Writers in the Storm

Susan Spann 

Welcome back to the #PubLaw negotiation mini-series here at Writers in the Storm!

The last post took a look at how to create a pre-negotiation plan.

To re-cap:

• Read the contract; make a list of points you’d like to change.
• Prioritize your list into deal breakers, important points, and “things to ask for.”
• Consider the publisher’s potential responses to your requests.
• Adjust your list, and strategy, to address potential publisher concerns.

Now, let’s look at tips for increasing your chances of success in the actual negotiation:

1. Like flies, publishers prefer honey to vinegar.

No matter how the negotiation opens, proceeds, or finishes, you must remain professional throughout the process. Negotiations may occur by phone or (more commonly) email. Regardless of method, take the time to phrase your comments in a polite and respectful manner.

Not all publishers (or their lawyers) treat authors (or agents, or anyone) with respect. In fact, I just wrapped up a negotiation with a publishing attorney whose responses ranged from “merely condescending” to offensive. Though tempted to respond in kind, I kept my cool—and ended up obtaining several concessions she would never have agreed to if I’d used the tone she used with me.

It isn’t easy to keep your temper and stay polite when the other side is hostile, condescending, or both. However, it’s the only way to get the best possible deal.

2. Pay attention to the publisher’s negotiating strategy—it’s an indicator of your future relationship.

A publisher or editor who condescends or ignores your concerns during negotiations probably won’t become more attentive and engaged when the contract is signed.

Look for red-flags in the publisher’s behavior. If you ask a reasonable question, does the editor answer reasonably or brush it aside as if your concerns don’t matter?

How does the editor respond to requests for compromise? A considerate refusal, which recognizes your request but explains why change isn’t possible, suggests a far more positive relationship than “we’ve always done it this way, and perhaps you should just self-publish if you don’t like it.” (And yes…I’ve seen that answer in a real negotiation.)

One caveat here: Sometimes a publisher’s attorney handles the negotiations on behalf of the acquiring editor, and the lawyer’s tactics may not reflect the editor’s normal behavior. In other words: don’t nuke a deal because the lawyer lacked appropriate social skills. Far too many of us fall short when it comes to social niceties.

3.  When negotiating by email, remember that writing has trouble conveying tone—on your side or the publisher’s. 

Text—especially simple, business-related text—can often convey a “shadow-tone” contrary to the writer’s intentions. When sending and receiving email, phrase your own words carefully and interpret the publisher’s responses generously with regard to tone. For example: “We’ve always done it this way” could be a polite explanation…or a hostile argument-ender; you can’t tell which it is from the words alone.

Proofread all negotiation emails before you hit “send,” not only for content and typographical errors but also for tone. When reading the publisher’s responses, give the benefit of the doubt with regard to tone whenever possible—and remember: don’t lose your temper, no matter what.

4. Negotiate your way through the contract paragraph by paragraph, rather than jumping around in the text.

Shortly before the negotiation, re-order your list of negotiating points to match the paragraph numbers in the contract. During negotiation, address each point as you come to it in the document. This ensures that every important point is discussed—if you work out of order, things often get missed or fall through the cracks.

Think on your feet—and outside the box.

If the publisher refuses your first suggestion for a contract amendment, quick thinking may help you to respond with a workable compromise.

Here’s an example: You ask to keep your translation rights. The editor refuses, saying the publishing house wants foreign language rights as part of the contract. “All right,” you say, “would you be willing to use language that grants them to you for the first two years after publication, but lets me revert any unused foreign language rights at the end of that period?” Many publishers will consider—and agree to—this language.

Effective pre-negotiation planning helps you prepare for this kind of situation, too—the more you prepare, the more creative options you’ll have to offer.

5. Plan for more than one round of negotiations. 

Sometimes, your requested changes may require permission (or consideration) by someone other than the acquiring editor. Don’t get upset if the editor asks to consider your request, or discuss it with the company lawyers. This doesn’t mean the answer will be no!

Negotiations can resolve all issues in a single shot, but far more often a publishing contract results from multiple rounds of negotiation over several weeks (or months). Patience is, indeed, a virtue.

So…who’s ready to negotiate?

About Susan

Susan Spann writes the Shinobi Mysteries, featuring ninja detective Hiro Hattori and his Portuguese Jesuit sidekick, Father Mateo. Her debut novel, CLAWS OF THE CAT (Minotaur Books, 2013), was a Library Journal Mystery Debut of the Month and a finalist for the Silver Falchion Award for Best First Novel. BLADE OF THE SAMURAI released in 2014, and her third novel, FLASK OF THE DRUNKEN MASTER, releases on July 14, 2015. Susan is also a transactional attorney whose practice focuses on publishing law and business.

