CONTRACTS ON THE BRAIN
My agent (I loooove saying that!) just emailed me and let me know that the contract with Putnam is in the mail. Yay! I know I promised a blog on what changes I had to make to my manuscript to make it publishable, as well as more about Putnam and my editor there. I promise I’ll get there, but for now I thought a quick blog about contracts would be cool — and because they’re on my mind. My mind, my blog. My blind, my mog. My bind my … well, you get it.
So here’s the quick and dirty about contracts.
First, there’s the contract lite. This is when your agent and an editor (from a specific house) agree that everyone will work together, that you won’t sell the book to anyone else, and they solidify what the advance is going to look like. Apart from the call where your agent tells you that, yes, they will represent you, this is THE phone call that you wait for. Once that agreement is made, you get a one-page document (usually an email suffices) where the editor puts, in writing, just a few specifics including:
- The advance amount
- The percent of hardcover royalties
- The percent of trade paperback royalties
- The territory (mine is “world” though I’m not sure what this means yet since I know I get more money if the book is published in, say, Egypt)
- The rights, which are usually first serial, audio and bookclub
This is kind of nerve wracking because you won’t know lots of specifics until later. Like, when the book will come out or when they want the first round of edits done. All that stuff is spelled out later in the BIG contract where you sign in 34 places and it’s all official. This is the contract that my agent called about today and said was in the mail. Yay!
A February 9 blog from Pub Rants (Agent Kristin Nelson) talks about what you should make sure is in your contract to cover you when you do the BIG contract. As far as the contract lite, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. As long as the advance money looks decent, and you’re with a reputable publishing house, you should be okay — and, what’s more, these are things you and your agent will talk about before you ever say “yes” to a deal.