Outer Diverse is the first book of the Splintered Universe Trilogy, set in and around the Milky Way Galaxy. The first book begins as Galactic Guardian Rhea Hawke intestigates the massacre of an entire religious sect, catapulting her into a treacherous storm of politics, conspiracy and self-discovery. Her quest for justice leads her into the heart of a universal struggle and toward an unbearble truth she’s hidden from herself since she murdered an innocent man.

“a master of metaphor, Munteanu turns an adventure story into a wonderland of alien rabbit holes… a fascinating and enthralling read.”–Craig Bowlsby, author of Commander’s Log

“a rollicking science fiction plot with all the trappings…Hawke is a maverick in the wild west tradition…a genetic mystery with lethal powers.”–Lynda Williams, author of Okal Rel series

Outer Diverse is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Chapters and other great bookstores near you.

The Writers’ Union of Canada is pleased to announce that submissions are being accepted until November 3, 2011 for the 19th Annual Short Prose Competition for Developing Writers. The winning entry will be the best Canadian work of up to 2,500 words in the English language, fiction or non-fiction, written by an unpublished author.

PRIZE $2,500 for the winning entry, and the entries of the winner and finalists will be submitted to three Canadian magazines.

JURY Writers Kevin Chong, Anne Emery, and Sylvia Fraser will serve as the jury.

ELIGIBILITY This competition is open to all Canadian citizens and landed immigrants who have not had a book published by a commercial or university press in any genre and who do not currently have a contract with a book publisher. Original and unpublished (English language) fiction or non-fiction is eligible.

HOW TO SUBMIT ENTRIES: · Entries should be typed, double-spaced, in a clear twelve-point font, and the pages numbered on 8.5 x 11 paper, not stapled. · Submissions will be accepted in hardcopy only. · Include a separate cover letter with title of story, full name, address, phone number, email address, word count, and number of pages of entry. · Please type the name of entrant and the title of entry on each numbered page. This is not a blind competition. · Make cheque or money order payable to The Writers’ Union of Canada. Multiple entries can be submitted together and fees can be added and paid with one cheque or money order, $29 per entry. · Entries must be postmarked by November 3, 2011 to be eligible. ·

Mail entries to: SPC Competition, The Writers’ Union of Canada, 90 Richmond Street East, Suite 200, Toronto, ON M5C 1P1. Results will be posted at www.writersunion.ca in February 2012. Manuscripts will not be returned.

There ya go. Good luck!

Visit Nina, the Writing Coach at  www.NinaMunteanu.com for help polishing your writing and with your submission package to editors and agents.

Get Published, Write Now!

This 3-disc DVD set is packed with some of my best writing tips on how to be a successful author. The three workshops cover: ”How to Get Started and Finish”, “Craft of Writing”, and “Marketing” your writing. I’ll show you how to boost your career as a writer!

But first, here’s what students of “The Writer’s Toolkit” said:

“I felt inspired to look at my writing again…I found my ideas unlocked, problem areas exposed and strengths endorsed.”–Jane Morrell

“Nina was very relaxed, informal, very knowledgeable and interesting…She gave a lively presentation and gave lots of examples to relate to.”—Lauren Seaton

“Nina encouraged me to actually start my novel. She is very good, easy to understand.”—Patricia Slauenwhite

“Nina was engaging and inspiring… I was able to use specifics that were discussed to  improve my writing immediately.”—Susie Buck

“I found what I had been searching for a long time.”—Candice Croft

“What you’ve done for me, Nina, is you’ve just opened up a whole new world. You’ve shown me how to put soul into my books … You’ve transformed me from what I considered an oddball to somebody special and for that it’s worth a fortune.”–Hectorine Roy

As a special bonus for a limited time only, I’m including my popular guidebook, The Fiction Writer: Get Published, Write Now! All for the price of just $195.00. The DVD set normally retails for $250.00 and the book retails for $27.95. So, you’re getting a great deal!

