Royalties and Net and Bears, OH MY!

Like it or not, writing is a business.  Sure, we'd happily sit with our laptops, typewriters, pens, pencils, Sharpies, crayons, or what have you, and crank out best-sellers til the cows come home, watching the money magically appear in our bank accounts.  There would be bon-bon eating and bubble baths in there somewhere too.

And as much as I wish it worked like that, it's not going to happen.

At RWA 2011, I attended a workshop on contracts, and, of course, royalties and payment rates were brought up.  My head was swimming with information already, so it all sounded like gibberish, but now that I'm getting closer to querying, it's something that concerns me.  

Unfortunately, most of the information out there still sounds like gibberish to me.  This stuff--math-wise, anyway--is right up there with doing taxes.  

Rather than bore you with my own garbled understanding, I'm simply going to piggyback on two blog entries.  One was done by my friend and fellow author, Laura Kaye, who did some nice neat maths (they put the "s" on math over here in the UK, so I can use it like that, dammit!) and broke some of the confusing bits down for us in a nice, easy-to-understand entry.  

The other entry is more of an informative post by author Maya Banks, who has a ton of books out and uses some real-life examples.  A lot of this entry involves digital publishing, but she is traditionally published as well.  

Laura Kaye: Royalty Rates Matter. Here's Why.

Dear Author: Maya Banks

So go ahead and check these out.  I found them very eye-opening, and would love to know what you think. And, as always, I'm happy to pass on info I thought was helpful in case someone else will find it interesting, too.

xoxo Sarah

"P" is for Pictures -- Author Pictures

As I near the end of my first manuscript, I've become aware that I need some new professional authory pictures taken.

I've had professionals shots taken before, because, frankly, I look like the devil's spawn in most amateur pictures due to horrifying red-eye.  But I've never had any done with the specific goal of using them for my Twitter profile, Facebook fan page, website, and book covers. There's a certain image I want to convey -- I want them to be professional, but not stuffy or too "staged."  It just wouldn't fit with the subjects I write about.  We've all seen author pics where they're behind a desk or something with their hand under their chin.

Even Michael Crichton, author of Jurassic Park, is guilty of this.

So, I've been scouring my author friends' pictures to find ones I love.  I've found a few that have a style that I like (which could also be due to the photographer as well) so I thought I'd share.

Here are a few of my friend, Laura Kaye, author of North of Need and many others.

I love how the shots are outside, and she looks comfortable in the pictures.

Here's one of my all-time favorites.  The author is Meg Cabot, who wrote The Princess Diaries.

The picture is fun and fairly relaxed, and her feet can even be cropped so it just shows her face and hands to make an entirely different picture.

I'll definitely be getting hair and makeup done for my pictures, and carefully choosing my wardrobe so I'm dressed in something that will both photograph well and not date the picture too much.

Living in a completely different area than most of my writer friends, I couldn't go by any recommendations...so I did a lot of Googling and checked out websites to see the photographer's portrait style. Because most photographers do portraits but don't have "author photos" listed on their price list, I emailed to ask for prices for what I wanted done.  I also requested that I retain the rights to the photos...I certainly don't mind crediting the photographer, but if they retained the rights, I'd have to constantly ask for permission to use a picture for whatever I wanted.  Want to use one for my Facebook author page? Gotta ask.  Want to change my Twitter icon pic?  Gotta ask.  Want to badly Photoshop mustaches on my picture just for the hell of it--or in case I write The Big Book of Mustaches?  Gotta ask. Thankfully, the photographer I have lined up was willing to work with me.  I'm hoping to have the shots done in early May if the weather permits.  I'm looking forward to it!

Have you had professional pictures taken?  What did you think of the experience?

xoxo Sarah

An Article by Laura Kaye: Undressing a Bad-Ass Hero

Hello!  

We're (slowly...VERY slowly) getting settled here in the U.K.  Yep...our move was an overseas one, so not only do we have to contend with wonky sleep patterns, we have to basically learn a new monetary system and how to drive (on the other side of the road, that is).  But things are coming along.  We've even found a house to rent, and it's in a great little town!  That's encouraging to me for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that, yeah, we'll have somewhere to live, but that the sooner we get moved in and unpacked, the sooner I can get my ass back in my desk chair and finish my novella.  

To tide you over, I saw that one of my lovely author friends, Laura Kaye, wrote an article called Undressing a Bad Ass Hero.  Not only was it a good article, but it was about one of my very own favorite anti-heroes, Zsadist, from J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood books.  Apparently, he's Laura's favorite, too, so things might get ugly.  Just kidding.  Laura also has a blog, so go check that out when you're done here.  

Here's the link!  I hope you enjoy.  http://thenakedhero.com/undressing-a-bad-ass-hero-the-bdbs-zsadist

Until next time, my lovelies!

xoxo Sarah