When Arabella magazine notified me that they were going to buy “Popcorn Murders” I was ecstatic. After all, they were all competing to be published in that magazine.

Then they told me that “the contract would be ready”. My joy soon turned to terror. I didn’t know anything about contracts! And I sure wasn’t going to hire a lawyer to review the contract, especially for a story contract, so I learned how to read the contract myself.

I’m told it’s not a good thing, but how many writers have the money to run out and hire a lawyer every time they get a contract? (Most publishers issue contracts for each and every piece they buy these days.) I now have a bulging file of all my contracts, and if I had hired a professional every time, I’d be lost. money, believe me.

The information in this article is not intended to replace your attorney or legal representative; it is meant only as a guide. (Some writers’ organizations will help you with this as part of your annual fee.)

Things to include in your contract:

expected publication date

ms word count

story title

Author’s name

Rights sold

Fee (either per word or complete works)

Legal obligations of each party

Death rate (if any)

Copyright Ownership

Mediation and Arbitration (if disputes arise)

Some of the above are self explanatory so I won’t go into them at all. Others can be quite confusing, so we’ll look at each one individually.

Rights sold:

This may vary from post to post and should be checked carefully. Never agree to sell ‘All Rights’ as this means you can NEVER sell the work again. Ever.

With Arabella, I sold the first rights, with a clause that I would not allow the story to be republished anywhere within thirty days of publication. That meant he was free to resell it whenever he wanted after thirty days.

So let’s take a look at rights:

First rights means that this is the first time the story has been published.
Second rights means that it is the second time it has been published, and so on.

However, there may be a variation to this. You can sell (for example) First Australian Rights, First US Rights, First World Rights, etc. The same applies to second and/or subsequent sales.

Be absolutely sure which rights you are selling when you review your contract.

All rights:

As mentioned above, selling ‘all rights’ is not a good thing. Basically, you will never be able to sell your story again, not in any way. There’s only one way I’d do that, and that’s if they paid me a lot of money.

But, there is a catch. (Isn’t there always?)

If you sell ‘all rights’ in a book deal, for example, you stand to lose a lot of money doing so.

Let me tell you a story: a friend sold her novel to a new publisher in the UK. Her contract said that she was selling them ‘all rights’. This was her first sale, and she accepted it. About a year later, the publication went bankrupt; her novel went to hell with the publisher.

That was two years ago.

You recently learned that your book has been published in large print. That’s good, right? Well, no. Because she sold ‘all rights’, she got absolutely nothing for later sale.

And if someone ever decides to turn their book into a movie, the same will apply. Never sell ‘all rights’ if you can help it, unless, as I said before, they pay you a lot of money.

death fee:

A ‘kill fee’ is literally the fee you get if the post ‘kills’ the story. That is, they decide not to use it after all.

A ‘kill fee’ may also apply if a publisher of the publications asks you to do rewrites that you believe misrepresent your own views or, in the case of a piece of fiction, distort history.

I know someone who had the latter happen to him, and since he didn’t have the murder fee clause, he asked the publication to use a pseudonym instead of his own.

Copyright:

It is extremely important for writers to understand copyright laws. If you don’t, then please go out and do some research.

In the case of your contract, you should always indicate that the property remains with the author. If not, you probably have a problem.

If you have sold ‘all rights’, the property is no longer yours.

Publication date:

Many contracts will state the date the publication expects to publish your story. They may even give an end date. In my contract with Arabella, it was stated that if the story was not executed (published) within twelve months, the rights reverted to me and I could still keep the payment.

As strange as it sounds, it actually happens. I have another friend who sold a story to a major women’s magazine in Australia, and two years after she sold it, the story still hadn’t been published. She called them and was told that they had “lost” the story.

They sent her a confirmation letter that the rights had reverted to her. And yes, she sold it back, as ‘first rights’ again, as it was never published.

Other things to keep in mind:

For book contracts, make sure there is a clause in case the publisher goes bankrupt. In my contract it states that if the publisher closes its doors, or goes into liquidation (or similar) the rights refer to me.

This is a very important clause to check. Several writers have had to wait seven years to get their books back in their possession after a publisher went bankrupt. Some writers have gone to court over the clause, but still had to wait for the term to expire.

Please, for your peace of mind, make sure that your contract includes the liquidation clause. (Remember the writer whose book sold in large print? She had that seven-year clause, too. She can’t resell that book, and she still has to wait another five years before she can buy it.)

I also have a clause that my publisher only has the rights to my book for two years. That means I can buy the book after two years if I’m not happy with my publisher. Or, if I’m happy, I can renew my contract with the same publisher and they can keep selling the book.

Also check that the contract has a ‘release’ clause. If, for example, your book is due to be published in February 2005, but hasn’t yet been published in December 2005, if it’s covered in your contract, you can withdraw from that publisher without penalty. If it is not mentioned, then you have no answer; you just have to put it on. And if that’s the case, and they decide to release it three years later, there’s nothing you can do about it.

One more clause that you may want to consider is in relation to royalties. You should have the right to have publisher accounts reviewed if you believe your royalties have been paid incorrectly, either in error or on purpose. In most cases, if it is determined that royalties have been withheld, the costs are the responsibility of the publisher. If it is verified that they are correct, the costs are borne by the author. (And this must be stated in the contract)

Summary:

Make sure you understand the aspects of your contract. You want it to be in layman’s terms and not legal jargon, which will make it impossible for you to understand without legal representation.

* Review your contract at least three times.

* Highlight anything you don’t understand or don’t like.

* Discuss them with your editor.

* Save all correspondence to and from your editor for future use.

* Always keep a ‘paper trail’ that can be followed. (Even if it’s on the computer!)

* If you don’t feel comfortable with something, there’s probably a reason.