Okay, so I’m going to start a new thing.  On Thursdays, (maybe not every Thursday), I’m going to post some random tips for the writers who are newly contracted/newly published-basically the sort of things I wish I had known early on.  When I’m done, I plan on putting the whole guide together and posting it somewhere like scribd or something.

First post? On contracts, even though hopefully, if they’ve already signed the contract, they did this sort of thing already.

FIRST AND FOREMOST… THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE.  I AM NOT A LAWYER.  PERIOD. DO NOT TAKE THIS AS LEGAL ADVICE.  THIS IS JUST STUFF I’VE LEARNED, PICKED UP OR MY THOUGHTS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS.

Intro

So here’s the deal.

A lot of writers are really good at offering craft advice.

I’m not.

I can write, and I know what works for me, but I’m kind of lousy at explaining how I do it, what works for me, what doesn’t work…

But the writing community is really good at giving back and I kind of want to do that, but I never really know how.

One thing I do think maybe I can talk about, though, are things that I learned the hard way.
Now I’ve got no problem with how I learned things—learning them the hard way means I don’t forget them, but sometimes the hard way is just the slow way and if I can cut down on some of the time…share a few of the insights?

Maybe that’s a way I can give back.

So that’s what I’m going to do.

And although you can tell I already mentioned it above, again, let me say it AGAIN…

FIRST AND FOREMOST… THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE.  I AM NOT A LAWYER.  PERIOD. DO NOT TAKE THIS AS LEGAL ADVICE.  THIS IS JUST STUFF I’VE LEARNED, PICKED UP OR MY THOUGHTS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS.

Also:

Please note that these are my opinions and viewpoints expressed.  People may or may not agree with them, and they are entitled to do just that.  However, as they entitled to their opinions…I’m also entitled to mine, and I’d appreciate their respect on that.  I’ll respect your right to your opinion as long as you respect my right to mine.

The Contract

So you’ve been offered a contract.  AWESOME.  Wondering what to do next? Well…hopefully, you didn’t just sign it.

And yeah, I do mean that.

As awesome as it is to be offered a contract, if you just blindly rush in and sign it without fully understanding it, I’m sorry, but it’s the absolutely worst mistake an author can make.

If you’ve got a good agent on your side, you’re in good shape, although that doesn’t mean you don’t look the contract over and ask questions.

If you don’t have an agent?  It’s even more important to read the contract through and ask questions, and even after asking those questions, I wouldn’t sign without paying a contract attorney to review it for you.  Generally, it will cost a couple hundred dollars.  Yes, that’s a chunk of change, but this is your work, something you spent a lot of time, a lot of work on.  It’s worth it, trust me.  Misunderstanding even one part of a contract can cost you years of trouble.

Don’t just trust the publisher to explain the contract terms to you.  This isn’t saying the publisher is out to screw you.  The good publishers aren’t out to screw authors, but they are, first and foremost, looking out for their best interest first.  The publisher’s best interest and the author’s best interest are not always the same thing.

That’s why having an agent or a contract lawyer review the contract is crucial.  Talk it over with them, talk it over with the publisher.

And ask questions—lots of questions.  Question every single thing you don’t understand and don’t worry about sounding like a newby.   You are and there’s nothing wrong with not understanding all the details.  We were all new at the business once and you actually look a lot more professional when you’re willing to admit that you don’t understand certain details than just trying to fake it, then later on, it turns out that you didn’t understand those details but you weren’t willing to admit that.

Questions I’d want answered:

v  Is there a ‘publishing fee?’

• I don’t, won’t, will not pay to publish.  If you’ve submitted to a publisher and you’ve received an offer to be published and it comes with fees, you might want do some serious research about self publishing, and then about vanity publishing.  Please note, there is a huge difference between vanity publishers, ‘assisted’ self publishing and true self publishing.
• For an honest breakdown, visit Writer Beware.
• Please note, I’ve got nothing against self-publishing.  It can work for authors.  However, I do have problems with ‘assisted’ self publishing and vanity publishers-those don’t do anything for authors.  Those sort of businesses benefit the companies who sell their services-they are in the business of selling ‘services’ to hopeful writers, they are not in business to sell books, IMO.

v  Is the contract negotiable?

• True, with new authors, many things are not negotiable, but I’ve learned there are some things we can ask for, and we can often get.  If I’m told the contract isn’t, in any way, negotiable, it would probably make me leery and less likely to sign.

v  Length of contract terms (more geared for epubs)

• This is more geared to epubs.  Some epubs do want length of copyright.  Admittedly, I’m not comfortable with this.  Each author has to decide what is right for them.

v  How do I get paid?

• Net v. gross.  This is very important.  This can get complex, though, and while I understand the issues, I suck at explaining them.  You might want to look at Absolute Write’s Water Cooler forum and do something investigating, ask some questions.

v  What does out of print mean?

• This is important, because generally after a work is out of print for a certain period of time, the rights revert back to the author.  But with the digital age, a work can be considered in print for…well, a long time.  Understand the terms, make sure it’s spelled out in the contract.

v  Availability of titles.

• Again, more geared to epubs, but if the publisher only has the titles available at their site, it’s going to affect my decision.  The more widely available the titles, the better for you.

v  Deadlines.  Make sure you understand the deadlines, for the partials, for the completed works, etc.

v  What rights are they acquiring?

• World rights?  This is for print & epubs.  For epubs, this is a good thing if they want world rights, because many epubs do sell across the globe which means you’re building a reader base across the globe.  For print, while you might want to retain foreign rights, at first, the publishers may not let you have that.  Still, it never hurts to ask.
• Digital only rights (again, geared to epubs)
• Print rights? (again, geared to epubs)  If they want print rights, do they have a print place already in place?  If so, cool.  If not, do they have a plan for one in the works? If not, then I, personally, would be hesitant to let them have these rights.
• Movie rights?  This is just me, but I’ve always retained these. Even with my epubs.
• There are other rights.  If you’ve got questions about them, ask the publisher.

Other things that I’ll considering before signing a contract or even querying a publisher/epublisher:

please note, this is a SHORT list… it could go on, and on…

• who they have writing for them
• how long they’ve been around
• their reputation
• their presence.  Again, sorry, but this is more geared for epublishers-for some reason, it seems like some digital publishers are more inclined to have their people/owners/PR/whatever making asses of themselves.  If the people in charge can’t carry themselves better than that, then I’m going question their overall game-plan and whether or not they are really capable of helping me push my career where I want it to go.

Special thanks to Lauren Dane