Read Your Book Contract
By: Alison Acheson
Tags: Publishing, Books, Creativity, Contracts, Writing

Read Your Book Contract

photo: courtesy of author

Too many first-time-published writers are so excited, that they do not even look through their contract. After spending months and precious hours creating their story, they act as if someone is doing them a huge favor, and happily sign with no questions.

Not only are the details of the sale in your contract — that is, how many copies will be produced in the first print run, what the amount of royalty is, what your can expect for the timeline of re-writes and printing, and of course, the dollar amount of the advance, but there will also be details about just how — when it is time — your book will be rendered OOP, or out-of-print.

What is “pulped”?

A friend of mine called her publisher several years after she’d published a book with them, as she was doing a series of readings, and wanted to have books on hand to sell to the audience; she was told that the remaining copies of her novel had in fact been “pulped,” and they would not be able to give her any more copies.

She was distraught: not only did she need copies to possibly sell at an event, but she did not even have enough copies for family members. She’d assumed she’d be able to buy copies whenever she wanted to.

Notice

And the company should have given her notice, as per her contract.

But…she had not read her contract. Contractually, the company was obligated to give her 30 day notification that her book was about to go OOP, and the publisher was to inform her how many copies were left, and at what price the company would relinquish them to her, and there was an agreed-up on amount of time, to give her enough time to decide if, and how many, she would like to purchase.

Generally, the copies are sold at the cost of creating them. I have bought copies of my going-out-of-print books for a dollar each, or even for the price of having them shipped to my house. Often, if the company is down to a handful of books left, they’ll simply send them to you.

Buy as many as you can make use of

For most writers (as long as you have the room to store these, and a house free of those pesky things called silver-fish), it’s a good idea to buy as many as you think you might be able to sell. If you do any sort of public readings or events at which you can personally connect with your audience, this can work well, and provide with the unusual occurrence of being able to make a decent profit on your work! As a children’s writer, I have used these books to donate to libraries and schools who offer me presentations, a way to say ‘thank you.’ And when I’ve ended up with a lot of copies, I’ve even donated class sets to schools that just can’t afford new books. So worth it for the smiles that come over the librarian’s or teachers’ faces.

30 Days

This process, whether “30 days” or more, is all outlined in your contract. Read it, and know your rights.

Generally, once a book is out of print, the rights revert to you. You can try to find another traditional publisher, depending on the sales, and any prizes it had with first round. (Though, truly, it is probably taken out of print for the reason of slow or slowed sales.) Or you might like to explore options for e-publishing yourself, or print-on-demand, or posting online. There are so many options now.

In the case of my friend, the publishing company actually had to re-create copies of the book to sell her; they had broken the contract. It cost the publisher money. She ended up with enough copies for family and friends and a few to sell.

Remainders: the Big Black Slash Mark

In the above photo, someone has taken a black marker to the bottom of a book. All of us have bought a book marked thus at some point.

What does it mean? The book is “remaindered” — that is, it has been taken out of print and it is a remaining copy. The author does not receive funds from the sale, and the store has got it at cost-of-producing or some such low number. Does this matter? Should it? Re-read the bit about “the author did not receive funds.”

As a writer, it always causes me a pang to the heart.

Life comes full-circle when you receive the letter saying “We have decided to take your book out of print.”

Of course, you’ll have been busy, and will have written and published a few more during the lifespan of that particular baby.

And so…onward.