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More on contracts

3/26/2016

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 Here's an odd coincidence. N.K. Wagner, the Chief Editor and Publisher of Page and Spine, responded to the previous posting and wondered if that particular publisher had snared anyone into that bad contract.  I wondered about that too, so I went to the publisher's website to find out. 
There are at least two other authors now publishing with that author.  The coincidence is that one of those authors was a story author in this month's Page and Spine.
{
Blurb: My monthly review column is now there for March on Page and Spine's Writers Table Tab.} 
It was because I'd written a review of that story that allowed me to recognize the name.  I contacted her through her website, introduced myself, referenced the entry on my blog, and expressed a curiosity about the contract she signed.  This blog entry is as late as it is because I've ben waiting for a response from her.  But it has not showed up so I have no easy way to see if the contract offer has improved. If this author does respond, I'll pass it on here.
In the meantime, The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America have developed a new model contract for magazine publishing.  Anyone at all interested in writing anything in the speculative fiction genre for magazines should read this contract. It is also available for download so the reference can be at your fingertips. Here's the link for that:
http://www.sfwa.org/2015/09/sfwa-releases-a-new-model-magazine-contract/
Speaking of writing for magazines, I submitted three stories this weekend.  I submitted two to Flash Fiction On Line, one of about 500 words and another just under a thousand.
I also submitted a reprint, "Battle Scars" to the Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show magazine.  They seldom take reprints, but will consider them if the previous incarnation was very obscure. This was--it was published in a very limited edition, never for sale and never on line. It is in the anthology In Places Between for 2013 featuring the winners of the Robyn Herrington Memorial Short Fiction Competition and was only distributed to the authors, editors and publishers of the book.
{Good News: The Quickfic Publishing imprint of Digital Fiction Publishing has accepted my reprint story, "Transition", to be published on their website and in an anthology that may be digital or print or both.} I will update this development as appropriate.    
Once again I thank you for visiting.  

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Bad Contract!

3/7/2016

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One of my Facebook friends who is also an author had wondered about accepting the first contract offered. I replied that she had to be really careful. I was offered a contract for Witchery about a year ago...and it was terrible. 
Much of it was standard, but the non-standard stuff was horrible, at least for me.  It did pretty well for the publisher.  And when I suggested some negotiation, it was immediately and emphatically declined.  The publisher even insisted that some of this--like the copyright clause--was standard in the publishing business.  That may have been ignorance on the publisher's part, as it was a new organization.  Fortunately, I had guidance from Mary Rosenblum and her Literary Midwife newsletter.
Below I'm going to include certain excerpts of the contract and then comment on it:

Additional rights which the Author grants to the Publisher in the languages and within the territories specified above are:
1. First serial rights and reprint of selections and shortened versions in any magazine or newspaper;
2. Second serial rights and reprint of selections and shortened versions in any magazine  or newspaper (provided these rights have not been retained by the purchaser of the first serial rights);
3. Recording and photographic reproduction of all or part of the text; dramatic (stage, radio, television, motion picture) commercial visual and/or sound presentation, reproduction, recording;
4. Developing or licensing for use in all other mechanical or electronic visual and sound reproducing rights of the Work now known or later invented;
5.   Reproduction of the text for the physically handicapped; and
6. All sales of the entire Work, or of parts of the Work, including sales and fees for use of the Work or parts of the Work in library reader formats, such as those used by NetLibrary, Ebrary, and Questia, sales and fees for use of parts of the Work in academic course packs and anthologies produced in schools, universities, and other entities, and sales and fees derived from permission fees for magazine, condensation, and quotation rights, and photocopying or digital reproduction of parts of the Work.
The Publisher shall have the sole right to negotiate and  sign contracts, in regard to these rights. The Publisher may publish or permit others to publish, free of charge, such brief selections as it thinks proper to benefit the sale of the Work.

As you can see, if the book becomes best seller and Hollywood wants to make a movie based on it, the publisher has the sole right to negotiate a deal.  And later in the contract it spells out royalty payments for the author only in regards to words of the published novel.  No word at all about author's share of movie or recording income.  

Copyright of the Work shalI be registered by the Publisher, upon first publication, in a timely manner in the name of the Publisher, in Canada, and in such other countries as the Publisher deems feasible or desirable, and the proper copyright notice or notices necessary to protect copyright to and in any work shall be printed on the reverse side of the title page or in another appropriate place, in every copy thereof. The Publisher shall also have the right to effect any renewals of copyright provided by law and the right to any assistance from the Author or Author's heirs, successors, or assigns, essential thereto.


This is why I said "NO!" very quickly. The publisher gets all rights and I get nothing for the future.

ln the event of bankruptcy or liquidation of the Publisher for any cause whatsoever, the rights  of publication shall revert to the Author upon payment of fair market value. Thereafter this agreement shall thereupon terminate without notice.


So with that clause, if the publisher goes belly-up. I have to buy my rights back based on "fair market value."  Wanna bet the publisher decides what that is?

These are not all the deal breakers in this contract, but it is easy to see some things that made this a terrible contract.  If anybody wishes to see more, contact me and I'll post or send the other "gotchas." 



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It happened again.

3/2/2016

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On a personal note my wife's health issues are mostly solved except that she can't trust her left leg. Even using her walker she has fallen several times because without warning the left leg will just collapse.  It may be because there is no kneecap in that leg.  Whatever the reason, I'm now the chief cook and bottle washer as well as everything else. It bites into the writing time, and the excellence of the meals.  She can sit by the stove and cook or stir, but that's very awkward.  Hopefully this condition will improve, but who knows if or when?
As to what happened again: Those who have been reading this will recall that in the 12/6 post I mentioned that after I agreed to publication of Witchery with Double Dragon Publishing, I got a letter from another publisher that wanted to look at it.
This time it is Just Lucky: Friends and Enemies that had a suitor left outside the door.
I had contacted many publishers about this novel before and during my contact with Gnome on Pig Productions. As I've written before, I've signed a working contract with them. But last week another of those publishers that had seen the first ten pages wanted to see the whole manuscript. Of course I had to tell them it was no longer available, at least not until July. But GPP is taking their time.  I've been notified that their chief editor will be working with me on the novel, but I have yet to hear from him.  I will probably give them a "what's up?" pretty soon. I have no idea how busy they are with other projects, though, so I am trying to be patient.
With everything else going on I'm not getting as much work done on Saving Atlantis as I'd like, but I do make progress.
Oh, one more thing. When I wrote "with everything else going on" I reminded myself that my first review article of 2016 appeared last Friday and is still on the front burner of The Writers Table at Page and Spine.  Here it is:
http://www.pagespineficshowcase.com/the-writers-table.html 
There is a possibility that this blog will get political next time. I'm starting to get really irritated with people that treasure their ignorance and refuse to even try to think rationally, so I may vent.
Thanks for dropping by. 

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