A publisher offers you a contract. You're excited—someone wants to publish your book! They send you a 20-page legal document full of terms you don't understand. You skim it, see a dollar amount that seems good, and think about signing.
Stop.
That contract determines who owns your book, how much money you make, what control you have, and how you can get your rights back if things go wrong. Sign the wrong contract and you could be stuck for decades in a bad deal with no way out.
Publishing contracts are designed to protect publishers, not authors. That's not malicious—it's business. The publisher is investing money in your book and wants to protect that investment. But you need to protect your interests too.
Let me explain what's actually in these contracts, what's negotiable, what's standard, and what should make you walk away.
What Are "Rights" and Why Do They Matter?
When you write a book, you automatically own the copyright. That copyright is a bundle of different rights—ways your book can be published and sold.
Primary rights: The right to publish your book in English in specific formats (hardcover, paperback, ebook).
Subsidiary rights: All the other ways your book can make money:
• Audio rights (audiobook production)
• Foreign language rights (translations)
• Foreign territory rights (UK, Australia, etc.)
• Film/TV rights (adaptations)
• Dramatic rights (stage productions)
• Merchandising rights (based on your characters)
• Serial rights (magazine excerpts)
• Anthology rights (including your story in collections)
When you sign a publishing contract, you're licensing some or all of these rights to the publisher. The question is: which rights are you giving them, for how long, and for what percentage of the revenue?
The Advance: What It Actually Means
The advance is money the publisher pays you upfront against future royalties. It's not a bonus—it's a loan against what your book will earn.
How it works: Publisher offers you a $10,000 advance. They pay you (usually in 2-4 installments—on signing, on delivery, on publication, etc.). Your book sells. You earn royalties. But you don't see any royalty money until your book has earned more than $10,000.
Example: Your royalty rate is 10% of a $15 book = $1.50 per copy. You need to sell 6,667 copies before you "earn out" your advance and start receiving additional royalties.
What happens if you don't earn out: You keep the advance. The publisher loses money. This is their risk—you don't have to pay it back (unless your contract has a reversion clause tied to earning out, which we'll get to).
Typical advances for debut authors in 2025:
• Small press: $0-$3,000
• Mid-size publisher: $5,000-$15,000
• Big Five publisher: $10,000-$50,000 (occasionally higher for bidding wars or celebrity authors)
Don't expect six figures unless you're already famous or there's a competitive auction for your book.
Royalty Rates: What You Actually Earn
Royalties are the percentage you earn on each sale. But the percentage of what? That's where publishers get tricky.
Royalty Basis
Percentage of cover price: You earn 10% of the $15 cover price = $1.50 per book. This is the traditional model and most favorable to authors.
Percentage of net receipts: You earn 25% of what the publisher actually receives after retailer discounts. Publisher gets $7.50 after selling to a bookstore at 50% discount. You earn 25% of $7.50 = $1.88. Better than it sounds.
Standard royalty rates (traditional publishing):
Hardcover: 10% of cover price on first 5,000 copies, 12.5% on next 5,000, 15% thereafter
Paperback: 7.5% of cover price (sometimes escalating to 10%)
Ebook: 25% of net receipts (this is standard now, up from 17.5% years ago)
Audiobook: 20-25% of net receipts if publisher produces it
What to Watch For
Deep discount clause: If publisher sells books at more than 50% discount (to warehouse stores, book clubs, etc.), your royalty drops to 5% or less. This can devastate your earnings. Try to negotiate this.
Reduced royalties for "special sales": Publisher can designate sales as "special" and pay you less. Make sure the contract clearly defines what qualifies as special sales.
No royalties on promotional copies: Publisher can give away copies for promotion and pay you nothing. Reasonable in small quantities. Unreasonable if they're giving away thousands.
Term of Copyright: How Long They Control Your Book
This is the big one. How long does the publisher control your rights?
Life of copyright: Your lifetime plus 70 years. This is the worst possible term for you. You or your heirs can't get rights back for decades. Never sign a contract with "life of copyright" terms unless the advance is enormous and you don't care.
Fixed term: 7 years, 10 years, 15 years. Better. When the term ends, rights revert to you automatically (usually). Make sure the contract says "automatic reversion" not "reversion upon request."
Out of print reversion: Rights revert when the book goes "out of print." But most contracts now define "in print" as "available for sale" which means as long as they keep it on Amazon for $0.99, it's "in print" and they keep your rights forever. This is a trap.
What you want: Either a fixed term (10 years maximum) with automatic reversion, or out-of-print reversion with clear, specific sales thresholds (if the book sells fewer than 300 copies in any 12-month period, rights revert).
Rights Reversion: How to Get Your Book Back
You need a clear path to getting your rights back if:
• The publisher stops actively marketing your book
• Sales drop below a reasonable threshold
• The publisher goes out of business
• The publisher breaches the contract
• You want to publish the next book in the series elsewhere
Good reversion clauses:
• "Rights revert to author if annual sales fall below 300 units for 12 consecutive months"
• "Author may request reversion after 7 years; publisher has 90 days to object with cause"
• "Rights automatically revert if book is not available in print and ebook formats"
Bad reversion clauses:
• "Rights revert when book is out of print" (with no definition of out of print)
• "Publisher may keep rights as long as book is available for purchase in any format" (keeps rights forever)
• "Rights revert only after author repays unearned advance" (you'll never get rights back)
Subsidiary Rights: What to Keep and What to Give
Publishers want all rights. You want to keep as many as possible. Here's what matters:
Audio Rights
If publisher has: They'll license to an audiobook producer or produce it themselves. You get 20-25% of net. They handle everything.
