Wow, you just received a letter of intent from a publisher to publish your work – you are told to expect a contract. Suddenly you are a total bundle of nerves, you palms are sweaty, your heart is thumping loudly in your chest and you feel the fear gripping you tightly. Do you need an attorney before you sign? Are you going to sign away all of your rights. How do you know what to do?
Yes, an attorney may very well be a wise choice, but you don’t need a criminal or real estate attorney; if you are going to use the services of an attorney, make sure that you get one who is familiar with Entertainment Law, Publishing and Writing Law, and Copyrights. Whether you decide to use a lawyer or if you are comfortable not using a lawyer, it is still a good idea for you to be well versed in important terms affecting your rights, obligations and financial health.
An advance is often misunderstood. Many new writers mistakenly believe that an advance, if paid, is in addition to royalties – it isn’t. An advance provides living expenses while the author, you, fulfills an agreement to complete and present a book for publication. While the advance is usually non-refundable your royalties are paid against the advance. In other words, you will not receive any royalty payments until the royalties earned equal more than the amount advanced. As for the advance being refundable or not, be sure to read your contract and negotiate where necessary.
How are royalties figured? Your royalties will equal a percentage of the “sales”. Some publishers will base that percentage on the actual retail price of the book and others will base it on the net sales after discounts are paid to distributors. So while an author may brag about a “higher” royalty, it really matters what that royalty is being paid on. If your publisher produces both print and electronic books, you will most likely see different percentages for each of those.
Your contract should be very specific in detailing what rights the author is signing off to the publisher (ie: first North American, electronic, overseas, etc) Electronic rights are a relatively new concept in the industry; be aware of those rights include audio, downloadable readable, print-on-demand or formats designed specifically for ebook readers. Both the author and the publisher should want these rights to be detailed as much as possible so that there is no confusion and the contract is fully binding. By the way, print-on-demand may be considered electronic publishing as the file is stored electronically and printed one at a time.
Understand any terms you are agreeing to such as your obligations to market and promote your work and what responsibility the publisher has in this area. Don’t kid yourself, unless you are a big name writer or have a huge interest draw, you’ll be very fortunate if the publisher pays you a small (repeat small) stipend towards promotions, most won’t do that much. You are almost always going to have to promote your own work and sometimes even participate in the actual marketing. Does your publisher expect you to buy and sell a certain number of books or is it only an option? What distributors will your publisher use to market your books? Will you be expected to show up at author fairs and at whose expense?
Research publishers. speak to other authors where possible and absorb it all. Do try to get several opinions to make sure that you are getting a true portrait and not just sore feelings from one or two who didn’t mesh with the formula. Not every publishing model works for everyone, make sure that YOU feel comfortable.
Writing exercise: You need a pen (or pencil), paper and a timer. Set your timer for 15 minutes, now FREE WRITE – it doesn’t matter what you write about, it doesn’t matter if you write a cohesive story or just a series of random thoughts. Just write and do not stop until the timer goes off. The goal is just to put words on paper. This is a good exercise warm-up to actually sit and write your manuscript.
Writing prompt: Think of a favorite childhood song, any song. (ie: Mary had a little lamb, I’m a little teapot, K-I-S-S-I-N-G, etc.) and write a one-paragraph news item based on that song (ie: The emergency evacuation at Mary’s school when startled teachers thought the lamb might be dangerous!)
