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January 2023

January 9, 2023 by Bibi Lewis

 

Dennis E. Taylor’s EARTHSIDE is set to release from Audible at the end of the month. The sequel to OUTLAND, this book is sure to delight.

James Cambias will be continuing his BILLION WORLDS series with a 3rd book just sold to Baen.

John Scalzi has delivered his Summer 2023 release STARTER VILLAIN and we are very excited about its forthcoming publication.

We’re very excited to work with Indie author Carissa Broadbent for foreign rights for her CROWNS OF NYAXIA series. We’ve sold rights in Turkey. This breakout Fantasy Romance series is perfect for fans of Sarah J Maas and Jennifer Armentrout.

Agent Evan Gregory has licensed a new book by Yahtzee Croshaw to Audible.

This fall, Alison Cochrun released KISS HER ONCE FOR ME to acclaim from the NYT. It was a December Book of the Month Club pick. We’ve sold two upcoming books to Atria/Simon & Schuster with the next release HERE WE GO AGAIN out Spring 2024.

Candy Fleming has added yet another award to her stellar career. Her most recent YA release MURDER AMONG FRIENDS was included in the School Library Journal Best Books of 2022!  POLAR BEAR, Fleming’s collaboration with Caldecott winner Eric Rohmann is just out with a great review in the NYT.

 

The Ellenberg Agency is very excited to repulbish Marthe Jocelyn’s INVISIBLE series with great new covers and interior art.

We’ve also just published 3 GRIMSSON novels by Icelandic Mystery phenom STEFAN MANI to coincide with the release of all 3 books forthcoming from Tantor Audio.

Tony Peak has licensed three LitRPG novels to Aethon books, to debut on the Yonder App.

We’ve licensed 3 backlist titles on behalf of Kay Kenyon for Spanish Audio.

Filed Under: Agency News

Agency News July 2022

June 27, 2022 by Bibi Lewis

For Catherine Asaro we’ve negotiated new 3 book deals for her MAJOR BHAJAAN series with both Baen and Recorded Books.  We’ve sold 19 back list titles of hers to Open Road

Rhett C. Bruno and Jaime Castle’s BLACK BADGE was published in May and quickly rose up the list of top selling new SF.

James Cambias’ next book THE SCARAB MISSION is coming from Baen January 2023.

Ian Douglas completes his SOLAR WARDEN series with Harpercollins when they publish ALIEN AGENDAS in January 2023.  A new 3 book Series will follow.

We’ve sold a two book deal for Kate Robb, a debut rom-com author, to The Dial Press. The first book, THE LOVE CLEANSE will launch Fall 2023. 

Tony Peak’s new series RED SHIRT RUNNERS will be published by Aethon this Fall.

We’ve licensed Sharon Shinn’s next novel QUATREFOIL to Fairwood Press for publication this Fall.

 

John Scalzi’s THE KAIJU PRESERVATION SOCIETY was a NYT Bestseller when it was published in March.  Look for his 3rd Audible Original this Fall with THE DISPATCHER: TRAVEL BY BULLET.  John continues his animation career with an entry in the third season of LOVE, DEATH AND ROBOTS, the new episode is THREE ROBOTS: EXIT STRATEGIES.

Dennis E. Taylor’s next book standalone is ROAD KILL coming from Audible in August and from us in print in December.  EARTH SIDE the sequel to OUTLAND has been accepted and that will be coming soon as well.

Alison Cochrun’s sophomore novel KISS HER ONCE FOR ME, a queer holiday romance will publish in November from Atria. Her debut THE CHARM OFFENSIVE just sold it’s 9th foreign deal. 

Edward Willett’s THE TANGLED STARS is coming from Daw this October.

THE SCARRED EARTH SERIES continues with publication of the third book by Kensington, THE HERETIC ROYAL in December, Author, G A Aiken.

 

 

Big news for fans of MaryJanice Davidson, a new UNDEAD book is coming as an original from Recorded Books with us doing the print version.  She recently contracted with Amazon publishing for a new work of Contemporary romance.

For new subrights client  MARK HAYDEN,  we’ve negotiated a 3 book deal for German Translation rights for his series THE KING’S WATCH.

The Andre Norton Estate has licensed new titles in France.

Tony Peak’s new series RED SHIRT RUNNERS will be published by Aethon this Fall.

We’ve sold an additional title for Amanda Ashley in Italy.

Ward Carroll is seeing great success with the Audio editions of his classic trilogy PUNK’S WAR from Blackstone.  His youtube channel is a breakout hit.

Tantor will be publishing 3 of Stefan Mani’s GRIMSSON series.  

