Quote:
Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks
Some publishers have even tried putting in clauses that forbid the author to publish ANY other work via self-publishing while under contract with the publisher. I don't know how that is working out, but I know some authors were burned by the clause. Whether it's still being inserted? I don't know.
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What I've heard is that (Penguin-style) non-compete clauses are a standard part of current contracts and that it is up to the agent to negotiate them away. This from authors with ongoing trad-pub contracts.
Those standard contracts are minefields loaded with craftily-worded clauses.
The best advise I've heard is that authors faced with a contemporary trad-pub contract *not* rely on the agent at all but instead hire an experienced IP lawyer to negotiate the contract and defuse the built-in mines and time-bombs. Of course, doing so is likely to send the publisher running away since it seems their entire business is built around those clauses. But then they'd know what they dodged.
The image people have of publishing houses is at least 30 years out of date; the bigger they are, the further they get from the "golden age" model. And of course, through the ongoing consolidation they can only get bigger...