1999 TAA Survey finds author-publisher relations deteriorating

Editor's Note: After a recent discussion on the TAA Listserv regarding royalty rates and the suggestion by one member to conduct a royalty survey, TAA has decided to repost this June 1999 article, which announces the results of an Author-Publisher Relations Survey conducted by TAA that year.

A preliminary analysis of the latest Text and Academic Authors Association member survey found that many textbook authors feel their relationships with publishers are going either no where or down hill, the TAA Contracts and Publisher Relations Committee reported at the association's annual convention [1999]. On the trend of author-publisher relations over the last five years, however, the committee said only 10 respondents saw an improvement. Twenty-six saw a deterioration. Thirty-nine saw no change.

The survey was the latest by TAA on authoring issues. Seven-hundred questionnaires were mailed in April. Fifty-nine members responded. A second mailing in May yielded 29 more responses. By the time of the TAA convention, when the committee made its preliminary report, a half-dozen more questionnaires had been returned and more were expected to trickle in, the committee reported.

The response rate to the 25-question survey easily exceeded previous TAA surveys on authoring issues.

The committee said the findings are important for TAA: "Every business needs to find out what customers think. So do professional organizations like TAA. Our customers, if you will, the members, poured their hearts and brains out in responding to this survey."

The survey generated 1,500 comments about author-publisher relations. With so many comments to sort through, the committee came up with three criteria, in order of the importance, by which to select comments to include in the report:

• Comments to help authors and publishers produce better textbooks.
• Comments to help authors and publishers understand and improve author-publisher relations.
• Comments that represent significant comments to improve authoring and publishing relations.

At convention time, the committee had recorded comments from questionnaires only in these categories:

• Authors with incomes of more than $100,000.
• Authors who derive more than 50 percent of their annual income from textbook royalties.
• Authors of more than 10 books.

The committee declined to release percentage data from many quantitative questions pending a full analysis of the questionnaires.

Here are some of the typical comments:

How would you rate your author-publisher relations?

• "Good level of trust."
• "Plenty of freedom to try new things (of course, our books are doing well)."

What do you enjoy about relations with your publisher?

• "Working together to be successful."
• "Direct, instant communication."

What do you dislike about relations with your publisher?"

• "When they attempt to cut corners, condense the schedule, and publish competing titles the same year."
• "Tendency to set unrealistic workloads and timetables, underestimate academic demands on my time."
• "Contract negotiations."
• "Publisher's constant attempts to grab more rights in contracts and more profits at the expense of quality books and author royalties."
• "Publisher's almost complete disregard about the value of author's time."

In the last five years, have you experienced a trend in author-publisher relations?

• Ten answered improving.
• Thirty-nine answered no change.
• Twenty-six answered deteriorating.

Is the relationship improving or deteriorating? Please give representative examples:

• "Too much turnover of editors."
• "More respect for authors."
• "More responsive to requests."
• "Cut in royalties for new authors."
• "More demands from 'marketing' on content/format."
• "Author relations is now at the low end of the publishers' priority lists. Their list is too big -- too many competing books by same publisher. People with good editorial skills are being replaced by people who have come up through sales. Turnover is very high."

Have there been unpleasant incidents while authoring your books?

• "Production cycles too compressed."
• "Previous editor a lying, low life. Terrific editor now."

What are some successful techniques, procedures, approaches, etc., you use or have heard about to improve and/or maintain favorable author-publisher relations?

• "Work closely with your editor and be polite and reasonable. If you get nowhere, move up the chain and don't stop short of CEO."
• "Simple friendliness, mutual respect, dependability and willingness to work my *** off."
• "I have given up -- it's strictly business now."
• "Invite publisher personnel into author's home. Occasionally pay for their meals. Play golf and poker with publisher personnel. Call on schools and sales reps. Room with sales reps. Write a poem to commemorate the completion of a book. Send the editor a gift when the book is completed."
• "Get a good publishing lawyer."

What are the advantages of working with your publisher?

• "Size and resources."
• "High advances."
• "Terrific production team."

What are the disadvantages of working with this publisher?

• "Sometimes they seem too big. The lessons from history are often lost."
• "My concerns about students are not always listened to."
• "Poor marketing effort."

What can authors do to improve relations with publishers?

• "Be certain of your value to the publisher. You probably have more leverage than you realize. Publishers respond to reason and strength."
• "Inform the mass media, public, educational community, legislators and potential authors about practices of publishers that deleteriously affect the quality of textbooks and the quality of education."
• "Understand that profit drives the entire industry and much more of the editorial process than one might guess."
• "In 1999, nothing."
• "Get a good lawyer -- try to sound reasonable."

What can publishers do to improve relations with authors?

