Contractual Differences
Warning: Very Long Post! In the past few weeks and over the last couple of years I’ve been hearing a lot of complaints from writers that basically boil down to “I’m being screwed by a contract clause.” And this isn’t just from new authors who had no prior experience with publishing contracts, but also from experienced authors making the jump to independent e-book publication, boutique/small press and other scale/medium shifts. Many of you may be aware of problems with Dorchester publishing about two years ago in which they dropped print publication and went to electronic only, or instances of Kindle price drops that took authors by surprise, and the recent news that L. J. Smith has been ousted from her long-running bestseller series The Vampire Diaries by the enforcement of her work-for-hire contract. All of these cases and a lot more are the result of one party or the other misunderstanding, not reading, or mis-interpreting/abusing a clause in their publication contract. Lest you be...