Saturday, November 24, 2007

Figuring out the contract

Even though I'm an attorney, I don't know all that much about publishing contracts. Therefore, when I got mine from Covenant, I immediately asked for help from friends. The standard small press publishing contracts I've seen are usually unconscionable. A real nasty one came signed by a client came across my desk when I was working at a firm. Typically they want all rights, exclusive use of your name, the right to edit and even rewrite without permission from you, etc. Given that, Covenant's didn't look bad at all.

Daniel Abraham met with me for lunch today and read the thing over. His verdict: it looks like a small press contract from a small press that isn't run by bloodsucking evil people who prey on wannabes. We talked specific terms and, armed with his information and a copy of one of his contracts with Tor, I shall see if I can get this thing into a form that both the publisher and I are happy with.

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