Blog to Book - Part 3: Negotiating a contract

March 15th, 2008

Read the other parts of this series:

Telling the world

I called my mom.

I hadn’t told anyone I was pursuing a book deal, but now that an offer was on the table, I decided it was time to blab. The first person I wanted to tell was my mom. She didn’t pick up the phone. I was in danger of exploding all over the telephone if I didn’t tell someone my good news immediately, so I left a message and then called my younger brother who lived in town. He didn’t answer his phone either. So I called my older brother long distance and thankfully he answered his phone, saving my organs from splattering all over my flatscreen monitor.

Telling people about the book was really fun.The best part about having good news is being able to share it with other people. My only regret is that I told everyone over the phone and did not get to see the stunned expressions on their faces. For some reason I was surprised by how happy everyone else was for me. Obviously I was happy, but my family and friends were just as thrilled as me, as if my happiness were a disease and I were infecting the world with joy. The glow of bliss emanating from this event was so bright that it encompassed everyone in its halo. I was especially surprised that this special thing was happening to me. Special things happened to other people.

In need of advice

Next, I called two of my aunts. One is a professional proofreader who knows people in publishing. The other is a lawyer. I needed advice on negotiating a book contract because I had absolutely no idea how to negotiate a book contract. Although I had an offer, it was still just an offer and not a legally binding agreement until the papers were signed. Now that I had told people, it would be completely mortifying if the contract fell through. I wanted to take care of this as quickly as possible before my publisher had time to redact the offer or find some other former fat girl to write a book.

Too bad everyone was off for the holidays. My contract offer was the best Christmas gift I’d ever gotten, but the timing meant that everyone in the publishing and legal industries was out of their offices for a week or two. Ultimately, this was a good thing because it gave me time to learn everything I possibly could about book contracts. I did online research and read author forums, but I found the book Negotiating a Book Contract: A Guide for Authors, Agents and Lawyers by Mark Levine to be the most helpful. (It appears to be out of print which I find unsurprising since the copy I checked out from the library was falling apart.) It explained every part of the contract, translated the legal gobblygook, and told me what clauses to pay particular attention to. And trust me, there was a lot of gobblygook. I had to learn about indemnification and high discount sales and second serial rights. It was like learning pig latin. It sort of sounded like English, but it wasn’t.

I also read The Writer’s Legal Companion by Brad Bunnin and Peter Beren which has a chapter on contracts as well as other helpful legal information for authors. After doing an Amazon search, I’m wondering why I didn’t also check out Kirsch’s Guide to the Book Contract: For Authors, Publishers, Editors and Agents by Jonathan Kirsch which looks informative. Perhaps it was already checked out from the library?

Negotiating the contract

My aunts gave me names of intellectual property lawyers I could contact. Once these lawyers returned from Christmas vacations in Tahiti, I contacted one of them. In retrospect, it would have been better if I’d started looking for a lawyer before I got an offer because finding one, setting up an agreement with one, and working your way into their schedule takes time. Then I negotiated back and forth with the publisher until we had a contract we could both agree on. I did the actual negotiating myself and took a lot of pride in doing it. I was glad I’d done my research and taken the time to understand what every sentence in the contract meant. I don’t have an agent, and I probably could have gotten a better deal if I did since agents have a lot of experience and insider knowledge that gives them power. But one of the advantages of working with a smaller press is that they don’t always require you be agented to look at your work. Ultimately I got a deal I was happy with, a deal I considered to be good. If I ever write another book, I would certainly consider getting an agent to consult on the contract. They usually earn their 10%. I think having an agent is also like buying “stupid insurance.” If anything goes wrong, you can at least say you had professional advice and didn’t screw it up on your own.

I’m obviously not going to discuss the details of my contract because people are weird about money and you can never win anyway. Either you’ll think I’m an ass who got paid too much or you’ll think I’m an idiot who got ripped off. You can find detailed information on what book contracts contain in the books I listed above. Essentially, contracts are for when things go wrong, not for when things go right. A lot of the contract was devoted to how things would be handled if things went wrong, like if I was late meeting a deadline or the publisher went out of business. Other parts were dedicated to things that will probably never happen, like who gets paid for TV and movie rights. The rest stated when I had to turn in my final manuscript, how long it should be, how royalties would be determined and what my advance would be.

The publisher paid me half of my advance upon signing and half upon completion of the work. The advance is an advance against royalties. I make a certain percentage of money off of every book sold. Until I earn enough royalties to total that advance, I don’t get paid anything. Once I’ve earned enough royalties to equal that advance, I’ll start getting paid for everything I’ve earned over it. It’s great to get as big of an advance as you can because that’s money you get to keep even if your book never sells a copy. However, if your book never sells a copy, it’s going to be harder to get a deal like that again because you will be considered a huge failure by your publisher. My advance wasn’t huge. I couldn’t quit my job. But I liked the fact that I wouldn’t have to sell a zillion copies for my book to be considered a success.

Shopping around

It occurred to me during this process that I could shop my book around to other publishers. I could have tried to get more money from a bigger publishing house who could give me a bigger run and a bigger publicity budget. I could have tried to get a hardback deal instead of the paperback deal I was offered. Then I’d get an opportunity to earn money off of both the original hardback release and a possible paperback release a year later. I could have looked for an agent to see what other offers s/he might be able to dig up for me.

I decided not to do these things for a couple reasons. First, I knew Seal Press was genuinely interested in my book because they were the ones who approached me about it and helped me develop the idea. Second, Seal Press is a feminist press that publishes books for women by women. I liked that they had a mission. They are a company with employees to pay, so they have to make money first to survive, but I liked that they weren’t just about making money. Third, I figured that I would have more influence with a smaller press and I would not get lost among a sea of other authors. Fourth, I’d developed a good rapport with my editor and was looking forward to working with her. It would have been rather stab-me-in-the-back to have taken her time and advice in creating the proposal and then go sell it to someone else. I still could have done it, but I would have felt like shit about it and burnt my only bridge in the publishing industry. Finally, this was a sure thing happening right now. I didn’t want to gamble it away for the hope of a better deal somewhere else. I didn’t want to have to tell a story about that time I blew my big book deal.

Welcome to Seal Press

It took about a month to negotiate the contract. This time was mostly spent reading books, researching the hell out of book contracts, and waiting for people to come back from vacations. We came to a final agreement near the end of January. I was sent two hard copies of the contract in the mail signed by the publisher. I kept one for myself, signed the other and mailed it back. I even splurged for delivery confirmation.

Now I just had to write the book.

Continued in Blog to Book - Part 4: Logistics, writing schedule and book brain

Summary

It certainly helps to have an agent to get a book deal, but you can get a nice deal without one.
Even if you have a lawyer or an agent, read about contracts and make sure you understand what every sentence means. If you’re signing it, it’s your responsibility to know what you’re getting into.
I recommend the following books for detailed information on book contracts: Negotiating a Book Contract: A Guide for Authors, Agents and Lawyers by Mark Levine and The Writer’s Legal Companion by Brad Bunnin and Peter Beren