Contract Clauses that can Save Your Books and Money

by Lyn McConchie

I started writing professionally in 1990 and I was fortunate to have several old friends who were already writers. From them I gleaned information, and a number of stories about things they'd learned from painful experience. The above title deals with what I call “the remainder clauses.”

In my own country many writers still deal with publishers personally. And since, increasingly, small presses are a good market and agents often won't bother with selling to them or dealing with small press contracts, knowing this set of clauses can be very useful if you are doing so. Make sure they are included in any contract and that they also apply to any subsequent purchaser of your publisher too.

Your book can not be remaindered for a minimum of one year after date of publication.

Before your book can be remaindered, the publisher must contact you at least three months prior, and offer you all (or as many as you want) of the unsold copies of your book – at rock bottom remainder price, and via cheapest tracked form of freight.

If the publisher intends to dump copies, they must instead be offered to you free, and sent via cheapest form of tracked freight.

Why? On “1” because some publishers use remaindering as a tax device. Or another publisher may have taken over your publisher and decided that clearing the deck is a good start. It may be – for them. It isn't so good for you when you find out – months down the track – that three-quarters of your first edition was remaindered and that a) you get no royalties from those copies, and b) that the copies you wanted to buy under author's right are no longer available.

On “2,” that's right, with that clause you will know – well in advance, you can find out how many copies are involved and have time to get the cash together to buy them and pay freight.

And on “3,” some larger publishers working in print and finding that they have only 20-200 copies of your book left in their warehouse, and not planning to reprint, will strip and dump them. It costs them nothing extra to send those to you instead and you get copies of your
book to sell, gift, donate, or use as samples for other publishers.

I had those clauses in my first book's contract - a 2,000 copy edition. The book sold retail for $20. The imprint was taken over and 443 copies remaindered to me. I made about $3,000 in initial royalties. I sold the remaindered copies I purchased ($2 each) for an average of $14 including cost. During the next six years I made $5,000 profit on those copies before selling the rights to another small press – which continues to sell it (and five sequels with a sixth out next year) to this day. Use these clauses, it's worth it.

Lyn McConchie, author of Harpsong and Dreamsmoke, appears in the Penumbra August issue. To learn more about Lyn, please visit her website.