But the truth is that there is more to review than the spelling of your name, choice of title, and projected completion date, and more to negotiate than you might realize. Here are ten tips to get you started. While there are many aspiring first-time authors out there, only a relative handful will be published. If your publisher intends to publish a hard cover edition for distribution in North America, then the grant of rights should convey North American hard cover rights only. Alternate editions can be addressed by amendment to your book contract if and when the publisher expresses an interest in publishing them.
Editors come and go and markets change.
An open-ended manuscript acceptability standard can leave you holding an unpublished manuscript. Most form contracts will require that you deliver a completed manuscript that is acceptable to the publisher in form and content. You should strive for an acceptability clause that requires only that the finished manuscript conform in coverage and quality to the sample chapters provided with your prospectus or, alternatively, a clause that requires the manuscript to be professionally competent and fit for publication. You should also ask for language that obliges the publisher to provide you with detailed editorial comments and at least one opportunity to revise. Be careful that these representations apply only to work as supplied by you and not to the work of other contributors or editors.