We’ve licensed a half dozen of Jason Manning’s Westerns for Large Print to Thorndike.

Judy Smith’s DIFFICULT is already in its third printing with feature news articles in both the New York Times and the Wall St. Journal.

We have great expectations for Candace Fleming and Eric Rohmann when their new book POLAR BEAR is published this November.  It’s a gorgeous follow up to HONEYBEE which has already sold 50,000 copies.

We’ve made new sales for M D Whalen in Spain and Portugal, in Germany for Helen Harper, and many more…

Filed Under: Agency News

Agency News January 2022

December 22, 2021 by Bibi Lewis

Dennis E. Taylor has signed a new four book Agreement with Audible.  Two of the new books will be set in the ‘Bobiverse’ universe and two will be originals.  ROAD KILL his new original will be coming from Audible in August 2022 and we are very excited about this contemporary first contact book.  EELA (us) will be publishing the book in ebook and POD.

We have licensed audio rights to Ward Carroll’s ‘Punk Trilogy’ to Blackstone.  Naval Institute Press has re-published all 3 of the books in Trade Paperback.  Ward’s YouTube channel has more than 160,000 subscribers from a standing start early this year.

Tony Peak will continue his SF career by publishing his next trilogy with Aethon.

EELA (us) will publish a great near future SF novel by Peter Ward, THE ELECTRIC DETECTIVE

The world loves G. A. Aiken’s magical fantasy romance and so does Amazon, BREAKING BADGER was named a best romance novel for August.

We are  licensing Large Print rights to Thorndike and have now licensed 6 Classic Westerns by Jason Manning.

John Domagalski’s next work of Naval History is coming from Pen and Sword June 2022, so look for ESCAPE FROM JAVA if you are a fan of WW II naval history.

We’re very proud to announce the early praise gathered by Judith R. Smith’s DIFFICULT: Mothering Adult Children Through Conflict and Change (Rowman and Littlefield February 2, 2022).  Here’s what Mary Pipher has to say:

“This fine book will be profoundly helpful to all the women who needed it yesterday. At last, we have a book on the subject of difficult children that is profoundly sympathetic with and empathic toward mothers. It is excellent cultural therapy.”  — Mary Pipher, Author Reviving Ophelia and Women Rowing North

Alison Cochrun’s THE CHARM OFFENSIVE published in September with rave reviews from Kirkus, Library Journal and a fantastic shout out in the New York Times quarterly Romance column. It’s gotten multiple foreign sales (rights with Atria) and continues to find readers. Her second novel KISS HER ONCE FOR ME will publish in Fall 2022 from Atria.

Selene Castrovilla continues her streak of NF picture books with Calkins Creek/Astra with a new book coming in Spring 2023 about George Washington. Don’t miss SEEKING FREEDOM in January 2022!

 

We’ve secured US Distribution deal for the JD KIRK mystery series with Ingram

 

Perhaps our busiest area has been translation sales and here is just a sample:

G.A. Aiken-new sales in Germany

Madeline Baker–new sales in Italy

MaryJanice Davidson–the entire UNDEAD series has been renewed in Germany

Kerry Harper has new sales in Germany and Israel

Barry Hutchison writing as J D Kirk rounds out the year with sales in Russia, Lithuania and Estonia

Bill Keith writing as Ian Douglas has new sales in Poland and Hungary

Marko Kloos has new sales in Poland and Hungary as well

New client Stefan Mani has sold ABYSS in Germany

Andre Norton continues to find new buyers with sales in Poland, Spain and Russia

Riptide Publishing has new sales in France, Germany and Thailand

Eric Rohmann had two strong renewals this year, BONE DOG in China and MY FRIEND RABBIT in Spanish.

It’s hard to keep up with John Scalzi.  We have new sales in 14 territories, Brazil, China, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Korea, Romania, Russia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine.

The Bertrice Small Estate also had a strong year with sales in Norway, Russia and Ukraine.

Dennis E. Taylor is also proving an international success with new sales in Japan, Germany, Poland, Russia and Turkey.  Sales of the Bobiverse books in Germany are particularly strong.

Sasha Black has secured offers for 4 of her superb writing books in Korea from Will Books.  The titles are:

 

THE ANATOMY OF PROSE

13 STEPS TO EVIL

10 STEPS TO HERO

8 STEPS TO SIDE CHARACTERS

Filed Under: Agency News

July 2021 – Agency News 

July 12, 2021 by Ethan Ellenberg

We hope this finds everyone well and that we can look forward to a Summer of health, rest and relaxation. And now some news……

SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY

We’ve concluded a new 3 book deal for Bill Keith writing as Ian Douglas with Harpercollins. The new Series is Galaxy Raiders

We’ve struck a six figure three book deal with Blackstone on behalf of Rhett Bruno and Jaime Castle to publish 3 full length novels in their DEAD ACRE/BLACK BADGE world whose originating novella was a giant hit in audio.

James Cambias has published the first book in a new ‘Universe’, ‘The 10,000 worlds’ and this launch book is THE GODEL OPERATION Book 2 is in the works.

John Scalzi has delivered his next full length novel to Tor for publication in March, 2022, THE KAIJU PRESERVATION SOCIETY.

We’ve published 2 new collections of short fiction by Sharon Shinn, SHADOWS OF THE PAST and ANGELS AND OTHER EXTRAORDINARY BEINGS.

We’ve seen a lot of new translation licenses, as follows:

  • For John Scalzi Sales in: China, France, Greece, Italy, Korea, Romania, Russia, Spain, Turkey
  • For Bill Keith: Poland
  • For Marko Kloos: Hungary and Poland
  • For Andre Norton Estate: Poland, Russia, Spain
  • For Dennis E. Taylor: Germany, Russia, Turkey

ROMANCE

We’ve made a number of translation sales as follows:

  • G. A. Aiken: Germany
  • Madeline Baker: Italy
  • MaryJanice Davidson: Germany
  • Bertrice Small Estate: Italy, Russia, Ukraine

THRILLERS, MYSTERY, CRIME

We are happy to be partnering with Naval Institute Press to re-issue all 3 books in WARD CARROLL’S ‘PUNK’S WAR’ Trilogy. They’ll be publishing in hardcover and trade paperback and we’ll be publishing ebook editions and seeking an Audio partner.

We’ve sold German rights on behalf of new client Iceland crime writer Stefan Mani to his book THE ABYSS.

We’ve sold large print rights to Thorndike Press for two books by Jason Manning.

Mentor Enterprises will be publishing a special edition of BRIAN M. MICHELSONS’ WARBOT 1.0: AI GOES TO WAR.

NON-FICTION

We’ve licensed film rights to CHARLES SASSER’S PATTON’S PANTHERS.

JUDY SMITH has delivered DIFFICULT: Mothering Adult Children Through Conflict and Change to Rowman and Littlefield.

CHILDREN’S

Candy Fleming and Eric Rohman have the third ‘Bulldozer’ book coming in the Fall BULLDOZER’S CHRISTMAS.

Candy will be publishing THE CURSE OF THE MUMMY: OPENING KING TUT’S TOMB with Scholastic this September.

Penguin Canada has made three translation sales for Marthe Jocelyn’s Aggie Morton mystery Series, to Russia, Ukraine and France.

We’ve published Michelle Nunley’s wonderful maze book WIZARD’S WORLD.

Filed Under: Agency News

All About Royalties

February 15, 2021 by Ethan Ellenberg

Royalties, mainly on the sale of paper based books, remain the primary source of author income. I’m going to explain the fundamental concepts you need to understand how they work and are calculated. The following is an outline, more like course notes, than a lecture. I want to keep this short and to the point, as my workshop will go into more depth about all these topics.

Let’s start with the basics. Royalties are wonderful. Royalties are the one thing that compensates you for all the difficult deals you have to accept in the course of your working lives as authors. Royalties are the safety net under the whole system.

Did you not get an advance? A $1 advance? A $4,000 advance? If the book succeeds and earns royalties, you can laugh about it. No matter how cheaply you sell a book, no matter how poor the prospects, no matter how pitiful the advance, as long as the royalty is strong, you do have a chance at realizing good income from that book. I’ll never forget the first time I held a six figure royalty check in my hand. It was the first royalty check I received for that book and it was 4 times the advance we got.

So what makes a strong royalty? Luckily, the royalty system, though under assault, is initially a good one for authors. The reason for this is that the basic royalty for commercial books is a percentage of the cover price of that book. If the cover price of a hardcover book is $20 and my royalty is 10% of the cover price, I am receiving $2 per book. That’s a full 10% of what the consumer pays.

Let me show you how good that really is. You may think the publisher is seeing 90% of that sale or $18, but that’s not so. The publisher does little direct selling, instead he must use bookstores and other distributors. To keep the numbers simple let’s assume he’s granting a 50% discount to everyone who will take the book, display it, and actually make the sale. This is not far off from the discounts many publishers do grant. So on our $20 book, he’s giving $10 to the bookstore and $2 to the author. That leaves $8, which per book isn’t bad. But then there’s the cost of being a publisher, which goes way beyond a good computer and a corner of the house. There’s rent, salaries, taxes, paper, print, binding, publicity, et cetera. Historically, publishers’ margins, the amount of money left over after expenses have been deducted, have been 10%. That’s about as small a margin as you can get in a relatively low volume business and still be in business.

