Hi Anneliese,
I usually have them look at the following points in the contract:
- Liability / fault – make sure the author is not on the hook for any problems that might not be their fault
- Advance/royalty – they can negotiate this but typically unless an author is a big name, they don’t feel comfortable
- Alternatively, they can ask that the publisher pay for editing and indexing rather than having this charged against author royalties
- Copyright / Language rights – we like to ask authors to negotiate for their copyright, but I usually recommend rights reversion after 10 years and/or
they maintain their foreign language rights if that’s something that’s important to them
- Cover design – you’d be surprised at how many authors are unhappy with their cover designs, if this is something they care about they should maintain
the right to approve or veto
- Number of copies – they can ask for more, especially if they’re up for tenure/promotion and need copies for their committee, I’ve found authors are really
happy with this one and it makes them practice asking for things.
This isn’t in the contract, but the author should ask for a marketing survey if they don’t get one, and make sure to 1) fill it out thoroughly and 2) keep a copy so they can follow up with their marketing
person in advance of important events and announcements. I’ve definitely encountered authors who don’t tell us that they’re keynoting a conference that we would have attended (with copies) if they’d told us.
I hope this is helpful!
Best,
Charlotte
Hello SCCKG wisdom. Do you have any guidelines for UC researchers who are entering into an editing agreement for a book? I've had a couple of people ask if the contract they've been asked to sign
looks ok or if they're allowed to sign it. Since it's not about their writing but rather their work editing other authors' work, it's a different kind of contract. I haven't seen a model or ideal contract in this area so I'm wondering if there are red flags
to look out for or things that we should encourage them to modify.
Anneliese Taylor, MLIS (she/her) |