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All right, everyone, you all have voted and decided who would move from the Final Four to the Championship Round and again we have a major upset!! Take a look and see:


J.K. Rowling 14 online votes///////////////Jeff Kinney 10 votes
Jay Piscopo 40 votes/////////////////////Neil Gaiman 14 votes

Jay Piscopo trounces J.K. Rowling for the major upset of the year! Therefore the authors that move on to the Championship Round are:




Jay Piscopo, author of The Undersea Adventures of Capt'n Eli

Hey, reader guys, It's Carl and we had a great time last Saturday at the first Boys' Book Club meeting. We read The City of Ember and had some fun discussion. Then my good friend John Austin, Discovery Place volunteer, talked to us about the science of electricity. John really likes to tinker with things and find out how they work or think of new things to do with them. So he found this old DVD player and was about to throw it out when he started thinking, "Hmmmm, what if I...." and took the motors out to show us how a generator worked. (He showed us that, by turning that motor backward, you could generate a current) Here are some photos:

John and the guys and cool stuff with meters (he's showing us how to measure current)

John and the reader guys

The guys and me. This book rocks, btw. Go read it if you haven't read it already. We'll read the second, The People of Sparks, next. The meeting for that book may be the first Saturday in June. Watch this blog to find out.

The voting continues for The Final Four in the March Madness Author Shoot-out. Take a look and see. And send in your reviews for a chance to win the ultra-cool prizes. Look at the post under this one to see what they are)

AAAANNNDDD--it looked like we would have another mystery on our hands!! Just as we have a Sacred Shrine of Guyhood, the girls have their own book display at Imaginon. Normally this manly man is too busy keeping the guys' display stocked to notice what the girls do. But on this day, something called out to me from that spot. I turned and saw--There were signs advertising the Boys Rule Boys Read blog all over the girls' spot!! Well, you'd think I'd be glad to see signs about the awesome greatness of boys in the girls' display! But then I heard maniacal laughter--and then, out of thin air, appeared--

CYBER KID 303!!!

"Behold my terrible revenge!!" he said. "This is my payment for declaring Evil Ellen innocent of defacing the Sacred Shrine of Guyhood. HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!" Well, I had to grab him before he could teleport back and remind him that Evi...I mean, Ellen was fairly tried and acquitted in a Cosmic Court of Justice and that he couldn't take out his frustration on the girls' display. He took his chastisement like a true man, went humbly to the book club, and is a wiser man today. This shows how a true guy can change his behavior and is more proof, if any be needed, of the awesome greatness of boys!!!

In today's Ypulse Books Alli <a href=http://www.ypulse.com/todays-ypulse-books-reviews-of-graceling-nyt-on-beacon-street-girls-healthy-reading-more/"http://books.ypulse.com/2008/10/15/review_review_graceling_by_kri.php">rounds... Read the rest of this post

Hello, everyone, this is the great and powerful but tired CARLMAN. Everyone had a good time at WordPlay Saturday, as you can see.








Even though you see Master Jedi Zack in the far-left photo in the second row of pictures, nobly helping a youngling have fun, some of the guys fell (briefly) under the influnce of the dark side and hung around with Darth Bill. Cyber Kid 303 even helped the sith lord attempt to chase Jedi Master Zack from his tent. We have the whole thing on Sith Cam and will post it as soon as Darth Bill gets past the Borg invasion in that quadrant (Hey, am I mixing up my sci-fi epics here????) As for you noble Jedi, do not fear--I'm sure the dark side effects will wear off soon. Master Zack got some pictures on Jedi Digital Cam and will present his side one day.

It's always good to come back from a busy weekend and find reviews and comments from our firends. It was really good to hear from three of you!! Our first was from Lord Vader:

I just finished my next book in the Narnia series. It was called "The Horse and his Boy" by C. S. Lewis. It was alright, but I wish the battle scene would have been a bit longer. It was a little easy to tell what was going to happen in this one. I can't wait to go onto the Price Caspian book.

Mikie (a.k.a Lord Vader)

We just finished reading that one at home and loved it. Too bad you thought it was only alright. But you'll enjoy Prince Caspian a lot. And wait until you get to The Dawn Treader!!! That's my favorite.

Then I heard from cyber kid:

Viking It and Liking It is one of the amazing books in the Time Warp Trio series with Joe, Sam, and Fred by Jon Scieszka where they get whisked back to ancient viking times. There they meet Leif Eriksson who discovered North America. I like it because it is full of adventure, humor, and history. It is Jon Scieszka's best.


