I'm just wondering how publishing works. If a publisher likes your ideas, do they buy it from you and sell it or is there more to it? Any info would be great. Thanks a lot..

Mike

I can only speak from my own personal experience having been published with Penguin and Ten Speed Press in the USA and England. We sent them the idea of the book, they paid us a flat fee plus a percentage of each book so we get royalty cheques. It can take two years from the time they say they want it until it is published. Then you have to be available for book tours etc.

If they chose to publish your idea, they can do a couple of different things. They can purchase "master rights" from you, or they can pay you commission on each copy sold.

With master rights, they pay you one big check for the rights to publish your work. After that, what ever they make on sales, they keep all of it. With a commission deal, they pay you a percentage of the cover price of each book sold. They may or may not pay a flat fee at the start (an "advance"). If they do, expect your commission to be lower.

A book I was involved in writing was published a few years ago. We got no advance and our commission was 10% of the cover price.

Scott

Do you give them the methods before getting the money?

I figured out how to do my own publishing of my 'Scary Dark Rides' book 100%. It's not difficult and the 7% you make from a publisher pales in comparison to the 100% you get from your own labors. I do everything and sell it myself as well. I've sold over 500 copies so far and it still does well and everyone has liked the result.

For Magic books and routine method books this is a very simple and inexpensive thing to do.

The only piece of equipt. you'll need is a long throw staple machine...$16 to $25 at an Office Depot.

You can do up to 20 sheets with it and that's 4 pages per sheet. (include the cover in that) So you are limited as to length but that's about it.

Today's copy machines rival the old printer methods and paper quality is across the board so you have a nice choice there.

If any one is interested I'll be glad to post my method of producing my own books. I've done 3 titles so far and they have done well. The Scary dark Rides Book is in the process of being 'picked up' by a publisher but I'm having 2nd thoughts...it's too much fun to do it myself!

Be glad to help from lots of experience if anyone is interested.

Doug
http://SpookyBook.com

BTW, I have Doug's Dark Rides book and it rocks!

You can definitely self-publish a book these days and have it turn out quite professional. The technology is available at virtually no cost anymore. Kinko's can handle several different kinds of binding if you don't want to tackle it yourself.

I would stay away from the "e-book" thing though. There's way too many freebies out there that will kill the perceived value of your book. Most people still like having something they can hold in their hands.

All of my stuff from here on out will be published "in-house".

Scott

Agree, self publishing is a lot of fun and as everybody has said, with the technology today you can produce a very professional looking book. I would recommend going this route first. One of the good things about being published is that it opens doors. At book fairs (in Germany and LA) the publishing houses will 'talk' to you if you are a published author.
I've just finished my first CDROM book which I will sell on cruise ships after my magic seminar. Will see how it goes.

Thank you Scot!
Just curious...Do you have the old version (Black Cover...very home made look) or the Revised 2004 version (White cover...less typos! hahaha)

Kinkos used to do my stuff...but with the new version...I do it my self elsewhere. (More control and less cost so I was able to cut the price).

Lately...I'm having fun changing the cover every so often...I'm going to test a new full color cover today matter of fact.

I also put the thing on Audio CD after being promted to do so...but I don't care for it...pain in the butt to make the CD's and it was written to be read not heard so I stopped selling them (even though they were selling well.)

I love being able to change horses in mid stream...make changes in the book etc. when ever I want to.

With a publisher, you can't do that. Not as much fun says I.

Doug
http://SpookyBook.com

I've got the older one, Doug. Great stuff in there!

Scott

One BIG clarification. Most of the posters have been talking about mainstream publishers; I was under the impression that the OP was talking about magic industry publishers. They work very differently.