TATE PUBLISHING AND THE FACTS ABOUT "YOG'S LAW"

Followers,

A few years ago an individual created out of thin air a concept he called "Yog's Law." I have no idea who "Yog" is or what planet he may be from but just like Superman there is "kryptonite" in this concept and that "kryptonite" is the facts. His over-simplistic “Money always flows to the writer” is his central argument. The problem with that concept is that he makes it sound like a movie script. Write a book, ask mom how good she thinks it is, send it to a publisher, they take it and make you a millionaire while you sit at home and watch TV. Of course writers should make money for their work, but the premise that they will never have to spend money if they publish, promote or market their books is incredibly naïve. I am close friends with several New York literary agents. I was speaking with one last week who has been in that business for decades. She was informing me of the high profile clients she represents who have to take their money to promote and buy their own books. She said that the publishers she works with are the bank and that they see their authors as having to do the work and are small businesses. At Tate Publishing we create for every first-time author an incredible opportunity to succeed. The support they get is over-the-top excellent and the few authors we sign out of the tens of thousands of unsolicited manuscripts we receive each year get the best product and support in the industry.

I have interviewed authors with other publishers for my own interest and we have a staff member in our marketing division who has shared some of his work and research with me as well. Here is a brief synopsis of their experience with those publishers:

Suzy Spencer: NYT bestselling author. In Suzy’s words: “I’ve had four books published. Of those four, I’ve had little marketing support from my publishers. I’ve never been allowed any contact with the sales teams, though I understand some publishers encourage such. As for public relations support, for my first book Wasted, which became a New York Times bestseller, I believe my publisher sent out a few review copies. By that I mean I provided names and addresses of friends in the media and my publisher mailed them copies of the book and, from what I understand, a note that said here’s a book by Suzy Spencer. There was no publicity packet included. No sales pitch of what the book was about or why they would be interested in it.” Suzy herself hired a publicist and mailed out push cards.

Tom Llewellyn: Tom stated that his book The Tilting House sold about 8,000 copies. His marketing support, in his words: “Not as much as I expected (he says, while hoping he sounds grateful to be published at all). They sent out promotional copies, distributed the book in their catalog, blogged about it and sent me a whole bunch of customized bookmarks. A very talented designer friend of mine built a cool website (www.thetiltinghouse.com) and created a book trailer you can see there as well. I setup and completed interviews in local newspapers. I held a pretty massive book launch party—about which the publisher’s rep said it was the biggest launch party she’d ever seen. I’ve done a whole bunch of author talks at local schools and still continue to do them. And I’ve done a whole bunch of blog interviews—kind of like this one.” Tom paid for his own marketing, the construction of his web site and his own book launch party. By the way, after the interview, discontinued the imprint, and Tom has no publisher at all.

My favorite: Sheila Kelly, NYT bestselling author of Twilight Fall. You can see a copy of one of her royalty statements here: http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh289/LynnViehl/TFRoyaltyStatement1.jpg Sheila was actually paid an advance of $50,000 for her book. She did not receive a third of that until the book was published. Her agent got $7,500 of the advance. Uncle Sam took $15,000 in taxes. After her other expenses, she actually received $26,000 of her $50,000 advance. Her net earnings from her royalty statement in the link are about $27,000, after returns and holdbacks. Because her publisher has not yet recouped the advance they kept their share, so her net earnings from this royalty statement were, wait for it, $0. That’s right, she sold $46,000 worth of books the quarter she became a NYT bestseller and didn’t receive any of it. Her credited earnings on her next royalty statement were about $2,500, which her publisher also kept to repay her advance.
In Sheila’s words: “My income per book always reminds me of how tough it is to make at living at this gig, especially for writers who only produce one book per year. If I did the same, and my one book performed as well as TF, and my family of four were solely dependent on my income, my net would be only around $2500.00 over the income level considered to be the U.S. poverty threshold (based on 2008 figures.) Yep, we’d almost qualify for food stamps.” To date, she has made about $24,000 off Twilight Fall, mainly from her advance. She didn’t expect to see any actual royalties from her book for another 1-2 years.

In contrast, one of our authors, who is not a NYT bestselling author, has made at least $75,000 off the sales of her three titles with us, and that all went into her pocket.
Money flows to the author? Authors with other publishers pay plenty, and don’t have it nearly as well as our authors do. Sure, J.K. Rowling and James Patterson are multi-millionaires, but they have each cranked out several books, have movie deals, and have to sell an incredible volume of books. They are in the extreme minority, of which I am certain Mr. Yog’s Law is not a member.

