Today, it is with great pleasure that I introduce to you Ari Marmell. Ari, as you guessed by the pretty cover on the side that links to his website, is an author.
He has a lot of interesting credentials, ranging from novels to RPG publications. He has a great deal of experience with the different facets of publication. I’m very excited that he made the time to come talk with us today. Even more exciting is that Ari gives us a bit of a glimpse into some of the lesser-discussed aspects of publications — things like the contract.
Thief’s Covenant is Ari’s latest release.
Thank you for joining us, Ari! Before we dig down into the dark world of genre fiction, can you tell us just how you managed to fall into so many branches of genre fiction? You’ve written novels. You’ve published short stories. You have broken into the RPG world. Is there anything genre related you haven’t done?
No script work yet, either for movies/TV, video games, or comic books. (Though I have done dialogue for an MMORPG.) So yeah, I don’t have a full house yet.
From your website, if I’m not imagining things, it looks like you have worked with over fifteen different publishers. What has been your largest challenge dealing with so many different companies?
Heh. Honestly? Formatting. It’s actually less of an issue with the fiction publishers, but with the gaming publishers, it seems like every company has its own rules for formatting things like headers, italics, section breaks, etc. Sometimes it seemed like keeping that straight was harder than keeping game rules straight.
When you started writing, did you have a dream publishing house? If so, which house was it, and did you end up acquiring that dream contract with them?
In terms of RPGs, the dream houses were White Wolf and Wizards of the Coast. (Remembering that Paizo didn’t exist at that point, and companies like Green Ronin weren’t household names yet.) I started my career with the former and did a lot of work with the latter, so yeah, I’d say so.
With fiction? No single dream house, but rather several publishers I really wanted to work with. (Again, Pyr Books didn’t exist at the time I first started, so the fact that they weren’t on my list at the time is no slight.) I’ve worked with one since then–the Del Rey/Spectra combine at Random House–but there remain several others that I haven’t yet gotten to work with. These would include–among others; this is not a comprehensive list–DAW, Roc, and Tor. You know, the little guys.
This is a little late, but congratulations on your partnership with your new agent. Have you had an agent before, or did you wade through the muck of making deals for your works on your own?
Thanks. I have the questionable distinction of having gone through more agents in a short span of time than any other author I know. Jessie (at JABberwocky), my current (and hopefully final) agent is actually my fourth. Some have gone on to other jobs. Some just proved not to be a good fit, style-wise. But yeah; four.
I’ve mucked through a few early novel contracts on my own, but I’ve had an agent for most of them. They don’t handle the freelance stuff like the RPGs, of course, so in those cases, I’ve always been on my own.
We’ve all heard a horror story or two about contracts. What is the truth of the matter? Are contracts from larger, well-known publishers as nebulous as some people state? Are they things to be feared, or approached with general caution?
They can be daunting–there’s a lot of material and details–but I wouldn’t go so far as to say they’re horrific or especially nebulous. (At least, not the ones I’ve been lucky enough to get.) You want to approach with caution, absolutely, and you definitely want to have either an agent or a lawyer look them over, but I don’t think they’re to be feared.
Without naming names (unless you’re comfortable doing so), what is the worst contract that you have been presented with during your career?
I actually would name names, in part because the company no longer exists, but I honestly don’t remember it. :-}
I do, however, remember the contract. This is back in the early days of the Open Gaming License, when 249 different tiny companies sprouted up to create D&D-compatible products. I was fairly early in my own career; I’d done work for White Wolf and a small company called MonkeyGod.
Well, this company approached me to write for them, and I was happy to do so at first… Until I saw their contract.
It wasn’t a contract stating “You will write a book on X topic, at Y length,” or “you will write Y number of words as part of a collaboration on a book on X topic,” as was (and still is) the standard. Oh, no. Their contract was “By signing this contract, you become part of our stable of writers. This gives you access to our bulletin board of topics on which we want books. You and any of our other writers can write a book on any of those topics, and we’ll buy and publish the one we like.”
…Yes. Really. And then they had the nerve to get huffy when I complained, saying that they had authors of bigger name than me, and they weren’t complaining. I told them–in much more polite terms, of course–to go screw.
I would just like to point out that I’m still here, and they never published a single book to my knowledge, so I’m pretty sure I made the right call.
Without naming names (unless you’re comfortable doing so), what has been the best contract that you have been presented with during your career?
