Don’t Sign that Book Contract Until –

A friend is having problems with a landlord and I advised her to pull our her contract and go over it again in light of the problems. Likewise, in the author-publisher relationship, everything is governed by the book contract for your novel or picture book.
Don’t Sign That Contract Until —

You’ve Read and Understood [...]

Math for Writers

Tis the season for royalty statements.
When I get a royalty statement, I always try to pull out the contract (that legal document by which you live or die in this relationship) and check up. This time, I found a discrepancy in royalty rates on foreign rights. A polite inquiry has been made and things should easily [...]

Book auctions

Book auctions are the glamorous dream of most authors.
Alvina Ling, editor for Little Brown explains this mysterious process of acquiring a mss through a book auction in one of the clearest explanations I’ve seen

Update on S&S Rights Reversion Clause

This was sent to members of the Author’s Guild his afternoon. As you can see, The Author’s Guild still objects to the new S&S rights reversion clause.
UPDATE ON SIMON AND SCHUSTER
Simon & Schuster is irked that we went public with our information about their unannounced new contract language. They’ve sent a release (you can read [...]

S&S Reacts to Objections

This is the update that the Author’s Guild sent out about the Simon & Schuster proposed contract regarding the reversion clause. A quick update on Simon & Schuster’s rights grab:
S&S has fallen back some, now saying they’ll negotiate regarding the reversion of rights clause “on a book-by-book basis.” They also accuse us of an “overreaction.”
Their [...]

Author’s Guild v. S&S

The Author’s Guild sent this message to its members on 5/17/07.
I’d be glad to discuss contracts in general, but specific questions about this issue should be directed to the Author’s Guild.
“Simon & Schuster has changed its standard contract language in an attempt to retain exclusive control of books even after they have gone out [...]