I attended the Live the Universe and Everything symposium. These are notes from one of the panels. Any misinformation is the fault of the note taker.

• What should you watch out for? How long until your material returns back to your jurisdiction. What of the intellectual rights in the long-term? If a publisher does not give you a contract and that is not good. Do not associate with them. Just walk away make sure the contract is addressed to the right person make sure specified how you will be paid.
• How are they paying you? When do the rights return back to you? Do not have in the contract right of the first refusal. This is a prominent shortcoming of the small press. Maybe limit this to only a novel of the same universe. In some will take a long time to make a decision like 10 years. You must have a specific time for response. When offering rights. Specify only English US, Canada, Australia, England.
• Do not sell the copyright. Work for hire sometimes will buy all rights but they already have ownership of that world. The author is playing in their sandbox.
• If a publisher asked you to pay money then that is a publisher only want to make money off you and they are not interested in your success. That is a vanity publisher.

What things do you want to look for in a contract?

• See what rights they are taking and when those rights are reverted back to you. Tell me how you getting paid. MI BN paid from gross or from net. Hollywood often uses net and it never seems to pay out to benefit the creators. Gross is the cover price. If you get an itemized list of what is net then you can see what you have been paid for.
• For short fiction, you don’t get royalties. In a contract for short fiction tried it make sure that you are material revert back to your ownership. This is often done within a year
• For novels see when the advances are paid out. Once you reach and meet the expenses of production. The gig and exit bands. The first advance might be when you sign the contract. The second might be when the book goes to print. Many publishers offer 10% royalty. Your advance is offset by your royalties. When you earn out your expenses you can get another dance. If you don’t earn out the publisher loses interest in you.
• If there is a large advance the publisher is more inclined to make more of an effort to publicize you so they get them an investment back. Nowadays new authors are getting smaller advances.
• Ask what is being paid for the e-book?
• Ask what is being paid for the audiobook?

What kind of resources or their contracts?

• SAIF LA: as a writer beware section that identifies scam publishers and agents. The author and publisher Katharine Roche has also done a number of posts on the topic of contracts.
• A good agent will know what to look for about what is good and bad about a contract
• always read your contract. If you don’t understand the section, you can ask the publisher. If it’s a contract for short fiction, any mention of Hollywood is a red alert. Have your agent review that section of Hollywood. It is anything related to Hollywood, then you need to communicate with a Hollywood agent. Those who write a contract to Hollywood will try to benefit themselves first.
• Some contracts will say that they have exclusive rights to your work. If that is the case in a seven certain timeframe.
• Have an option that if your story gets voted the best of the year it can be used in that anthology as it will promote their materials well. Get a definition of rights as long as the book is in print. Then needs to be a certain amount of print. Does include electronic. Nothing is considered in print it or rights lesson 2000.
• Have a stipulation in your contract that if a small press closes its doors does your work refer back to you.