Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Author Question
I was listening to the Geeks are Evil podcast wherein they were interviewing Katrina Ramos Atienza. I was shocked to find out that the author's contract with PsiCom Publishing is that the latter gets the first option to publish all future manuscripts. Do you think that is a "fair" deal?
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ALL future manuscripts? I don't know much about publishing in the Philippines but in the US, publishers usually get an option for the next manuscript.
If the author's agent is savvy, they'll put a qualifier in the contract: next fantasy manuscript, next young adult manuscript, next science fiction manuscript, etc etc.
Yup, ALL FUTURE MANUSCRIPTS.
that's pretty alarming...
charles: Yes, I can confirm that. Remember that problem Don and I had with Psicom's unfortunate fantasy antho? That was it.
From what I heard, Psicom added that clause specifically for their chicklit writers and with regard to any chicklit stories they write in order to ensure the back door is closed against their competitors (which is Cosmo, I think). Unfortunately, they're using that same contract for other writers.
I also heard that they're really not that strict with regard to that clause. However, given that it's a legal contract, I hate to have something like that bite me in the @ss in the future.
I remember Banzai Cat but at the time you wanted to mention it anonymously so... (I'm good at feigning ignorance!)
Psicom was inviting KUTING for mss submissions a year ago. I did not push through with the meeting. Writers' rights must be promoted and respected in practice.
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