So a percentage of the cover price of a book is a strong, fundamental position to be in. Authors and agents should do everything they can to perserve it. (More on that later.) Beyond showing you that the cover price royalty is so valuable, I want to contrast it with other royalty calculation systems.

There are large groups of publishers that do not pay a cover price royalty. In fact, a number of royalties in your commercial publishing contracts are not cover price based at all. They are based on the “amount received.” Structurally, this is a far less good royalty for authors.

An “amount received” royalty means that the author’s royalty is calculated on the monies that the publisher actually receives and not the cover price of the book. Academic publishers like university presses have traditionally paid on amount received. I’ve worked with a number of small and not so small publishers that only pay on the amount received.

Let’s go back to our $20 book. The publisher is once again granting a 50% discount to the bookseller. So the publisher is getting $10. Now my royalty is calculated based on the money the publisher is receiving. I’m now getting 10% of $10, not $20. So, now my royalty is $1 per book. This is half of my previous royalty. If the royalty system for commercial publishers ever shifted to this model, it would be a catastrophic disaster for authors.

I’ve used a very simple example to contrast cover price vs. amount received royalty. Of course, there are mitigating factors. The most important one is that academic presses do not grant 50% discounts, their upper limit is usually 30%. So, the amount received would be larger. There are other ways to also cope with the amount received royalty structure, which I routinely employ. I double the nominal royalty. So, if a publisher is unwilling to pay 10% of the cover price, I ask for 20% of the amount received. This isn’t a fantasy. I often get amount received royalties which are double the cover price royalty just to compensate my author for the different royalty structure.

Now that we’ve realized the value of the cover price royalty, we can better examine the full extent of royalties in a commercial publishing contract. The picture gets far more complex and troubling quickly. The cover price royalty usually only applies to sales of the book below a certain discount, in normal book channels. That means that many sales of the book are paid out under a different royalty structure, and that structure is usually on the amount received.

Let’s consider some of these.

All publishers sell their U.S. based books outside of the United States. As a general rule of thumb foreign sales–books exported to Canada and accounts all over the world that take English language books — account for 10% of sales. The average royalty here is often 5% of the amount received. That would equal a cover price royalty of 2 1/2% of cover price. That is a very small royalty.

There are other foreign or export royalties. Some publishers pay more than 5% of the amount received. Some publishers have special cover price royalties for large, overseas English speaking markets like Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Large publishers that maintain full publishing operations in these large English speaking markets, plug their American books, which have multiple local cover prices actually printed on them, into their local distribution networks and pay cover price royalties in these markets. The local currency is converted and paid in U.S. dollars. These are attractive arrangements and attractive royalties, but only a few large publishers actually do this. So, the export royalty is a real problem. It’s true the freight costs of shipping overseas are higher. But that hardly accounts for the drastic royalty drop. Strong accounts in Canada, the Caribbean, etc., do well with English language books. I believe the export royalty is unnecessarily rich for the publishers.

Another major area of concern is discount. The cover price royalty only prevails below certain discounts granted to the bookseller or distributor. For hardcover books, it’s usually below 48%. For trade paperback books, it’s often below 55%. For mass market paperback books, it’s often below 60%. But these discounts vary widely from publisher to publisher. The royalty paid when these discounts are exceeded also varies substantially.

Let’s return to our basic example and see what happens when the “high discount” royalty clause is invoked. The publisher’s standard cover price royalty is paid below discounts of 48% percent. But for a substantial number of sales in our example, the publisher is granting a 50% discount. For each additional point of discount granted, the publisher is deducting 1 point of royalty. So at a 50% discount, 2 royalty points are deducted. We are now receiving an 8% royalty. So our original $2 per book is now $1.60 per book ($20 x .08).

It can get a lot worse than that, very quickly. Some publishers immediately go to an amount received royalty of 10% of the amount received when the discount is exceeded. I have in my files royalty statements from one particular publisher where a full 80% of all sales are made at the special discount (49% of more). As you can clearly see, there are financial incentives for the publisher to exceed their traditional discounts. They may be giving their distributors a better break, which isn’t a bad thing for customer relations, but who’s really paying for this break? If the author’s royalty is cut in half when the discount shifts one point from 48% to 49%, it certainly isn’t the publisher. Authors may not have an opinion about to whom and what kind of discounts publishers should grant to nourish their businesses, but they better take a very active interest in how discounting impacts their royalties.

