
Ggplot2 Book: Springer Publishing Agreement (2014) [pdf] - Tomte
https://github.com/hadley/ggplot2-book/blob/master/springer/contract-2.pdf
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gradschool
If my legalese is up to scratch, the contract appears to entitle Springer to
charge the author for copy editing on top of everything else. Why shouldn't
the author hire a freelance copy editor and distribute the book himself
through an on-demand printing service?

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nfoz
I loved the Ggplot2 when I used it several years ago. But at the time (not
sure if it's still true), I found this book _essential_ to understand how to
use the library beyond the simple examples.

This github repo is interesting because it has so much stuff -- even the
contract with Springer and a textfile about marketing strategy. Seems like the
author wanted to be as super transparent as possible.

Not sure if that's why it was posted here, but cool in any case.

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Gaessaki
Some are critiquing the 18%. As someone who has authored a technical book with
a similar caliber publisher, I can confirm that it’s on the generous side.
Though typically there would be some form of book advance (few k) and copy
editing included as well.

The thing is, the the technical literature industry is kind of like venture
capital. Publishers will throw a lot of things against the wall and whatever
sticks will net them enough of a return to cover the rest. It can cost upwards
of 50-100k to produce a book and most of them tend to flop. It’s really hard
to understand which ones will flop as well, unless you have intimate domain
expertise and can judge the technology and the community around it as well. At
that point however, you may as well write the book yourself.

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alanbernstein
Maybe OP could explain what might be interesting about this contract?

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Tomte
Have you seen a real book contract? I haven't.

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alanbernstein
No, and I have no baseline for comparison.

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jmalicki
Now you have a baseline for future comparisons, isn't that interesting?

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alanbernstein
Maybe if I had read it!

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mistrial9
> 18% share of revenue for the author of this tech book ...

What kind of system of commerce is it, when the stars and the accomplished
fall to ruin, rent and low-cost bus passes, while coffers swell to record
size, and abusive money lending , addictive drugs and casinos prosper standing
littered by the wreckage of their victims.

Maybe paperback books were more of a treasure than we realized ? .. including
the livelyhoods of the participants ? Is there one person or player or style
to blame for the aggregation economies that are consuming its citizens,
farmers and aspiring creators mercilessly ? USA here.

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plg
18%

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dragandj
18% is way more than usual. Royalties for printed tech books are usually
10-15%. Which is bad anyway.

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mjn
We got 6% from Springer for a textbook (6% total split between the authors,
not per-author) [1].

However we were first-time authors, and also insisted that we be allowed to
leave the "author version" PDFs online as open access [2]. So it's possible
the lack of a fully exclusive contract made our royalties lower.

[1]
[https://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319427140](https://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319427140)

[2] [http://pcgbook.com/](http://pcgbook.com/)

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wodenokoto
No money down?

