I've thought of publishing a book of my hate mail, but I don't own the rights to the letters.
If you want to publish two books a year under your own name and your publisher doesn't, maybe you need a different publisher.
Some people are just so happy to get published to, they sign anything. Next thing you know, they've signed over the rights to their book.
The first book advance I got was paid out in thirds. And over time, as I've had different deals, the advances get chopped up into ever-smaller parcels.
If I recall correctly, I think I signed my first contract with Tor in 1983.
I was unwise enough to actually mention this in public a few times, and in fact to point out that there were two versions of the book now. One of them had somebody else's name on the cover, one had my name on the cover.
Authors need to decide if they want to keep forever to themselves, or share forever with a publisher who takes over half the cover price.
At first my publisher had reservations about publishing it in the form you are familiar with.
In today's world, it never looks good when you're suing somebody who earned $20,000 for writing a book over a period of a year or two.
I finished 'America America,' and I knew I had to write another book, not just for personal reasons but because I had a contract.
Harper Collins gave me a letter of intent saying that they want me to pen down my autobiography. When I was recollecting the incidents of my life for that, I selected only those incidents which were turning points in my life. I staged it instead of writing it.
Relationships between writers and publishers are of course very strange and change all the time, rather like a see-saw.
I don't sign contracts for my books.
Authors change publishers because it's like being married for a long time and suddenly you want to go out and have a wild affair! No, not seriously, sometimes the deal is more interesting with a new publisher, and other times they have more enthusiasm for your books.
Big publishers want you to change this and change that. I'd rather go to a little publisher - who needs the tsuris.
Don't sign your publishing away.
I got into an argument with my original publisher. They wanted me to do 'Kitty' and nothing else. I wanted to do lots of things, not just 'Kitty' books.
I can ask for a £25,000 advance, but then you spend a year writing the book, and £25,000 is a loan against sales, and you can easily spend five years earning out. So that's £25,000 for six years.
There is always a certain leap of faith that editors have made with their nonfiction writers. If the trust is broken, things can get very embarrassing for the writers and the publisher.
