The Business of Publishing, 2014, Part II

Another article I found through The Passive Voice warns us, not only as writers, but as anyone who holds a pen in hand and inscribes her or his signature at the bottom of a long page(s) of minuscule type:

I've been struck by the number of comments from writers who seem to think that a bad contract clause is not so very awful if (pick one) the publication is great; the people who run it are great; the bad contract clause is not always enforced. […]

That's all very well. But […] this is exactly how writers get screwed: by making assumptions about a publisher's intentions, by letting their emotions overrule their business sense, and by forgetting that, in the author-publisher relationship, the publishing contract is the bottom line.

I add that not only writers can be screwed by this attitude, though perhaps writers are more susceptible? I don’t know, and I’m not following any other industry with quite the enthusiasm I am publishing, so maybe, maybe not.

In any event, we all should do well to remember that “the […] contract is the bottom line.”

Read the entire warning at Writer Beware.

I’ve recommended The Passive Voice before, and I do so again.