A Short, Unofficial Guide to Book Contracts
On rights, expectations, and royalties
One of my subscribers asked for a newsletter about the nuts and bolts of a book contract. I love getting questions! After one photo and a quick announcement, you’ll find my simple guide to book contracts.
Before I share those thoughts, though, here’s my updated author website. It just went live this week, after I migrated from WordPress to SquareSpace. I haven’t announced it anywhere yet, so this is a sneak peek for subscribers!
I built the new site myself, even though I’m not a tech person. It’s based on my old site and what I encourage writers to highlight on theirs. So far, I like SquareSpace for its clean look and many options. My friend Edee Lemonier, a talented author, helped me with the technical aspects of migration. If you have thoughts or questions on the site, feel free to reach out. I’m sure I’ll tweak and adjust it over the months between now and the April 19 publication of Singing Lessons for the Stylish Canary.
NOW… on to book contracts!
IMPORTANT: This does not constitute, or substitute for, legal advice and/or consulting with an agent. If you want someone to review your contract and you don’t have an agent, one option is the Authors Guild.
Book contracts vary widely and some are better than others. I chose not to rely on others’ guides or perspectives on this topic; these are my thoughts, as a publisher and author, about a few important topics every agreement should cover. Here are some things to look for and consider:
1. Formats. What rights is the publisher asking for? This could be hardcover and/or paperback and/or ebook. Make sure you know what formats your publisher will make your book available and what the scope is. I ask for world rights because our books can be purchased (theoretically) around the world. If you have fans or family in a particular country, you should ask how they will be able to buy the book.
2. Rights. Small publishers vary on what rights they ask for. Audio, foreign language translation, TV/movie, are among the possible rights that you could choose to retain for yourself or sign over for your publisher to represent. My rule of thumb, as a publisher asking authors to sign on the dotted line, is to ask for rights where we have mechanisms to sell them--and nothing more. I have had success selling audiobook rights, so I ask for those. I also have a foreign rights agency handling our relationships with presses in countries outside the US. If authors retain certain rights, they have the option of selling them directly, but that’s often feasible only if they have direct relationships with audio companies or an agent who is willing to represent the project to publishers in other countries. Signing these rights to your publisher doesn’t mean the publisher will definitely sell them; it’s an authorization for the team to try. You can absolutely say no and retain the rights, whether or not you have a method to sell them.
3. Right of first refusal. I don’t have this in my contract, but many publishers do. It’s where you’re agreeing to let the publisher who invests time and money in this project take a first look at your next book. It’s pretty standard. After all, if a press invests a lot of time and money into your project, chances are they’d like to consider your next one before you take it someplace else.
4. Publication parameters. I’m using this as an umbrella term to group some important questions together that relate to the actual publication. Every contract should address these in some way. These pieces may not appear together in a contract (I’d be shocked if they were grouped this way), but ideally each contract should address each of these topics:
a. How does termination work? If something happens before the book comes out, either on your side or the publisher’s, you’ll want to make sure the rights revert to you. Bankruptcy of the publisher might be one reason termination is necessary. Or if the publisher doesn’t follow through with a specified amount of time, you’ll want the option to break the contract. Sometimes publication schedules change, especially with small presses, and if your publisher is transparent and explains, you hopefully will want to stay the course. But if you’ve seen red flags, or felt like you’ve made a mistake, you’ll want to be clear on the termination options.
b. What is the duration of the contract? This is often listed as term of contract. What it means is how long does the publisher expect the work to be in print? Usually there’s an in-print until line, with a threshold number of copies that need to be sold in a year, otherwise the book goes out of print and rights revert.