Yes, the Time Warp Trio books are good. Have you read The Not-So-Jolly Roger. It features Blackbeard, who sailed up and down the coasts of North Carolina! Finally, we had another one from the BRUNER BOYS BEWARE:

We had a good time at WordPlay Saturday with Darth Bill. We saw snatches of CAPTAIN VERB (actually pretty funny) and heard storytellers. We checked out a graphic novel on INDIANA JONES and Keagen had finished it before we even left downtown... but he read it twice more. We are half way through City Of Ember and it's getting really good. The scary part was when Lina lost her baby sister in the dark when the lights went out... YIKES! And Dune snuck into the engine room and saw the generator and was upset because it was worse than he thought and has no idea how to fix it. We will let you know more when we finish it this week.

Wow, evryone's tallking about The City of Ember! I might have to drop everyting else I'm reading and pick it up. Has anyone seen the movie? Is it any good? Will you BRUNER BOYS see it after you finish reading the book?

Well, I've still got lots to do before I take my Odinrest. I really want to talk to you all about The Maze of Bones and Charles R. Smith, Jr. but the work of a CARLMAN is never done!

Wait, what's this??????? Darth Bill at MY computer!!!!!! Only a sith would dare approach the desk of the Great and Powerful CARLMAN. Yeah, he said something about this post already being up on the screen and just wanted to take down the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows poll, but who knows what evil he was plotting on MY computer?

BEGONE!!

That's better. I have much to do. See you guys later.

Hey, guys, this is Carl with some seriously bad news. I got a bunch of reviews from Mrs. Smith's fourth-grade class at Metrolina Regional Scholars Academy. What's bad about that? They were all from girls!!! Now we don't mind when girls write in, in fact, we're glad to hear from you, but this is a not just writing in--they said it was a hostile takeover! "We're taking over the Boys Read blog!" were their exact words. Are we going to stand by and let this happen, guys?? Especially you boys in Mrs. Smith's fourth grade? Let's stand up and defend this blog!!

Now I should explain that these reviews were written during a free study time. The boys weren't idle; they were busy making a light saber. That's a constructive use of time, building something to cut your enemies in half. But while they were working, the girls sneaked these reviews past them in a brazen attempt to take over!



Well, in all fairness, let's hear their reviews. After all, guys, we can take the moral high ground and let them know we are fair, even if they are trying to invade and conquer our space.

Boys Rule, Boys Read!!

 ***Lina Mayfleet and Doon Harrow live in the city of Ember, where lightbulbs are the only source of light. They are surrounded on each side by total darkness and because they have no way of creating a movable light (i.e. a flashlight), no one h

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It's Monday. I'm subbing, editing, rejecting, etc. etc. Mostly waiting, right along with you, my little beasties;)

Ran out of coffee, received correspondence from an editor that the post office had accidentally shredded (thank goodness it wasn't a royalty check). Did I say it's Monday?

As promised, here's a bit more concerning deal points. I'm not going to include graphic novel, dramatic (film and TV included), or merchandising here. Why? Because I'm a firm believer in holding all of those rights (so there nah nah). Here's a few--


Sale of mass market paperback reprint......................................50%

Book clubs.........................50%

First serial rights....................90%
(this covers a sale to a magazine prior to publication, often retained by the author)

Second serial rights...................50%
(this covers a sale to a magazine after publication)

Audio.....................................75%

An author should get at least 50%.

Foreign rights are an either/or. If the advance is high enough, or you feel the publisher is better equipped to sell, then shoot for 75% on foreign and translation, as opposed to keeping these.


Stay literate;)

Busy day, but smooth as butter:)

First on deal points, let's go over royalty structure. Think I've said it before, but I'll say it again just in case (Lost is coming back on soon, so bear with me, my little beasties(it's like I have Lost ADD lol). And, hey, can't wait? Check out www.findf815.com) ---royalties vary whether we're talking hardcover or paperback.

If a publisher offers you one straight rate, it's time to think again. Royalties are structured. Here's examples of a fair royalty structure (not bad, but not the best in the world)--

Hardcover:

10% on RETAIL COVER PRICE for first 5,000 copies
12.5% on next 5,000 copies
15% on copies above 10,000

Mass market:

6% on first 150,000 copies
8% on copies above 150,000

Now, why did I capitalize RETAIL COVER PRICE? Simple. You need to pay close attention, as many smaller publishers are going to base royalties on NET.

Let's look at the sample from yesterday's post--

Price point (cover price)..... $20.00

Net per book ....................... $11.00

So if we're talking royalties based on retail cover, you're getting $2.00 per book sold (on first 5,000 hardcover), whereas if we're talking royalties based on net, you're getting $1.10 per book sold (on first 5,000 hardcover). HUGE DIFFERENCE!

