How I was scammed twice on publishing contracts
By: Tammi Brownlee
Tags: Publishing, Books And Authors, Publishers, Writing, Writing Tips

How I was scammed twice on publishing contracts

Mistakes to look out for

Photo by Cytonn Photography on Unsplash

So you have finished a novel, what do you do next? Publish it for the world to see.

I decided I wanted to be an author when I was still in high school. I distinctly remember my English teacher my senior year informing me that authors don’t get paid much, you need a real job. Being a foster kid, I had no recourse to her statement, nor did I have anyone to tell me otherwise. So off I went to try and find “a real job”.

My first attempt at college resulted in me failing English the first semester. That did a number on my psyche. How could I be a writer if I couldn’t even pass an English course. I put my writing aside, essentially forgetting about it until 9 years ago when I decided to write my biography. Oh boy, did I stink at it. Not that the information wasn’t good, it was the setup, the sentence structure, the needless repetition of words.

At the age of 40 I decided to head back to school. After 5 years I can say that I graduated this past May with a Bachelor’s in English with a concentration in writing.

Now you are probably wondering what this has to do with publishing do’s and don’t’s, well I am getting to that now.

One of the things that I learned that I find to be the most valuable is to read the contract thoroughly before you sign your name. The top things to look for are:

Do retain full rights to your story? Will the publisher have rights to change your story? If you fail to meet the requirements of the contract does the publisher get to keep your work? Where will your work be marketed? Is there a “breach of contract” clause?

All 3 of these questions are pertinent to ensuring that you own what you created. Shortly before starting school, I had a contract with an overseas publisher. It detailed how I was to write 3 novels in a trilogy. I had already done most of the work with book 1 and within 3 months the book was published. It sold pretty well, overseas. It never made it to the United States.

Due to some conflicting circumstances in my personal life I was unable to finish the second book in the 3 month time frame allowed.

My contract was broken due to “breach of contract”, I lost all rights to the story that I had written, including the first book. I also lost all monies earned from the sale of this book, a total of $76,000. Yes, you read that right. My first book earned a royalty of $76,000, but it was only sold overseas. Mostly China. It was a really great book too!

I can never finish the story I originally wrote, I can never publish it anywhere in the world again. All that work went right down the tubes because I NEVER read the contract thoroughly. But I signed my name and there is no recourse for me.

Fast forward a few years and I get spammed with phone calls and emails from other publishers who want to publish my work. But they want ME to pay for their service. And if I want it marketed, well that is extra. What good is a book if no one knows it is out there? A reputable publisher will not ask you for payment before, they will take their money out of your royalty when the book sells. They also don’t expect you to pay for marketing.

If a publisher accepts your work for publication, it is because they believe that it will make money for them and for you. Finally, I get the one who called me and didn’t ask for money. Everything seemed blissful…at first.

I read through the contract, I really thought I had read it thoroughly. I knew I was keeping my authorship rights no matter what happened. I knew that my book would be marketed throughout the world. And I knew that I would be paid a higher royalty than most publishers pay. But there was one little section that had a sentence embedded within,

“Publisher has the right to adjust the book as they see fit for publication”.

Apparently this means that the publisher can take out sections of your book if they feel the book is too long. And that is what this one did.

But I get to keep my story and publish it at my own leisure. And I earned the small royalty it made while it was available before I discovered how my book was butchered and took it offline. I am currently working on the story again, fixing and changing certain aspects of it. The Devil’s Sap should be ready by the end of the year. I will be self-publishing on Amazon as I am done with publishers at the moment.

Here is a list of some do’s and don’t’s of attaining a publishing contract:

Know your rights to your story. Don’t ever be talked into giving up your rights unless they pay you big money for it. Know where your book will be marketed and who pays for the marketing, remember a great publisher will not ask for any money up front. It is a good idea to have an agent, but sometimes they are hard to attain when you haven’t published anything yet, but don’t give up. Keep trying, they get paid by marketing you to publishers and getting your book sold. Don’t ever have a breach on contract clause where you lose everything, whether it is money or the rights or both. Know what rights the publisher has to change your book. Don’t let this happen. It’s your work, let it shine the way you wrote it. Read your contract thoroughly. Have a friend help you read it too. Sometimes we get so excited about an offer that we lose our common sense and trust too much. Protect yourself.

Stay tuned for some tips on the writing process and how to complete your first novel.

Thank you for reading with me! Have a great day!