46 South Publishing Website:
Since our launch in the middle of May, attention has been building and we have received a lot of attention in the writing community.
So they've been going for about 5 months. That's not long enough to see what kind of sales they're capable of generating. In addition, I'd point out that until now I'd never heard of them so I don't know which writing communities have been paying them attention because they certainly aren't on my radar. I'd also point out that not all attention is the right attention.
46 South Publishing Website:
46South Publishing is pleased to open the Emerging Writers Awards 2011 for entries.
Oh dear. There's no money in selling short stories and all competitions like this do is add to the slush sent to the publisher.
46 South Publishing Website:
The competition supports up-and-coming writers and is designed to reward the best and most popular writers.
Oh dear oh dear. The most popular writers aren't necessarily the best writers.
46 South Publishing Website:
The competition involves both judged winners and People's Choice winners.
The People's Choice First Prize winner will receive $500 USD. This will be decided by online voting for each entry. The People's Choice Second Prize winner will be receive $50 USD.
The Judged Section of the competition will award the best entry in each of the available genres. The writers of the best judged entries in each genre will each receive an offer to have a book of that genre published in ebook format with ePublishing For Success.
So if you win the popular vote (which is usually very easy to stuff), then you get cash. If you're judged by their unnamed judges, then you win the right to lose first publishing rights in the manuscript of your choice for, potentially, no revenue at all?
On balance, I'd rather just try and rig the popular vote (and that's only if I haven't been able to find a paying market on Duotrope first).
46 South Publishing Website:
Key DatesOpening Date for EntriesAug 01, 2011Closing Date for EntriesSep 30, 2011Closing Date for VotingFeb 29, 2012
Damn. Looks like I missed my chance to enter.
46 South Publishing Website:What Is Your Minimum Charge To Get Published?Nothing. If you have a great cover image, and your book is already in the right formats, then we can publish you at no cost. If you need a cover image or editing, we can refer you to others we work with to obtain those services.
So as the author, you need to provide your own cover and you need to format the work. What are these guys actually doing for you?
46 South Publishing Website:What Is Your Royalty Structure?We pay royalties of 95% of our Net Receipts. The main expense is the charge by our payment provider, PayPal. The % coming back to the author varies depending on the price of the book. Currently they charge us 3.9% + a minimum charge of $0.30 USD.
I'd want a detailed breakdown of every charge they take out (which I would assume also includes Amazon and B&N site charges - assuming that 46 South makes books available on those sites).
46 South Publishing Website:Are You A Print On Demand Service?No. We are boutique electronic only publishing house.
Well that's something at least but authors should still check the contract to make sure that print rights aren't taken.
46 South Publishing Website
o You Lock Your Authors Into An Exclusive Contract?We offer a non-exclusive contract with our authors for an initial period of three years. This allows you the freedom to additionally market your book on your own site or blog if you prefer.
The fact that the contract is non-exclusive is pretty meaningless because if 46 South is the first publisher to release, then the author will have still exhausted first publishing rights. In any event the exclusivity of publishing rights goes to who has the right to release and sell the book - not to where you can market the book. The fact that 46 South seems confused about this is a worrying sign.
Authors should check the termination provisions of the contract to see if they can get out early and also to see whether the contract term automatically rolls over at the end of 3 years.
46 South Publishing Website:
As a business we're interested in providing a great service to our authors in terms of exposure and traffic. We have some exciting social marketing plans which are specifically designed to bring content to our site and our authors.
Exposure and traffic are meaningless unless you're also making sales. 46 South doesn't give you a cover (which even in ebooks can help attract attention) and there's no mention of them providing editing either. These are basic things that a publisher should do to make sure they're achieving quality control over their books.
46 South Publishing Website:How Do You Assist Your Authors?As many will tell you, generating interest and exposure is the hardest part of publishing your own book. This is something that we are specifically targeting through our social marketing strategy. We are an electronic only epublishing house with a specific focus on social marketing for generating interest and exposure for our authors.
This is vague. I'd want to know exactly what they do to promote their authors and get their work out there because at the moment it seems that all they do is hit the 'follow' button on Twitter and hope for the best.
46 South Publishing Website:Can You Provide an ISBN?Yes. We will obtain an ISBN for our authors for free if they require it.
Erm ... 46 South should be providing ISBNS without authors having to ask for them. Otherwise how are they going to track sales?
46 South Publishing Website:Can You Help Me With The eBook Conversion?Yes. We offer both advice on DIY conversion and a paid service. You can find out more information about these on our resources page
here.
Great. They're an ebook publisher who charges you $10 per 10,000 words to turn your book into an ebook.
Any publisher serious about the ebook market should be doing the conversions themselves because it's not merely a matter of popping it into a PDF and job done.
46 South Publishing Website
o You Provide Editing Services?Although we do review your manuscript (MS) for basic proof reading issues, we don't provide editing services directly. If we believe that your MS is of need to this, we will recommend others that we know, who specialise in providing this service.
Again, editing goes to quality control and isn't just about proof reading.
Turning to 46 South's publishing contract:
46 South Publishing Contract:
By clicking "I have read and accept the Terms and Conditions for Publishing", I acknowledge that I have read these Terms and Conditions, and I accept that they form a binding agreement between myself, ("the Author"), and the Publisher for the purposes of publishing my Electronic Book, subject to the Publisher‟s Acceptance for Publication.
