MSI Press Blog

It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic addresses -- what is a good one, what is a bad one, and what do the specialized terms actually mean? I have been answering these questions in a series of posts, using, to start, our contracts, and will go through them paragraph by paragraph. Then, I will look at some other publishers' contracts for differing content. A few weeks ago, we talked about paragraph 8, as found in a hybrid contract. We will now return to a discussion of traditional contracts and look at paragraphs 8-12. Please keep in mind, though, that the paragraphs in your contract may not be in the same order; however, they will contain t...

  It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic addresses contracts -- what is a good one, what is a bad one, and what do the specialized terms actually mean? I will answer these questions in a series of posts, using, to start, our contracts, and will go through them paragraph by paragraph. Then, I will look at some other publishers' contracts for differing. So, for today, let's take paragraph 1 (all paragraphs are numbered in a contract; that makes it easier for refer formally and legally to specific clauses). Before paragraph 1;  Name of the publishing company The words, MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT, or something similar, establishing that this i...

  (photo by Frank Perez) It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic is about contracts--bad ones. We will state upfront that contracts are filled with legal terms that are often difficult for authors to understand. That legal information is important, critical, required. Also important, critical, required is that authors understand what they sign, reading the proposed contract as carefully as they would read any other document. AND RUN IT PAST AN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS LAWYER. OK, let's take a look at one can go wrong with a contract. Rights and copyrights (see our previous blog POST on this topic for more information): Never sign a contr...