When not writing or practicing law, she raises seahorses and rare corals in her marine aquarium. You can find her online at http://www.SusanSpann.com, on Twitter (@SusanSpann), and on Facebook (SusanSpannAuthor).

I don’t plot. I don’t outline. I don’t even do character sketches. I know, I know … I’ve tried, I really have. Every time I try, I freeze and lose the spark for the story.

Here’s the irony, I’m a planner—not just any planner--a neurotically compulsive planner. I’ve never met a project, a trip, a day that I didn’t plan to the last detail. Seriously. Weeks are mapped out in my dateplanner. Days are detailed on insert sheets within the weekly plan. I even have a task list on my iPhone. Each new project starts life as a shiny Gantt chart. My brain is always two steps ahead, calculating how to go from here to there, anticipating roadblocks and thinking through potential detours.

You’d think my compulsion to plan would lead to careful plotting of stories. But nooooo. Sigh.

A story idea will come at me—sometimes it’s a title, sometimes an event, sometimes an object—then bounce around, collecting more details like a dust bunny grabbing at every strand of hair in the living room until it’s fully formed and ready to move out on its own.

But unlike the carefully calculated project plan (I can tell you within a day or three how long each draft will take) the brainstorming and writing process need more freedom.

Say hello to my good friend, Mind Mapping.

Mind mapping is a thinking tool that goes with the flow of the thought process rather than forcing those thoughts into a linear order. It’s creative and visual and perfect for brains that have a tendency toward the squirrel story threads. I heard it once described as “the little Swiss-army knife for the brain.” That was all I needed!

There are plenty of mind mapping software options to choose from (some paid, some free, depending on the features you want) or you can freehand with different colored markers and a large sheet of paper (or white board). Whatever works best for you.

I’ve tried the marker and paper and software before. For one of my picture books, I used crayons and poster board—man that was fun! But for my women’s fiction, I prefer software that’s easy to drag and drop and move and tweak.

Here are a couple of pointers that have worked for this non-linear thinker.

Brain dump.

The idea behind a mind mapping session is not to detail the story plan but to empty your brain of details for the story. Order doesn’t matter. Whatever comes to mind, whenever it comes to mind, put it down. Link it to other ideas or details as the connections become clear.

For example, in my WIP, my main character receives a letter from someone in her past that awakens a secret she’s tried to forget for over 20 years. The first thing I put down was “secret.” From there, I let my mind loose. Obviously the secret affects her, so she gets a bubble. But there’s the person who sent her the letter, the person who wrote the letter (he’s dead, by the way), her job, the friends who were affected by the secret back in the day, her parents, a rescue dog, one of the kids she works with, her husband.

Next, I looked at each of the bubbles and added to those. What about the secret will affect her job? Why does she suddenly feel the need to look for an old high school friend she hasn’t spoken to since graduation? Why would she adopt a dog suddenly?

At this stage, the items you jot down don’t need to have clear lines to others but they do need to inspire parts of the story. As you start digging a bit deeper into each one, you’ll discover how each relates to the other pieces. And you’ll add additional twigs to each new branch of your map.

Don’t tie yourself to one way of doing your map. Maybe you start with individual words or couple of words. For example, maybe there’s an anecdote between two characters that jumped to mind or a description of an object or place. Put those down as they came to you, don’t try to force them into the one or three word bubbles to match the others. Everything is fair game!

The more the merrier.

When you create an outline for your story, you have one outline. Mind mapping doesn’t have to be just one map per story. You’re not trying to organize your thoughts, you’re releasing them. If one bubble sparks an a-ha moment, give it it’s own map. See where it takes you.

For my WIP, I currently have four maps—the main one I started with, one for my main character (this is where I’ve captured things I know about her, details that bring her to life for me), one for her job/career, and another for her senior year in high school (20-some years ago). Each time I open a new page and let my mind run free with the possibilities, I see new story paths and details.

Think of mind mapping as the hot air balloon vision for your story. It takes you out of the forest of details and puts you up high above the treetops, to see the whole of the wooded space and all the cute little story squirrels scampering around in there.

Interestingly enough, I’m a linear writer. I have to start at the beginning and work through to the end of the story. I never fully know the end until I get there. With mind mapping, I get the big picture idea for my story, I have random details and an understanding for how each fits with the others—I have the map to guide me through the forest. I may still veer off a path in pursuit of another squirrel, but I know that to get to the end of my trek, I’ll have to get back on the main path.

If you’re not a plotter, not a linear thinker, give mind mapping a shot. It’s an organic, visual thought process that appeals to right brainers. Most mind mapping software have the ability to turn the visual brainstorming into a linear outline. That’s a bonus if you need to turn in an outline (or expand it into a synopsis) to your agent or editor.

