Hal Leonard Press Release concerning Fabers
Hal Leonard has posted an official press release regarding the acquisition of distribution rights of the Fabers entire catalogue. Most of these details I have already posted in this previous post, but here is one new comment by Hal Leonard president Larry Morton,
Read MoreWe have long respected the success of the Fabers and their outstanding piano method. We are delighted to welcome Nancy and Randy to our team, and to showcase their publications among our offerings. Combining their incredible talent with our resources is a winning proposition, and we have great expectations for what the future holds in store.
Big News from Randall Faber
Well, the word is out amongst the piano teaching boards. 
Effective December 7th, Hal Leonard will be the official distributor of Nancy and Randall Faber’s Piano Adventures series. They will begin working with the Hal Leonard staff to produce new publications which will include many songs from Hal Leonard’s large catalogue of music copyrights.
There has been no official press release from Hal Leonard or the Fabers, but Jon, the Faber’s assistant over at the PianoTeaching.com boards announced that they will be sharing details of this on Friday evening. Also, Randall Faber is now on Twitter and has suggested that you follow him for advance announcements. To sign up for a Twitter account, go to: http://twitter.com/ After you sign up, you can follow me by searching for @composecreate. You can follow Randall Faber by finding @randallfaber.
In one article, Nancy Faber comments,
Randy and I are thrilled about our new alliance with Hal Leonard. Having the opportunity to tap Hal Leonard’s treasure trove of songs makes us eager to begin expanding our catalogue in new, pedagogically exciting ways. We already have many ideas brewing…
Randall Faber spoke highly of their new publisher:
Hal Leonard offers all that we have been seeking in a publisher. Their unrivaled distribution network and well-oiled marketing machine will expose our current publications to the widest possible base of piano teachers and students and their progressive business systems will efficiently shepherd new projects from conception to completion. We have no doubt that our catalogue is in the best possible hands.
Don’t forget to check the Piano Teaching site on Friday evening for details from the composers themselves! Read yet another article about this here.
Read MoreQuestion #4 Students Getting Published
This will be an ongoing series consisting of questions that I have received after giving the Composition for Kids lecture. The first three questions came from members of KMTA this summer. They included:
This post is about the fourth question I have received which Barbara asked after the Kansas City Composition for Kids lecture:
I have a student who writes beautiful arrangements. Can she possibly get these published?
The answer to this question is that it depends on a lot of variables. So, I’ll talk about some of these variables and how you might be able to help her with each.
Variable #1: It depends on how good they are. Every publishing company is going to have different standards of evaluating manuscripts, but here are some consistent standards that most editors would consider:
- How pianistic is it? How easy is it to play? If the pieces fit within the hands easily, that is definitely a plus. Difficult arrangements are difficult to sell, so publishers are less interested in these.
- Does the set of arrangements display an understanding of good voice leading, musicianship, and composition technique? It’s amazing what a semester of 4 part writing will do for a student, even a student composing piano music. For example, I have had students whose RH melody jumps in the most inopportune places (an example of bad voice leading). This would be something noticeable to a good editor which would make them flag the submission as immature and not publishable.
- Is there anything unique about it? There are a lot of piano arrangements out there, so its important for a student to have a bit of an established “voice” that differentiates them from another person.
- One way that you can help this student is to help her polish several pieces and then set up an appointment with a published composer or editor if you have access to one and ask them to critique the compositions. Of course, you will want to pay for this meeting and the evaluation.
Variable #2. How many arrangements are you submitting? Your chances of an editor being interested are better if you submit a collection of arrangements rather than just one or two. Publishers are not interested in whether or not you can write one piece, but whether you can write great pieces consistently. I would submit a minimum of 8-10 pieces at a time to a publisher. They need to see more than one kind of mood in the writing and consistently great compositions.
Variable #3 How old is the student? Since the publishing of music requires that the composer sign a contract, it is probably safe to assume that publishers will be much less interested in a person who is less than 18. There are some composition contests that have taken place in the past that have resulted in single sheets of composers being published (FJH has done this a few times for original solos), so I would encourage a student to look into those opportunities where students are asked to submit. Otherwise, it is wise for a student to wait until they are at least 18, get all the education they can to improve their compositions skills, get some feedback from a published composer, and then submit.
Variable #4. How professional is the student willing to be? Make sure any submissions that are sent are well polished, and are notated using a notation program for a clean printout.
Variable #5. How patient are you? Unfortunately, submitting works to a publisher can result in years of waiting (it takes 3-9 months to get a response) and rejections. If you have a student serious about composing and being published, encourage and help them do the following:
- Hone their composition skills. Use the later levels of Music By Me to assist the student in learning new ways of approaching composition and arranging.
- Contact and get feedback from a published composer. Arrange and pay for a series of composition lessons with a real composer to get their feedback on the student’s work.
- Take theory coarses to learn about proper voice leading and other principles of good writing. This is helpful even when working in piano music!
- Take a general composition class from a local university. Being around other students interested in composition and hearing their compositions will broaden their horizons to the possibilities that are out there.