My writing guide The Fiction Writer: Get Published, Write Now! provides the basis for my workshops and contains a lot of useful information to you. It’s a great companion reference to the DVDs.  For instance, you can go to the workshops for an easy-going listen to the “skinny” on all aspects of writing then refer to the book for specific details, examples, exercises and further references on areas you need to get more detail or practice on. The book also includes an index and bibliography at the end for easy reference. It’s written in an easy to read conversational style and packed, like the workshops, with real examples.

The guide is popular with college and university instructors of creative writing and English, and thoroughly enjoyed by students of writing and professional writers, alike.

“The Fiction Writer is at the top of the required reading list for my students…A veritable cornucopia of hands-0n help for aspiring writers of any age…The quintessential guidebook for the soon-to-be-published.”–Susan H. McLemore, Language Arts Instructor, Glynn Academy

“Nina’s ability to take arid academic prose and make it interesting to students is actually rather remarkable. I have been regularly using material she created for helping my students understand the hero’s journey in literature – the students find her writing engaging, accessible, and (and this is important) easily applicable not only to their readings but to their essays as well. Brava, Nina, brava.”–David Merchant, English Instructor, Louisiana Tech University

I wish you a fulfilling and fruitful career writing and publishing your works. It’s quite a journey. I hope you enjoy every step of it.

All the best.

Sincerely,

Nina Munteanu, M.Sc., R,.P. Bio.

Acclaimed author, scientist and writing coach

The Fiction Writer: Get Published, Write Now! is an excellent tool for all writers, beginners or professionals.

It is the most practical book on publishing that I’ve ever read, and I’ve read them all! Not only is each chapter packed with advice for writers at every level of the publishing process, but the text is highly readable and even entertaining. The clear format, the direct style and the playful layout keep the large volume of information from ever becoming dry or boring.

This book is aimed at anyone interested in gaining entrance to the world of publishing, whether you want to write sci-fi novels, poetry, children’s books, how-to books, or magazine articles. If you want to publish with the big-name pros or even self-publish, this book will help you decide what would suit you best and how to achieve it.

It covers everything from queries and rejection letters to finding an agent, and participating in the publicity process.

This is a thorough book that will help you to understand how editors, agents, and publishers view writers’ actions. It will help you to become an invaluable part of a publishing team, which can only serve to enhance your career opportunities.

I use this book in my creative writing class and in my Writer’s Workshop class. It gives my students great tips on how to approach this intangible world of publishing and how to become successful writers. It inspires and motivates all those who have great writing ideas, but don’t know where to begin.

I HIGHLY recommend it for any and all aspiring authors! It is simply the best!

Thanks, Lucia!

Nina with an eager workshop student

Internationally published author and teacher, Nina Munteanu, gives several workshop courses on writing in Nova Scotia winter of 2010. Workshop courses include:

October 14th to November 18th:

“How to Write and Publish Science Fiction“. What is Science Fiction? What isn’t it? What’s involved in writing SF and how do you get it published? Internationally published SF author, blogger and scientist Nina Munteanu answers these questions and more in a 6-week interactive & hands-on workshop designed to help you define your project, get started and successfully see it to publication. Learn some essential tools of this genre such as world-building, research, plot approaches and how to generate and follow through with premise, idea and theme toward a publishable original work. Students are expected to bring in and discuss their own works.  Workshop includes lectures, use of examples, discussions, exercises, readings and some writing. Recommended resource: The Fiction Writer: Get Published, Write Now! (Starfire World Syndicate) by Nina Munteanu.

6-week course every Thursday from 7pm to 9pm at the WFNS on 1113 Marginal Road, Halifax, NS. Register here: http://www.writers.ns.ca/workshops.html

November 13th:

“The Hero’s Journey: Plotting Your Way to Publishing Success“. Are you stuck in your writing project? Can’t focus? Not sure about the characters or where the story is going? These all relate to plot. All stories consist of common structural elements found universally in myth, fairy tale, dreams and movies. Scholar and mythologist Joseph Campbell, author of The Hero with a Thousand Faces, took the concept of the Hero’s Journey from the depth psychology of Swiss psychologist Carl Jung and assigned 12 steps to the Hero’s Journey within the three-act play. Internationally published novelist and essayist Nina Munteanu shares details of this highly successful plot approach that will improve and jumpstart your writing and guarantee its improved marketability. 