I’d love to hear from pantsers and plotters how you approach the brainstorming process. Are you a linear thinker or a visual thinker? What tools or processes help you capture your ideas?

About Orly

After years of pushing the creativity boundary in corporate communications, Orly decided it was time for a new challenge. Three women’s fiction manuscripts later (plus a handful of picture books), it’s safe to say she’s found her creative outlet. When she’s not talking to her imaginary friends, she’s reading or at least trying to ignore everyone around her long enough to finish “just one more paragraph.” Orly is the founding president of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association.

You can find her on Twitter at @OrlyKonigLopez or on her website, www.orlykoniglopez.com.

Marilyn Brant

Thanks so much for inviting to me to Writers in the Storm today and for asking me to share a little bit about the group blog anthology I worked on this spring!

A few months ago, I organized a writing/promotional project for one of my blogs, the Girlfriends Book Club, which is an online group I’ve been a part of for over eight years. (And the wonderful Laura Drake is also a member!) I had the pleasure of working with sixteen GBC members on a multi-author collection that we called, One More Page: A Fiction Sampler with Bonus Writing Advice from 17 Successful Novelists. It was intended to showcase both the diversity of our individual writing, as well as the collective wisdom of our group blog.

What resulted was a FREE ebook anthology that I thought was pretty unique. Each chapter in the book featured a different author, and the chapters included a range of writing treats. In every chapter, there was a short author bio, website links, a couple of blog posts about writing that the author had previously posted on the GBC, and an excerpt with buy links from one of the author’s published novels. And, so, the project itself was a combination of writing wisdom for aspiring novelists *and* fiction samples for curious readers.

We released the anthology in mid-May and, to date, we’ve had a few thousand downloads across the various retailers. While I can’t speak to the experiences of all of the other participants, I found that reader interest in the novel that I excerpted in the collection (a chapter from my coming-of-age romantic mystery, The Road to You) has garnered some additional sales since the publication of the sampler.

Where we are in the Amazon/B&N/iBooks/Kobo rankings at any given time fluctuates, of course. When the book gets a promotional boost on a popular Facebook page, blog or author newsletter, the rankings always improve. But I think the added visibility has been of some help to everyone involved. As with most promo projects, the more effort somebody is willing to put into it, the more he/she tends to get out of it. I definitely think the author participants who took the time to really promote the project to their individual readership also saw added interest in their own work.

Again, speaking just from my own experience, I know that after I sent my newsletter out and posted about the free book on my social media sites, I received quite a positive response, and not just for The Road to You. I found that my readers were excited that I was introducing them to a bunch of talented, new (to them) authors—which could only be a good thing for my GBC friends!—but they showed their appreciation by sharing my posts, engaging in some fun Facebook conversations with me, and checking out novels of mine that they may not have read.

An opportunity that I saw some authors in the group taking advantage of—and I wished I’d been able to do it at the time, too—was the use of their specific story excerpt as a means of getting readers hooked on a series. When I was pulling this project together, I was still a few months away from releasing the earliest books in my Mirabelle Harbor series, which is a crossover contemporary romance/romantic women’s fiction project that spans at least seven stories. I would have loved to have used an excerpt from either Take a Chance on Me or The One That I Want (the first two Mirabelle Harbor books) to give readers a taste of this new fictional world that I’d been creating all year.

However, even though I didn’t get to do that myself, I did get some feedback from a few of the GBC members who promoted one of their romance or mystery series book in the sampler. They said they were pleased with the response to their excerpt and that they saw an increased interest (along with more sales!) in other books of theirs from the same series. So, for writers who might be hoping to try a group project similar to this one, if you’ve got a series you’d like to promote, there’s the potential for an added benefit.

Regardless, I found One More Page to be a fascinating collection to both work on and to share with others. For years, I’d felt as though the GBC had a treasure trove of blog posts that could be insightful and inspiring to our fellow writers. It was a delight to help readers/aspiring writers out there find some of those words of wisdom...and, as an author, I also loved getting to connect writers whose work I admire with a new and enthusiastic readership.

Wishing you all an enjoyable rest of the summer!
~Marilyn

 

Author Bio

Marilyn Brant is a New York Times & USA Today bestselling author of contemporary women’s fiction, romantic comedy, and mystery. Her debut novel won RWA’s Golden Heart® Award, and she was named the Author of the Year (2013) by the Illinois Association of Teachers of English. She loves all things Jane Austen, has a passion for Sherlock Holmes, is a travel addict and a music junkie, and lives on chocolate and gelato. Check out her website for new releases in her Mirabelle Harbor series and for upcoming special events and giveaways: www.marilynbrant.com