P&W 7. The Small Print: Publishing Contracts

Signing a contract can be a cause for celebration, but there may be regrets later.

  • As a publisher you often only return to them when something has gone wrong and you need to get out of the contract. 
  • The contract is a legal document, but connection and communication are what make the author-publisher relationship work. 
  • There is often a power imbalance.
  • Rights in contracts; what is the publisher being assigned by the writer; ANZ rights, English-speaking rights, Commonwealth rights.
  • Format rights, book, ebook, audiobook, extracts, film and TV and translation rights. The different sizes of books, and hardback and softback.
  • Many companies now create their own audiobooks, but others sell those rights on. 
  • Length of contracts, some have finiste terms, most remain whilst a book is in print.
  • Sunset clauses.
  • Royalties are usually 10% of RRP, but that can be altered for books that sell in big numbers, these are called rises.
  • Pros and cons of advances, and how often advances are earned out. Why we prefer lower or no advances.
  • Beware of contracts from companies that help writers self publish. Can be grossly unfair.
  • Discussion about ebook royalties, usually 25% of net receipts. 
  • Royalties stay at 10% of RRP even when bookshops do deep discounts.
  • Bulk book orders sometimes paid at 25% of net receipts; the pros of being entrepreneurial as a publisher.
  • Reversion of rights, when an author gets their rights back.
  • The Society of Authors here in Australia has a fantastic new subsidiary called Authors Legal.

Buy Going Under

In Australia: Going Under is available in bookshops and online stores in Australia and on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com.au/Going-Under-memoir-secrets-addiction/dp/0645497231/

In the USA: https://www.amazon.com/Going-Under-memoir-secrets-addiction/dp/0645497231/

In the UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Going-Under-memoir-secrets-addiction/dp/0645497231/

Going Under Audiobook: Going Under on Audible, narrated by Seana Smith, click here.

Going Under on SpotifyListen to Going Under on Spotify here.

Jane Curry Links

Seana Smith Links

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/swoop/blue-sea License code: JIDFICQZAHSVHXUS

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