One day course on Saturday from 2pm to 4pm at the Bridgewater Library, Bridgewater, NS. Register through the South Shore Libraries.

November 27th:

“How to Use Blogs and Social Networking to Promote Yourself.” Most promotion by authors is currently done online. The many opportunities boggle the mind, however, particularly for those of us who aren’t terribly proficient with internet social media.  Both published and soon-to-be published authors are using Blogs, Facebook, YouTube, Websites with podcasts and other social networks to great success. Learn how to command this incredibly inexpensive and highly potent and efficient medium to promote you and your work.
Internationally published author and essayist Nina Munteanu is an active blogger and proficient social networker of many years. She publishes several blogs and participates in many social networks on the internet. Nina will share her knowledge and experience in this interactive discussion and multi-media lecture. Nina will go over steps on how to build a blog, and cover topics like how to get traffic to your site, Search Engine Optimizatin (SEO), what makes a good blog, how to write copy, the pros and cons of social networking, and other topics related to internet promotion and marketing. Bring your imagination.

2 pm at the Bridgewater Library, Bridgewater, NS. Register at the library.

December 11th:

“Alien Tracks to Magician Spells: Learn How to Write and Successfully Publish SF and Fantasy”.  Learn some essential tools of this genre such as world-building, research, plot approaches and how to generate and follow through with premise, idea and theme toward a publishable original work. Workshop will include use of examples, lists, discussion and writing. Bring a sample of your work and be prepared to discuss it. 

10:15 am at the Semiahmoo Library, 1815 – 152nd Street, Surrey, British Columbia. Register at: http://surreywritersschool.com/coursesandregistration.aspx

Nina, the Writing Coach

Join Nina Munteanu, acclaimed author and writing coach, for a FREE Webinar through Writer’s Digest University on how to improve your writing and succeed in getting published.

Nina joins journalist and editor Vernon Oikle on “Toolkit Talks“, a conversation in which Nina shares some of her best tips on how to get published. Nina answers some commonly asked questions provided by Writer’s Digest Magazine; questions faced by writers getting started as well as those finding their career stagnating. Learn some of the secrets writers use to jumpstart and keep their career in upward motion.

Register for Nina’s free webinar by September 15th and you may have access to additional materials and be eligible for additional perks.

Hope to see you there!

“The Writer’s Toolkit” DVDs Coming Soon!

For those of you waiting to purchase Nina’s DVD set of “The Writer’s Toolkit“, a 3-disc DVD collection based on  three  major workshops that cover ”How to Get Started and Finish”, “Craft of Writing” and “Marketing”, DVDs will be available shortly (first week of September, 2010) for purchase on the Passionate Writer and other sites. Here’s what students said:

“I felt inspired to look at my writing again…I found my ideas unlocked, problem areas exposed and strengths endorsed.”–Jane Morrell

“Nina was very relaxed, informal, very knowledgeable and interesting…She gave a lively presentation and gave lots of examples to relate to.”—Lauren Seaton

“Nina encouraged me to actually start my novel. She is very good, easy to understand.”—Patricia Slauenwhite

The Writer's Toolkit 3-disc DVD set

”Nina was engaging and inspiring in a low-key way, no hype, practical, good humour. This was a really pleasant and helpful experience. I was able to use specifics that were discussed to immediately improve my writing.”—Susie Buck

“I found what I had been searching for a long time.”—Candice Croft

“What you’ve done for me, Nina, is you’ve just opened up a whole new world. You’ve shown me how to put soul into my books … You’ve transformed me from what I considered an oddball to somebody special and for that it’s worth a fortune.”–Hectorine Roy

Guests of Nina’s Writer’s Digest Webinar will be eligible for a special price.

Nina and a student have fun learning

Nina recently gave three substantial workshops for aspiring writers in the South Shore area of Nova Scotia, based on her Aurora Award-nominated writing guidebook, “The Fiction Writer: Get Published, Write Now“. Held at the Bridgewater Library, Nina engaged and challenged students in an actively participated workshop to hone their skills as successful writers. Students participated in writing exercises, and had their stories, query letters and ”elevator pitches” critiqued.  