TATE PUBLISHING AND MY OPINION OF WHINERS, BLOGGERS, AND COMPLAINERS

Those of you who follow my blog may not know that our professional staff monitors our presence world wide. I have never written a blog this long but I feel a need to write a “book” today to get some things off my chest. We have a company on retainer that provides information to us when our name, the name of any of our companies, the name of any book we have published or author name in our entire history, or the name of any author or potential author who has submitted to us our contacted us, appears anywhere on the internet or in any media source.
We contact individuals immediately with any concerns or issues and see every one. If you think you can tweet, Facebook, blog, or mention us on a radio show in Tokyo and we do not know, forget it. We see and hear them all and decide what to do and how to reply. If you want to say it, we have a right to hear it. Serious authors who want accurate information are a joy to work with. My problem is that I am stunned on the rare occasion we have a whiner or complainer. The ludicrous statements people make on the web are simply amazing. We give advances to qualifying authors all the time. We pay for 100% of the production, printing and distribution of books we accept. If an author does not have marketing and publicist representation we will pay for that as well and all they are required to invest is a one set up fee which can even be refunded to them under certain situations. If they have qualifying representation we will accept that and there is no set-up fee. We receive tens of thousands of unsolicited submissions and contacts each year and only single digit percentages are considered by our staff. If an author does not qualify for an advance or for us to absorb all the financial risk involved we will even send them a lengthy list of publishers who still consider giving advances as we do and let them contact them directly. They find that they never get an advance from them if they cannot get one from us. The standards are the same. It is more about the author today than about the book.
However, I am stunned when we offer the only and best option for a first-time author in the industry and these individuals whine and complain that we are horrible, ruining their lives, and making the biggest mistake we have ever made by rejecting their book and not giving them an advance or willing to take all the risk. We have learned in the hard knocks of this business that when an unknown author has no risk they are a very questionable author when it comes to their work ethic. Just try going to your bank with a “fabulous” money making idea and see if you can find any banker who will invest in the project and take 100% of the risk. It will not happen. The car dealer, mortgage lender, bank, and Sears expect you to have some risk. But, if an author can bring something to the table we are more than happy to bank roll the whole deal.
My wife and high school sweetheart suggests to me that I am letting my 60++ years get to me and that I was in the intense discipline and honor of the United States Marine Corps one day too many. My age may be a factor but I simply CANNOT STAND whiners and complainers. I read bloggers whining about everything from the popcorn at the movie theatre to the channels they cannot get on cable. It simply drives me nuts. I know I was born in the 40’s and the Second World War had just ended. I know I have had to work for everything I have ever gotten. But today, in America, there is such a wave of entitlement among Americans that it is simply sickening to me. I know that many of you reading this will probably agree with me and some of you will despise me and think you have had such a hard life that you “deserve” a break and I simply don’t understand. Don’t try to go after the hard life story with me or most of the successful business friends I have. Life is challenging and demanding and success comes from never giving up and hard work. Everyone has a hard luck story, myself included. Get over it and get on with your life.
I read an article in the paper this week that caused me to think about our country and the whiners and complainers. That article was the catalyst which caused me to want to write this “War and Peace” length blog and share these thoughts.
A century ago America was the land of the free. Americans had incentive to survive and did not complain or whine about what they were “entitled” to or deserved. I read an article by a national “whine” organization where the executive director stated, “Every American is entitled to and deserves a nice home and nice car to drive. It is their inalienable right!” What a load of nonsense that is. You and I are not entitled to anything but the freedom of choice and the opportunity to work hard toward our goals and have a government that will stay out of our way and try to help and not hinder. The Americans of my birth voted and made decisions for which they took personal responsibility and they always had some skin in the game. Before Social Security Americans averaged saving 15% of their income. Today, it’s less than 3%. Before the great depression there was no unemployment insurance or whiner fund. It is not all government’s fault that citizens today do not have any “skin in the game.” We live in what appears to be a society filled with people who do not want to take a risk, want it to come quickly and easily and believe there should be a “some one else should pay” safety net for every decision they make whether good or bad. We are fooling ourselves if we think our government will save us. Ronald Regan knew that the flaw of big government was to serve the entitlement attitude with government transfer payments and subsidies that would make for a weak society and lazy working class. Thomas Jefferson said, “When the government has the power to give the people what they want without working for it that same government will have the power to take from the people whatever it wants.” Stop whining and get to work. If you own a business, are an author, have a dream, get after it and stop whining. More and more of us are tired of hearing it. Get off your behind at the blog-puter whine machine and get busy working. No one cares anymore and no one is listening to you. They know you need to get to work

