AUTHOR-PUBLISHER BOOK CONTRACTS CONSULTING SERVICE

As this article makes clear, if you don't have a literary agent, you can lose a lot of money (and rights) by automatically signing a publisher's "boilerplate" contract.

If you'd like additional help beyond the tips provided here, Barbara will read a copy of the contract you've been given and help you understand how certain clauses in it are going to cost you loss of royalties or literary rights, and what you need to know to negotiate with your publisher to get some of these restrictive clauses changed.

Click here to consult with Barbara now.

2006 Guide to
Literary Agents

This article continues the discussion begun in
Selling Your Book to a Trade Publisher

Author-Publisher Contract Tips

by Barbara Brabec

This article does not constitute "legal advice," but merely reflects what I've learned from years of working with several trade book publishers and observing how my literary agent negotiated each of my book contracts to get special clauses that offered me maximum financial benefits. If you have an agent, he or she should take care of these details for you, but if you are negotiating your own contract, you should press for inclusion of the following clauses (which the publisher will write in "legalese"), and then let an attorney check the publisher's contract before you sign it. Or see the book at left for guidance in doing this yourself.

IMPORTANT: Publishers may tell you that you have received the "standard author contract," but only nervous beginners will accept what's offered without asking for beneficial changes. In particular, try to get the following clauses into your book contract:

1. DISCOUNT ON AUTHOR COPIES. You should have the right to sell your book at workshops or conferences, by mail to your own list of readers, or on your Web site if you choose. Try to get a 60 percent discount on case lots, but be happy if you can get at least 50 percent. Some trade publishers won't give more than 40 percent off the book's retail price. (NOTE: Some of the "electronic publishers" who are courting authors on the Web offer as little as 20 percent, which is totally unacceptable to any author who is serious about selling his or her own books. But these publishers and their publishing contracts are another whole topic. You'll find some general guidelines in my article, Your Self-Publishing Options With Today's eBook and POD Publishers.

Since some publishers seem to fear sales competition from authors, getting a good discount on books you want to buy for resale may be difficult. If you plan to aggressively market and sell your book, you must emphasize this point during your contract negotiations. Explain that your promotions for the book will automatically generate publicity that will increase sales at the bookstore level. From years of experience, I can confirm the truth of this statement. In the many years that I sold my books by mail, I never competed with my publishers for bookstore or library sales, and in fact always encouraged sales at the bookstore level by adding a line to all my press releases that said, "Available in bookstores or by mail from the author for . . . ."

TIP: If you can't get a decent author discount on your own book, set yourself up in business as a mail-order dealer (with a separate business name) and order books at wholesale prices the way other retailers do. (They typically get a 50 percent discount).

2. OUT-OF-PRINT CLAUSE. It's painful to think about, but someday the publisher will decide to let your book go out of print. (The less you promote your own book, the sooner this will happen.) Prepare for that day by negotiating a clause in your author contract that enables you to acquire the rights to your book as soon as possible so you can offer it to another publisher or take it to press yourself. Ask that the rights be given to you immediately, but expect that the publisher will normally want to hold them for three to six months or more after the book is officially declared out of print.

TIP: Also include options to (a) acquire the text and cover negatives if you don't have the ability to recreate the book yourself; and (b) the right to buy the publisher's remaining stock before it is offered to one of the "remainder houses" (usually at about ten cents on the dollar). Such books tend to turn up at 50 to 75 percent off the cover price in discount mail order book catalogs.

3. ROYALTIES. Royalties vary from publisher to publisher but generally start at five percent on paperback editions and ten percent on hardcover editions. Royalties higher than a publisher's norm must be negotiated and will be difficult to obtain without the help of an agent. Royalties are generally paid twice a year in one of two ways: a percentage on either the cover price of the book or the net price the publisher receives after discounting to buyers. The latter method is common, but not desirable, particularly if there is a clause in the contract that stipulates royalties will diminish (or be halved) on books sold at discounts greater than fifty percent. (Since some publishers sell MOST of their books at a greater discount than this, accepting this clause could cut your royalties to the nubbins.)

TIP: Try to get a graded royalty scale, one that starts at the level first offered by the publisher, and gradually increases as more and more books are solds. Typical quantity breaks are 10,000, 25,000, 50,000 and 100,000+. If you are willing to work to help promote your book to achieve a high sales level, you should be compensated accordingly.

Working With A Literary Agent

Although professional writers with a track record have more negotiating power than a rank beginner, beginners can often get better royalties if they can find a literary agent who will represent them.

TIP: Read Writer's Digest Magazine for information on how to find interested agents and also The Literary Market Place directory in your library. A directory of agents is also offered for sale on Bookmarket.com

At one time, I believed that because I felt comfortable negotiating a book contract I didn't need to give an agent a percentage of my royalties for doing what I could do myself. That was my argument until the year I finally accepted the fact that one person can do only so much. The demands of my business, coupled with the memory of frustrating publisher experiences in the past and all the stress this caused me, finally made me realize I needed a break. It is the tendency of entrepreneurs to want to do everything themselves, but after several years, burnout is a serious problem. The time finally came when I knew I had to ease up a bit and accept help from someone else.

After working with a terrific agent for several years (who now works only with established writers), I can state emphatically that she is worth every penny she earns and more. She first proved her worth the year she got me a sizable advance for doing a new edition of Homemade Money and wrote into my contract that all future updates would also require an advance. Having already updated that book four times for the first publisher without receiving an advance, you can bet I was delighted to give her 15 percent of that check.

Later, when we ran into quirky problems, I didn't have to stress myself over them because she took the whole load off my shoulders and resolved all misunderstandings to my satisfaction. She has since sold four other books for me, getting all kinds of special clauses and benefits in my contracts that I never would have thought of in the first place, let alone be able to successfully negotiate.

In short, an agent who is excited about your book project will work hard to get you the largest advance possible, the highest royalties possible, the highest discount on books you want to buy for resale, and so on. Although it's hard for beginning writers to interest a literary agent, if you have a solid book idea and can prove its marketing possibilities, it may not be as difficult to get an agent as you think.

[Back to Part I of this article,
"Selling Your Book to a Trade Publisher"]

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