The Current State of Book Contracts, or Why Agents are Vital by Lisa Leutheuser

Check out this op-ed piece on the current state of book contracts. I found the indemnity clause particularly frightening, and the clauses about discounts and sublicenses are outright unfair. So I'm asking fellow UWGers: have any of your recent book contracts included the outrageous clauses mentioned in the article? Do SF&F publishers have different contract standards than mainstream lit. and non-fiction publishers?

Comments

[Steven Harper Piziks]

I've heard of most of these, but none of them are a requirement. Everything in a contract is negotiable, including the date at the top of the page.

I've had publishers try to grab a couple-three of these rights, but my agent caught it and said politely, "Sorry, no."

This is what an agent is for! Even though I have little pull with a publisher because I'm not a big name, my agent knows how to negotiate and have crap struck out. And if you have an agent, a lot of these little bombs don't even show up.

Get an agent!

[Lisa]

I heard the stories about the bad clauses that both yours and Sarah's agents have caught. What surprised me about the op-ed piece is that the author seemed so doom-and-gloom about these clauses and he ends up pretty much saying that a writer simply has to put up with it. Since he's had a number of books published, I was surprised that he didn't mention the necessity of having an agent to negotiate in your favor.

[Steven Harper Piziks]

Yeah, that surprised me too. He made it sound like getting a book published means you'll lose all rights, get paid absolutely nothing, and probably get sued. He didn't once mention how to =solve= these problems, namely:

Get an agent, get an agent, get an agent, get an agent, get an agent, get an agent, get an agent, get an agent, get an agent, get an agent, get an agent, get an agent, get an agent, get an agent, get an agent, get an agent, get an agent, get an agent, get an agent, get an agent, get an agent, get an agent, get an agent, get an agent, get an agent, get an agent.