Her workshops, covered by Vernon Oikle in the South Shore Now, included:

Workshop No. 1, which was titled “Getting Started … and Finishing”. In this session, Nina shared the strategies and techniques she used to write, finish and successfully publish while serving as a full-time scientist, teacher and mother. The workshop reviewed common misconceptions in the writing and publishing industry and provided practical strategies to help aspiring authors succeed.

 Workshop No. 2, “The Art and Science of Craft”, covered several models of storytelling, and examined the interrelationship of plot and theme, setting and character in a book’s overall story arc. Nina explored the language of page-turning writing with examples on the use of the five senses, power verbs, use of dialogue and other writing techniques that will transform your page into a compelling read.

Workshop No 3, “The Science and Magic of Marketing”, focused on a different but critically necessary creative process in an author’s writing and publishing career – revision, marketing and promotion.

Response to Nina’s workshops was very positive. Here are some of the things students had to say about Nina and her workshops:

“Nina was engaging and inspiring in a low-key way, no hype, practical, good humour. This was a really pleasant and helpful experience. I was able to use specifics that were discussed to immediately improve my writing.”–Susie Buck
 
“Nina was very knowledgable, relaxed, personable, unpretentious.”
 
“I enjoyed it. I was intrigued. Nina put her heart into her workshop.”–Darlene Tong
 
“I found what I had been searching for a long time.”–Candice Croft 
  
“What you’ve done for me, Nina, is you’ve just opened up a whole new world. You’ve shown me how to put soul into my books … You’ve transformed me from what I considered an oddball to somebody special and for that it’s worth a fortune.”–Hectorine Roy

The series of workshops were filmed as part of “The Writers Toolkit” series and will be available for sale shortly. Go to www.ninamunteanu.com or here for news on availability and how you can get a great deal on the 3 DVD set.

There is something terrifyingly daunting about writing and sending a succinct and compelling summary of your novel packaged in just a few pages. I had a right to be terrified. In some ways the synopsis is the hardest thing for a novelist to write. Yet it is the first thing most publishers and agents want (and have time) to see of your cherished project (aside from those sample chapters, of course). Every fiction writer who wants to sell in the current market must know how to write a synopsis because that’s what an editor wants to see first. Most editors (if they’re good) are overworked with scarce enough time to answer their phones, much less their mail.

There are several reasons to write that dreaded synopsis, and way before you finish your book, too. First of all, I’d like to dispel some common misconceptions about synopses:

A synopsis is NOT an outline. Both are useful to the writer, yet each serves a very different purpose. An outline is a tool (usually just for the writer) that sketches plot items of a book. It provides a skeleton or framework of people, places and their relationships to the storyline that permits the writer to ultimately gauge scene, setting, and character depth or even determine whether a character is required (every character must have a reason to be in the book, usually to move the plot). For writers just beginning, this is an excellent tool to keep the narrative spare and compelling and to remove superfluous characters and other things (a common beginning writer inclination). A synopsis, on the other hand, is an in-depth summary of the entire book that weaves in thematic elements with plot to portray a compelling often multi-level story arc. This is usually what an editor wants to see, although I have seen them request an outline as well. To put it basically, the outline describes what happens when and to whom, while the synopsis includes the “why” part.

There is no such thing as a “Killer Synopsis”; a synopsis that is so good it will sell the book outright. However, stories of such “fairy-tale” occurrences do continue to abound, like the myth of an “overnight success” (in which the author’s hard work in areas related are somehow overlooked). No publisher chooses to buy a book on the basis of a synopsis only. Such an event could only result from a combination of serendipitous factors, one of the most important ones being timing (luck) and what an editor is currently looking for in an imprint.

“Killer synopsis” aside, what a synopsis does (along with the sample chapters and extremely important query letter) is get your manuscript read by an editor. That’s the real purpose of a synopsis. An editor makes his/her decision to look at your manuscript based on these three items: query letter (intro to you), sample chapters, and synopsis. Ultimately, their decision resides with whether your project fits their own imprint at the time.

