Bulletin: Lyrical Hiring
"Lyrical Press is expanding our editing department. We're currently seeking four to six full-time copy editors. Rate of pay is 8% of cover price for digital sales and 5% of cover price for print. Interested parties, please direct all queries to Stephanie McGrath at employment[at]lyricalpress.com. You will be sent a .pdf with complete information about the position and instructions on how to apply."
Labels: LYRICAL
13 Comments:
Thank you, Emily. We appreciate this bulletin.
- Frank and Renee Rocco
As if I would ever, in a million years, sign onto that train wreck.
Then don't, anon. Is such a comment really necessary? Without any explanation to back up your "train wreck" allegations, your post doesn't do anything other than to threaten to turn this post into a flame pit.
I'm pretty jaded about start up pubs, but I can't see where Lyrical has come close to train wreck status lol. It's still very possible the whole thing will crash and burn, because most new epubs do, but unless you're going to explain that comment it just seems like nastiness without basis.
Besides, if there *is* something train-wrecky going on, authors and others who might sign on with them deserve to know.
So...man up?
For the record, I'm a Lyrical author. They have treated me with nothing but kindness and professionalism. I couldn't have asked for a better publishing experience for my first two books.
Also for the record, I think people who post purposely inflammatory comments without bothering to sign their names are cowardly scumbags. Have the courage of your convictions, or keep your mouth shut.
People, our one comment rule is no name calling. Let's call this one a draw and move on.
First off....
"Lyrical Press is expanding our editing department..."
ERR, should be....Lyrical Press is expanding ITS editing department... Boy, they really DO need editors....FAST!
Second....geez, a start-up company paying a percentage rate of sales? I thought that nonsense went ages ago when editors complained that 8% of zero is still zero. Years ago when I edited, I was given 10%, and when that book (some horror book, quite excellent, BTW) sold a whopping 20 or so copies in the 1st year, the few bucks I was paid for hours upon hours of work was a joke. Never again, and I think most presses (or rather, editors, copyeditors, cover artists, etc.) learned that "never pay/take percentages" lesson long ago.
Signed,
A Cowardly Scumbag!....meow to Cat!
Any further replies that insult or goad people will be deleted.
I would note that I have long been meaning to write a post about how editors are paid in this inductry. Percentages are far more common than flat rats. Many houses pay copyeditors only in books.
As with writers there is a need for the editor to understand exactly what they are signing up for and with percentage deals that involves looking at our sales figures and doing some calculations.
My apologies, Emily, for the "cowardly scumbag" remark. It was out of line.
However, I'm still not inclined to take anyone who posts anonymous attacks seriously.
That is always the issue with anonymous and pseudonymous information.
I've been on both sides of this fence: the writing and the editing. But now I'm curious, in relation to e-publishing (since I've only worked as a wage slave for print publishers), is it better in financial terms to be an author or an editor?
Anybody have a clue?
As an editor who works with several established houses, I won't take jobs that pay in percentages. To my mind, editing is a fixed expense--like office supplies or postage--that is simply a part of doing business. Expecting someone to do the work of editing and being paid a royalty, when editing may or may not have *anything* to do with a title's ultimate sales, is just not a reasonable thing to ask of someone.
I know plenty of my fellow editors who do work on percentages, and there may be times when they do end up with more $ for working on a title. But, I'm much more comfortable with a flat rate/per word fee than a percentage. I'm risk aversive:).
And some houses do pay a bonus IF a title goes beyond a certain sales number. A bonus I'm fine with; a royalty? Not so much.
YMMV.
FWIW, Samhain pays its editors per book percentage, and I make more now than I could if I quit and went back to work as an occupational therapist, though there are still days that job seems the saner choice ;)
However, not all companies or editors can say the same, so editing for a percentage is a very risky thing. I'm lucky because I have three years of backlist and some authors who've grown quite popular. Also, since I do this full time, I do more books a month than the average editor. But when I first began editing full time for Samhain, in a 16-month period I made less than ten thousand dollars, though I was working 16 hours a day, six or seven days a week some weeks. I looked on it as an investment in the company, because I believed in it, but I think there are few people who would probably want to do the same for a company they don't own.
So I agree, editing for percentages can be close to donating your time, if the sales aren't good at the particular publisher you work for, or you get "stuck" editing authors who don't sell well. But it can also pay off as a part-time job if the circumstances are good and you continue to make backlist royalties, as well as percentages on print, distribution at other outlets online, etc.
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