Five Book Myths I am Tired of Refuting, but Must Continue to Do So

As some of you already know, the masochist in me likes to log in to Yahoo Answers.  I also frequent a lot writing sites.  Frankly, I am often at a loss to understand why people continue to share as fact ideas that not only have no basis in reality, but have been explicated proven wrong.   

1. The “Poor Man’s Copyright.”

This one turns up every single day at YA.  People state it as if it was handed down by God Himself.  The claim goes like this.  Put a copy of your work in an envelope, then mail it to yourself, but don’t open it.  This proves that a work is yours.  Now I don’t claim to speak for the entire legal universe, but I can factually speak for U.S. copyright law.  Because the U.S. Copyright Office has a website.  And on that website it explicitly says:

 Now U.S. law is notorious for being convoluted.  But I think the above is pretty damn clear.  All mailing a copy to yourself will do is show that you had a copy at the time you mailed it.  It is not proof that a work is originally yours.  All you did was waste postage.  It has no standing in any court of law.  IT MEANS NOTHING! 

 2.  You have to register your Copyright before submitting to publishers to prevent them from stealing your ideas.

 Let’s clear the air about a few things.  Ideas are a dime a dozen.  Nobody cares about your idea.  Do you think if you had asked a dozen publishers ten years ago “Hey, I have an idea about a boy wizard going to a wizard school” that anyone would have cared?  The idea is not what publishers look for.  We look for the PRESENTATION of the idea.  Your idea has probably been across an editor’s desk a few hundred times.  No matter what you think, your idea is not original.  Your presentation of the idea, however, may be the best thing an editor has even read.  THAT is what we are looking for.

 So your amazing manuscript comes across my desk.  I think it is going to be a best seller.  What is my motivation to steal it?  If I do, two things are going to happen.  First, you are going to sue me, and all my marketing is going to go down the toilet if a judge rules against me.  And even if I win, any money I thought I was saving by not paying you just went to my lawyers.  Second, you are never going to write a follow-up book for me.    Most publishers don’t make a lot of money off a novelist’s first book.  You make your money on subsequent titles as the author’s fan base grows.  Which brings me to Myth #3.

3.  Publishers don’t publish unpublished authors.

 This is a logically flawed statement.  All authors, by default, were at one point unpublished.  You think Stephen King was born with a list of writing credentials?  You think he popped out of his mother’s womb with a publishing contract?  Spend some time checking out publisher catalogs and you discover over one third of all the books published in a given year come from FIRST TIME NOVELISTS.  This myth is based off of media influences, not actual research or…heaven forbid…reading habits.  People who read regularly (and if you claim to be a writer, you should also be an avid reader) know bookstores have hundreds of books by first time writers.  But people who are more enamored with the idea of seeing their name on a book cover but don’t actually frequent bookstores or libraries think there is a conspiracy against new writers.  Apparently all the good ideas are stolen and given to the name authors. 

 Which begs the question:  If I think a story is going to be a bestseller, why give it to a name author that I have to pay a Million Dollar Advance to when I can just publish it legitimately under the first time author’s name for a tenth of that?

4.  Publishers are only interested in celebrities, politicians and criminals

 Another myth perpetuated by people who don’t actually READ but claim to be writers.  Go visit the New York Times bestseller’s list today.  How many of those authors were celebrities or criminals before they became authors?  Surprisingly few.  I happen to subscribe to a few periodicals that announce new books.  About a tenth of the books in them are from celebrities, politicians, or criminals.  The rest are from new and established authors.

5.  It costs a lot of money for an author to publish.

 Yes, it costs a lot of money to publish…for the publisher.  It doesn’t (or shouldn’t) cost the author one cent.  Repeat after me, boys and girls.  Money flows TOWARD the writer.  Not away.  There is no such thing as subsidy publishing.  Subsidy publishing is vanity publishing with a flowery title.  The only money that should ever come out of your pocket is the cost of paper and postage for submissions (and the occassional writing contest if you chose to enter them).  This goes for getting an agent, too.  No legitimate agent gets paid in advance.  Agents get paid a percentage of the sale of your book.  You will be expected to pay for paper and postage, but that is it. 

This is a myth that comes out of the rise of POD publishing.  POD publishing is great, because it allows you to produce books without a lot of overhead costs.  I use POD printers myself to keep down expenses.  But there is a difference between a publisher that uses POD technology, and a POD printer that masquerades as a publisher.  Any publisher that asks you to “co-invest” in your book, or attempts to charge you fees for editing, etc, or tries to direct you toward fee-based services before they will publish you is a SCAM.  In fact, if you look at their sites carefully, they will often perpetuate the very myths I mentioned here in an effort to convince you that you have no chance in the industry unless you pay.