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Book Publishing Contracts: A Checklist of Deal Terms

Book Publishing Contracts: A Checklist of Deal Terms 2025

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The document is a comprehensive checklist for authors regarding book publishing contracts, authored by Howard G. Zaharoff. It outlines essential deal terms including rights granted, advance and royalty structures, delivery issues, manuscript acceptance criteria, publication commitments, author approvals, advertising obligations, accounting practices, warranties and liabilities, reversion of rights, and conflict resolution mechanisms. The checklist serves as a guide for authors to negotiate favorable contract terms with publishers.

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We have answers to the most popular questions from our customers. If you can't find an answer to your question, please contact us.

What percentage is a publishing deal?

With a traditional publishing deal, youd forfeit 100% of your publishing rights in return for the services the publisher promises to provide. With a co-publishing agreement, artists like you typically give away 50% ownership of their publishers share ( hence the name, co-publishing) when they sign.

How hard is it to get a publishing deal?

If you mean to work through a professional agent to get a contract with a traditional publisher - the kind who supply books to bookstores and online sellers such as Amazon - then yes, its hard. Stats from various places indicate such publishers accept barely one percent (yes, 1%) of the submissions they receive.

What is the structure of a publishing deal?

Traditional Publishing Deal Payment Structure: Typically, the income generated from the compositions is split 50/50 between the songwriter and the publisher. This includes mechanical royalties, performance royalties, synchronization fees, and other licensing revenues.

What does a publishing deal consist of?

What is a Publishing Deal? In general terms, a typical publishing deal involves the assignment of some part of the ownership of your songs to a publishing company in exchange for a share of the royalties received by the publisher for exploitation of the songs.

What are the clauses of publishing contract?

Publishers agreements often have useful headings for each clause and Ive used some of those headings here for ease of reference. Licence. Territory. Advances. Royalties. Co-edition royalties. Subsidiary rights. Delivery and publication. Copyright and moral rights.

What is a typical book publishing contract?

The contract will also include basic things such as your word count (usually 85-100,000 words for commercial fiction), how many books the publisher is buying from you at this stage (usually one or two for a first deal), your delivery dates and planned publication dates, your responsibilities if there are any (such as

What is a good deal in publishing terms?

Here is a key to decipher what the phrases mean: nice deal $1 $49,000. very nice deal $50,000 $99,000. good deal $100,000 $250,000.

Book Publishing Contracts: A Checklist of Deal Terms 2025

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