Writer's Thought for the Week: I take a
simple view of life: keep your eyes open and get on with it. ~ Sir Laurence
Olivier
BEWARE THE CONTRACT and a New Imprint
Last December when I
blogged about Random House’s new digital imprints, no one had seen their contracts.
As contracts appeared, Writer Beware, Science Fiction Writers of America,
Horror Writers of America, and other author group representatives soon criticized
the onerous clauses. Last Tuesday morning, Random House announced changes to
their contracts for Hydra, Alibi, Flirt, and Loveswept. They will now follow a
more traditional contract model as one of two options. You can read the details
here.
The situation reminds us
that publishing is a business. Writers need to either become familiar with
contract jargon and what it means or find an agent or attorney who is. We've
all heard about scam publishers and agents preying on writers, but when even
Random House is called to task, whom can you trust?
Also this week, Amazon
launched imprint called Little A, aimed at novels, memoir, and story
collections. Within Little A is a digital-only series called Day One which
targets short stories from writers who have not published books yet. I have not
heard any bad news about these.
Deadline: March 31, 2013
for the June issue.
No entry fee
Submit an essay of up to 5,000 words on the subject of your choice to this semi-annual competition. Winners will receive $250 and their work will be featured in the next issue of Lunch Ticket. All submissions for the award will be considered for publication. The reading period for the award is February and March for the issue that publishes in June, and August and September for the issue that publishes in December.
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