Submitting 101: Contracts
I’ve been editing The Harrow for over ten years, and this series will summarize the advice I’d give a beginning writer.
If your story is accepted, will you get a contract? From a professional-level zine, yes. From an anthology, almost certainly. From semipro, paying, and “for the love” zines, maybe.
If the zine doesn’t send you a contract, should you insist on one? At the amateur writing level, it’s up to you. A contract works both ways in publishing, protecting both the publisher’s and the writer’s rights. I’ve had my own stories published on nothing more than an email agreement, and that’s always worked out fine for me. As an editor, in the early years, when The Harrow was new, I never bothered sending a contract to writers. I simply sent them an email accepting their work and asking them to give me permission to publish it, noting that rights would revert back to them upon publication. That and their “go ahead!” email was all the contract we had, and truth be told, it worked just fine.
Later, a lawyer joined our staff, and he kindly prepared a simple contract for The Harrow that laid out more or less the same agreement in proper legal language. We asked — and still ask — our writers to either sign it and fax or mail it back, or to send us an email with an “I accept this contract in its entirety” line that acts as an electronic signature between us. The contract has evolved a little over the years as our policies has evolved, and now that I pay a small amount for stories and poems, it’s become slightly more important to me to ensure that writers understand and agree to the terms of purchase and publication. But the only reason I bother is to protect myself, and so far, I’ve never needed to go back and pull a contract for any reason.
As a writer, the parts of the typical short story contract that you’ll want to pay special attention to are information about payment — is it in the amount and form you expected? — and the rights being bought. If they differ from what the zine states in its Submission Guidelines, query the editor about the discrepancies. If you don’t like the contract for some reason, don’t be afraid to ask for a change or turn it down. You may lose a potential publication opportunity, but it’s better than losing your rights to your work.
For most publications under the professional level, the rights being purchased will be extremely limited. First publication or first electronic publication, most likely, often with a short duration before the rights to republish the work revert back to you. Professional publications might be purchasing particular publication rights for a longer duration. Read this section closely because it will specify what you can and cannot do with your story in the future. Also, if the contract is buying “first electronic publication rights” and your story has been published on a website somewhere else, you could find yourself in breach of contract if you sign it. As I said — the protection runs both ways, and you need to read the agreement to ensure the publisher is on the up-and-up and to make certain you are.
Naturally, you should read the rest of the contract closely, but payment and rights are the two most significant areas. I’d say that in almost all cases, you’ll find short story contracts to be fair and pro forma. A zine isn’t going to last too long if it screws its writers, especially now that it only takes a writer a few minutes to spread news of a scam all around the web.
Sign the contract, make a copy of it, and send it back to the publisher. Keep your contracts filed someplace where you can find them later. After all, someday you’ll become a famous writer and be asked to publish a retrospective collection of your work. When that time comes, it’ll be useful to know the dates and places where it was first published. Plus, the publisher of your collection will want to ensure that you have retained the rights to everything!
Next, a few words about editing.
drupagliassotti @ March 2, 2008