contracts | help! - clauses for agents and authors

I know contracts can be hard - to that end, it may help to read a bit before you negotiate certain rights next week to really understand the author/editor relationship and bargaining lecture and review your notes afterward. More, I will make myself available both by email and telephone for any questions that you may have and you can set up an appointment to come and see me during office hours between five and six p.m. Remember, you can negotiate as much of the contract as you wish. The more you negotiate the better - but some of you may only negotiate subrights. Just be forewarned that although this is important, the rest of the contract is important as well - so don't ignore it and if you have questions, ask me. I will also be available during the class if you have questions.

As to contracts, I realize it may seem difficult or futile, but it is part and parcel of book-editing in that it is something book Editors do, or likely will do at some point in his or her career, unless you have the luxury of working for an extremely large house with a large legal department and even then, as a senior Editor or an Editorial Director, you will likely be expected to negotiate your own books with Agents and/or Authors.

More, every intern i placed last semester was asked if they knew how to negotiate a contract and knew subrights - so this is important and when you are looking for a job, you'll be glad you know this.....

For your next in-class exercise, here is what you should know, and this is important;

The contract is between you and your Author. You and the Author should feel free, MUST feel free, to edit as much of the contract as possible. The contract may be standard boiler plate, but that does NOT mean that you can't totally change it if you want to. Why not? It's your contract, make it work for you... and I say that to both parties here.

Since you have not negotiated contracts before, I would suggest some research, but I'll give you some pointers as well:

• 2.b - anywhere it says "At Author's Expense" if you are the agent, you want to define a limit to this amount or, try to get the publisher to cover the cost over all.
  
• When is the manuscript due? Set a reasonable date - usually a couple of years is fair. (clause 4) - look at all clauses in 4 - every clause in class 4 is important if you are the agent - and if you are the publisher, then you should really pay attention to clause four.
• 5- legal review: who pays for this?
• clause 7 - "style and manner" (clause a). Does the Author have any input? Do they get to see the cover etc before publication? This would be important to me anyway...
• clause 8 - when is the advance due?
• clause 9 - all royalty rates are negotiable within a reasonable fee; don't go crazy trying to get insane deep discounts or more money; be fair.
  
• When changes are made in galleys to the manuscript, the author pays for this generally.
• Who is paying for the illustrations, how much is the budget?
• Clause g in 4 - is only when you don't understand each other; let's assume that won't happen, but you prob. should negotiate on the off-chance. What if? Then who deals with the book? Decide what happens next if the company is bought out.
• (f) Edits - the Editor may make edits.
• Clause 6 - The Author's responsibilty. Is there a penalty if they don't keep up their end? What if you don't keep up your end of any part of the contract, by the way?
• Clause 7 - does your Author agree with everything in clause 7? Really?
• Clause 8 - Advance: you've decided this. Fill this in.
• Clause 9 - Royalties: negotiate.
• Clause 10 - Subrights: negotiate as you see fit. The subrights have a "split" in terms of percentages. Also, the Publisher may want to retain e-book rights in this day and age, etc - who knows - just remember that what you keep, you'll have to negotiate for it...
  
• Clause 11 - This is about Royalty Statements, accounting statements, when they are due and is pretty standard language. Negotiate if you see fit.
• Clause 12 - Author copies: how many copies of the book does the author get? Absolutely negotiable. These are free of charge copies.
• Clause 13 - Read this - you'll sort it out. It's an agree / disagree deal-breaker thing.
• Clause 14 a. - Termination: what if after publishing the book, the publisher decides there isn't really a market after all and wants to dispose of all copies? Do you want to keep this clause in?
• Clause 14 - The rest is technical and standard, but you can look it over and negotiate if you want to. This is harder.
• Clause 15 - Option: option on the author's next work for publication if they have faith in the author. This means the author cannot sell their next book to another publisher.
• Clause 16 - Competing Works: I have explained this to you. If you are still unclear, read the language again and if still unclear, please call me or email me.
• Clause 17 - Name & Likeness: obvious clause.

There are many other clauses - all clauses - but off the top of my head, these are some of the ones that are most often overlooked by students, so pay special attention to them, but again, the entire contract is important.

You should find the rest of the contract pretty standard and have no problems. I would fill it in as best as you can and read it through, but above are the key points. This is what you should be looking at.

I hope this helps. Again, I am available for all and any questions.

s.r.p.