{"id":2597,"date":"2023-02-24T11:51:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-24T19:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/?p=2597"},"modified":"2023-02-24T11:51:00","modified_gmt":"2023-02-24T19:51:00","slug":"final-friday-contract-negotiation-102-or-you-only-get-what-you-ask-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/2023\/02\/24\/final-friday-contract-negotiation-102-or-you-only-get-what-you-ask-for\/","title":{"rendered":"Final Friday: Contract Negotiation 102, or You Only Get What You Ask For."},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most exciting times in a writer\u2019s life is when a contract arrives.\u00a0 <\/span>Long form, short form, reprint, big money or small\u2026 it\u2019s still Exciting!\u00a0 <\/span>And a lot of time, especially when we\u2019re still new but even when we\u2019re Old Pros\u2122, the impulse is to skim and sign. Sooner it\u2019s done, sooner we can crow on social media about it\/collect the check, right?<\/p>\n

Stop.\u00a0 <\/span>Take a deep breath. Put down the (virtual or otherwise) pen.\u00a0 <\/span>Now go back and look at the contract. I\u2019m going to assume you\u2019ve already checked to make sure the essential pertinent details (name, title, payment) are all correct, that\u2019s Contract 101. And you\u2019ve already made sure that they\u2019re not claiming any rights you didn\u2019t previous agree to\/know they were going to ask for, right?\u00a0 <\/span>(Right?)<\/p>\n

Now take another breath, and look at the contract again. Read all the clauses. And if you see something you don\u2019t particularly like or seems even slightly hinky, do NOT just shrug and sign. Seriously.\u00a0 <\/span>Fucking don\u2019t<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Herein begins the lesson.<\/p>\n

Recently I received a contract from a small press for a short story to be included in a Kickstarter-funded project.\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019d agreed to the length, due date and payment, but hadn\u2019t seen the rest of the contract. So when I got it, I read through the thing carefully.\u00a0 <\/span>Which is when I noticed:<\/p>\n

1. Although the payment amount was stated, the delivery of that payment was \u201cafter revisions and after the Kickstarter was done.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>Said Kickstarter hadn\u2019t even launched<\/i> yet, not had I gotten my revisions notes.\u00a0 <\/span>Either of those things could be delayed indefinitely. Hrm.<\/p>\n

2. There was a clause in the contract that allowed for the publisher to repackage the stories in other editions, even after the limited term of exclusivity was over.\u00a0 <\/span>Which, okay, fine.\u00a0 <\/span>But nowhere in that clause was there any mention of the writer being compensated for that new use (neither additional up-front money nor royalties).\u00a0 <\/span>Hrm.<\/p>\n

3. Historically, writing something for a Kickstarter project has \u201chigher pay for the writers\u201d included in their stretch goals.\u00a0 <\/span>As the Kickstarter hadn\u2019t launched yet, I had no idea if they would be doing that (bad sign) and there was no mention of any escalators whatsoever in the contract (very bad sign ).\u00a0 <\/span>Basically, they could have a wildly overfunded Ks – and the publisher would take all that profit for themselves, despite the writers being the ones who made it possible.\u00a0 <\/span>Hrm.<\/p>\n

So at this point, I had two options:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

a) I could shrug and sign – after all, they were paying good market rates, and I\u2019d have the right to do whatever I wanted with the story after their exclusive term was up, right?<\/p>\n

b) I could push back.<\/p>\n

Spoiler: I pushed back.\u00a0 <\/span>Politely, but I did push, pointing out to the editor of the anthology that #1 was an issue of timely payment, which is standard in contracts (and don\u2019t let anyone ever tell you otherwise), #3 was\u2026 bad optics, and also kinda shitty, and #2 was a dealbreaker.\u00a0 <\/span>And I asked, again politely if firmly, if these three things could be addressed to mutual satisfaction.<\/p>\n

And I was quite clear that if we did not reach mutual satisfaction, I would decline to participate.<\/p>\n

Because yes, I wanted to be part of this project, but not that<\/i> badly.\u00a0 <\/span>And if they refused to negotiate, or tried to justify their contract as-was?\u00a0 <\/span>Well, I\u2019d probably be naming and shaming the company in this post.<\/p>\n

Spoiler: they negotiated.\u00a0 <\/span>In fact, they gave me everything I asked for. A set timeframe for payment was added, as was clarification of the Kickstarter payment status. And the dealbreaker clause about repackaging was removed entirely. Because, and only because, I pushed back.<\/p>\n

More to the point: I was told that yes, these changes would apply to everyone<\/i> who was part of the project.\u00a0 <\/span>Which is good, because when I asked around, the people I knew who had signed had not questioned any<\/i> of it.\u00a0 <\/span>And these are not newbies, but writers I consider fellow jaded pros.\u00a0 <\/span>You\u2019re all welcome, and you owe me a goddamned drink.<\/p>\n

This is a lesson for writers, but it applies to far more than that. Gather up your self-worth, choose your words carefully, and push back for what you deserve for your work.<\/p>\n

Here endeth the lesson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most exciting times in a writer\u2019s life is when a contract arrives.\u00a0 Long form, short form, reprint, big money or small\u2026 it\u2019s still Exciting!\u00a0 And a lot of time, especially when we\u2019re still new but even when we\u2019re Old Pros\u2122, the impulse is to skim and sign. Sooner it\u2019s done, sooner we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,18],"tags":[666,665,57],"class_list":["post-2597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-publishing","category-writing","tag-business","tag-contracts","tag-laura-anne-gilman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2597"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2598,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2597\/revisions\/2598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}