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In case you are one of those writers who sleeps in your writing cave, March is the season of the NCAA Basketball tournament. With only two weeks left in the regular season–the SouthEastern Conference tourney is just about ten days away–it’s time to pick the winners. Publishers have their own form of March Madness, it’s [...]
Ring! Ring! You answer the phone and the most amazing thing happens. An editor says, “We’d like to publish your story.” Squeals of joy! Oh, Frabjous Day! The editor mentions some basic terms of the publication agreement, but you’re so excited you can barely pay attention. Then, the editor says, “Do these terms sound reasonable?” [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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