I don’t know if I have a single “best contract.” I can say that the most lucrative (to date) have been the ones from Del Rey/Spectra.
I suppose one could argue that my firsts–first contract ever, first novel, first non-tie-in novel–would be among the best, just for personal reasons.
Are there any common pitfalls that genre writers should be aware of when they approach contracts?
I’m not actually sure how common they are, but you want to watch out for a few things. Some publishers will try to claim rights that you don’t need to give them. (Film rights, foreign language rights, etc.) Some don’t define certain important specifics, like percentages of e-books. And you want to make absolutely certain that not only payment/royalty rates, but also schedules, are clear.
Again, an agent if you have one, a lawyer if you don’t. Don’t sign a contract without one or the other looking at it first.
Have the contracts you’ve dealt with shared any notable similarities? I know in general marketing, there tend to be at least a few sections that are almost identical – ironically, it is about the same point in time that the other party starts talking about acts of gods and liabilities! Are there any clauses in the typical contract that keep showing up that you find humorous?
Well, they often have similar concepts, but specific similarities in terms of clause? Only thing that jumps out at me is that several companies still have delivery instructions that were written some time around the invention of movable type. Things like how they want hard copies printed and mailed, or what size floppy disks should be sent to them.
Note that, to date, none of them have actually enforced that. They’ve all been happy with e-mailed files. Yet the language persists, like a fossil in rock.
People talk about foreign rights, but I find that it is a confusing jumble of opinions and not enough fact. You have at least one book coming out in German. Were the contracts for your foreign rights kin to traveling up a slippery slope like so many like to say it is? Was there much involvement in your part for Die Touchter Des Kriegers to become a reality? (Also, I love the cover. I just wanted to say this.)
Heh. The contracts weren’t all that difficult. We had to go back and forth a few times getting some details worked out (such as film rights, as mentioned above, not being part of the deal), but it wasn’t especially troublesome.
Beyond that? I can’t say what the process is like. My part of it basically amounted to hearing from my agent that we had an offer, looking at the contract, deciding to accept, and signing it.
Since I brought up covers, can you expose the reality of how covers are handled by publishers in a brief summary? On your website, you mention that The Warlord’s Legacy and Die Toucher Des Kriegers share very similar (by that, I mean slightly modified) covers. Do you have any idea why Blanvalet would commission a new cover but use almost identical art?
That’s one of those things that varies from publisher to publisher. Some–and I believe this is the standard, so far as there is a standard–come up with their own cover, and the author has little if any input. Often, the author doesn’t even see it until just before it goes public.
Others, however, allow the author to be much more involved in the process. This is the case with Pyr, for instance, where I’ve been allowed to approve sketches at various stages of completion.
As for how the publisher decides? I have no idea. I know that they want to draw attention and sales, but how much is based on market research vs. gut instinct vs. “Ooh, shiny colors!” I couldn’t begin to say.
In terms of Blanvalet, the part of the cover they kept was the leather-clad female lead, so I have to assume that, in Germany as in America, ass sells. Why they’d keep her but commission a new background, I haven’t the slightest clue. Maybe they already had that bit of art lying around, and just liked it better? I really have no idea; it puzzles me.
I love ending my interviews with silliness. You have been captured by a mad wizard. You have been locked in a maze with a minotaur. After some ingenious on your part – and some general laze of the mad wizard, you have arrived at the end of the maze. However, the minotaur is blocking the exit. You have been given a bag with the following items: A mouse (live), a spool of fishing line (50 pound test), catnip, a domestic house cat, a carrot on a stick, a rabbit, a screwdriver, and MacGyver. How do you escape?
You mean other than giving all the stuff to MacGyver and saying “Get us out of here?” ‘cuz that’s my first instinct, honestly.
Assuming that’s not an option? Using the tip of the screwdriver against the stone, cut the fishing line into three long lengths. Tie one to each of the animals. Using the catnip and carrot, get the three animals running around chasing each other until they’ve attracted the minotaur’s attention and he eats one of them. Then wait for the fishing line in his intestines to cause bowel problems, and (depending on where he goes to do his business), either leave, or stab him in the back of the head with the screwdriver while he’s squatting.
And if all that fails, stab MacGyver in the leg with the screwdriver so I can run faster than him, and double back to the door while the minotaur’s eating him.
Hey, you asked.