Another important area to consider is the whole area of special sales and sales outside the trade. A lot of different sales are covered here, far too many for me to explore in this handout. Let me just enumerate the issues that demand your attention.

First is the concept of “outside the book trade.” The concept here is that because the publisher is selling outside of his normal channels of distribution, some special effort or some unique customer is involved and the traditional royalties don’t apply. This is a very tricky area if amount received royalties are being paid. The “normal channels of distribution” have changed and are changing rapidly. I don’t believe this is a valid concept and I think publishing contracts need to be policed so that full royalty are paid on all these sales unless they exceed the normal discounts.

Other special sales include premium sales, which are bulk sales often to a single customer, often not for re-sale. They are also often non-returnable. Again a 5% of amount received royalty is paid. This is another very profitable area for publishers. Similarly there are mail order sales and direct response sales, which again command the 5% of amount received royalties. There are also publisher owned book clubs, which similarly pay a low royalty. We can debate the economics of these sales. From where I sit, the author is making a substantial, excessive contribution to their success by taking such a small royalty.

Finally, we have the whole new world of electronic publishing. This is an area that is still taking shape and there is no industry protocol. There are competing technologies and new players of various sorts. As I write this I can identify three main new formats that need to be considered. The three formats I see are print on demand copies, electronic copies for reading in a stand-alone device and electronic copies that are intended to be read over a personal computer. Print on demand copies may pose no change to the royalty system, since they can be treated just like a printed book. Or, perhaps a new royalty is needed here. Electronic versions are far more unprecedented from a royalty point of view. Established publishers are treating them like paper bound books for royalty purposes and paying “standard” royalties. Some start up electronic publishers are paying royalties of up to 50% of the monies received for each sale. Space forbids me from fully articulating my views here. Suffice it to say that we must be vigilant in making sure the new royalty protocols for electronic books are advantageous to authors.

There are two other areas I want to mention to round out the royalty issue. When we talk about royalties, we’re talking about money and when we’re talking about money we’re talking about the most basic business concept “cash flow.” This is not a hard concept to understand. You all innately understand it. It’s having the money you need when you need it. Not 3 months from now, not 6 months from now, NOW!

Cash flow is effected by when a publisher begins to pay royalties and how quickly they are actually paid out. Some publishers won’t pay royalties until they have at least 6 months of sale on a book, some don’t require that. Some account to authors within 60 days after the close of a royalty period, some enter into the 5th month after the close of a royalty period before they pay out. All these things do affect your income.

The final area I want to mention is returns and the reserve for returns. The publishers struggle with one very basic fact of their doing business: when they ship a book to an account, it is not a sale. It is essentially on consignment. Books are fully returnable, usually indefinitely. That means that if an account returns all 20 of the copies of our $20 book to the publisher, the publisher makes no money, and, in fact, has lost money on shipping it both ways, plus the loss of income from having no sale anyway. Because books are returnable, completely at the publisher’s expense, it has been traditionally very difficult to know exactly how a book has done. You may know where 80% of the copies are, or even 90%, but you certainly don’t know where 100% of the copies are. They may be sold or they may be returned one year or more after shipping. The reserve for returns, which literally means some “sold” copies are “reserved” or held back from being paid as royalties to the author because it’s not really known whether they have sold or not.

Returns dramatically add an element of complexity, uncertainty and controversy to royalty accounting. There have been abuses. When a royalty accountant looks at some basic numbers, it’s often a matter of interpretation to determine how many books have actually been sold. Because thousands of dollars of the publisher’s money is at stake, any royalty clerk who wants to keep their job is bound to be conservative. But that can savage author incomes. If a book is selling well, continues to be reprinted and averages a total return of 10% over the first year of sale, how can an industry average of a 30% reserve be justified? It can’t. But I’ve seen it. A few years back there was a legal settlement that revealed that one publisher was essentially keeping a permanent reserve of 30% on all their books, regardless of their real sales history.

There is an antidote to the issue of excessive reserves, though it’s difficult to apply. Authors should maintain accurate records and aggressively seek sales information on their books. Royalty statements must be carefully examined to catch mistakes and to track the actual sales experience of a book. I routinely write letters of query to publishers when I find anomalies in royalty statements or when a statement does not conform to my sense of how a book did. Two years back one such letter resulted in a check for $7,000. Stay on top of your royalty income and potential.

I hope this basic background information gives you a better sense of how important royalties are and how they operate. This will continue to be a dynamic, complex, fundamentally important area of author concern. Protect your income by advocating for practices that preserve and increase author royalty income where appropriate.

This is a handout given out at a talk at the RWA National Conference, July 1999.

Filed Under: News

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