Today is a lovely day! I'm in a great mood. My sister is in from Australia, and I've been running her and her husband ragged with activities (And it won't stop until Tuesday. Last night I dragged them to kickboxing training and dinner after. Tonight we're going rock-climbing. Tomorrow we're off to an Aerial Adventure Park. Sunday a spa and, if my trainer has time, I'm dragging her to an Equestrian Archery lesson Monday night. After that, they can chillax because I'm all out of ideas....).
Terry Prachett has up on his site an exciting opportunity for début novelists. The prize is a massive advance against royalties and a publishing contract. Read about it here.
I'm considering submitting one of my novels for consideration.... Probably not The Third Prince. Largely because this story is very dear to me, and I'm a little nervous about handing over all rights to it (in the Terms and Conditions it reads: 8. The winning entrant will be offered an advance payment against royalties of �20,000 on entering into a publishing contract with the Publisher (Prize) and will be required to agree to license exclusive world publishing rights in all print, electronic, audio and any other media formats in the Novel to the Publisher on acceptance of the Prize. At the Publisher's discretion, shortlisted entrants may also be offered publishing deals with the Publisher. Subject to any such contractual agreement, entrants will retain their legal rights to their Entries.).
It's the 'any other media formats' that has me hesitating... Can anyone in the industry translate this little piece of legalese for me?
And since I haven't had much luck selling The Third Prince, maybe the universe is telling me I ought to give The Seraphimé Saga a try.... I shall consider the matter while illustrating today....
What do you think?
2 comments:
Depends what you want out of being a writer, but from my perspective, I'd far prefer to find out from someone like Pratchett that my work was genius or rubbish, rather than hang on to all rights in the hope that some unknown publisher might one day take it on, and get it optioned by Hollywood, or whatever you are hoping for in the long run.
Better the chance of fame/fortune now, than hope of fame/fortune later for me.
Ignoring that £20,000 is a decent enough some for a first novel, it's also only an advance against future royalties. It might go up further..
I agree with you, Tom.
I have decided that I will submit 'The Seraphimé Saga' for the competition, though. This is largely because I still have 'The Third Prince' in with Baen Books, and while the odds aren't great that they will love it, they did request that I don't submit the book to any other publisher until they've had time to review it properly (one year, I believe it was).
As I have more than one completed novel, I don't think it's such a bad idea. Even if I don't win it, I might get something out of it....
Who knows?
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