Negotiating a Book Contract : A Guide for Authors, Agents and Lawyers

Most publishing contracts are written by publishers' lawyers properly looking out for the publishers' interests. Publishing contracts can readily be negotiated that balance the rights and interests-and meet the needs-of author and publisher alike. This book is designed to alert authors, and their agents and lawyers, to the many points that are either omitted entirely from some publishers' contracts or are written primarily from the publishers' perspective. Authors should be aware that virtually every publisher regularly revises its standard contract in many areas when asked to do so by authors and their representatives. It is only the author who doesn't know it is perfectly acceptable to ask for changes to the standard contract. Most of the points noted in this book can be obtained simply by asking; others may require harder negotiation.

Mark Levine is a lawyer by profession, but has been a publisher as well. He was a partner at Sullivan & Wooster (NYC) and lives in Yorktown Heights, N.Y.