USA Today reports that writer/producer J. Michael Straczynski is successfully self-publishing collections of his BABYLON 5 scripts through a P.O.D. company. The article suggests that this represents a turning point for P.O.D. self-publishing:
"There’s always been something of a stigma to print-on-demand, that it
was just a form of vanity publishing that could never produce financial
returns of significance," Straczynski says. "The B5 books are the first
to change this in a big way, showing that a writer can make as much or
more as with a major company."[…] the first seven
volumes of The Babylon 5 Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski appear to be
among the top-selling titles, with fans snapping up more than 18,000
books since October. Each volume — with seven scripts plus production
notes and new introductions — runs about 450 pages.At about $40 apiece ($30 in the first week of release), Straczynski
expects $1.5 million in total sales from the 14 planned volumes.A large chunk will go to CafePress, the company that prints and ships
each book.
I’m not surprised he’s having some success. But does it represent the future of P.O.D. self-publishing? No. But it is an example of one of the rare cases where P.O.D. self-publishing can pay off and I’ll tell you why.
Unlike 99.9% of the people attempting to self-publish, Straczynski essentially has a presold item. He’s selling scripts based on a long-running TV series that he wrote and created and that has been seen by millions of people all over the world. The show is continues to be seen in reruns and on DVD and has a huge cult following that’s primed to buy his book.
The same can’t be said of an average person trying to sell his novel as a self-published, P.O.D. title. His underlying property hasn’t already been exposed and promoted to millions of people. His book isn’t riding on the advertising and promotion of TV reruns and sales of DVD box sets. There isn’t a fan base already eager to buy the book.
Straczynksi has all that. Most people don’t.
There are many writer/producers who could do the same thing and probably enjoy similar success. There’s just one problem…one that the reporter for USA Today glossed over. In most cases, the writer-producers don’t have the right to self-publish their scripts from their TV shows and movies — those rights are retained by the studio. I’m assuming that Straczynski had to license the right to publish his scripts from Warner Brothers, which means the studio is getting a hefty fee and a percentage of any of his sales.
Unfortunately, there are aspiring authors who will be swayed by Straczynski’s unique experience and will get suckered by POD companies as a result.
Bingo! I read the piece in USA Today yesterday as well, and felt that the writer was presenting it as an example of how POD was a new paradigm for the publishing industry. And I thought all the things you mention, the primary one being that Straczinski had a pre-sold package with a built-in audience, and he was the show creator, so he may very well have had it in his original contracts to retain the rights.
I was rather puzzled as to why he didn’t try to go through a traditional publisher (perhaps he did). Given the number of sales, which were fairly considerable already, and that Babylon 5 was still being aired, and there were fan clubs and conferences, etc., I would have thought other publishers would have thought it was worthwhile.
Or, alternatively, although he spent, he says, only $500 for the setup and it’s made something like $1,500,000 so far, much of which goes to the POD, why he didn’t consider just self-publishing them. More upfront costs and hassles, but a much larger percentage of that money would have been his.
Best,
Mark Terry
http://www.mark-terry.com
Wow. It’s a shame they are doing that well. (Yes, the Bab 5 fanatic who reads your blog says that.)
There’s another factor to the success you aren’t factoring in. He’s promised to give fans who buy all the books of scripts his original outline for the series. So there will be no speculation. We’ll finally know how things would have gone if all the actors had stayed on the show exactly as long as he had planned.
As a die hard fan, I would love to get my hands on that book. However, I could care less about the scripts.
BTW, these books only have the scripts JMS wrote. I don’t remember why, but I have a feeling he owns the rights to these episodes and these only, which is why these are the only ones he’s selling. Then again, I could be misremembering things. It’s been a while since he started and I just got home from having surgery again.
BTW, the reason I’m sorry these are doing so well is I was hoping he’d decide to sell his original outline to those of us who aren’t buying the scripts if there wasn’t enough interest in them. I would rather watch the show then read the scripts and don’t have that kind of money burning a hole in my pocket.
“Unfortunately, there are aspiring authors who will be swayed by Straczynski’s unique experience and will get suckered by POD companies as a result.”