If that isn’t reason enough to write a synopsis of your novel, here are two others:

A synopsis of your novel goes beyond the outline to help polish elements of story arc, characterization with plot and setting with story. The synopsis can answer questions perplexing the author, stuck on a scene or plot item. It helps you weave your novel’s elements into a well-integrated story that is compelling at many levels. For this reason, it makes sense to write drafts of your synopsis as you go along in the novel; that way it’s useful to both you and to the editor and then it’s more or less written when you need to submit it along with sample chapters…and not quite as daunting a task either.

Lastly, your well-written synopsis is often used internally by the publishing house staff (e.g., by artist, copywriter, and sales department) once your novel is accepted.

The Ultimate Rejection

Enduring and surviving rejection is part of every writer’s successful career. Rejection letters can be part of a writer’s toolkit to success. This comes from objectively perceiving them as opportunities in a long process of relationship-building and the business of writing and publishing.

Writers often witness an evolution in rejection letters as they learn more about their craft and about their markets. The ability to recognize the evolutionary steps can be useful in determining your next move in that particular market.

Below I describe one sequence of a manuscript’s evolutionary path. These don’t necessarily follow a chronological path for any particular manuscript; nor am I suggesting that your personal writer’s path will follow this particular pattern. Take these for what they may represent to you for any particular manuscript’s journey to success.

• Lowest form: the form-letter, with no name or signature—you get no information from this except that they’re probably swamped with submissions. File the letter and try them again with another story; you can even play a game of it to see how many submissions it takes to get “recognized”. Meantime send the rejected story elsewhere.

• Next lowest form: Personalized form letter with your name on it and a name and signature on it. Congratulations! You are now a person. And you will likely be remembered when you submit another story here.

• Higher on the Evolutionary Path: a form letter that includes a personalized note about your work and why it was rejected (often with an added comment about the story or your writing). You have made a mark. Try them again!

• Even Higher on the Evolutionary Path: a personalized letter that explains why your story was rejected—this says as much about the editor as it does about how they felt about your story; that they are taking the time to write to you and give you suggests means you are worth their valuable time. You have an opportunity to begin a relationship with this editor. Play fair.

• Highest on the Path: a personalized, perhaps even handwritten, note that specifies why they rejected your piece with suggestions for revision (and resubmission) or invitation to submit another piece. Congratulations! This is the beginning of a relationship. Revise and resubmit.

Before you submit your “science fiction” short story to a magazine that publishes science fiction, it’s wise for you to know what the science fiction genre is. And what it isn’t. Richard Treitel provides us with a pretty good definition of science fiction: fiction set in a world that differs from our everyday world in a way that importantly involves science or technology. http://www.treitel.org/Richard/sf/sf.html . The following 5 points describe the genre of science fiction. Does your story embrace them?

1. Science fiction is the literature of change according to Hugo- and Nebula-award winning SF author Robert J. Sawyer. Usually something significant happens or is discovered that is science-based and has profound effects on the world.  John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids and Greg Bear’s Darwin’s Children are good examples of this.
2. SF literature is about ideas.  “What if” is a frequent premise that sets an often largely character-driven story toward resolving some deeper question about humanity, social behavior and evolution. “Good SF,” says Sawyer, “is usually about something very profound, such as whether or not God exists”—see Sawyer’s Calculating God, for instance.
3. SF is about something large. In keeping with “what ifs” and the deeper questions, science fiction— whether set on Earth, outer space or some other planet, dimension or universe—is usually multilayered and metaphorically portrays a large concept through a whole world.  World-building (and setting too), when done well, not only follows good science (see point number 4) but also encompasses theme and provides plot-issues to convey your theme.  In other words, the “world” you build is a main character. Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed provides an excellent example of this. So does Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris.
4. Science Fiction and Fantasy  are very different, antithetical genres, says Sawyer. SF stories are often created from a scientific premise; you can usually get there from here by following a premise based on some current scientific thought (albeit imaginatively). Fantasy is based not on science but on the fantastical (usually magic). It’s important to know what you’re writing.
5. SF literature must portray science accurately. Most science fiction readers expect that you will have done your research on how that gizmo works or that you carried out a logical extrapolation of the theory of relativity when using it in your SF story.