- Help the student expand their own styles of playing by selecting new books of arrangements in differing styles.
- Instruct the student to research all kinds of publishing companies to see which ones even publish the kind of music that the student is writing. Read the following guidelines from just one of the publishers to which I’ve referred on this site. This document is a great guide for submitting manuscripts to a publisher.
Variable #6 Is the original tune copyright? If so, you probably wouldn’t want to send this to a publisher who does not own the copyright. This is a complicated variable which should be the subject of another post.
These are just a few of the many variables that might need to be considered for a student thinking about submitting manuscripts. These are very general guidelines, so if you have more specific questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.
Read MoreSubmitting Manuscripts to a Publisher
Several budding composers have asked my advice on submitting manuscripts to publishing companies. I’ve given them a few suggestions, but I recently found this Guide to Submitting Manuscripts from the Lorenz Corporation that captures a lot of the things that composers need to consider before submitting manuscripts.
There is excellent advice contained in this document including researching the “personality” of the publishing company to which you would like to submit manuscripts. Each company has its own style of music that they publish (some are liturgical only, some are more contemporary, some are educational only, etc.) and submitting a different style to them would be a waste of time.
Probably the most important, but least known fact about submitting manuscripts is this: Never submit the same piece to more than one publisher at a time. If you are accepted by both, you will have to say “no” to one of them, thereby burning that bridge and probably losing the opportunity to work with them in the future!
Many publishers indicate on their websites that they are “not accepting unsolicited manuscripts at this time.” It is important to remember though that if you have the chance to connect with that particular editor, especially in person, they may tell you a different story if you present something to them that meets a need in their catalogue.
Networking is the best thing any composer can do to get published! You never know who you are going to meet, who they know, and how you might get connected with a publisher. If you are on this path, good luck!
Read MoreWho Makes What in Music Publishing
Should you have any dreams about becoming rich as a composer, it might be helpful to know who makes what in the music publishing business. Now mind you, I’m not saying you can’t make a living composing music (that’s a subject for a later post), but its surprising how often students, teachers, and aspiring composers don’t know how much a composer makes on each piece of music! Of course, more established composers may have a bit more bargaining power than the free-lance composer, but I think most composers these days operate on a free-lance basis. Though there are many variations, here is a basic model of how the money is distributed in the print music industry.
1. Percentages
Publishing company: 50% of the price of the item (of course they have the bulk of the expense, while the composer has the bulk of the initial time in the project.
Retailer: 40% of the price of the item
Composer: 10% of the price if they are lucky. This is actually a high figure in pedagogical music believe it or not. So, for the piece of sheet music that you buy at $3.50, the composer gets 35 cents! For the book that costs $6.95, the composer gets 70 cents. Sometimes royalties are as low as 3-5%. In my experience, the smaller publishing companies (especially the sacred ones I have dealt with) are good about paying the composer 10%.
2. Discounts: Discounts made by retailers do not hurt the composer’s royalties. The retailer can usually afford those discounts because they purchase the music wholesale at 40% off.
3. Complimentary Copies: Composers are not paid any royalties for music that is given away at conferences or are part of complimentary packets at clinics. So, if you want to help a composer, please use those complimentary copies as reference copies, and then purchase the music at the music store.
4. Arrangements: Composers who arrange pop music are typically not paid royalties, but rather have contracted with the publisher to write the pieces for a certain price. Compared to the volume of sales that are made on pop books, this price is usually very low.
5. Pro-rata share. If the composer’s work is a part of a collection of original pieces, the 10% royalty is divided by the number of pieces in the book or amongst the contributing composers. So, if I write 2 pieces in a book that has 8 pieces in it and the price is $6.95, then my share is $0.18 per book that is sold (25% of .70). Sometimes the 10% is divided among the number of authors, not based on the number of pieces that each has contributed. So, for a book in which there are 4 composers, and I write 3 pieces, then my share will still be $0.18 (the $0.70 divided by 4).
In summary, though the composer is one of the main players that enables the publishing company to exist, they get a very small percentage of the sales made. It is easy to get discouraged in the industry when you see all of your time and effort and little payment.
If there were one thing I would suggest to teachers that would help composers remain in the industry (to keep them from being so discouraged they quit and therefore new music disappears!), I would encourage them to refuse to copy music! Every time music is copied, that means less royalties are paid to the composer. Those royalties can really add up and make a difference to a struggling composer. In addition, when a publisher is looking at which composer’s works are popular to give and want to give a new job to a popular composer, than the number of pieces that are sold (rather than copied) make a difference.
To future composers, I hope this is not discouraging. However, I think you should enter the publishing business knowing the facts. I’ll write about how some composers “make it” in the business in a later post.
Hope this sheds a little light on the industry! If you are a composer who has different contractual arrangements than the ones mentioned, please let me know so that I can make this post as thorough as possible.
Read MoreLegal Advice for the Composer
Andrew Dubber asks advice of Birmingham based intellectual property lawyer Stuart Price. Every new composer attempting to enter the world of publishing would do well to take his advice.
Visit Andrew’s site New Music Strategies for other great posts!
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