Earlier this month, I
conducted a workshop about how to land a contract with a traditional publisher.
In addition to the ins and outs of proper preparation and the importance of
following guidelines, I advised the class to carefully review a contract before
signing, to ask for clarification about things they didn’t understand, or to even
reject clauses that were not in their best interest. I don’t know how much of
it sank in, but I did refer them to The Writers Union of Canada website (TWUC),
which provides plenty of good information, including a Writers Bill of Rightsfor the Digital Age, which offers ten principles about digital rights and
royalties.
It’s too bad that
this stuff wasn’t around when author Roxanne St. Claire was signing a contract
for a book over a decade ago. As she states in her blog, she was so excited
about signing the contract (and don’t most of us fall into this trap?) that she
didn’t see a problem with the clause that said, “The book will be considered
still in print as long as it is available for purchase in any format, including
electronic”. More than ten years later, she still cannot get her rights back
because the publisher refuses to revert them to her, and legally they don’t
have to. St. Claire notes that her book sold only four copies last year. In a
standard contract of the day, rights would immediately revert to her, but since the contract stated, “including electronic”, things changed.
Today’s contracts
extensively cover digital rights, and writers need to understand what each clause
mean, particularly when dealing with big five publishers who ensure that the
contract is stacked in their favor. All this digital wrangling makes things
exceedingly difficult and frustrating for writers. As St. Claire points out,
her words, imagination, and heart went into that book. She’s gone on to
self-publish and has produced a total of 45 books over her career. Yet she still
wishes she had that book back. It was her favorite.
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