Publisher Alert
Mar. 1st, 2013 10:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
valarltdAll 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
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
The D-Man Checks In
Date: 2013-03-05 06:57 pm (UTC)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
Date: 2013-03-05 07:03 pm (UTC)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.