c. Who pays for what? A traditional press contract should confirm the press will pay for all aspects of publication, including cover design, copyediting, production, and so forth. Sometimes there’s a clause that allows the author to submit possible cover art, and the author may choose to pay a licensing fee for the art or hire a freelancer out of pocket to make a version of the cover. The one thing I’ve seen consistently that is the author’s responsibility (in terms of cost and time) is getting the rights to use any copyrighted material, such as lyrics. Small presses generally don’t have the staffing available to go down all those rabbit holes or to pay for lots of licensing fees; having this be the author’s responsibility ensures they get really clear on whether those song lyrics are essential for the plot or if they can be swapped out for something else.
d. Print run. A minimum # of copies for the first printing is common in a contract. If the press is print on demand, meaning they print books as they’re ordered (instead of a run of copies up front), this number may be irrelevant.
e. Retail price. Publisher should have the right to decide on the retail price. This likely will be stated in the contract, and the actual price won’t be, because the production of the book hasn’t even started. Price are page count are linked. One thing to look at is the other books in the catalog; are they overpriced? Would you pay that much money for a book? If this is of concern to you, ask questions. It’s hard for an author to promote and sell a 200-page $30 paperback. Many small press books are in the $18-$20 range for paperbacks, but there’s definitely some fluctuation, especially depending on page count and the press’s business model and increases in the cost of doing business during the current supply chain issues.
5. Author warrantees. These are legal protection for the publisher, where the author confirms the material is original and if any pieces have been published before, that the rights have reverted to the author.
6. Royalties. What you should look for here is a breakdown of what the royalties will be per format and for any additional rights you’re signing over. Variances are immense from contract to contract, but it’s been whispered for years that most authors earn a dollar or less per print book. What you’ll especially want to be sure to understand is what your royalty payments are based on--a certain payment per copy? A percentage of net? “Net” is usually factored after distribution costs and bookstore discounts are subtracted, so it’s a percentage of what the distributor pays out to the publisher. Many presses offer advances, but many don’t. Remember presses invest time and money in your book long before any sales start, so it’s not necessarily a red flag if there’s no major commitment of cash as an advance. Forest Ave has paid a variety of advances over the years, but our usual is a token payment to show appreciation and commitment. Then we invest heavily in the book itself. Also, a low advance is more easily earned out, which boosts authors’ joy factor. It can be devastating and scary not to earn out. Bigger advances are often split into pieces, payable at different steps of the process. There are plenty of essays and articles on these topics if you want to learn more.
7. Accounting. The mechanism for getting paid should be clear--when you’ll get paid for royalties, the format (direct deposit, check, etc.), and if royalties are held back until a certain threshold of earnings is met. This may include information on when the publisher must issue a 1099.
8. Copyright and ISBN. Whether the author or publisher files for copyright, the publisher must be listed as the publisher of the work. If the publisher is filing, this gives the press the right to act on behalf of the author to file for copyright with the Library of Congress. The press must agree to give your book an ISBN number if it’s going to be available in mainstream channels. ISBNs have a middle section of numbers that is unique to each press, and presses must never reuse ISBNs or everything will get jumbled in bookstores’ systems. It’s common to have an ISBN for each print edition (paperback and hardback) and an ISBN for the ebook version. When I started publishing ten years ago, we were required to have ISBNs for each ebook format--and we had to make three formats (ePub, mobi, and PDF) available. But in recent years, it’s become common to just create one ebook type and use one ISBN.
9. Editing and cover decisions. The contract should detail what is expected of the publisher and what rights the author has in terms of the editorial process and cover design. These might be in separate sections, but I’ve grouped them here because editing and cover decisions are a back-and-forth between the publishing team and the author; ideally everyone is excited about the results. If you’re worried about what your cover might look like, pay extra attention to what the contract language says. Title finalization may also be part of the contract, because many publishers request title changes. Ideally, this would be communicated to the author before signing, i.e. We love your book and will release the announcement with a draft title or We think the working title isn’t the one that’s going to sell this book. Often authors have expectations or wishes that they have to let go of--especially if they’ve gotten used to calling their book by a certain title or if they’ve been imagining a particular color scheme and the designer comes back with a cover featuring different colors. It’s an act of extreme trust to work with someone else on work that has--up until now--only belonged to you. That trust is essential, because it’s common for the publisher to have final say on these components, because your team knows the market, understands what sells, and how to reach the target audience. That being said, no publishing team sets out to craft a cover or make editorial decisions that the author hates, because you are all in this together: trying to push a book into the world.