Okay, now go out and write!

Recommended Reading:

Munteanu, Nina. 2009. “Alien Architecture: Building from Scenes to Worlds” In: The Fiction Writer: Get Published, Write Now! Starfire World Syndicate. Louisville, KY. 5-18pp

Munteanu, Nina. 2009. “House or Home…Creating Memorable Settings” In: The Fiction Writer: Get Published, Write Now! Starfire World Syndicate. Louisville, KY. 71-79pp

Sawyer, Robert J. 2003. “Breaking into the Science-Fiction Marketplace”. In: The Canadian Writer’s Guide. Official Handbook of the Canadian Authors Association, 13^th Edition. 2003.

When you sign a contract with a publisher you are granting them the rights to publish your work in one or many formats. These include print formats, film, television, audio, CD, and DVD rights, not to mention regional and language rights. It isn’t wise to sell your rights all at once (called “All Rights”), unless you’re going to be very well compensated for this. Because, once you’ve sold all your rights the work is no longer yours to do anything with.

“The grant of rights clause in a publishing contract is one of the most important clauses because it enumerates the specific rights granted to the publisher by the author,” says the Publishing Law Centre. http://www.publaw.com/subsidiary.html “Negotiation of this clause has become even more important in today’s world where increasingly more uses are being developed for literary content.”

In my recent contract with Dragon Moon Press, I granted them “First World Rights” to publish my novel, Angel of Chaos, for the first time anywhere in the world (often the rights you sell will be more regionally specific, like First North American Rights, particularly if it’s a short story to a magazine). Of itself, the First World Rights does not include the right to reprint an excerpt of my work in another format, such as an anthology, or as an ebook or audio book, or in another language—unless additionally specified in the contract, which Dragon Moon did.

According to the Publishing Law Centre rights negotiated in a book contract fall into two main categories: Primary Rights and Secondary or Subsidiary Rights. Primary rights include only those rights the publisher specifically intends to use. For the print publisher these rights normally include the book publication right for the original hard or soft cover edition and paperback reprint rights, and possibly foreign translation rights, serialization rights, book club rights, and the rights for special editions. Subsidiary rights are those rights that are, as the name suggests, subsidiary to the right of publishing the literary work in book form and include electronic rights, motion picture and television rights, audio book rights, audiovisual rights, merchandizing rights and dramatic or performance rights. Publishers typically ask for several of these in a contract and keep them in their pocket “for a rainy day”.

According to “Publishing Explained” a typical publishing contract will contain the following things:

• details of the book: format, print run, etc.
• obtaining ISBN and listings in national catalogue
• period the contract holds (years or copies sold)
• what happens after contract expires
• supply of galley proofs to author
• copyright issues: who is responsible for checking (often author)
• royalties to author depending on seller (author, publisher through bookstores, bookclubs, subsidiaries, etc.)
• when and how royalties are paid
• terms applying to author for copies (no. of free copies, discounts thereafter)
• advances (commonly 1/3 at contract signing, 1/3 on submission of galley proofs and 1/3 on return of proofs)—many publishing houses do not offer an advance these days
  how MS is submitted to publisher
• cost of unauthorized author changes to galleys ($/hour)
• responsibility for libel, copyright infringement (commonly author, who indemnifies publisher)
• any guarantees regarding copies printed or sold (generally none)
• what the publisher will do towards marketing
• what the author will do towards marketing

Subsidiary rights may be licensed to a third party, where you will get a share of the licensing fees. The matter is complicated, and you may want to reserve subsidiary rights until you get an agent, or have some experience working with the publisher.

