More on Thomas and Mercer and recent deals

As I've said many times before - there are many paths that lie before the author. Big-six is the dream of most, and with some valid reasons, but it has come with some pretty high price tags (52%/14.9% ebook royalty share, rights that are hard if not impossible to reclaim, and clauses that can limit future writing by the author). I mentioned in a post a few days ago that I suspected that the Thomas and Mercer contracts were "author friendly" based on the people who have placed pen to paper to them namely: Barry Eisler, Joe Konrath, and Blake Crouch.

Well it would appear that my suspicions are true. Here is a quote from Barry himself:

A last thought: while I certainly am guided by self-interest, I am also profoundly motivated by the desire to make publishing a better industry for readers and authors (again, see the Marketing page of the For Writers section of my website). During the course of our negotiations, I worked hard to persuade Amazon to jettison various legacy publishing provisions that gain publishers little and that authors loathe. It's a huge credit to Amazon that they listened to my arguments and changed their template accordingly, and it's satisfying for me to know that other authors will get the benefit of the more enlightened template I helped forge -- both from Amazon directly, as it expands its publishing wing, and from legacy publishers, who will be forced to compete with Amazon's more enlightened terms.

The main thing for me is that authors have more options now than we've ever had before. Self-publishing is one of those options, and it's a great one. But as new possibilities emerge, I'll consider them, try them, and perhaps integrate them into my overall strategy. Why would anyone do anything else?

I'm glad to see that my suspicions were indeed correct. As I said before the self-publishing revolution is benefiting all authors - those that continue to self-publish, those that go with small presses who are now making good livings doing so (Yeah Marshall Thomas, Nathan Lowell, and Michael Sullivan while still with Ridan), and those going to traditional as the contracts must and are changing.

My mantra remains the same...there's never been a better time to be an author!!