10. Publicity. This varies widely; if your press does publicity, this section of the contract might be quite extensive. Here are a few important pieces that should be addressed.
a. If the press has a small budget, make sure there’s at least something in the contract about advance reader copies or galleys. Without early copies of your book to send out to the media and booksellers, you will have a hard time getting reviews, feature stories, or bookseller support.
b. A contract should include asking the author for a headshot and a formal bio to be used for publicity.
c. Contests may be included in a publicity section, and if so, the language should detail whether the press will pay entry fees and/or offer free copies for submission purposes. Sometimes there’s a top limit--like a dollar amount, number of copies, or number of contests--that the press will submit to, and information on how it works if the author wants to submit beyond that.
11. Process-related expectations. This is a pretty simple but important piece of a contract--and again, I’m grouping pieces that make sense to my brain but your contract might have them in separate sections. What does the publisher expect of the author in terms of the manuscript being submitted? A PDF submitted is much less useful than, say, a Word doc when it comes to the editing process. What formats are acceptable? Is there an editing turnaround expectation built into the contract--and if so, does it sound like something you can reasonably meet? Who owns the electronic files (i.e. the InDesign files or any graphics/illustrations the press creates for your book)? And who owns those files in case of early termination or press bankruptcy?
12. Author copies. We spell this out as its own section because it’s so important, but it could appear anywhere in the contract. Authors should be able to buy copies at a discount--ideally at a 50 percent discount--but not all presses can afford to do that. If contest copies aren’t addressed elsewhere, they might be added in here. It’s likely that you’ll see some language about reselling your books direct to readers. We don’t let our authors sell books directly to bookstores because that goes against our distribution agreement, but they are welcome to sell to friends, family, or at fairs and festivals and writing conferences. Every press is different but you’ll want to understand the boundaries, especially if you hope to do house parties or other private events.
13. Additional legalese. I’m not a legal expert, so all I’ll say here is that there should be clear mechanisms for what happens if. The ifs could vary--what if the publisher goes bankrupt? What if the book doesn’t come out on time? What if there’s a legal claim filed against the author about the work? What happens if copyright infringement occurs? How is a legal dispute going to be resolved if one does arise--and what jurisdiction would be responsible for handling a lawsuit? (That should be the legal system in the place the press is based.
14. Signatures. The signature block usually includes the date, contact information, and signature of both parties. It’s good practice for the author and publisher to initial and date the bottom of every page of the contract. Even if the publisher doesn’t have a place to initial and date, you should do it anyway, because that makes it extra clear that you are agreeing to each page.
YOUR BRIGHT SIDE INVITATION: I invite you to ask me questions about the industry, the process, whatever you’re not sure about. I’m especially obsessed with metadata and distribution, so raise your hand if you want to know about those. My turnaround won’t be immediate, but I’m going to keep a list of topics and will work through them over the next few months.
Feel free to leave a comment! I started this newsletter to create an intimate but accessible conversation space about creativity, grief, and the societal reset that the pandemic has offered creatives like us. I’d love to hear your thoughts. You can reply to this email to have a conversation just with me, or you can comment on the post to connect with other readers. You’re also welcome to forward this to any friends who might like it.
For those of you who are new: Thanks for joining my newsletter community! I publish new pieces twice a month (ish). Being transparent about publishing is my jam—as a publisher and now as an author—and I’m equally passionate about building creativity into everyday life.
Love the new website, and what a lot of great information in the rest of the post!
One to bookmark for sure. Christina is right. This is gold!