A recent NY Times Op-Ed by Judith Shulevitz raised the thorny issue of so-called “morality clauses” in recent publishing contracts, which allow publishers to terminate contracts with authors for engaging in conduct (outside their writing) deemed immoral/unprofessional/unethical. While morality clauses have been common in entertainment industry contracts generally for many years, they’re relatively new to […]
Readers of this blog may be aware of the recent scandal at literary agency, Donadio & Olson, which filed for bankruptcy in December 2018 as a result of an accounting scandal. The agency’s bookkeeper Darin Webb had for years been embezzling money from clients of the agency with respect to royalty payments. Webb himself was […]
If you’ve been following the Australian court case between bestselling author Kate Morton and her past agent Selwa Anthony, you’ll know that parting ways with your agent may not only lead to bad feelings, but also to contractual claims. For anyone not following the case or not familiar with the issue, authors should be aware […]
I’ve been chatting to a number of author friends lately about the pros and cons of using a PR firm to help market their work. While the usual disclaimer applies to this column (i.e. nothing written here is intended as formal legal advice and folks who need help with particular issues should consult an agent […]
I’m not 100% sure how many readers of this blog have asked themselves (or someone else) questions about writing with an illustrator, but a number of writing colleagues have been talking to me about it lately so I thought it was worth setting out some info here. Usual disclaimer: Nothing written here is intended as […]
One question that’s come up a lot lately for me involves writers not being sure if they have a contract in place with an agent or publisher, particularly where the contract is not in writing. Starting (*ahem*) with my usual disclaimer as always: Nothing written here is intended as formal legal advice and folks who […]
What’s the difference between assigning your copyright and licensing it? While they sound like they might mean the same thing, they’re actually quite different legally speaking. And before I go on, my usual disclaimer applies: Nothing written here is intended as formal legal advice and folks who need help with particular issues should consult an […]