According to several sources, including the Independent Book Publishers Association in Californa, the author “typically” receives:

• 80% from the First Serialization Rights (newspaper, magazine or other periodical publication prior to book publication); translation rights; and foreign language publishing rights
• 80% from Second Serialization Rights (newspaper, magazine or other periodical publication after book publication); syndication rights; photocopying and other reprographics rights, anthology, abridgement or excerpt rights
• 75-80% to translate a book into various foreign languages (Foreign Language Rights)
• 50% from any license to a book club (Book Club Rights)
• 50% for the publisher to develop an audiobook or to license to an audiobook publisher (Audio Rights)
• 50% for the publisher to license electronic book rights (Electronic Rights). According to IBPA the industry norm is that the publisher is entitled to create its own electronic version of the book (e.g., an e-book) and to license others the right to do so, but that interactive multimedia rights, which could be used to produce a CD-ROM, for example, are often reserved by the author
• 50-70% on the right to make non-book products such as posters, toys, games and other merchandise (Commercial / Merchandising Rights)
• 50% of the proceeds of any license granted to another publisher to bring out a reprint or other edition of the work such as hardcover version, anthology, large-print version, etc.
  90% of any proceeds from a television or movie, live theatre or other theatrical production, DVD, etc. (Performance Rights)

Something to keep in mind is that these percentages are only what’s “typical” according to several sources and they are also usually based on net receipts to the author. 100% of subsidiary rights licensing proceeds are credited against the royalty advance—in other words, the author only starts getting a percentage share once her advance has earned itself out.

According to “Publishing Explained” many book contracts now:

• Do not ensure publication: you consign your earning ability to another, and your book does not appear, even the modest advance being clawed back if the book is sold on to another publisher
• Stipulate that your next MS must be offered, completed, to the same publisher, who need not consider it immediately, can turn it down subsequently, and even change his mind if another publisher takes an interest
• Allow royalties (commonly only 8%) to be cut by half if the publisher sells through a big distributor
• Ditto if the publisher sells the rights to an affiliate
• Dispense with royalties if the publisher decides to make the book into a give-away ebook for publicity purposes
• Require the author bear the costs of any libel suits, whoever is at fault, which the publisher can settle without consulting the author
• Allow that option to be consigned to third parties, who need not defend the action
  removing last vestiges of author control.

Bear this in mind when you read that first contract. Take your time with it; show it to someone whose opinion you respect and don’t be afraid to negotiate terms with your publisher. Don’t forget that this first step establishes your relationship with your publisher; if you’re a push-over in this matter, they’ll expect you to be one in others too, like the book cover, marketing, etc.

Pretty well most book publishing contract start out something like this:

AGREEMENT dated ___________ between Joe Shmo (“Author”) and Bingo Press (“Publisher”) for a work by the Author now entitled: Joey Goes to Town. (“The Work”).
In consideration of the covenants and conditions contained in this agreement, the Author and Publisher agree as follows:

…then follow an average of 10 to 15 numbered agreements that include the items summarized above.

More information on publisher’s contracts, author’s rights and current trends in author-publisher relationships can be found below in my Recommended Reading section.

Recommended Reading:

National Writers Union. Provide a Guide to book contracts.
Author’s Guild. Advice on the book (and other) contracts.
What Writers Should Know About All-Rights. ASJA article.
Rights: What They Mean and Why They’re Important. Writing World article.
Electronic Publishing and the Potential Loss of First Serial Rights. One of many excellent articles on this lawyer’s site.
Publishing Tools. Includes example of author contract.
Society of Academic Authors. Their boilerplate contract.
Contract Issues: Books Published Online. NWU article.
Writers Forum. Many points of interest discussed.
Never Release Your Rights To Anyone. One of many WritersNet articles.
The “Standard” Book Contract: An Antitrust Lawsuit Waiting To Happen. Author difficulties.
Publishing without Borders: Strategies for Successful International Publishing. International rights issues: $25.
How To Be Your Own Literary Agent : An Insider’s Guide to Getting Your Book Published . Continually revised since 1983 printing.
Complete Idiot’s Guide to Getting Published. Third edition of this popular series: covers the basics well.

Labels: copyright, manuscript contracts, writing, writing contracts, writing fiction, writing tips