All language subtitles for Masterclass - David Baldacci Teaches Mystery and Thriller Writing - 14.Navigating the Publishing Business. Part 1

The publishing industry is a big

unwieldy beast with a lot of moving

parts to it, but it's not

indecipherable. It's not unfathomable.

It's not overwhelming if you take the

time to learn it. And I would I would

counsel all of you to take the time to

learn the business side of it. It'll put

you in control of your career. And what

I'm going to talk about now is some of

the lessons I've learned from that road

that I went on in trying to understand

and learn about the publishing industry.

All of us, I think, if we get a book

published for the first time, we'll be

overwhelmed and thrilled by that facet

of it and not really focusing on the

other part of it, the business side of

it. We're just like, "Thank you, God,

I'm finally published and my book's out

on the shelf and everything is wonderful

in my life." But it is a business and

you can't lose sight of that. A lot of

first-time novelists and a lot of

novelists just in general sort of

abdicate the responsibility of their

career and leave it to other people. I

write the books and the business side

will take care of itself until it

doesn't, you know, until the next

contract you get is not what you really

thought you would be worth or what you

would be paid and you're upset about it

and you're not and you're wondering why

isn't the publisher supporting my books

more out there in the marketplace. Why

don't I see my stuff at the airports or

in the front stacks at the Barnes &

Noble while you've abdicated, you know,

control of your career over to somebody

else. No one in the world will care more

about your career, not your agent, not

your publisher, not your best friend,

than you. I'm a lawyer by training, and

I think that gives me an edge, but that

doesn't mean that you can't do the same

thing that I did. U I got my first

publishing contract uh for Absolute

Power, and it was very lengthy for my

American publisher, plus 40 other

publishers around the world, but I

focused on that one. That was the

biggest. And because contracts were

something I was intimately familiar

with, I read the whole thing. And even

though I didn't have the leverage really

to make significant changes in that, you

know, they were paying me a lot of money

for the book and I was happy about that.

It wasn't like I was going to say no,

I'm not going to take this deal because

I didn't have another deal to back it

up. But I learned about how the the

publishing individ

uh the books sell and then you're paid

15% of the the cover price of a hard

cover. So the hard coverver sells for

$25 and you're basically going to get $4

a book off of that. And even though they

wholesale it, so the publisher is only

getting like, you know, 13 bucks for the

book, they pay you four and they keep

nine. Okay. Me that seemed like this is

crazy because my other rule is nobody

should make more off of a book than the

person who created it, the writer. You

and me. So probably, you know, four or

five books later when I felt like I had

some leverage and I learned the

industry. I knew what royalties were. I

knew what expenses were. I knew what

publishers put money into because I

asked questions. I go up and visit the

publisher a lot. I talked to my agent

who's one of my best friends and he

knows the industry intimately. You know,

he would school me. He would educate me

on this is how the publish industry

works. You know, this is what they pay

money for. This is, you know, how they

deal with book sellers. This is how they

pay co-op money for Amazon to get better

placement on the on the um on the

website and stuff like that. Everything

costs money.

So later on in my career, I was like,

you know, I understand how much money my

books are bringing in because they have

to report the sales to me. So if I'm

selling millions of copies and they're

making tens of millions of dollars are

coming in and I'm getting a certain part

of that and they're getting this part of

it, I was like, now it's time to have

that conversation. Here's what we're

going to do. You know, we're going to

have this big pie and you know, I'll get

an advance and then you get all your

expenses paid. Put every expense you

want in there. overhead, marketing,

publishing the books, printing, whatever

put in there. You know, people's

salaries, that's fine. And then pay my

advances paid back. So, I'm not paid

twice. You know, you one of your

expenses was my advance. That's fine.

You get that money back. And then we got

money left over. And let's just go ahead

and let's split that. And at the end of

the day, everybody makes a lot of money.

You know, they get like a 20% return on

their investment in me right from the

get-go. and then whatever is left over,

we split, you know, in a sort of in a

very equal way. But that didn't come

from my first book. And I I get it.

You're a first-time novelist. But here's

here's the lesson that you should take

from me is that it's never too early to

learn about the business. Um, if you

were if you're in the tech world, and

let's say you might be working in the

tech world, you also want to write a

novel. What did you learn about the tech

world beforehand? Or maybe you're in

some type of other business, what did

you learn about the business? you just

sit there at your desk and not learn

anything at all about the business that

you're actually working in. Well, there

should be no different from the

publishing world. As a published writer,

guess what? You're working in the

publishing industry. It's a complicated

one, but bring the same motivation,

desire, and work ethic and interest to

understanding the business side of it as

you do the writing side of it. And a

couple of things will happen. One is

you'll just feel more in control of your

career, which is always a good thing.

Then you won't have to ask the question

six books in, wait a minute, why aren't

they spending, you know, money on

marketing me at this place or why did my

advance go down? You know, why am I not

getting as many uh copies public or

printed on the mass market as I used to?

