Tuesday, July 21, 2009
We Listen, We Learn, We Discuss, We Change Our Contract Terms
A couple of weeks ago we posted a summary of our contract terms for authors. It was an unusual (and frankly a little scary) thing to do since we’re not aware of other publishers who’ve done it to the same degree we did. Our hope was to get feedback from authors, agents and others so what we finally settled on would be a fair and reasonable deal for all concerned.
We were very pleased to get a multi-sided conversation started, and while most thought the terms we posted were reasonable, there was one item that seemed to be a pain point for authors and agents. What we originally had proposed was for Quartet to get the right of first refusal on any sequel but otherwise the author would not be obligated to submit any future work to Quartet. This is generally referred to as an ‘option clause’ and is pretty standard in the print world.
Since the digital publishing model doesn’t pay an advance, authors believed that committing to any publisher (not just Quartet) for future work shifted the risk/reward ratio too heavily in favor of the publisher. Once we heard the argument, we understood. We also decided that if we believe the publishing experience we’ll be offering authors is in fact a superior one, reasonable authors would want to continue to work with us and we should put up or shut up on that point.
So after discussion, we’re eliminating the option clause from our Author Agreement
The new language says, effectively, “The author is not obligated to submit any future work to Quartet.”
We hope if that clause has been keeping authors from submitting manuscripts to us, we’ve eliminated that hurdle and you’ll send them on in. We also hope you’ll continue talking with us about what’s important to you.
Kudos to Quartet for being flexible.
Wow, guys. That’s very cool! Glad to hear you’re listening. To authors. Yikes. A publisher who listens to authors. (g) The other publishers are going to be very annoyed with you. LOL.
Very nice. I am continuously impressed by your openness, flexibility and candor. So much to like.
And great to meet you and Kassia at the rogue digi seminar in DC!
You’re good people. Thanks for thinking of the authors.
So Quartet will do the hard part and let others do the sequels? Hooray for openness, candor and flexibility, but none of those is impacted by having an option on the sequel.
Thomas (Tinbox) — Nothing has caused more discussion than the option for sequel language. The authors in this space feel strongly that tying them to this clause is the wrong approach. We had many long discussions about this with them and with other experts. Clearly we were persuaded by their well-considered arguments. We believe our authors will be very satisfied with their relationship with us, to the point that they will want to continue working with us for sequels. And, frankly, if it’s a relationship that isn’t working — for whatever reason — tying both parties to a longer term contractual obligation doesn’t bode well for either side.