Negotiating A Book Contract (PDF)

What’s in it for you?

Book contracts are written by publishers’ lawyers looking out for the publishers’ interests, not yours. Negotiating a Book Contract tells authors, and their agents and lawyers, about the many points omitted entirely from many publishers’ book contracts or — if there — are written mainly from the publishers’ perspective. End up with a contract that’s fair to you as well as your publisher. This book shows you how.

Negotiating a Book Contract contains a detailed sample Letter of Comments that shows you how to present your requested changes in a clear, professional way to ensure that your publisher will seriously consider all of them and make most of them!

Be sure that your agent is making all the changes needed to protect you. Contracts are legal documents and few agents are lawyers. It’s easy to just negotiate the advance and the royalty rate. Getting the rest of the contract right takes lots of time. Good agents appreciate someone other than themselves reviewing it carefully to make sure your interests are protected.

Remember, contracts are often looked at only when things go wrong. And that’s when you want to make sure that your contract contains what is needed to protect you. Don’t be sorry.

What’s Inside?

Negotiating a Book Contract is the complete step-by-step guide to negotiating your own book contract (or to making sure your agent hasn’t missed anything important to you!). Negotiating a Book Contract applies to books of fiction and nonfiction, textbooks and children’s books, whether in hardcover, paperback or as an e-book, and is for illustrators as well as writers.

Negotiating a Book Contract is organized according to the typical sequence of clauses in publishers’ book contracts. You can quickly and easily match your contract, clause by clause and section by section, with Levine’s analysis and comments. Immediately see what you need added, deleted or changed to protect your interests.
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About The Author

Mark L. Levine, one of the country’s leading authorities on book contracts, is a former partner of Boston’s Sullivan & Worcester LLP and has also been a publisher and book packager. He is the author of three books, with total sales of more than 200,000 copies. Mark also conducts seminars for non-lawyers on negotiating and on contract law.
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