"Not A Complete Rip-Off," But Still

A reader passes along a Guardian article about Macmillan's new proposal for aspiring writers, "in which writers receive no advance and may have to bear editing costs." At first, I was prepared to dismiss this as a descent into becoming a self-publishing house, but Macmillan is offering 20% royalties in lieu of the cash upfront, and the "editing costs" thing really only kicks in if a manuscript requires more than a basic copyedit--and, really, hiring a freelance copyeditor is the sort of thing certain authors, especially in nonfiction, ought to consider more often.

So that's not so bad, right? But then more details about the deal come out: "The standard contract means Macmillan will acquire all rights (such as overseas publishing deals) to the work, and, if it wishes, can publish a second book under the same terms as the first." And then the Macmillan spokesman reveals that the marketing plan for these tomes consists of making them "'very posh books' with ribbon markers" retailing at 15 pounds (about $7.50*). So I think there's very legitimate questions left for British authors about, for example, whether books in this program would simply get dumped on the market once, simply to put more product on the shelves, and then consigned to near-instant oblivion without even a second printing. And the two-book deal thing is a major red flag. Still, as one of the other publishers tapped for a quote admits, "If you'd spent years and years working on your novel and no agent will look at it you'd be bloody grateful for this."

*Good thing I'm not in international finance--apparently 15 pounds is actually closer to $30 than $7.50, according to a helpful reader. So that must be some posh ribbon marker indeed.