Re: e-book publishing

On Mon, 05 Jun 2000, Karen Coyle <karen.coyle[_at_]ucop.edu> wrote:
>
> the first time I was faced with a publishing contract I did
> hire a lawyer. [...] organizations like the National Writers'
> Union provide contract advice for their members. [...] It's
> not as one-sided as you state here.

I didn't make any statements about onesidedness, Karen. All I said, truthfully, was that publishing contracts are not, contrary to a prior statement here, drafted by authors' lawyers but by publishers. I didn't comment (as I'm about to here) on the impact of that fact.

Yes, the National Writers Union does offer counseling for its members. As does the Authors Guild, whose contract review team is overseen by staff lawyers. And of course an author can seek out and engage the services of an experienced publishing lawyer.

All of these are helpful resources. But of course in any contractual matter, the party originating the contract has a certain advantage. I think no working author will dispute the assertion that -- unless the author's name is Collins, Clark, Gresham, or the like -- the playing field of publisher-author law is not precisely level.

I'm not complaining. (No one forced me into this business.) That's just a fact of publishing life.

--Dodi Schultz
  <schultz[_at_]compuserve.com> Received on Tue Jun 06 2000 - 16:55:02 GMT