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Subject:Popular book contracts From:Yvonne DeGraw <yvonne -at- SILCOM -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 11 Dec 1995 22:17:19 -0700
I may have a chance to write YAWA (Yet Another Web Authoring) book for
distribution in bookstores. (I know there's a lot of books in this
category out there. I think I have a new angle if it gets to market quick
enough.)
Do any of you have advice on contracts and royalties?
I'm wondering what a typical royalty % of the sale price is. Also, do you
have a feel for how many copies these books typically sell? Since I'm
working directly with a software company on this project, I'm hoping to bid
this project like I would any other book, but add a royalty after some
large number of books sold (just in case it sells a lot).
Have you dealt with publishing houses? What's their lead time to get a
book into bookstores? Have any of you worked out deals where you provide
the book and the CD-ROM and the publisher provides distribution only?
Would the software company be better off cutting out the middleperson and
trying to "self-publish" the book?
Yvonne DeGraw, Technical Services o Web Authoring
yvonne -at- silcom -dot- com o Technical Writing http://www.silcom.com/~yvonne/ o Database Design and Publishing
Tel: 805/683-5784 o User-Interface Design