When I said no to Warner Brothers

In 2000,  I visited the Frankfurt Book Fair, on my last attempt to get my book El Arreglo Un Puzzle de Expresion Musical published, as in Spain, it had been rejected by all major publishers.

I shopped my book around and immediately, publishers that specialise in music education, were astonished by the work I had done. That came to me as a surprise, as back home in Spain, I felt disregard for the content and my approach to synthesis and structure.

However, in a matter of hours I got my first deal from Warner Brothers to go international at a 7% royalty rate.

Time to think

I said to myself. “I wonder why they are so eager and where they sell? ”.  So, I followed up some of their books and concluded they  sold in specialised music libraries across Spain the U.S.A, Central and South America. Considering that in Spain there are 4 shops that take care of specialised music education,  I concluded there would at the most 100 shops world wide. Therefore I asked myself, “How about if I publish it, send it out to all these shops and with the goal of  getting 50% of the sales price?” 

And so I published it (I paid for the printing ) with a local very famous Barcelona company called Bosch Music ( my neighbours) and we started distribution.

Success

It went very well. Furthermore, I now offer it by publishing on demand; the book is published where the client lives. This means there are no storage costs and transport costs are down to a minimum. So, from the original 7%, I was able to distribute to the same shops and market as Warner Brothers,  for a 43% greater final income. 

The book has been in the market for 15 years and is still selling. I do not wish to put it into the digital world as it would be instantly hacked. Now, if someone wants to scan 400 pages and place it on the net they will definitely receive my compliments 

In summary 

Nowadays authors can do better than major publishers thanks to the net.