We’ve been writing a lot about some new models for the Publishing industry and highly recommending that the industry take some lessons for the well-oiled Hollywood film biz. One of our big predictions and recommendations is for the emergence of a Book Producer model similar to that of the Hollywood film producer.
Since writing on the subject, we’ve gotten a lot of response and feedback — people seem to be interested in this concept. In the meantime, we’ve been keeping an eye out, carefully watching for any hint of this model emerging within the weeds of the publishing world.
This week, we spotted something. A Book Producer model? Well, sort of.
This week, we heard of a pretty significant educational publisher (sorry, can’t reveal who) make a new kind of deal with a few of their authors. The publisher, instead of hiring the authors to pen another text book edition, bought an option to publish their next book (or series). Interesting. Instead of paying the writer a standard fee to write, they bought an option for any future books they MAY write. This deal is interesting for several reasons:
- It has transferred the creative control from the publisher to the author. The publisher is saying to this group of authors, “You make the decisions about the creative content — we’re not going to.” This means that the publisher is no longer “creating the content”…they’re just marketing and distributing it. (See earlier post)
- It has transferred control over the production of the book to the group of authors. The publisher is looking for the authors to deliver a final, printable (or distributable in other formats) version of the book. Clean, proofed and filled with all the final art. The publisher doesn’t want to see it until it is finished. The publisher doesn’t want to produce it. Again, they just want to market and distribute it. This is a big deal.
- It has transferred control over the budget to the group of authors. I don’t really know the specific details of the deal, but I imagine that the publisher, if they decide to “green light” the project, will pay a set amount of $$ for the final book. And this won’t change. ”If we green light the book, we’ll give you $100k for the final PDF.” And this will include the author fee. The authors’ will now be in charge of the budget. If they go over, it will likely come out of their fee.
- It gives the author the freedom to work with other publishers. The publisher in this case has purchased an OPTION for the authors’ work. If the publisher decides they don’t to distribute the author’s book, they can pass. At that point, the author is free to take the book/project to another publisher. This has never been an option before for an author.
- It most closely resembles the Hollywood producer model as anything else I have heard of lately. In Hollywood, this type of option deal is called a first look deal. However, there is one big hitch…
This is NOT a producer deal because this deal was made with a group of authors. And they have quickly learned that THEY NEED A PRODUCER! The authors just want to write. They don’t want to strategize and organize and manage the logistics of making a book. They just want to write. They need a producer.
So, alas, we have not located our elusive Book Producer. The deal that we heard of with these authors is a producer-like deal. However, they have not embraced the opportunity to become Book Producers. But for someone else looking to try their hand at this opportunity, there is a group of authors with a first-look deal with a publisher looking for some help…
Our search continues… 
Derek