I don't understand. Understand the

industry how it works. And that way you

won't have to ask yourself the question,

wait a minute, why am I getting screwed

now? Uh you will be able to not allow

yourself to be screwed because you've

worked with the publisher. And I've also

found that even though you know

publishers, yeah, I can't say they're

exactly thrilled about having to pay

more money than they otherwise would

have, but now they feel like they have a

legitimate partner in the writer. You

know that I'm totally in. I'm totally

committed to, you know, making you as

much money as I possibly can. I'm going

to get out there. I'm going to help you

market the books. I'm going to be out on

the road. I'm going to be doing speeches

and talks and events, appearing in in

media and publicity. All of that's

driving my career. All of that's driving

sales for you as well. So now you're

like one cohesive unit. And I I tell

you, if you do it that way, you're going

to get a lot more attention from the

publisher. They're going to be all in on

you. So, it's not going to be like

they're going to only print half as many

paperback copies they did on the last

book and not even bother to tell you

about it. If you're a partner, you're a

partner. You're going to be in it from

the get-go. And that information flow

and communications can be wide open.

I'm a member of ITW. It's International

Thriller Writers Association. And we

started about maybe 10 or 12 years ago.

I was one of the founding members and

every thriller writer that you probably

have ever read or heard of, they're

members as well. Every year they hold a

convention in July in New York and is

for fans of the of the of the genre to

come there and to meet writers like me

and others. We do panels, we do

speeches, we do events, we do two on two

where I might be talking, you know, with

another thriller writer. But they also

have agents there. Um, and they also

have people representing publishers

there as well. So, people can come in

and you can actually have an opportunity

where people can sit down and pitch

ideas to agents there. Um, and you know,

those agents are in the thriller genre.

It's the only reason they're at ITW. So,

if you're interested in thrillers or

mysteries, that would be a great place

for you to go. It's in July. It's

publicized everywhere. You can go to the

website. And they didn't have stuff like

that when I was coming up. It just

wasn't that opportunity wasn't there. So

I would say avail yourself of that

because I've seen people go in there in

these big rooms with agents and they

have a few minutes they can pitch their

idea or or give material to an agent to

read a few pages a couple of sample

chapters and then there's follow-up and

I know that deals have been made writers

have been signed from that and then

they've gone on to sell their books uh

to different publishers.

I feel like you have to connect with

someone really on a on a really visceral

level. Um, you have to have the right

outlook. You have to write the same

chemistry. Everybody I went to told me,

"We can sell this book for a lot of

money. We want to be your agent." The

agent I have now and that I picked back

then, he's been my agent forever, Aaron

Priest. He had a different take. He

goes, "I can sell this book for a lot of

money. No question about it." He goes,

"If this is the only book you want to

write, I have no interest in

representing you." He's the only agent

who told me that. And I said, 'Why is

that? He goes, "I don't represent

writers. I represent careers."

And that stuck with me because this

happened 23 years ago. And you can tell

I recited exactly what he said. This

stuck with me because that's the agent

that I want. Not worrying about selling

book to book to book, but an agent who's

who's willing to manage my career for

me. He's going to be looking at me from

day one till the day I stop writing.

that's the person that you want as your,

you know, backing you up in this. So

that's why I picked him. It was just a

visceral level and his outlook matched

my outlook. Look, I could negotiate my

own deals now. I mean, I I could and I

know everything about the publishing

business and and the publishers. I'm at

the point now where I say I want this

and they're like fine, that's fine,

whatever. But it's more than that. It's

not just about the money. It's about the

counsel, the sage advice. the many times

that Aaron and I have had conversations,

I wanted to do this. And he said, "You

know what? Here's my take. You can do it

if you want. Here's my opinion. Here's

why I don't think you should." And we've

done that with books. We've done that

with nollas. We've done it with

screenplays. We've done it with film

rights, television series that we've

done. And almost always he's given me

really good advice. And you can't put a

price tag on that. That's why literary

agents are so critical to a writer's

career.

Agents like writers who are serious

about their craft and serious about the

business of publishing. Otherwise,

they're just wasting their time. So, if

you go in prepared, it's going to carry

a lot of weight with the agent that you

know what you're talking about. That's

the first point. The second point is

serious about your craft and serious

about the material that you submitted to

them. They're going to ask you questions

about it. They're going to say, you

know, uh I don't I didn't like this part

of the of the novel or the chapter you

sent me. you know, here are some

suggestions. What do you think about

that? And it's not like they want you to

rewrite the novel right while you're

sitting in the room. They want to see

how receptive do you are to criticism,

you know, and how quickly you can think

on your feet or at least whether you're

receptive or not to and if you're into

the material, you can say sort of on the

fly, well, you know what, that's a good

point. I had thought about that and

here's the reason why I made a separate

choice. And again, that will show them

that you're serious about their craft.

Look, agents have thousands of people

knocking on the door every day sending

up manuscripts. They want to be the next

whatever. Um, you have to lift yourself

out of that sludge pile. And the way you

do it is to prepare yourself about who

they are, what they've done, the

publishing industry, and also about the

seriousness of your craft. Because

that's what they want to hear. They

don't want to hear that I got this book

and you know I want it to be published

but I really want the film rights to be

sold because I want to quit my job and I

think I can make more money off the film

rights and I'm going to retire. Uh that

will be a very short meeting with the

agent and it will not result in you

getting that agent to represent you.