If you keep: You can self-publish the audiobook through ACX/Audible and keep 40% (exclusive) or 25% (non-exclusive) of sales. You control pricing and timing.
What to do: Keep audio rights unless publisher can prove they have strong audio relationships and a track record of actually producing audiobooks. Most small publishers can't.
Foreign Rights
If publisher has: They'll try to sell translations to foreign publishers. You get 50-75% of what they receive. But they might not try very hard, especially if you're not a bestseller.
If you keep: You or your agent can pursue foreign deals directly. You keep 80-85% (if agent handles it) or 100% (if you do it yourself).
What to do: If your publisher has an active foreign rights department with a track record, let them have it. If they don't, keep it.
Film/TV Rights
What to do: Keep these unless you're signing with a major publisher who has Hollywood connections. Most publishers can't sell film rights effectively. If Hollywood wants your book, they'll find you.
Non-Compete Clauses: What You Can't Write Next
Many contracts include non-compete clauses that limit what you can publish elsewhere while under contract.
Reasonable: "Author agrees not to publish a competing work that would directly harm sales of this book."
Unreasonable: "Author agrees not to publish any other book in the same genre without publisher's consent."
Ridiculous: "Author agrees not to publish any other work of fiction without publisher's consent."
Push back hard on broad non-compete clauses. They shouldn't control your entire career just because they published one book.
Option Clauses: Your Next Book
Publishers often include option clauses giving them first shot at your next book.
Typical language: "Author grants publisher first option to publish author's next work on terms to be negotiated."
What this means: Before you can shop your next book elsewhere, you have to let this publisher see it first and make an offer. If you don't like their offer, you can decline, but you've wasted time.
What to negotiate:
• Limit option to "next book in the same series" not "next work"
• Require publisher to make offer within 30 days (not 90 days)
• Specify "on terms no less favorable than this contract" so they can't lowball you
• Or remove the option clause entirely if you can
Who Pays for What: Production Costs
In traditional publishing, publisher pays for:
• Editing
• Cover design
• Interior formatting
• Printing
• Distribution
• Marketing (supposedly)
Author should never pay for:
• Editing services
• Cover design
• Publishing the book
• Distribution
• ISBN numbers
• "Marketing packages"
If a "publisher" asks you to pay for any of these, they're not a publisher—they're a vanity press charging you to publish your own book. Walk away.
Red Flags: Contracts to Avoid
• Publisher keeps more than 50% of subsidiary rights revenue
• No clear path to rights reversion
• Broad non-compete preventing you from publishing elsewhere
• Perpetual term or "life of copyright" language
• Publisher can terminate but you can't
• Advances are "refundable" under any circumstances
• No guaranteed publication date
• Publisher doesn't have to publish the book at all
• Contract includes "joint venture" language where you pay costs
• Royalties based on net after undefined "costs"
When to Walk Away
You want to be published. I get it. But signing a bad contract is worse than not being published at all.
Walk away if:
• Publisher won't negotiate anything
• Contract is one-sided and favorable only to publisher
• You'll never get your rights back
• Publisher wants money from you
• Terms are significantly worse than industry standards
• Your gut says something is wrong
Bad contracts follow you for decades. If your first book is tied up with a predatory publisher, you can't move forward with your career even if your next books are better.
How to Negotiate Your Contract
Get professional help. Literary agents negotiate contracts as part of their 15% commission. That's their value—they know what's standard and what's negotiable. If you don't have an agent, hire a publishing attorney to review the contract. $500-$1,500 is money well spent.
Everything is negotiable. Publishers send you a standard contract expecting you to ask for changes. If you sign as-is, you're leaving money and rights on the table.
What to negotiate:
• Advance amount
• Royalty rates (especially ebook royalties)
• Which subsidiary rights you keep
• Term length and reversion clauses
• Deep discount provisions
• Non-compete clauses
• Option clauses
• Publication timeline
How to negotiate: Be professional. Be specific. Ask for changes in writing. Don't be afraid to push back. Publishers respect authors who understand their worth.
Small Press vs. Big Five Contracts
Big Five publishers: Larger advances, stronger distribution, more marketing support (theoretically), but less negotiable contracts and less personal attention.
Small presses: Smaller advances (or none), more limited distribution, less marketing budget, but more negotiable contracts, more personal attention, and sometimes better royalty rates.
Neither is inherently better. It depends on what you value and what the specific contract offers.
The Bottom Line
A publishing contract is a business agreement. It's not an honor. It's not validation. It's a legally binding document that determines how much money you make and how much control you have over your work.
Read every word. Understand what you're signing. Get professional help. Negotiate. And if the deal isn't good for you, walk away.
Your book is valuable. Don't give it away to someone who won't treat it that way.
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