My colleague and I are just negotiating a publishing agreement with a UK publisher for an illustrated children's book. Does anyone have any good advice for us? We are being offered 5% (shared between author and illustrator) on royalties, and are been requested to sign up for a 10 year contract. These seem like pretty poor terms, but perhaps are the norm? Its our first published work in the UK, so we feel that even if the terms don't sound good its worth going ahead? Any advice would be much appreciated!
Since this W&A website won't let me send you a private message unless we're already "connected", I have to embarrass myself publicly by posting this here.
Why don't you look at http://la-granota.com/press.htm and pay special attention to point 2)? We're especially interested in picture books just now. It would possibly mean moving from a major (?) publisher to an almost-non-existent one, but you can always move back - or to an even better one - ANY time you like.
Is this going to get us black-listed from the publishers' associations?
Of course, you also have to read our creators' guidelines: http://la-granota.com/crazy.htm
ARE you crazy???
Harriet, I'm going to join my voice to those that advise you not to rush into this deal.
Do you both have day jobs? Are you financially set up so that you don't need ANY income from this book? (Do you not mind making NOTHING -or next to nothing - on this book?) In this case, you might consider the advantages of this offer: it'll get your "foot in the door" of publishing. It'll be something to add to your CV when trying to sell future books. (Though the reputation of the publishers will have a strong influence on this.) And -most importantly - if they ARE reputable - it'll get your book into the hands of children, which is the REALLY important thing, isn't it?
I do wish that you'd answered some of the questions that others asked you earlier. It makes it easier to give advice if we have more information. For example: what does the contract cover? It's one thing signing over all rights to this book for 10 years (which I myself wouldn't be too happy about). It's another thing to sign over exclusive rights to all your output - or even the right to first refusal - for that period. Especially at 5% for both text and illustrations.
I was en route to signing a contract for a picture book with a Barcelona publisher. Although this deal fell through, their standard contract impressed me (although I wasn't 100% happy about all the details):
Some of the positive points:
a) 12% of COVER price for text + illustration. (Compare with Adrian's comment.)
b) Agreement to produce 1000 books in Catalan + 1000 in Spanish for the 1st edition.
c) Guaranteed advance payment of 120€ for each inner illustration in full colour + 200€ for the cover illustration. (In the case of my book, 1880€ up-front, whether they sold a single copy or not.)
d) The publishers' commitment to print a new run every time the number of books left in stock fell to 25% of the last printing. (My memory might really fail me and it might have been 15%, but it was certainly double figures.) If they failed to do so within a certain time (might have been 6 months after stocks fell to that amount), ALL rights were to revert to me, as well as the offset plates being handed over to me.
e) The right to move to another publisher, if offered a better deal, after the contract term expired. (Though if the original publishers upped their offer to match the rivals, they were to have preference.)
f) This contract only binding for this one book.
Some of the negative points:
1) NO advance for text. (It was this detail that helped convince me [NOT a graphic artist] to illustrate the book myself... a decision that I'm VERY happy about now.)
2) NO say in the decision: to which foreign publishers they sold translation rights.
3) NO right to translate the book into any foreign languages myself (with the exception of English). Nor veto rights on awful translations. [This - in fact - was one of the conditions that I balked at and made the deal fall through.]
4) Letting them have ALL rights (incl. film and derivatives) with no veto rights on film adaptations that would be a travesty. [ditto]
5) Letting them have all these rights for 7 whole years. (Compare with your 10 years.)
Considering the fact that I turned my back on that MUCH better deal than the one I imagine that you're being offered, I would have turned my back on the latter, as well.
Harriet, please don't tell me your agent got you this deal. You might do better to find another agent.