No amount of telling someone to spend money will make dollars magically appear. Some don’t have $25–or even $5–a month to spirit away for a rainy publishing day, but this doesn’t mean barring them from being pubbed. It merely means finding creative ways around it…like educating ones’self on contracts. Something all writers should do anyway, which doesn’t mean depending on a lawyer’s nod to save the day. A contract may look fantastic, but this doesn’t mean the publisher will honor it.

FWIW-I’m pretty legalese savvy, but when I sat down with an attorney, I was surprised at the industry standard interpretation of some of those straight forward looking clauses. Turns out, they’re not so straight forward. Knowing this ahead of time, I was able to negotiate around them, but without that inside info, I never even would have thought to address them. Later, that hour consult with the attorney turned to to be some of the best money I ever spent on myself and my career

I agree completely. I’ve looked over a number of publishing contracts and felt I had a solid handle on their contents. I’m well educated and (although I can’t type) my grasp of English is reasonably solid. When a good literary agent goes over those same contracts, I’ve found a number of phrases that have a legal meaning quite different than their apparent meaning.

Perhaps the cost-benefit analysis doesn’t favor a publishing lawyer or an agent in all cases, but if I were betting my career I’d prefer to be safe. Writing a decent book represents a considerable amount of time and effort. Ideally, even after the original sale you may get additional revenue from audio books, foreign sales, movies, electronic publication, comic books etc. if you manage your rights carefully. A badly written contract tends to grab all of these rights and assign them to the first publisher. A little money spent on the contract can insure that when opportunity knocks, it comes to YOUR door.

Other authors can be your best ally - and your worst enemy. I would say that if you hear ten songs of praise and one bad report about a publisher, listen to the bad report with all your heart and investigate it further.

Agreed. I do know some authors who are not as happy with Samhain as I have been, but the problems seemed to be more issues with editors, and personalities not meshing rather than anything that would particularly alarm me–such as being wishy-washy on release dates or sloppy with royalty statements or meddling with my characters’ sexual orientations and practices, haha! These may not be books that I pet lovingly and croon to when no one’s looking, but I still want to write the kinds of books I want to, and sometimes that means–OMG!–f/f sex. Or no sex–gasp!

Caveat lector.

Ain’t that the truth.

It is disheartening when you see authors on forums asking: “What do you know about so-and-so, I just got a full request from them.”

Better that than after they sign the contract, which happens.

What’s *really* disheartening is when you try to warn other authors about a dodgy contract clause (which happened to me - the first pub I signed with had a unilateral cancellation clause without them having to give any reason, which they exercised without warning), and authors try and negate that warning because they’ve signed that stupid contract and assume it will never happen to them so there’s no problem.

Other authors can be your best ally - and your worst enemy. I would say that if you hear ten songs of praise and one bad report about a publisher, listen to the bad report with all your heart and investigate it further. All too often those caught up in a failing publisher are desperate to keep the thing afloat, even if it means lying.

Bad reports are red flags. But no red flags does *not* mean the publisher isn’t in trouble. Unfortunately, neither does the fact a bunch of authors claim to be happy with them. Caveat lector.

I can see your position based on how you view what you’re selling in the e-market. Still, I do think you’d be surprised at just how cost effective it can be to resolve a dispute when backed by a solid contract. Something to think about for those whose epub series catch on and want to transition it to the bigger NY market.

Who knows? I may end up regretting not getting that official legal advice, but for what I’m writing, and my expectations for it, I’m okay for now. My publisher doesn’t have that dreaded, hideous option clause where they claim first look at EVERYTHING YOU WILL WRITE EVAH!!!11! If they did, and weren’t prepared to waive it, I might have walked away, because although I don’t mind taking a risk on one book (or two or three or ten), I feel very differently about taking the same risk on EVERYTHING I WILL WRITE EVAH!!!11!

And the contract is for a fixed number of years–not in perpetuity. If I make it big at Tor one day and I want rights back on those early books, they’ll revert back to me on request when the contract expires.

And as Jules advises, I did some serious research on epubs before I even thought about submitting–nearly a year of nosing around, sniffing out gossip and dirt and controversy. In the end, there were only four publishers I was willing to even sub to, and it turned out that my top choice wanted my book, yay!

It is disheartening when you see authors on forums asking: “What do you know about so-and-so, I just got a full request from them.” WTF? You’re supposed to ask that question before you send your query! If authors are asking those kind of questions, they’re probably going to get burned sooner or later, lawyer or no.

I’m sorry for not understanding your point sooner. Disposable fiction is a foreign concept to me, but I can see your position based on your explanation. Still, I do think you’d be surprised at just how cost effective it can be to resolve a dispute when backed by a solid contract. Something to think about for those whose epub series catch on and want to transition it to the bigger NY market. Or even for those who want to simply expand/transition. Clear rights can be worth serious money down the road. And maybe I’m old school, but as writers I think we always need to be facilitating now those opportunities waiting down the road.

FWIW-I’m pretty legalese savvy, but when I sat down with an attorney, I was surprised at the industry standard interpretation of some of those straight forward looking clauses. Turns out, they’re not so straight forward. Knowing this ahead of time, I was able to negotiate around them, but without that inside info, I never even would have thought to address them.

I’m sorry for not understanding your point sooner. It’s a foreign concept to me, but I can see your position based on how you view what you’re selling in the e-market. Still, I do think you’d be surprised at just how cost effective it can be to resolve a dispute when backed by a solid contract. Something to think about for those whose epub series catch on and want to transition it to the bigger NY market. Or even for those who want to simply expand/transition. Clear rights can be worth serious money down the road. And maybe I’m old school, but as writers I think we always need to be facilitating now those opportunities waiting down the road.

FWIW-I’m pretty legalese savvy, but when I sat down with an attorney, I was surprised at the industry standard interpretation of some of those straight forward looking clauses. Turns out, they’re not so straight forward. Knowing this ahead of time, I was able to negotiate around them, but without that inside info, I never even would have thought to address them. Later, that hour consult with the attorney turned to to be some of the best money I ever spent on myself and my career.