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See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

Sounds perfect Wahhhh, I don’t wanna
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For Novice Writers: the quick test for Are You Being Scammed Or Not…

neil-gaiman

I read a sad case today of a young writer who had had her story rewritten into illiteracy by a so-called publisher, who then abused her in email when she wrote to complain. She wsn’t getting paid for her story – instead she was actually buying copies of the anthology to show people that she had sold a story. And I thought, it is time to remind the world, and to enlighten young writers, about…

Yog’s Law: 

Money flows towards the writer.


That’s all. All writers should remember it. 

When a commercial publisher contracts a book, it will pay an advance against royalties to the writer. Money flows towards the writer.

Literary agents make their living by charging a commission of between 10 and 20% on the sales that they make on behalf of their clients, the writers. When advances and royalties are paid by a publisher the agent’s percentage is filtered off in the direction of the writer’s agent but the bulk of the money still flows towards the writer.

If a publisher ever asks for any sort of financial contribution from a writer, they’re trying to divert money away from the writer, in direct contravention of Yog’s Law.

If an agent ever asks for up-front fees, regardless of what they call them (reading fees, administration costs, processing fees, or retainers), then they are trying to divert money away from the writer, in direct contravention of Yog’s Law.

It’s a brilliantly simple rule. We should thank James D Macdonald for it in the best way there is. Buy his books


Money flows toward the writer.

No, that doesn’t mean that the author should get paper and ink for free, or that he won’t pay for postage. It does mean that when someone comes along and says, “Sure, kid, you can be a Published Author! It’ll only cost you $300!” the writer will know that something’s wrong. A fee is a fee is a fee, whether they call it a reading fee, a marketing fee, a promotion fee, or a cheese-and-crackers fee.

Is this perfect? No. Scammers have come up with some elaborate ways to avoid activating it. But it’s still a good and useful tool, and will save a lot of grief. Any time an agent or publisher asks for money, the answer should be “No!”

neil-gaiman

Possibly time to reblog this.

Yog's Law Money flows towards the writer.
neil-gaiman

sliceosunshine asked:

Hello Mr. Gaiman, I just read your post about "Yog's Law" and it got me thinking about something a writer friend of mine had discussed years ago with me. He had been in the process of traditionally publishing a book at the time, and because I shared the same ambition to publish some day, he told me about his experience.

One of the things that he said was that he had to do all of the promoting for his book. That his agent/publisher told him that only if you luck out by being published by one of the big 5 should you expect help in advertising your work. Now, of course an author should be part of promoting their work once it is published (word of mouth, social media, scheduling appearances at bookshops, etc) but it had always struck me as odd, the idea that a traditional publisher wouldn't help promote a product they're taking on, that an author would have to buy any ads themself and so forth. The reason the publisher gave him was that, because they weren't one of the big 5, they were too small and didn't have the money to help with promotion.

There were other aspects of his experience with the publisher that had struck me as suspect at the time, and when the publishing outfit appeared a few years later on the SFWA Writer Beware list as a suspected Vanity Publisher, I wasn't too surprised.

The writing friend in question is currently doing well with his work, his self-promotion and advertising paying off for him. But I wanted to ask you about what promotion of an author's book is supposed to look like, especially because this was the explanation given to him by his agent and not just the publisher. Does promoting of a book also fall under Yog's Law?

Publishers pay for the advertising and the marketing. Authors don’t.

neil-gaiman

yourpalarii asked:

I’m doing a bit of research, and I just wanted to ask for your definition of financial freedom?

I want to see it from as many views as possible and I’d appreciate your response! Thank you! :D

Having enough money and few enough financial obligations to say no to things I don’t want to write or make, no matter how much I’m offered. (Which is to say, as I learned in the 90s, if I was making enough to cover the mortgage and to save enough to put my kids through college, I could say no to millions of dollars for things that seemed dodgy, at a time when that might have been life-changing. But I was fine with the life I had.)

neil-gaiman

hellcatlizzie asked:

How do you stay fit as an author? I've noticed since I started studying and writing I snack more and I'm less active.

I do walk from time to time and trying to make myself go out for decent walks but it's freezing here ATM so it limits my options.

I force myself to walk. When it was freezing and I was in the US, I tended to have a dog, which meant I would walk many times a day anyway. Otherwise if I can, I’ll get out and walk and force air into my lungs and look at things further away than a notepad, computer screen or phone.

Stretching is terrific. Yoga helps, even if it’s just doing it with a YouTube video.

(And I’m aware I ought to be running and swimming and I’m not doing either right now. But I should.)

neil-gaiman

juniorcaptain asked:

Hello sir!

I know you purposely don’t seek out fan content of your work for a variety of reasons, but have you ever been exposed to fan theories via market research? Or been “encouraged” by a network/studio to change existing scripts because character X tests well with demographic Y, etc?

In those situations, how do you keep your work true while acquiescing to higher up demands?

Nope. I’ve never encountered that at all. I’m not sure any of it happens before a show is shot. I’ve seen the results of test screenings, and watched things being recut because test screenings showed there were things audiences didn’t get, but all I remember from Good Omens test screenings was being told that people loved Crowley and Aziraphale and really liked Anathema and loved to hate Gabriel, and I could have told them that.

neil-gaiman

does-existance-exist asked:

so, i've grown up reading your books, and my dad read GO to me in i think 3rd grade? and the summer before last, one of my family friends was over, and we were having cheeses, and one of them was wensleydale, and my immediate mental response was "like from good omens???????"

Just like from Good Omens, yes.

I modelled the Wensleydale in the book a little bit on a character I’d liked as a kid called Darbishire, from the Jennings and Darbishire books by Anthony Buckeridge. And Derbyshire Cheeses are justly famous. So I called him Wensleydale.

neil-gaiman

rubykenobi asked:

Good morning dear @neil-gaiman

This could be a confusing question, because obviously to find out more we will have to wait for the release of the second season of Good Omens (I suppose, I don't know for sure which is why I decided to ask). I think I understood then that angels and demons are asexual beings, without gender, do I understand correctly? But does this also mean that they cannot have certain types of experience with their mortal bodies? I mean, for example Aziraphale and Crowley have tried food (and our angel loves it) and wine, which are earthly pleasures. I would like to know if other types of pleasures (which most of the time are related to love) are somehow forbidden or it is customary not to "satisfy" them.

What the book actually says is that ‘angels are sexless unless they really want to make an effort’. The angels and demons in Good Omens aren’t remotely human, and as a small part of that they aren’t male nor are they female.

Not that they couldn’t be male, female or intersex, or do things with their bodies and body-shapes if they really wanted to make that effort. As it also says in Good Omens the book, For those of angel stock or demon breed, size, and shape, and composition, are simply options.

Does that help?

neil-gaiman

scattereda asked:

Hey Neil! I had a question about something I've noticed for a long while online on the way older people use ellipses. So, for example, when you replied to an ask with "Okay... And yes, I'll reblog. Good luck." as a young very online person, while I know you didn't mean it this way, those ellipses read to me as passive aggressive, or frustrated with the asker. What do they mean to you/why do you use them that way?

Less decisive than a full stop. Implying that I took a moment to think about it, as I typed (which I did).

Do not come after my ellipses. I’m still processing last year’s “you’re angry, we can tell as you use periods at the end of sentences”.