And I’m certain there will be plenty of POD companies who will latch on to this in order to help sway those aspiring authors…
Too bad they won’t mention the existence of his ready-made market…
http://www.wga.org/subpage_writersresources.aspx?id=124
Television Separated Rights
1. WHO IS ENTITLED TO TELEVISION SEPARATED RIGHTS?
(…)
In the case of an episodic series, the writer who receives “Created by” credit on the series, as determined by the WGA, is entitled to Separated Rights.
2. WHAT ARE THE TELEVISION SEPARATED RIGHTS?
For original television material,10 there are two categories of rights, each with its own rules and requirements: (1) television rights and (2) all other, otherwise known as “reserved rights.”
(…)
b. Reserved Rights
Other than those television rights described above, the writer owns all other rights in and to the material. (Article 16.B.3.) The “reserved rights” include the following:
(…)
(3) Publication rights: The right to publish a book based upon the material or to publish the script.
==========
The real reason JMS’s situation is unique is that, in addition to being the creator, he is also the credited writer on the majority of B5 episodes. As opposed to, for example, Aaron Sorkin on The West Wing, where only “selected” scripts have been published; or Joss Whedon on Buffy, where they’ve stopped publishing their script collections because they don’t have the rights to scripts written by anyone other than Joss.
Incidentally, although he’s mainly concerned with feature films, Craig Mazin has posted some thoughts on this on his blog:
http://artfulwriter.com/archives/2005/12/reprint_the_ski.html
and in the comments to his current entry:
http://artfulwriter.com/archives/2006/05/maybe_its_time.html#comments
“The reason I think the WGA should collectively bargain for the right to publish scripts is thus: it is probably to the collective benefit of all writers. How the WGA administers such a program is a different story. I’d certainly urge them to run it entirely for the benefit of the membership, with royalties paid out in proportion to who is buying what.
There are many writers who currently receive the separated right to publish. That’s something the WGA won for writers with story by or screen story by credit.
Very very few of them take advantage of this, mostly because it’s an expensive endeavor for either them or a publishing house to take on the publication of a single screenplay.”
HTH – Mark
POD as a technology is great, and is probably the future. But for the backlist, rather than for vanity projects. It’s mad that I can buy a complete run of a 40-year-old TV series but have to scratch around the used-book market for a title that was in print 18 months ago.
You’d think that there was a traditional publisher who would’ve done his scripts as a “real” book. Makes me wonder. Didn’t they think the scripts are worth publishing, I mean, in the quality sense?
Why would you think or wonder that? If it were common for published collections of TV scripts to be profitable, I could understand. But since this is the first time it’s been attempted on this scale, why do you think a traditional publisher would’ve done it? And why do you immediately jump to questioning the quality of the work, as opposed to the risk involved, for example? Are you saying that quality is the only thing a publisher considers?
Mark
“If it were common for published collections of TV scripts to be profitable, I could understand.”
I note that publishers have put out script compilations from other shows, such as West Wing, Buffy, and even Thirtysomething. And numerous screenplays have been published as books; the West LA Barnes & Noble had a whole section for them. Since publishers usually don’t issue books for their health, I would conclude that published collections of scripts are profitable.
And I previously noted that “this is the first time it’s been attempted on this scale“.
I also previously noted why this project is different from both The West Wing and Buffy:
“As opposed to, for example, Aaron Sorkin on The West Wing, where only “selected” scripts have been published; or Joss Whedon on Buffy, where they’ve stopped publishing their script collections because they don’t have the rights to scripts written by anyone other than Joss.”
As for Thirtysomething, a quick search turned up another collection of only 9 scripts that is currently out of print. Hardly comparable to 14 volumes (quoting now from the USA Today article in Lee’s original post):
“Each volume — with seven scripts plus production notes and new introductions — runs about 450 pages.”
So my question still stands:
Since this is the first time it’s been attempted on this scale, why do you think a traditional publisher would’ve done it?
Additionally, on further reflection, I realize that we may be “assuming facts not in evidence”. (I think that’s the expression.) i.e. do we know for a fact that JMS pitched this endeavor to a traditional publisher only to have them turn it down?
If JMS never asked, then no one ever passed, which means nothing can be inferred about the quality, as was Juri’s assertion.
Mark