Re: Contract??

[Peter Montgomery <MONTGOMERY -at- CAMINS -dot- CAMOSUN -dot- BC -dot- CA>]

> Date: Wed, 12 May 1993 21:01:02 -0400 (EDT) Thus spake Greg Kushmerek
 <gkushmer -at- JADE -dot- TUFTS -dot- EDU>
GK>I'm writing a third party vendor book called "DOS Programs In OS/2 2.1"
GK>and have two interested publishers.  Both are sending me contracts.  I've
GK>got no experience doing this, however (dealing with publishers).
GK>Any advice from the tech writing community?

Dunno 'bout the Tech angle on this'n, but I do know that beginners
tend to get royally pivoted into the wood with publishing in general.
People are understandably anxious to see their names in print, and are
often, therefore, willing to trade just about all their rights, for
the ol' signed contract. Problem is, some of those rights include
control over future publications, so the knot can get tied till death
do them part. DON'T DO THAT ONE. You'll regret it. I also understand
that first contracts pretty much give the company full editorial
rights, so the final product can be quite unrecognisable, if control
has not been maintained by the writer. If you have an image in your
mind of how a printed page will look, in terms of TYPE and page
design, you better negotiate that too. If this is the first of many
such publications, and not just a one off, then I would get
myself good legal advice, to get off to a clean, happy start.

Peter
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*  Peter Montgomery               Montgomery -at- camosun -dot- bc -dot- ca  *
*            Exitus effigium effigies exituum               *
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