Walter - spot on!

Before publishing my first book in 2006 I did a bit of due diligence on the path of becoming an agented / published author through a major publishing house.

Short story?

Want to sign-away intellectual copyright as well as 75% (or more) of potential earnings? Do the old route. Agents. Publishing house contracts.

Want to retain intellectual copyright as well as set income earnings? Self publish.

I decided to self publish after interviewing an author who's work (at that time) had sold over 4 millions copies, translated into a dozen languages. Topic? Living with AIDS at the start of the AIDS pandemic.

He showed me his royalty statements from Simon & Schuster. You'd think after 4 million paperback copies sold he'd have some serious royalties. Nope. He didn't really read the contract his agent presented. His agent earned more than he did.

I asked him why he didn't try to re-negotiate his contract. Apparently the legal costs associated with breaking the existing contract to then extract a more favorable contract would have decimated the royalties received thus far.

Folks - the old days of publishing house are on fumes. Today, all too easy to self-publish.

Get your wisdom out there!