tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post6718263588441120085..comments2023-06-15T09:13:45.467-04:00Comments on Liberty's Torch: Fiction NatteringsFrancis W. Porrettohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05862584203772592282noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-25351830040659230872014-02-01T18:29:07.238-05:002014-02-01T18:29:07.238-05:00I get requests from Amazon to review novels I have...I get requests from Amazon to review novels I haven't read yet. Very annoying.FrankChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07349761659165064987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-46642985876543593712014-02-01T10:54:53.770-05:002014-02-01T10:54:53.770-05:00Well said, Matt. As Frederik Pohl once observed in...Well said, Matt. As Frederik Pohl once observed in an essay about selling one's fiction:<br />1. Everything in any contract, including the names of the parties to it and the date at the top, is negotiable;<br />2. The way to negotiate a book contract is to assume that immediately upon signing the document, you and the wonderful, generous people who bought your book will drop stone dead, and that your heirs and theirs will hate each other's guts.<br /><br />But it does require a certain <i>sangfroid</i> in a writer new to Pub World's machinations to approach the matter that way.Francis W. Porrettohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05862584203772592282noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-86999310788359162832014-02-01T10:13:46.713-05:002014-02-01T10:13:46.713-05:00Well, keep in mind the core message of those reque...Well, keep in mind the core message of those requests: whatever you write, your fans will happily read, and probably enjoy...but yes, you were apparently mistaken about the appeal of series, if these requests surprise you.<br /><br />(I am, as I think you are, relatively sure that Realm of Essences per se, as well as Spooner Federation, are relatively tapped-out, as sources of good novel plots. But I accept that I may be wrong, and if you can get more novels out of them after all, I'm confident they'll be awesome. More MacLachlan stories? More Sumner stories? More Iverson stories? YES, PLEASE!)<br /><br />As for why writers sign such awful contracts? I suspect that it may be more due to the fresh happy glow of acceptance they feel when being offered them. Everyone is friends, when there's a check being handed over, and the authors in question interpret what they read in the contract accordingly. They ignore, by and large, the fact that the only circumstance under which the text of those contract provisions could _possibly_ matter is one in which the parties to it are reduced to a state of such overwhelming mutual contempt and disdain that they've hired lawyers to duke it out in a winner-take-all battle of mutual destruction. In the clause restricting "competing products", for example...what does the word "competing" mean, in practice? I'd bet money I couldn't afford to lose, that the author (when signing the contract) had a very different answer to that question in his mind than is now being promulgated by the legal team at Tor.<br /><br />A legal contract is like a marriage, except -- of course -- for being almost infinitely harder to get out of, once entered. Being head-over-heels in love is an awesome thing, truly...but before you tie the knot, you should still observe how your beloved treats waiters, and treat any red flags observed there with extreme caution. As it is with men and women, so it is with authors and publishers.lelnethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08600824544185328505noreply@blogger.com