I believe that the better informed one is about publishing as a business, the better equipped you will be in handling your interactions with agents, editors and book-buyers with an impressive level of professionalism and savvy. Yes, you are an author–or at least hope to be sooner or later. However, your job does not stop at writing the book. That book must then be sold. Your name must be scrawled on a contract that gives a publishing house the right to publish you, while they give you money and a chance to help them make more money.
So what are those big heaps of paper that they will someday send your way?
http://www.sfwa.org/contracts/
If you want a peek at some of the more common contracts floating around the business, take a look at the link above. It shows model contracts that cover everything from Author-Agent relationships, what you might get if you sell a short story to a magazine, and both a hardcover and paperback version of what a publishing house would offer you.
Yup. It’s a lot of words that are three syllables or longer. Fortunately, we’re supposed to be comfortable with long, complicated and obscure verbiage, right? Do yourself a favor. Read through these. Get a basic comprehension of what they’re saying. This way, when the wonderful day comes about that you receive a hefty envelope in the mail, your first words upon opening it and reading the contained contract won’t be…”Guh?” Even if you have to talk over some of the details with your agent, just being slightly familiar with the contract elements will make you that much more confident in dealing with the sometimes murky business end of the craft.
Also, I know some writers out there choose to represent themselves and skip getting an agent entirely. If that’s your situation, then understanding contracts is even more important, because you don’t want to skim over these things, sign it, and then realize there was some clause in there that you either didn’t see or had no clue what it meant, but now the company owns your book rights for life.
That just wouldn’t be fun now, would it?
I see that smile.