Kate Wilhelm Jumps Off The Cliff With The Rest Of Us

July 14, 2012
Rather well-known, perhaps even iconic writer Kate Wilhelm recently wrote a blog post about how after getting offered a ridiculous book contract she decided to open her own publishing company to self-publish, as well as to publish her extensive backlist of out-of-print books. She says:

In the fall of 2011 I was offered a contract that was so egregious that the publishing house that sent it should have been ashamed, and if I had signed it I would have been shamed. I proposed additional changes to those my agent had already managed to have incorporated and each suggested change was refused. I rejected the contract and withdrew the novel. At that point, I could have tried a different publisher but I knew it would have been a repeat performance, because the major publishers are tightening ranks and the contract I had rejected was more or less the new standard. It wasn't about the advance, I might add. It was about rights, especially electronic rights, not only those in existence today, but anything that might be developed in the future in any form: who owned them, duration of ownership, how they would be exploited, how and if they would ever revert, and so on. I refused to submit it to anyone else.

To read the whole piece, click here.