• "Understand that profit is not the first priority of many authors."
• "They don't care -- it isn't a priority."
• "Stop insisting on unfavorable contracts: e.g. copyrights, royalties -- and listen to author's expertise."
• "Treat authors with respect because without them there would not be a publication."
• "Realize that authors are the lifeblood of a publishing company."

Have you ever had major disagreements with your publisher? Forty-one said they had, 32 said they hadn't. Some of those disagreements were:

• "Control of rights."
• "Royalty system abysmal."
• "Editorial control by author; unreasonable and often changing timelimes for revisions; inept editing from subcontractors."
• "Royalty rates on electronic products and derivatives."

Would you author another book with this publisher?

• "Yes, because I'm locked in with them."
• "No. Royalties have been cut and I am in a better competitive position to find another publisher."
• "I would seek alternative publishers. Unfortunately, there are less and less publishers."
• "Depends on how buy-outs affect the company."

Do you use an attorney or agent to negotiate contracts with your publisher?"

• "No, I guess."
• "No. Have been quite successful under the circumstances, negotiating on my own and my concern that an attorney or agent might unduly antagonize publisher."
• "When I drop my attorney's name into a conversation, the president of the company backs off a bit on contract position. Same when mentioning TAA."
• "Yes, to write clauses on rights relative to digital products and derivatives."

Has using an attorney or agent affected your relations with the publisher?

• "Publisher knows someone is watching."
• "More respect and I can negotiate better."

Have you ever had your publisher's royalty records audited?

• "Just started an audit. They have grown so large and sales have grown so complex I'm not sure they are able to track everything accurately."

What were the results of the audit?

• "Recovered large sums."

How did the audit affect your relations with the publisher?

• They complain bitterly, but the statements aren't any more accurate, so the audits continue."
• "I'm more suspicious, less trusting, less respectful."
• "It demonstrated that I was alert, savvy, willing to 'give and take' but hold the line on issues I cared about. Set the stage for negotiating on unexpected problems during the publication process."

In the last five years, have you noticed any change in the publisher's willingness to negotiate contracts?

• "Negotiating room has tightened."
• "They are less likely to make changes in their standard contract."
• "Both publisher and author perplexed by how to compensate electronic/digital products."

What do you enjoy most about authoring a textbook?

• "Creating and presenting material useful to students and instructors."
• "It makes me keep up to date and continually learn new things."
• "Authoring textbooks gives a common person like me, rather than a celebrity, a chance to favorably affect the lives of thousands of students."

What do you dislike about authoring a textbook?

• "Unrealistic schedules and pressure to take over more and more of what was originally the publisher's job."

What advice would you give to new authors about author-publisher relations?

• "Keep your day job and be willing to go back to it rather than accept a bad contract. Remember that this is a business and they expect to negotiate but would like to avoid one by seeming to be inflexible. Know your own value."
• "Be reliable, friendly, respectful, timely; willing to do more and better work than is asked or expected of you; willing to tolerate more tedium and hard work than lesser authors do."
• "New authors are usually all to grateful to find any publisher. Shop your manuscript. I had 55 rejection letters on my first book proposal but got great advice from lots of reviewers in the process and ended up with a proposal that two major publishers competed for."
• "Make sure to go over TAA's literature and contracts before signing on."
• "Retain as many rights as possible in contracts and pursue them. Keep on top of things. Don't assume the publisher knows what it's doing or will take care of you or your book."
• "Get a very good lawyer or agent."

The last question in the survey allowed respondents to record any comment, suggestions, observations, predictions or conclusions they had about author-publisher relations:

• "The fewer publishers there are, the less variety we will see for teaches selecting books and the harder it will be for a new 'creative' voice to break through as an author."
• "Author experience with book revisions, especially since this clause makes revisions a life-long process for the author and with little or no understanding of the cost basis for royalty reductions if revisions are made by others."
• "TAA is a great organization. Mike Keedy had vision!"
• "Because publishers are not educators and have long-range goals different from competent authors, publishers are on a collision course with competent authors. The trend is likely to deteriorate at an accelerated pace because of the decrease of competition between publishers. The consequences, however imperceptible, are that publishers will contract with mediocre authors and textbooks will deteriorate."
• "To be successful as author-educators and be adequately rewarded for their efforts and experience, authors should be thinking about other outlets for their work, such as self-publishing, distance learning, or publishing with 'learning-oriented' rather than 'increased profits' publishers."
• "This is a wonderful process if you enjoy ideas, words and having a voice in the larger world. If those are not inviting, go into some other field. Writing can be very hard work, and if you find it unpleasant take up selling magazine subscriptions, knitting socks or photographing cheesecake."