Stay literate;)

This is just a sample, mind you, to give you an overall view of what a publisher takes into account when coming up with an advance amount. There are actually various ways for both editors and agents to come up with this number and other factors I consider (royalty amount, sub-rights split, etc.) This sample is based on one provided in How to be your own Literary Agent by Martin P. Levin (a must have book if you're going it alone).



Sample P&L--

Price point*........................................................................................ $20.00

Average discount .............................................................................. 45% (the average amount the price point is reduced when sold to a retailer or wholesaler)

Average net per book........................................................................ $11.00

Estimated initial print run* ............................................................. 120,000

Returns .............................................................................................. 40,000 (this figure represents the number of returned books. Usually estimated as one-third of the initial print run)

Net Unit Sales ................................................................................... 80,000 (print run minus returns)

Net receipts ....................................................................................... $880,000 (net unit sales multiplied by average net per book)

Manufacturing cost .......................................................................... $420,000 (this rate can differ. I used $3.50 per unit(book) multiplied by initial print run)

Overhead .......................................................................................... $308,000 (35% of net receipts)

Total manufacturing and overhead............................................... $728,000

Net before Royalty and profit ....................................................... $152,000 (net receipts minus total manufacturing and overhead)

Target profit .................................................................................... $88,000 (10% of net receipts)

Advance available ........................................................................... $64,000 (net before royalty and profit minus target profit)


Like I said, this is just an example. Manufacturing cost can be different, discounts could be more or less, price point will change (this is hardcover, whereas paperback would be much less), etc.

Confused? Go find yourself an agent:)

Why is it important to gather these 3 facts? Whenever an editor prepares an offer, they run a P&L (Profit & Loss). I'll give you an example of a P&L in a bit, but for now just know that an editor will use the same information you have asked for to run this, and to decide how much of an advance they can offer.

ESTIMATED INITIAL PRINT RUN-- Pretty self-explanatory. Their estimate of how many copies they will print the first time through of your work.

FORMAT--The manner in which your work will be published. Hardcover, trade paperback, mass market paperback, e-book, audiobook. For our case, I'm just going to talk about hardcover and mass market.

Some publishing houses handle both hardcover and mass market paperback, while others may only handle one or the other. This is important to know before you even approach a publisher (if you want to start by publishing in hardcover, then onto mass market a year later, it isn't in your best interest to submit to a mass market paperback only publisher to start).

Why is asking for formatting important?
One: Royalties are different for hardcover and paperback.
Two: How you approach an offer would differ depending on whether they want hardcover, paperback, or both.

PRICE POINT-- The price they plan to charge for your book. This will also differ whether they are publishing in hardcover or paperback.

Okie dokie, next post we'll go over an example P&L.

Stay literate;)

Harvard Law School attorney Stu Rees did his thesis on comic strip syndicate contracts. Stu represented me and several other cartoonists and helped change the way syndicate contracts were written and negotiated. Here's a link to his thesis.

The Graphic Artists Guild keeps an eye on what types of contracts illustrators are having to sign. It offers a good resource for understanding contracts as well as offering some real-life contracts as examples. GAG Contract Monitor.

The Authors' Guild has Negotiating tips for nine typical contract clauses.

Famed Illustrator C. F. Payne has some strong thoughts on Work-for-Hire agreements. While hard to avoid, WFH agreements remove an illustrator's legal authorship to his or her work. You're not just selling rights, nor simply the original art, but your very claim to authorship. Not a new article but an important one, especially since Payne's career has skyrocketing (at least compared to mine!) since he wrote this article, indicating it's not necessary to sell out in order to make a living.

Our best luck is with clients who do not have a boilerplate contract. Oftentimes clients who do have a contract have "borrowed" it from someone else, rather than having an attorney draft one for them. In any case, it is better for the Illustrator to have his or her own boilerplate, often referred to as a Letter of Agreement (see GAG Contract Monitor above). This allows the Illustrator to have more control in the negotiation process, and creates a better opportunity to explain the terms for usage of rights.

It is best to grant usage rights as specifically as possible. For example, Exclusive North American print rights for one year in March 2007 issue of Passing Classical Gas magazine. After that point, all rights revert back to you.

Limit the number of unpaid revisions to one or two. Chances are this will halve your annual workload and double your income for the year! I'm only slightly exaggerating.

How do you know if you've negotiated a good deal? If afterward you don't feel like you just screwed yourself. Never be afraid to say No and ask for what you are worth.

Ted