What's a publishing contract?

[LadyTrinity]

American Book Publishers contacted me today saying they wanted to offer me a contract. What does this mean? Is it a good thing? Is it legit? :fpeek:

[Yasmine Galenorn]

American Book Publishers contacted me today saying they wanted to offer me a contract. What does this mean? Is it a good thing? Is it legit? :fpeek:

A publishing contract is a contract between you and either a traditional publisher, or a vanity press, stating they will publish your book. HOWEVER....it's so easy to get screwed on this, and anybody asking for money to publish your book is essentially a printer, not a legitimate publisher. You MUST read up on this before you ever, ever sign anything.

There are serious legal ramifications to signing a book contract. If you don't meet your end of the contract, you can get sued. You need to know what rights you're signing away. You need to know the terms they intend to publish your book under, the royalty rates, the advance--if any (money up front). Here are some places to begin:

http://www.nwu.org/bite/gloss.htm
http://www.writing-world.com/rights/index.shtml
http://copylaw.com/new_articles/final.three.html
http://www.publishingcentral.com/subject.html?sid=8&si=1&kwd=book+publishing+contracts

READ these...don't just pretend to and then merrily sign whatever is put in front of you. A contract has long-lasting ramifications.

From what I can tell, ABP is another vanity press/self-publishing company and I'd make SURE you do some searching on the net for complaints about them. Check out these sites:

Writer Beware (http://www.sfwa.org/beware/)
Preditors & Editors (http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/)

Even if you eventually do decide to self-publish, be aware that there are ways to minimize the impact on your pocketbook, but don't expect to make much--if any--money off of the book, because the harsh reality of the business is that SP books make very little money. If you want to go that route, you're better off hooking up with a good printer because they won't retain the rights to your book and an SP/Vanity Press will.

I cannot stress the importance of understanding what you are signing--you can screw yourself over big time if you blithely sign away without knowing what you're binding yourself to.

Yasmine G. :colorful:

[LadyTrinity]

Thank you hun! :hugz: