can work with a designer, a printer, a sales rep, or a distributor? Is it worthwhile to give up time from writing to do all of that (and probably a lot more, such as creating direct mail brochures and filling orders from the dining room table)? Are the author’s expectations reasonable, or so high that disappointment is bound to result? From a more objective viewpoint, the most important issue is whether there is a market for the book that can be reached by the author. What are the likely sales for the book? If these sales are by direct mail, how much will the direct mail piece, postage, and handling cost? Once sales have been estimated, all the costs can be put together to see whether the venture is likely to be profitable.

After the decision has been made to self-publish, the next step is to have a designer fashion a design for the book (unless the self-publisher does this, perhaps through desktop publishing). The designer is a creator too, so the relationship can have the joys and agonies of any creative collaboration. By looking at samples of the designer’s work and perhaps speaking with several prior clients, it should be possible to find a designer whose skills and temperament will meet the requirements of the self-publisher.

What will the designer do? Will the cover be designed as well as the interior of the book? What will the self-publisher be given as the finished product? Will it be ready for the printer or require additional work? Will the designer take responsibility for overseeing the printing? If photography or illustration is needed for the cover (or interior), will the designer commission or locate this, pay the fees, and obtain the necessary releases?

Of course, there must be agreement as to the fee. Many designers have switched to computers for their design work. This can be very cost efficient for certain projects. It is worth asking if the designer uses a computer and, if so, whether this has cost advantages. If the designer does use a computer, the author might save money by giving the designer computer disks (instead of a manuscript that would have to be scanned).

Expenses are the other significant aspect of the cost. The designer will incur a variety of expenses, from the dispatching of messengers to the procuring of reproduction-quality type (or film).

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