How to understand a publishing contract

Points of vigilance and traps to avoid for authors

Tools for Authors: How to understand a publishing contract

• You just finished writing your novel, your essay, your memoirs. Or anything good.
• You are so euphoric because a publishing house wants your text?
• It vows to « take care of all »
• You will be able to – AT LAST – take a rest and harvest the fruits of your hard work.
• Champagne! You deserve to celebrate…
• You only have to sign the papers, below, on the right hand. Easy!

…But STOP!!!

ATTENTION. A publishing or editing contract is a very special literature that binds you in time and space… and your author’s dream can quickly turn into nightmare if you do not detect in due time possible traps!

• Do you think that a contract is unreadable for the man in the street?
• Do you run to the next lawyer to « digest » it and « translate » it in common english?

Think again, it is perfectly possible to understand a contract, to reduce costs and potential risks during the execution of a contract, by understanding the points of vigilance of a publishing contrct.

Who are we?

We are authors and have published dozens of ebooks. Having both a higher education in law school, our experience has led us to deal with many contractual documents. Olivier had to draft, negotiate, review and implement many contracts: drug trials, cultural institutions abroad, commercial companies. Professor in higher education, he practices daily « legal education ». Cristina was director of a publishing house and knows the constraints of this often difficult world and also did a lot of legal work.

So we know the problem « from both sides of the fence » and would like you to understand that it is quite possible and realistic to hold together an effective partnership with your publishing house.

So, for a cordial and profitable cooperation with the publishing house, we want to share this useful information, from our experience, with you [