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!
Thanks so much for your advice. We talked to our agent today and your comments really helped us to know what was reasonable in terms of contract length, royalty percentages - and to ask some important questions about what the publishers will do for us under this arrangement. They will go back to the publisher to negotiate for a better deal!
I agree with Adrian and Lorraine - this seems like a very low rate for a very long contract! Also, if the company ceases to trade, you may find they still hold the rights for your work and you cannot get them back for the ten year period, even if they are no longer doing anything for you. I've heard of this happening with other publishers and it sounds like a nightmare. Ten years is a very long time in this industry, especially with the marketplace changing so rapidly.
If you cannot negotiate terms that you're comfortable with, then perhaps it's not the right thing for you. Good luck and let us know how it goes.
A further point or two to consider:
What is the company going to do for you for that whacking great percentage that they will be getting? What budget do they have for publicity, and where will they publicise your work? How much of that side of things do they expect you to do?
Are you paying any of the costs under the terms of the contract?
The more I think about this, the less I like it.
Read Adrian's figures, and think hard about what you are in effect giving away.
Have a look at Amazon's publishing package - and don't forget CreateSpace, which publishes print-on-demand paper copies.
https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A32I2OF1510VZV
There's also Smashwords:
http://www.smashwords.com/about/how_to_publish_on_smashwords