The Truth About Book Contracts

Virtually every publisher regularly revises its standard contract in many areas when asked to do so by authors or their representatives.  It is only the author who doesn’t know that it’s perfectly acceptable to ask for changes who signs the standard contract.

Most of these changes – if you know what to ask for — can be obtained simply by asking.

But just commenting on the clauses in the contract isn’t enough.  The contracts are written by the publishers’ lawyers looking out for the publishers’ interests.  After all, that’s their job.

But what’s left out of a contract is just as important – and sometimes even more important (to the author!) – than what’s in it.

Publishing contracts can readily be negotiated that balance the rights and interests—and meet the needs—of author and publisher alike.

To do so, you (and your agent too, if you have one) need to be alert to the many points that are either omitted entirely from some publishers’ contracts or are written primarily from the publisher’s perspective.

(From the introduction to Negotiating a Book Contract:  A Guide for Authors, Agents and Lawyers by Mark L. Levine.   To get a free copy of the entire introduction, click https://www.bookcontracts.com/chapters.  To see a list of the book’s detailed table of contents, click here.)

Section headings in Negotiating a Book Contract have been designed to match the major sections and topics in a typical contract.  You can easily compare your contract, topic by topic, with the comments in this book.

The points in Negotiating a Book Contract are applicable whether the book is fiction or nonfiction, hardcover or paperback, for adults or for children, a textbook or for a general audience.  They apply whether one is negotiating with a major publisher, a university press or a small press.

Virtually every point in the  book applies to illustrators of children’s books too.  We just use “author” to make the book readable – and readable it is!  As a past president of the American Society of Journalists and Authors said about Levine’s writing, “Here at last – and in plain English too – is the shortcut to information every author needs before entering the complicated maze of contract negotiations.”