Do you intend to self-publish, or publish traditionally?
The time to negotiate your rights is when your publisher offers you a contract. Do not sign a contract without taking expert legal advice. If you are foolish enough to do so, you will probably find that you have signed all your rights away, and that you're tied to a long book deal.
You should avoid all types of publisher that want to charge you money to produce your book.
The main things you should consider are agreed royalties on a rising scale, the more books you sell. Electronic rights, English rights, foreign writes, film writes.
Royalties are usually agreed at between 8-12 per cent a copy for a would-be author. It's important to realise that royalties are not based on the jacket price of your book. Publishers give huge discounts of 50-65 per cent of the jacket price to wholesalers and book clubs.
Say your book is priced at £5, with a 50 per cent discount to a wholesaler, you would receive 25p a copy. That's £250 for every thousand copies, £25.000 for a 100,000 copies, so don't pack up your day job.
I hope this brief summary offers a basic understanding of the kind of rights which authors should be aware of, and the potential opportunities. The question is how can I, the author, be doing more to ensure I am best maximising these rights?
I hope that the comments by that horrible person (it is a worrying sign of the state of the country when people like that can hold elected office) has boosted your sales. Any free publicity is a good thing.
It would be useful to here more of your self-publishing experience. Budgetary constraints mean that I have to self-publish through Amazon Create Space, but I cannot finance 'clicks' on Amazon or on Facebook!
It is commendable to do your own marketing etc. Your personal story, though, is relevant in this day and age and the topicality is almost free publicity itself.
I self-published. That means I am the publisher. It says so in my book. As an SP I have had to bear the costs of what a traditional publisher would pay for: editing, ISBNs, copyediting, cover design, and of course the actual of cost of printing the book. The book price is £8.99
Selling the book from my distributor, York Publishing Services I get 100% of the price. Through Amazon, 82%, Gardners 68.5%, Similar for the ebook. I could have saved money by only producing an e-book but my ebook sales are very low. I could have saved money too by posting out all the books instead of using YPS but I didn't want to do this.
By far the most money and sales have come from selling the book myself person to person. It is very uplifting signing copies for readers. Most people ignore the .99 bit and round it up by sometimes the penny, more often to a tenner, and sometimes more.
But then of course I have to do all the publicity and marketing. This is very hard work, but after 12 months since publishing the paperback I have sold over 200 paperbacks. It has been slow going, but as the book is a memoir about something currently in the news, Conversion Therapy and mental health it will always be topical and I live in hope that the book falls into the hands of some influential LGBT people. I have recently sent copies to Stephen Fry and Elton John.
Ann Widdicombe has just helped my sales by spouting her hatred of LGBT people. 2 days ago a well written article about my life was in the Daily Express, which will hopefully lead to a TV appearance and a lot more interest. I do most of my online advertising via Twitter, I do not like Facebook. I have paid for advertising on the internet which can potentially cost quite a lot but as a true Yorkshireman I try to keep a lid on spending. Not broken even yet, I may never make a profit.
By far the most satisfying part of writing a book is to have that first copy of my book in my hands, with my name on the cover. Priceless.