Negotiate your book contract - 20 "Talking Talk" Topic - Part II

In the first part of her article, Brenda Warneka attorney discussed ten topics to talk with publishers during negotiations with publishers. In part II of her article, she shares an additional ten.

11. Advance

Prepayment is usually paid in one-third at the time of signing the contract, one-third if you submit a satisfactory manuscript, and one-third increment at the time of publication. Publishers have a rule of thumb for paying as prepay what they expect to get at royalty in the first year of publication. You may be able to find out the scale of progress paid by publishers in industry publications in the past. As prepayment increases, the publisher must cancel the contract (especially if prepayment is not refundable). Once the publisher is published, the publisher must advertise your books. The contract must include the amount of advance payment, payment method, repayment method.

Normally you will not receive royalties until prepaid is earned. This means that the royalty you earned is equal to the prepaid amount. What happens if prepayment can not be obtained? The contract that there is no need to repay the unpaid prepayment must be clear. But, yes, if you do not complete the manuscript, he is well known record producer, rapper, and clothing designer Sean "P Diddy" when he was sued for recall by Random House in 2005 "A $ 300,000 advance for Combs 1999 not being passed down for 1999 for an incomparable memoir.

12. Loyalty

What is the royalty rate, what it is, how it is calculated, and
How often will you be paid? You should negotiate royalties based on the book's retail price or list price. Such royalties are higher than royalties based on net sales income to publishers of the same percentage and prevent publishers from offering special deals such as deep discounts at your expense. A typical configuration is 10% of the list price for the first 5,000 copies sold, 12.5% ​​for the next 5,000 copies, and 15% thereafter.

If you end up with royalty based on net sales income, you may ask for a floor of paid amount. For example, it is 10% of net sales, but it is more than $ 2 per book per volume. Publishers are hoping to pay lower loyalty on special sales such as book clubs, school editions, mail-order sales, but this may be negotiable. No royalties will be paid for the copy of the review. If part of your loyalty is deducted as a reserve to cover the return, please state in the contract on when the reserve will be liquidated.

13. Accounting for royalties

The contract requires you to specify how frequently the publisher will provide royalty accounting and payment. In the industry, it is common practice to report royalties at least every six months and pay within 3 months from accounting. You or your agency need to audit the publisher's book and have the right to verify that the accounting statement is correct. If the audit reveals an error and the publisher exceeds a portion (perhaps 5%) of the amount reported in the statement of accounting, it must be paid for the audit and the interest must be paid at a certain interest rate on the royalties They owe it to you as a result of the audit. Please conduct the audit as soon as possible, oppose the accounting treatment provided by the publisher and extend the time limit for taking legal action as much as possible. Failure to provide accounting, or failure to pay royalties to pay should give the right to terminate the contract after the specified period.

14. Noncompete clause

The publisher may prevent you from stopping writing another book that conflicts with what you are contracting or using books' materials in other ways. The definition of the meaning of "compete" must be clearly stated and such provisions should be limited to the specific period required for the success of the book subject to the contract. If the book is tied to an existing brand or business, you need to deal with ownership of the trademark.

15. Revised edition

What if your book succeeds enough for you or your publisher to issue a revised edition? Unless you negotiate in another way, publishers may have the right to decide whether you or another author will do a revised edition, or accept an author credit. If another author made a revised edition, the publisher may dedicate a new author's royalty and may wish to move forward with respect to royalties. In preparing the revised version, the publisher may be bound by the terms of the original contract, despite being negotiated in the absence of marketing influence. If there is a royalty to escalate based on the sales of the original contract it may be better to treat the sale of the revised version as a continuation of the original version but the publisher recommends starting the revised version from scratch To do.

A related issue is that the return of the original book needs to match the sale of the revised version. It may seem premature to consider such a thing when the first copy of your book still has to see the light of the day but if you do not pay attention now, You may not be able to deal with the problem.

16. Print out status and reverse

Once the book is out-of-print, the rights granted to the publisher should be returned to you (although this revised edition may be subject to licenses permitted by the publisher). In the contract, you need to carefully define what the "out-of-print" means. Most of the clause clauses require publishers to notify the publisher that they wish to reprint their books. If the publisher does not do so within a certain time period, you are entitled to cancel the contract.

Today's "Print on Demand" function and "Extreme Short Print" will allow you to print a small number of books at once, restoring rights based on books that are no longer printed may make no sense. Perhaps the right to reverse must be associated with a minimum number of sales in the past 12 months or if the royalty falls below a certain level during a certain number of contract reporting periods, As part of the modification of the rights, I intend to agree to leave the nameplate and sculptures, if any, and to purchase the remaining inventory and other materials at nominal expense.

17. Options for the next task

Even before a previously written manuscript is completed, the publisher may wish for options in your next work. The options work in different ways. One type of option provides the publisher with a "first look" at the next "similar work" for a certain period of time. If you refuse a publisher's offer based on this initial view, you can only sell the publisher to another publisher if the condition is more favorable than the original publisher. Please confirm that you understand the definition of the work to which the option is applied, the mechanism of the option, and the start time of the option period. It is difficult to understand exactly how options work, but it is very important.

18. Bankruptcy

If the publisher ends in the US bankruptcy court, the bankruptcy law,
Which provision of your contract is mandatory or not compelled? What happens may depend on whether the publisher is in "Chapter 7 Liquidation" or "Chapter 11 Reorganization". Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Act provides for an orderly liquidation of the assets of the obligor and has a procedure distributed fairly among the creditors. In Chapter 11, it is possible that companies with problems are trying to reduce expenses and continue the business, and therefore reject current assets or execution contracts.

When independent publisher Stein & Day, Inc. entered bankruptcy in New York in the latter half of the 1980s, the company can not continue publication, its endorsement (the list of publishers' books are still available) It is sold to a person in an auction, and it is not taken into consideration at all by the author's desire. The publishing agreement you signed is that you have the right to cancel the contract, if you transfer it for the interests of the creditor if the publisher falls into voluntary or involuntary bankruptcy, or For some reason when liquidating a business. However, in the event of bankruptcy, the contract does not necessarily control what happens.

19. Selection of Law and Selection of Forum

The choice of legislation stipulating the interpretation of the contract, and the forum (court law or legislation where the lawsuit occurs) is usually the place where the publisher is headquartered. This makes it easier for publishers to sue you. Unless you live in the same area, it is difficult to appeal or protect publishers. Trying to make publishers change these provisions is the cause of lost. The court generally respects the "choice of law" and "forum selection" provisions in commercial contracts. The contract with the publisher is a commercial contract. The Federal Court system has exclusive jurisdiction in copyright infringement litigation under the Constitution of the United States of America. Even if the case is in federal court, the breach of contractual problem is determined by state law.

20. Dispute resolution

Arbitration will normally terminate anything that may be a long and expensive case in court system quickly. Generally, it is considered advantageous for the weak contractor. If the contract does not prescribe arbitration, seriously consider asking for the addition of standard arbitration clauses. The publisher wishes to clarify that arbitration will be held in the city where the publishing company is located. Arbitrators may transfer arbitration to a more convenient place if it is difficult to arbitrate in the city where the publisher is located. The arbitration clause can be enforced under federal arbitration law.

Conclusion

In this discussion, we should have warned a couple of issues when checking the publisher's contract. As a final step, read the agreement carefully and look for problems that you have to talk with publishers not included here. You will never regret the time you spend negotiating your contract, but you may regret the time you do not spend not understanding it later that it is very important.