If I use one word to describe a

relationship between an author and a

publisher would kind of be a marriage, a

partnership. And how strong it is is how

committed each side is to it. Now, as an

author, you want the publishers to do a

lot for you. You want them to have a

great cover, print enough copies, market

your book, take out television ads, you

know, put your books in the airports,

and do a lot of stuff for you. Okay,

that's great. But you also have

responsibilities and obligations as

well. The good thing about it is you can

do all these things and they're very

self- serving because they're also going

to help your career as well. I had

mentioned before that when my first book

came out, I was prepared to go out and

publicize a living hell out of this book

because I knew this was my first and

only shot to really get it right. And I

wanted to have a career as a writer and

I knew that if this book failed that I

probably was not. This is just a one

book deal. I only had a one book deal. I

was probably not going to have a second

book deal if this one didn't work out.

So, I was prepared and I went on this

major tour and but I talked about it

with the publisher before. So, we

weren't going to waste my time or their

time. These are the great places. We

know these are great bookstores. They're

very excited about the book. We've sent

advanced reader copies out to all of

them. They read it. They are gung-ho.

They're going to hand sell the living

crap out of this book. They want you to

come. They want to meet you. They think

you're terrific and your next great

thing on the thriller scene. I'm like,

I'm there, you know, and that was the

commitment that I made. Now, some people

may not have the time or the commitment

or they might be still working a job.

I'm just saying do what you can uh

within the, you know, the parameters of

reasonleness to help the publisher

promote the book. These days, it's a

little bit easier. You, you know, you

have your social media platforms. You

know, I don't understand completely how

they work, but I'm on Twitter and

Instagram and Facebook and all the

others. I mean, I'm everywhere and

people you put stuff on there about me

and pictures and video and movie clips

and excerpts from books and all there.

So, you can reach millions of people

just off social media these days without

ever leaving your house. That is the

major thing you can do to really one

bolster your career and two help feed

this ecosystem that you are a

significant part of. And I think it it

should be your responsibility and

obligation, but I'll say it even

further. should be something you really

want to do because you wrote a book.

That means that you care about books.

You care about reading. So why wouldn't

you want to put as many books as

possible in the hands of people

everywhere? And that's the way for you

to do it.

One key thing that I did um as as a

writer very beginning of my career, I'm

incredibly glad that I did and typically

can be a point that even a first-time

writer can negotiate successfully is

that you don't want to sell world rights

to an American publisher. You know, you

can go in and like a Simon and

Schustster or a Shet or um Penguin

Random House, they're going to buy your

book world rights. So, they're going to

publish your book in all these other

sorts of languages as well as English.

And that's it. You're done. No other

publisher to sell to because they have

the world rights to your book. I never

did that. I sold my American rights to

an American publisher. Um, and then I

sold rights in foreign languages

separately to every individual country

around the world. So, that's why I have

today over 50 different publishers. Why

is that important?

because

I don't have the American publisher as a

buffer between me and that language

between because all they're going to do

is they're going to take those rights

and sell them to a foreign publisher and

that foreign publisher is going to do

the same thing in that country that they

would do if I had negotiated with that

publisher directly. But I got this big

American publisher as a buffer in

between me. I never to get to know that

publisher. I may not even go to that

country because they don't really want

to pay for me to go there uh on a

publishing tour, promotional tour. But

if you get rid of that buffer, I've met

so many of my foreign publishers. I know

them intimately. I've been to those

countries. I know those markets. I know

what those cultures want as far as books

go. I know how their business works over

there. It's just this wealth of

information that I know u that allowed

me to actually negotiate better deals

all around. So, that's one thing that

you can say. You know, it's not cutting

stone stone just because you're a

first-time novelist that American

publishers say it's world rights or

nothing. You know, that's fairly the

case. And certainly you can say, well,

you know what, you could take, we'll

take world rights, but I want a lot more

money and I want some other things in

there. I want opportunities. You're

going to put money in promotion so I can

go over there and do publicity tours in

those foreign countries. And I want

money. I want that in the contract that

says you're going to allow me to go

there and tour, meet my publishers over

there and tour those countries and help

build my fan base over there. That could

be one thing that you put in there. Or

you know what? if you're not going to

pay me more money, I'm only going to

sell the American rights and I'm

sticking on that English rights to you

and I'm going to go sell country up a

country and that's the way I wanted to

do. Certainly, you should have the

opportunity to make that argument to

them. So, if they really want the book,

and that's the best leverage I think you

have as a first-time novelist, they

really want to publish this book and

that's why they're talking to you right

now, then they may very well say, "Okay,

you know what? That's fine. We can we'll

do a one book deal for English speaking

rights only." And then if you when you

do another book, we'll come back and

address that again and negotiate it

again. And uh I I did that. It's the

best thing I ever did. I mean, I I sell

millions of books overseas. Um and not

only have I visited those places and had

a lot of great friendships that I've

formed overseas with agents and

publishers over there. Um, I know that

I've made far more money selling books

overseas than I would have if id sold,

you know, my rights away to the world to

my American publisher.