I made a statement at LibertyCon which seems to be somewhat controversial, and a couple of folks have asked if I actually did say this thing.
Yup. Sure did.
So, let me go on record here so that anyone can find it: Raconteur Press encourages — nay, expects — our anthology authors to re-publish their short stories.
Let me explain. When we publish an anthology, we retain the rights to the stories in the anthology for a period of one year. After that year, the rights to that story revert to the author.
(Side note: we will continue to pay royalties on the anthologies to the individual authors after the one year period. As long as we can send at least a $10 payment to each author, we will do so.)
Since we will be launching about 26 anthologies in 2024, several of our authors will have enough stories to fill an anthology of their very own — and we encourage you to do so.
Once you’ve got eight or ten short stories under your belt — and the one-year rights retention period is over — gather them into a book of your own and publish them.
Now, read this part carefully: Yes, we fully realize that you’ll be getting paid twice. Once for our anthology, and again for your own collection: GOOD. GET PAID.
So, now it’s in writing.
LawDog
Publisher,
Raconteur Press.
I want you all to know your amazing people. This type of insight into the writing and publishing industry is priceless, especially for us newbies to field. Thank you for letting us tag along and get to experience all of this first hand.
Go Go Texas get er done.. Yee Yee!!!
I think the confusion about this stems from several things. First, it’s the emphasis on newly released and the lack of emphasis on backlists. Trad pub is a bit more focused on backlists for some reason than indie. The other is that getting that release from a publisher can be a PIA. Personally, I think that once that year is up, you should automatically send a release to every author so they’ll have it on hand and be reminded that they can do this.
You will need it on-hand for reprints because Amazon gets prickly when their KU content appears twice (once in the original antho and then as a standalone or in another antho) and you must prove your innocence of infringement with a release. They get even pricklier when their KU content is wide, as in the original antho is in KU and the reprint is not.
Yes, I’ve had to deal with this, so be warned. They can’t keep you from going wide with your reprint since the original KU deal wasn’t with you, the contributor, but with the anthology publisher. So it’s nice to have that proof on hand so you can prove your innocence pre-emptively.
As I understand it, trad publishers caring about back lists has something to do with accounting shenanigans. Their backlists are effectively depreciating assets, which matters for tax reasons.
“We purchased this for $100. As you can see from sales numbers, it is now worth $10. We will subtract this value loss from our profits.” Obviously not as simple and clear cut as that, but that’s the general idea. It takes more effort on the part of the bookkeepers and accountants… but when you’re a giant trad publishing house, you can afford to do it. Or, perhaps, can’t afford not to do it….
Anyway, I SUPER appreciate Raconteur Press’s policy. I just shared a couple of your open submission calls with Devon, here’s hoping he gets inspired by one 🙂
One nit. An anthology is a book of stories by multiple authors. If it’s a bunch of stories by a single author, it is a collection.
At least that’s the way it was when Gutenberg started all this stuff. It may have changed since I was in school.
As I said on your post about the fig tree, paraphrased:
“Saint Lawdog feeds the masses not with bread or with fish; rather, he splits the royalties among the 5,000!”
Monalisa has a good point. But yes, get paid twice!!!
…And THAT is how you create success!!!
Good on ya!