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John Scalzi@scalzi.com |
Yuuuuup. I like my publisher very much, and also, every contract with them to date comes with stuff my agent has to say "nice try, but no" to. Their fiduciary duty is to retain as many rights as possible; ours is the same. Thus: negotiation.
15 replies 92 reposts 537 likes
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Porter
@porter79.bsky.social
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📌
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Michael Erard
@michaelerard.bsky.social
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Also: the fact that agents will fight for you doesn’t make them your friends. The more rights they grab back from publishers is more money for them.
1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Effin' Birds
@effinbirds.com
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My UK publisher almost agreed to a US sublicense that gave the US publisher all merchandising rights to my comic, and I was like "good thing my contract with you doesn't grant you those rights, because that money is how I eat"
0 replies 5 reposts 89 likes
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Herne
@herne.bsky.social
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I don't think I would call it a "game" though… "Corporate ass-hattery" maybe…
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Peter Josyph
@peterjosyph.bsky.social
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I couldn’t disagree more that it’s a game and that it’s not personal. I’ve known scores of young writers who, lacking an agent, have signed contracts that take full possession of their sentences, which are the most personal entities a writer can have. Academic presses are among the worst offenders.
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Dave Long
@axe99.bsky.social
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Ie, this is pushing a very short-term view of a publisher's business, and it's one that could hurt them in the long-run if other publishers treat their author's better and get better product/more sales. It's an example of how "capitalism without thought or heart" hurts everyone.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Dave Long
@axe99.bsky.social
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Having a society based on more than self-centred interest means less time wasted in haggling. There will always be negotiation, but a culture of good-faith negotiation is inherently more productive. Bad-faith patterns like this hurt society's productivity (and other things too).
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Brandy Schillace
@bschillace.brandyschillace.com
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I’m very lucky to have Jessica Papin from Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. She does both my fiction (Harper Collins) and my nonfiction (various—Norton, Simon&Schuster, etc). She helped my acquire my film agent. Without her/them, I’d be hella lost. She knows just what to look for, what language to push.
2 replies 0 reposts 7 likes
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Brandy Schillace
@bschillace.brandyschillace.com
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Bless our agents ❤️
1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Cris (without an H)
@ambignostic.bsky.social
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I think a lot of people refrain from negotiation because they believe if they push back, the other party will walk away. And they feel they themselves don't have the power to walk away. Agents are great because they know better.
1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Ipsita Chatterjea (she/her)
@ichatterjea.bsky.social
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0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Steve Downey
@sdowney.bsky.social
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"This is our standard contract, the same one we offer to everyone." Leaving out the part where they expect several clauses to be stricken before it's signed.
0 replies 0 reposts 4 likes
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Devon Ellington
@devonellington.bsky.social
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There have been a couple of contracts where we've come back to the first offer with negotiations and the publisher (one of the smaller ones, but still well-known) says, "we don't negotiate. Everyone signs the boilerplate." So we walked. Contracts are supposed to be negotiated.
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Lin Rice
@mrlin13.bsky.social
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From the writers’ side of the table, how do you prioritize the services you want from the publisher, to make sure you’re negotiating well?
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Alex Cochran
@cannotbegrouped.bsky.social
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Good advice. It's the natural order of things: sales Vs development in the pie race.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes