Whether you obtain third-party materials online or offline, assume that they are protected by copyright until you have the knowledge and time to find out otherwise. Meanwhile, collect and save the source information as suggested in the following section–in a way that prepares you to request permission if the materials are protected by copyright.  

Most authors are seeking publication when they contact me. Perhaps they have an agency contract or publishing agreement they want to understand before signing. If they are in the process of writing their work, they may want me to draft an agreement to engage an editor or ghostwriter. But every so often an author contacts me hoping to terminate their publishing career.

The question I pose in the title of this article is at the heart of every word, sentence, paragraph, chapter and piece of punctuation dotting your manuscript: what are you trying to say?

If Your Agent Asks for Unearned Money, Don’t Pay It. The term is theft or robbery—“the action of taking property unlawfully from a person or place by force or threat of force.”

Whether you reject traditional publishers or traditional publishers have rejected you, if you intend to self-publish, your book must be able to compete with works released by traditional publishers. And there’s only one way to do it—think like a publisher.

In this article, we will use the term “prepublication contract” to describe the agreements providing third-party services or content to the author when preparing the textual or visual aspects of a manuscript. Examples include work-for-hire agreements (e.g., with ghostwriters, editors, and illustrators), copyright assignments, releases, licenses, and permissions.

Most book publishing contracts indicate that the publisher will sell and market the book author’s work for the full term of the work’s copyright, i.e., the life of the author plus seventy years. But as of January 1, 1978, the Copyright Act created a catch that the publisher’s contract never includes—17 U.S.C. §203, Termination of Transfers and Licenses Granted by the Author.

Whether a writer or publishing related service provider is presented with a contract or is asked to draft one, there are a number of questions that every publishing-related contract should answer.

In my many years as a literary lawyer and publishing consultant, I have found that most writers take one thing for granted–whatever they create is entitled to copyright protection. But are they right to do so? That depends.

While in elementary and high school, most of us were exposed to myths, especially in literature and history class. While we may enjoy the story and whatever moral lesson it teaches, we often overlook another dimension of the myth—namely, its falsity.

After a recent review of a collaboration agreement for a ghostwriter, it struck me that the phrase “writer beware” has lost none of its relevance in the current marketplace.

As a child, one of the first rules I learned was to precede a request with “please.” To my young mind, “please” had magical powers.

Just as a smart race-track driver knows the course before entering the race, a wise author knows how they can exit a publishing agreement before they enter it.

As an aspiring author, you don’t have to quit your day-job to write the book yourself or jump-start a writing career in order to publish.

The average self-published author is fortunate to sell 250 copies. Could anything change that well recognized statistic?

References to electronic rights, eBooks, digital versions or digital publishing in the grant of primary rights can be minefield for even a contract-savvy author.

Finding an attorney when you need to prepare or review a writing or publishing contract is not always easy, especially if you live and work outside most major cities.

If you have an idea for a book, article, or blog series consider contracting with a professional writer who you pay to perform writing services.

There are few authors who wouldn’t correct as many spelling, typographical and grammatical mistakes as possible in their work before placing it in the hands of their readers.

Whether you’re on the traditional or non-traditional path, when you’re offered a publishing contract, you should look at the term of the contract.

Recently, an acquaintance of mine finished a six-book non-fiction series of interviews and published it on Amazon. It was a tremendous achievement. He had no plan for selling the books.

Once I’ve tucked myself into bed for the night, I often pick up a book. Recently, the one I reached for was by a friend in New York—let’s call her Lucy.

Even educated people in various walks of life cannot read and understand a contract without some legal background. Why?

No writer wants to be sued. But since self-publishing has become so common, writers for hire are particularly vulnerable. And they know it.