Leah’s ’12 Points of Contracts’
Look for an upcoming interview on this blog with Dorchester books editor Leah Hultenschmidt. Typically, I interview agents only, yes, but I met Leah at a conference in Italy last…
Look for an upcoming interview on this blog with Dorchester books editor Leah Hultenschmidt. Typically, I interview agents only, yes, but I met Leah at a conference in Italy last year and you can just tell immediately that this editor knows her stuff inside and out. Very smart lady, and I wanted to get her knowledge on the blog to help writers.
In the meantime, before the interview goes up here, I suggest you check her simple yet informative post on contracts. Leah says that when she calls an author directly (no agent) to offer a book deal, she will always go over 12 important points in the contract. See the list of 12 below, but I suggest you read the entire post on her Romantic Reads blog to get the full experience.
1. How many books
2. The advance
3. Royalty rate
4. Sales territories
5. Translation rights
6. Audio rights
7. Electronic rights
8. Reprint rights
9. Movie/TV/radio/merchandising
10. 1st serial/2nd serial/digest
11. Option and first refusal clause
12. Due dates...

Chuck Sambuchino is a former editor with the Writer's Digest writing community and author of several books, including How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack and Create Your Writer Platform.