Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Contracts and such

I turned in my short story yesterday. My lovely editor as a favour read it and had a few tweaks. It goes to the Online Read Editor so she may notice different things. Editors are like that! But I am super excited about it and can't wait to see what she says and ultimately what readers think!
Anyway, my editor has declared that she is going to hold me to that level of focus and intensity now that she knows I can do it! Oh help! It is a challenge...challenges are good. I learnt a lot from writing it, including you probably need less set up than you think and to really have the focus firmly on the two protagonists. Part of the problem with To Marry a Matchmaker, particularly in the early drafts was that focus wasn't there.

My new contract arrived and it was the first time I had a look at the New Look contract. It is far simpler to understand with a term sheet that spells everything out that I agreed with my editor for each book. The standard part of the contract also is there and I spent part of the evening wrapped in legalise. The biggest change is that I don't have to fill out forms any more to put my covers and excerpts up. From this contract onwards, they are included. I do have to put the copyright notices up as cover art as well as my words are copyrighted.

5 comments:

Jackie Ashenden said...

Congrats on that contract, Michelle. That's great news. And if anyone can pull off those deadlines, you can!
Yay re the online reads!

Michelle Styles said...

Thanks Jackie
The other interesting bit was to see what was *standard* and what is up for negoiation. I'd already known it intellectually of course but there it all is, and really if all you want to do is to sell to series, then you don't need an agent for the contract. There are other reasons why you might like an agent but the vast majority of the contract is standard.

Joanna St. James said...

that is great! congratulations,I cannot imagine a contract that easy but if you say yours is I'll take your word for it, and wait till i get mine (not like I have a sale or anything yet I'm only dreaming)

Maya Blake said...

That's super exciting, Michelle. Can't wait to read it! And congrats on the new contract, too :)

Caroline said...

Congrats on the new contract. Can't wait to read the new title that are coming out in December. Caroline x