Publisher Alert

[valarltd]

All right, folks. I have done something stupid.
I signed a life of copyright contract with Ellora's Cave.
My fault. I was focused on reading the known problem clauses, and I missed section 1.


Author, on behalf of herself/himself and her/his heirs, executors, administrators, successors and assigns, exclusively grants to the Publisher during the full term of copyright and any renewals and continuations and extensions thereof, the right to print, publish, sell and license the Work throughout the world, and in any and all media and forms of expressions now known, and all subsidiary rights granted in the Subsidiary and Secondary Rights clause hereunder.


READ YOUR CONTRACTS! This is from a publisher I've been with 5 years. They made this change within the last 2.

They also reduced print royalties, and reduced the word limit in their "Right of First Refusal" clause to 7500, which means you can't even submit to many anthologies!


This is where I weigh things:
Do I want to make money or do I want creative control of my creation?
This is the ONLY place I consistently sell het.
This is the place I make the money and the sales, although it has fallen off sharply in the last four years.

I have sent this house one last piece, as I am obligated to under the First Refusal clause. After that, I think I'm quits. Even if they offer a contract, I'm going to ask that Life of Copyright be changed. Should they not, no more books. I will put this piece out through Inkstained or Amber Heat.

AUTHOR BEWARE

Comments

[celestinenox]

You know what one of the things new authors are always being told about how to know if a publishing house is one you should stay away from?

If they refuse to negotiate the terms of their contract even a little.

If you ask this publisher if they will remove this Life of Copyright clause, and they refuse to even discuss the possibility, then it's probably a bad idea to publish with them. Somehow, it just makes it worse that you've been with them for five years and only now are having problems.

[beckyblack]

Good advice. Writers getting their first contract and who don't have an agent can be so excited they just sign and only later realise that they've done something foolish. And even established writers signing a new contract with the same publisher don't check that the standard contract has changed since their last sale.

Years ago I worked for ACAS, which is a government agency in the UK that deals with employment rights and disputes. So many of the enquiries we had were to do with things that were in people's contracts - which they had never read!

Since then I've been very strict on "you must always read your employment contract before you sign it." So when I came to have a publishing contract I took the same attitude.

Of course people can read a contract and still not spot the problems because they aren't lawyers and don't understand the implications of the clauses because of the legalese language. That's where a bit of online research comes in if you can't afford a specialist lawyer.

So, yeah, writers, when you get that first contract, take a breath before you sign and check things out carefully.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

First, twenty-first, NINETY-FIRST it doesn't matter. (This was closer to the latter)

READ IT ALL.

[helgaleenas.livejournal.com]

They are relatively big, and relatively known, so your time there will not be wasted. Dark Roast Press is always here for you, such as we are.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

Helgaleena, I love you. You know that.

I haven't sold one copy of anything with Dark Roast, according to their records. I sell better out of the trunk of my car, literally.

The D-Man Checks In

[(Anonymous)]

The way I read this, although no lawyer, comes down to 2 possible points in your favor:

1.) ...and in any and all media and forms of expressions now known,

So, if some new media or publishing outlet comes into being, after you signed this, such as Inkstained Succubus, you are not obligated to this contract & First Refusal... because this new outlet did not exist & was not known at the time of you signing. Same as if a known outlet, like Dark Roast, launches a subsidiary branch that did not exist at the time of you signing.

2.) First Refusal can be rigged. If you submit a story you want printed elsewhere, you can do a hack job on it so that the story doesn't make much sense, so no right thinking publisher would want it, as it wouild require serious editing or flat-out rewriting. They refuse it. Then you fix it and send it on to the outlet you really wanted to have it in the first place.

Re: The D-Man Checks In

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

Publishing outlet =/= media form. They're saying book, ebook, audiobook, movies, television, mimes on the street corner, etc.

The first clause has an out. I can demand they pay me for 100 copies or return the rights. A book is considered out of print if it doesn't sell 100 copies in a calendar year. The question is, would I be able to sell any more on my own than they currently are?


2) Or you simply say, "I would like life of copyright clause changed to the three years for ebooks, 5 for print that is standard in the industry." If they refuse, decline the contract. My First refusal is 20,000 words, which isn't onerous. It means I have to send them novellas and longer, but i can write all the shorts I want. And they don't always pick up my books. If they decline, I am free.