Richard Tate

TATE PUBLISHING, YOGI BERRA, AND A WEEPING WILLOW TREE

Friends and followers,

Most of my younger readers will not remember the great New York Yankee catcher Yogi Berra. He was not only one of the great Yankees of all time but was an absolutely hilarious philosopher. His book of sayings (Yogisms they were called) are very entertaining to say the least. One of his most familar sayings was, "It ain't over 'til it's over!"
Over the years Tate Publishing & Enterprises has grown to the huge success we enjoy today through good times and challenging times. I have never been one to give up. Yogi's statement is encouraging us to keep on keeping on no matter what the circumstances.
As an author, your desire is to find readers. It takes a top notch publisher such as our company investing in your work to make that happen and it also takes determination on your part as an author. You must never give up. I remember standing in the office of our buyer in the large press division of one of the biggest chains in America. We sell an incredible amount of books to that national chain. Bryan Norris and Mark Mingle who lead our marketing divisions are part of the team that goes to New York City each month to pitch the books we publish. Bryan asked her, "What are you looking for in authors right now?" Her answer was immediate. "I want books by authors who are willing to work. I am more concerned about the work ethic of the author than I am about the book." Great insight.
My wife and I spend a great deal of time with our yard and gardening. Three years ago we planted a tiny weeping willow tree. That spring the slim trunk of the tree and two or three tiny branches prepared for the spring growing season. The trunk of that tree was no more than a half inch thick. It finally sprouted a couple of branches and we braced it with a metal pole to give it stability. Overnight an Oklahoma spring storm did disastrous work on the tiny Willow. The storm had broken the tree loose from its metal mooring and its only limb had been broken and now hung limp. We decided it was probably dead and would not survive and at only four feet tall we felt the outcome was determined. It would die. As a last resort and believing "it ain't over 'til it's over" we trimmed off the broken branches, re-attached it to the metal pole for stability and kept on watering the pitiful little remainder. It was NOT over. That spring branches began to appear. Then more leaves. The next season it grew larger and taller. It was fighting the odds. Last weekend my wife and I were sitting in our breakfast nook having a Saturday morning cup of coffee when we noticed the first sign of spring leaf buds on that weeping willow which stood just outside the window. The metal post supporting the tree in it's infancy is long gone. It now stands firmly and proudly on its own. The Oklahoma storms cannot break it now. In only a few short years it has become a survivor and its shade graces our yard and our grandchildren find great fun in running through the dangling and dainty branches. The long slender branches which brush the ground are healthy and strong. The tree towers over the yard and is now almost twenty five feet high. The tree did not give up. We did not give up on the tree. My encouragement to you as an author is to never give up. Keep trimming back the dead stuff and ideas which are not working. Keep watering and working and telling your story. One day you can say about your project what we can say now about that once tiny willow tree. Success is mine.

Richard Tate

Law Number Four

4-BE PERSISTENT AND DO NOT GIVE UP REGARDLESS OF THE CHALLENGE

Every person reading this blog has taken a stick or broom and destroyed the detailed, tedious, and impressive work of the spider. We all have “taken down” a spider web at one time or another. Every one of us reading this email has worked our heads off to get a sale, sell a book or get a task completed only to find that all of our efforts were "pulled down" by other people or circumstances we could not control. We have all had experiences when we gave a 110% effort to be the best we could be with people to find that they walked away and took a “stick” and tore down our beautifully designed and prepared work and plan. Be persistent. Don’t give up is a worn out phrase but is still true and needs to be our daily mantra. I have discovered it takes about 6 “no’s” until you can finally get to the “yes.” The spider comes back from the hunt, finds you have destroyed his work on the back porch, and says, “Fantastic, I see they did it again, tore down my web. I will just build a better one this time” and gets back to work. However, the spider just keeps on building and is always in Kings’ palaces. Don’t give up. If you are a quitter, get a job where the most difficult thing you have to do is ask, “Do you want fries with that?”
I was in a meeting Thursday with a gentleman who is a legend in the music business, Roy Clark. He wants to do his book with us about his life and experiences. He made a very fitting statement to me about his success. He said that it did not come easy. It took work, work, and more work, and then more persistence before there was any consideration of being in the Hall of Fame. There will be lot's of destroyed dreams and roadblocks on your way to success. See each one of them as an opportunity to grow and know.

