In case you haven't seen it, there's a new post on The People's Friend website about pocket novels (PNs) being epublished and the possibility of other content becoming available digitally.
It's because of changes like this, I keep reminding people they must understand and agree to any contracts before signing them (see my last post). If a contract allows for something to happen (and some mention 'any future technology') then you must be prepared for that eventuality.
btw, if anyone has self published a PN originally produced by DCT and made it available through KU it might be wise to change that, as you can't be sure your ebook is, or will remain, exclusive to Amazon.
My news
The photos are a random selection from our trip. No - we're still not back!
I'm making fairly good progress on my third Little Mallow book and am currently just over half way through the first draft.
21 comments:
By making the stories available digitally in this way, their non-exclusive rights contract is basically now an all-rights contract. I have withdrawn the stories I had in their pile and will not be writing for them again. They weren't even courteous enough to inform us that this was happening beforehand.
Liz
That's a good point about Kindle Unlimited, Patsy. Writers who have their work in KU, to do an online search for their work/writing name. I doubt the magazine publishers understand what problems they could be creating for writers, and themselves.
Awesome photos.
Might someone have to remove their story if The People's Friend puts it up on Amazon?
Also, Patsy, although the blog only mentions pocket novels, they're actually republishing the long crime reads (9500 words) as ebooks as well. I've never written a PN, but my cosy crime reads are affected by this. Hence my decision to stop writing for TPF. A sad ending after four happy years submitting to them (46 short stories and four serials).
Just to be clear, I don't think DCT are doing anything they're not fully entitled to do - those of us who've sold them stories have signed contracts agreeing to this.
I do think it was a mistake not to inform authors beforehand. That's led to a great deal of upset and to many feeling as though they're considered the least important aspect of the whole publishing process.
@ Liz - It would have been a whole lot better if writers had been informed beforehand - ideally when this was first considered, just to let people know it was a possibility.
From various messages I've received I know the lack of communication has caused a lot of upset and anguish, with people worrying work was pirated amongst other concerns.
@Carol The search will help find out if the book has already been published elsewhere, but not if it will be in the future. Authors can't offer it as exclusive to Amazon (or anywhere else) if it might be published by someone else tomorrow.
@ Alex - I'm not sure, Alex - but probably.
@ Anonymous - They could do it with regular length short stories too, or produce books composed of multiple short stories (as I do with my own work). It does sound as though they are considering various options.
The new ebooks published on the PublishDrive platform by DCT have already appeared on a pirate site that offers to download them for free. I have emailed Lucy about this because I am sure they will want to get the site taken down. I know that these sites sometimes spring up again, but it's still important to fight them.
Can you let us know, Jenny, if you hear back from Lucy about this? Alyson
This has caused so much bad feeling. I know they can do it according to our contracts but DCT could have notified writers - through a blog post if nothing else - at least people would have known. Alyson
Yes, I will let you know what I hear from Lucy. Perhaps there will be another blog post? There must be many people who have emailed questions in, some of them possibly the same questions. And it will take them time to find the answers to all of them.
@ Jenny - a lot of these 'pirate' sites don't actually have the books, they're either scams to get people's details, or the people download a virus not the book. But you're right to notify TPF as either way, no author wants their work to appear, or seem to appear on such sites - and a big publisher has much more chance of getting action than any of us would as individuals.
@ Alyson - yes it has and I think a large proportion of that is down to the lack of communication.
I was the anonymous poster above, talking about the long crime reads. As well as being annoyed by the lack of communication, I'm appalled by the shoddiness of these products. I was convinced they were pirated versions. I do wonder whether we'd ever have been told about these ebooks if they hadn't been spotted.
Liz
I am another of the long read authors affected, although it's only one story, in my case. I was genuinely surprised that my contract allowed this, though I'm not disputing it. I would have preferred to learn of this re-publication directly from DCT, and I feel very sorry for those who had plans to re-use/re-vamp their stories themselves, as this avenue may well be blocked now, which must be extremely hurtful. All that said, my experience of working with the 'Friend' fiction desk has been overwhelmingly positive: I have been supported, encouraged, given many appealing opportunities and paid promptly - therefore I will continue to submit stories to PF and to buy the magazine.
Sorry - that anonymous comment was from me: Eirin
Eirin – I'm glad your experience has been so positive, but I suspect you're not subject to the 5 story rule and don't generally wait over 6 months to get a decision, or have any queries you raise repeatedly ignored.
Many of us feel discouraged and as though those 'appealing opportunities' are only offered to the favoured few.
People's Friend used to pride itself on supporting its authors. It now feels as though us ordinary writers (not the top tier like you and not newbies, but people who've had occasional stories published regularly over the years) are an inconvenience.
To me that's what's hurtful.
I don't blame you though – I'd love to be in the same position!
Fee Dupp
All TPF writers need to remember that it not the fiction editors who are responsible for this decision. The decision has been made by people higher up in DCT who do not care about us or our work. They have just proved this.
I thought TPF said it was a pilot scheme? Maybe they will take feedback from their writers on board and decide to pull out.
@ Eirin – Like Fee I understand why you're continuing. I also understand why others aren't.
The PF team are lovely when they respond, but for many of us those responses are a long time coming. Waits of many months (which is typical for many of us) and the 5 story limit mean we can only sub one or two a year - that doesn't feel encouraging or supportive.
@ Fee – It's very frustrating. All fiction editors now seem very short of time and perhaps don't realise that no news is not good news for most of us.
@ Anonymous - You're right that the editors we deal with are unlikely to be the ones making decisions about contracts or other uses for our work after they've been bought for the magazines.
@ Sharon - If our opinions were considered of value I think they'd have asked for them before starting this project.
There are short story collections published by DCT on PublishDrive as well. https://www.storytel.com/sg/books/little-escapes-a-selection-of-short-stories-by-various-bestselling-authors-9100389?fbclid=IwY2xjawEpWPhleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHSRI4Jcj1bMPPK9xVkWDh8kCTcthIrDPQxUGR1G6SfbwPVIEdiH_7-rQXA_aem_SkuWG_xK_W3a9EjR2YfDlA
I'm a bit confused about this. I assume it was full of novelist's stories as it states best selling authors. But now I've learnt that it includes stories by normal MW womag writers. I admit that I don't have any objections to my work being in an audio publication. It's a pity that DCT couldn't do this themselves.
@ Jenny Thanks – I'd not seen that.
@ Sharon - Bestselling is a bit misleading here. DCT can't know all our sales to other markets, especially as some people use pen names / publish abroad / self publish etc so they must mean authors they've bought the most from. That's rather like me buying a trophy, presenting it to myself and then describing myself as award winning! OK, maybe not quite that bad, but it's not most people's definition of best selling. I'm really surprised Amazon are allowing it for the anthologies they have for sale there.
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