I have started making attampts to publish some of my compositions and arrangements.
What can I expect of publishers? What experiences have you had with them and are there any you can recommend?
So far I've sent out about 8 compos and arrangements to 3 different publishers. Only one of them has given me any idea of how long it will take them to decide whether they think my stuff is good enough. I've heard nothing from the other two and in one case it has been about 5 or 6 months.
I'm not sure why I am posting to a reply from such an old thread but I do feel that many young composers may be asking the questions posed here and as an older composer I maybe feel I have some advice to offer.
1 What can you expect from publishers.
Publishers are in business to make money. Not print good music.It is occasionally possible to do both but rare. They won't do you any favours. I get various rates from different publishers but the only way to make money out of this business is pop music or educational stuff that will sell thousands or get taken up for low grades of exams. If I was trying to make money per hour I would be far better off employed in Mcdonalds. This does not mean that there is anything wrong with what i write and if you get lots of rejections it doens mean that there is anything wrong with waht you write. All it means is that pub;lishers cannot see a way to make more money out of your music. Generally about 6 per cent of sales is what is offered.
So if you want to be a composer compoose but do not feel that yopu have failed if you dont get published. If you have a big name you will find it much easier to get published because names sell. If you do arrangements of new material and can persuade a publisher to use your arrangements you might get a few sales but remember that copyright owners ask very large percentages. It is not uncommon for a copyright owner to ask for 50 percent of projected sales before one copy has been sold. With the sort of margins that publishers operate you can see what the composer gets out of it.
SO dont get depressed dont get down dont think your music isnt good enopugh if it doesnt work. One real way forwards is to try to get a well known band or soloist to feature your stuff so that others want to play it. When publishers think there are sales possible that way things might move for you. But actually writing th e music is the easy bit. I have six or seven publishers and dont really care whether I make money for others or not. But I do care that i write imaginatiove well crafted music. If i was serious about making real money out of the deal I thuink i would have to spend about 20 times as much time on promotion as on writing music. And Im simply not imteretsed at the moment