Richard Tate

Richard Tate

SUCCESS LAW NUMBER THREE

3-COOPERATE, SEEK HELP, AND KNOW YOUR STRENGTHS AND THE POWER OF THE TEAM
The Locust is simply lost without the swarm. A swarm can destroy ten thousand acres of grassland in Africa in less than an hour one bite at a time multiplied by a billion munches. In order to cross water the first Locusts’ to arrive at the stream throw themselves into the river and die. As the mound of dead Locust pile up the remaining billion or more following cross safely on the bridge composed of the dead bodies of their swarm. They are, in a very unusual way, the best example of TEAM on the planet. Each of us must do OUR individual job…one bite…our bite. Then with all of us taking our personal responsibility, the entire team succeeds. Cooperate, seek help, know your strengths and work in those every day, and make sure you do not let the team down…whatever sacrifice is necessary. Whatever it takes to achieve the goal by cooperating, making sacrifices, knowing the strength of “one bite at a time”, and the power of team makes us, and the swarm of locust, unstoppable.

In the world of books and publishing it takes a good hard working author, a publisher with a vested financial interest like Tate Publishing, and a great team of marketing experts and publicists such as the Tate Publishing staff. No one can skip their turn to "take a bite" of the work to be done.

LAW #2 OF A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS OR AUTHOR

Dear Friends,

In my last post (you can refresh your memory and read the post below) I introduced the four laws for success with a business or as an author. Law two takes you to an incredibly important place in managing your decisions.

2-USE HISTORY AND PRACTICAL EXPERIENCES TO MAKE WISE CHOICES NOT EMOTIONS
The Conie is a small rabbit like creature that lives in the mountains. The Eagle and Hawk love the tasty little guy. However, history, good information, and practical experience has told the Conie that the safe place is not out in the open but to dash from rock hidden protection to rock hidden protection. The Conie knows how to outwit and not submit. He knows the way to success and long life is not to try to get emotional and shake his fist at the predator but to outsmart him. He may not be as strong as the Eagle but he knows the rock is stronger and uses it to his benefit. The key is to stay alive. Each of us must look at our individual tasks and be smart, use accurate data from real history, and not be emotional about it and plant ourselves where we will bloom. The Conie knows its limitations and overcomes them. Each of us must do the same thing each day. Make wise choices with the correct information you have and you will stay alive and succeed.


Best wishes as you seek your personal goals for success.

Richard Tate

MY WEEKLY SERIES AND PLAN THAT WILL WORK FOR YOU IN 2011 FROM TATE PUBLISHING

To my friends and followers,

There are tens of thousands of books on the market that will tell you how to be successful. However, in my opinion the only book that is dead on correct 100% of the time is the Bible. The principles there are without fail and have the backing of the highest power that exists. As we make every decision related to this business as well as our individual responsibilities, there are some unfailing elements which must be the foundation of our work. I felt that at the beginning of 2011 these same principles might be helpful to you as well who follow this blog. I am introducing the first of our important principles today and will continue each week until you have all four.

These four principles are found in Proverbs 30:24-29.

"There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise: The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer; The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks; The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands; The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces."

1-PREPARE FOR CHALLENGES AND DIFFICULT TIMES
The Ant knows that winter is coming when there will be no food. We each know that challenges are coming and each of us must work diligently to prepare. The successful person does not wait until the last minute but gets after it now! The winter (some personal challenge) is coming and if the ant waited until the first snowfall it would be too late. There will be difficult times and difficult people. Get after each immediately. All of the efforts of the little ant is for one purpose…to take care of and feed the queen. The food the workers take, the army ants take, and the nurse room ants take, is exactly what they need to stay on point and make it possible for them to get food to the queen to make more little ants. Your “queen” is your personal success and ability to achieve your goals. As we prepare to make our goals and then achieve them, we get what we need and our dreams and visions remain profitable, stable, and on target. Daily is the key…inch by inch anything is a cinch. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. When we prepare and plan we are stable, and our future is secure when the winter storms come.

Richard Tate