Publishers behaving badly.
Mar. 7th, 2013 10:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lenora_roseLet's start with the current Random house Brouhaha. Short version for those who don't know - Random House just opened three new imprints. Whose contracts are outright vanity contracts.
John Scalzi has a breakdown of the contracts.
And this is my publisher's response: This is not how it is supposed to work.
As Frank Wu noted (NB: his post is mostly about a side question), there are places which have used contracts where they take this many rights from a writer. It's called work-for-hire. But then they pay them a large sum, where this contract ... doesn't.
One Viable Paradise alumnus has already received an offer from Hydra, and near unanimous response was to turn it down*; if it's good enough to be accepted at Random House, it's good enough to be accepted elsewhere.
______________
Next up. Simon and Schuster. Who are apparently trying to get bloggers popular with self-published and aspiring authors to send people their way. For money. This one is a superb breakdown, but not the only one (Both links via James D. Macdonald at Making Light - aka Yog Sysop, Viable Paradise teacher, and Uncle Jim of Absolute Write's "Learn writing with...")
Yog's Law: Money flows towards the author.
_______________
And forleonacarver, this sort of crap is why I had to pause and double check that your acceptance was from a legit small press. (And why I was so happy.) This sort of thing happening in guise of a small press is ... not as uncommon as it should be.
* Aside from the obvious Captain America jokes...
John Scalzi has a breakdown of the contracts.
And this is my publisher's response: This is not how it is supposed to work.
As Frank Wu noted (NB: his post is mostly about a side question), there are places which have used contracts where they take this many rights from a writer. It's called work-for-hire. But then they pay them a large sum, where this contract ... doesn't.
One Viable Paradise alumnus has already received an offer from Hydra, and near unanimous response was to turn it down*; if it's good enough to be accepted at Random House, it's good enough to be accepted elsewhere.
______________
Next up. Simon and Schuster. Who are apparently trying to get bloggers popular with self-published and aspiring authors to send people their way. For money. This one is a superb breakdown, but not the only one (Both links via James D. Macdonald at Making Light - aka Yog Sysop, Viable Paradise teacher, and Uncle Jim of Absolute Write's "Learn writing with...")
Yog's Law: Money flows towards the author.
_______________
And for
leonacarver, this sort of crap is why I had to pause and double check that your acceptance was from a legit small press. (And why I was so happy.) This sort of thing happening in guise of a small press is ... not as uncommon as it should be. * Aside from the obvious Captain America jokes...