I'd be interested to get a New Zealand lawyer's view of this because it seems to suggest that the author doesn't have to sign anything. Under English law, licences have to be in writing and signed by the author to be enforceable - I don't know if this is the case in New Zealand but it should be checked out.
I'm also a bit confused because it says that the author is bound by the contract subject to Acceptance for Publication, which is defined as follows:
46 South Publishing Contract:
„Acceptance For Publication‟ the official notification by the Publisher of the acceptance of the Work submitted by the Author for publication, conditional on the approval of the Publisher which may be withheld for any reason, at the Publishers sole discretion.
So basically, the author is bound by a contract but the publisher may attach subsequent conditions. Again, this is something for a New Zealand lawyer to advise on, but under English law I'd question whether this would be enforceable. In any event as an author I would as a minimum want any conditions to be expressed within the contract so that they are clearly understood by both parties (but my preference would always be to not be bound by the publisher's discretion).
My big concern here is that taking a look at the submission guidelines, it seems that you might have to agree to this contract when you submit your query
46 South Publishing Contract:
This Agreement is between the [FONT=Arial,Arial][FONT=Arial,Arial]Account Holder[/FONT][/FONT]
, ("the Author"), and [FONT=Arial,Arial][FONT=Arial,Arial]Peter Jenks[/FONT][/FONT]
, at ePublishing For Success, PO Box 8107, Gardens, Dunedin 9010, New Zealand, ("the Publisher").
I'd be concerned about contracting with an individual rather than a corporation because it is much easier for individuals to disappear with your rights than it is for corporations. In this case I'd want to see some proof from Peter Jenks as to his identity (i.e. a passport number, which is commonly used in English contracts) - not least because his address is a PO box.
46 South Publishing Contract:
'Publisher's Net Receipts' the net amounts received by the Publisher from the exploitation of the Electronic Book Rights, after deduction of any sales tax included within such amounts, and after deduction of any sales commission charged by any distribution channel in respect of sales of the Electronic Book;
In some ways this seems to me to be advantageous to the author because this definition wouldn't allow 46 South to deduct the Paypal charges that it refers to above on the basis that Paypal is not a distribution channel but a means of payment.
I'd be more concerned about the deduction of sales tax and again, this is something I'd want some specific legal advice on. Under English law, the price is deemed to include VAT applicable unless specifically excluded. I certainly wouldn't expect the publisher's taxes to be used to reduce the royalties due to me.
46 South Publishing Contract:
Provided that as at 2 months immediately before the date when the Term is due to expire and this Agreement is still in force and the Publisher is not in breach of any of its obligations under this Agreement; then the Publisher shall have the right to seek a renewal of the Term upon and subject to the updated terms and conditions in effect at that time by giving notice to that effect to the Author not earlier than 2 months before the expiration of the Term and not later than 2 weeks before the expiration of the Term.
No. This contradicts the statement on the website that the publisher is only taking a 3 year term because it effectively gives 46 South the right to extend on provision of notice. At the very least, the Author should have an express right of refusal but my preference would be for the contract to be deemed to expire unless the author chooses to extend.
46 South Publishing Contract:
The Author acknowledges that any registration of Copyright of the Electronic Book in any jurisdiction of the Territory is at the sole discretion of the Author and is entirely at the Authors expense.
I know that opinion on this board varies re registration of copyright for epublished books, but I'd expect the publisher to be registering as a matter of course and at its own expense.
46 South Publishing Contract:
If the Author receives the Acceptance For Publication from the Publisher, then the Author agrees:
5.1 that the responsibility for the conversion of the Work into each of the Licensed Formats of the Electronic Book as detailed in Schedule 1 will be at the Author‟s sole expense; and
5.2 to deliver to the Publisher the Electronic Book in each of the Licensed Formats within [FONT=Arial,Arial][FONT=Arial,Arial]30 days [/FONT][/FONT]of the date of the Acceptance For Publication; and
This sucks because the schedule specifies the formats as MOBI, PDF and EPUB (i.e. everything that 46 South should be doing) and it reinforces my opinion that 46 South is doing nothing here that an author couldn't do for themselves and keep all of the profits.
46 South Publishing Contract: (BOLDING MINE)
provided that copyright continues for the Electronic Book, and no notice of copyright infringement has been served on the Publisher, and income for the Electronic Book is being collected by the Publisher, to pay to the Author the Royalties calculated at the rate of [FONT=Arial,Arial][FONT=Arial,Arial]95% [/FONT][/FONT](ninety five per centum) of the Publisher‟s Net Receipts, subject to the provisions of clause 6.4.4;
The wording in bold strikes me as being very strange. If 46 South is publishing your book, then it should be collecting the income on it. At the very least I would want this clarified, but in general I'd want it struck out.
46 South Publishing Contract:
not to assign any of the Electronic Book Rights except to a purchaser of the Publisher‟s entire business, and then not without first giving the prospective assignee written notice of the Publisher‟s obligations under this Agreement, and the validity of any such assignment shall be conditional upon the assignee entering into a direct written covenant with the Author to observe and perform all of the Publisher‟s obligations under this Agreement;
This isn't good enough for me because you're contracting with an individual and there's no definition here of what's meant by "business". Basically I'd want this changed so that 46 South has no right to assign or transfer without the author's prior written consent.
MM
