small print publishers

[the_faery_queen]

im hoping this is the right place to put this, but basically i need some advise. my friend joey signed a contract last march with a small print place. they promuised it would be out (her novel) in november. its now april with no sign. they won't give her a deadline, they even emailed her to ask her when she wants it out, which is a bit cheeky.

i suggested she ask them, pretty frankly, when they're going to release it or whether she should loko elsewhere.

im just wondering, for anyone who has a small print publusher, or even a large one, is this usual? do they often set a deadline then not follow through? and not really keep her up to date?

 

[Brian G Turner]

What sort of details are included in the contract? Is there anything in terms of limitations on how long it applies, and the commitments each party must make under the contract?

 

[the_faery_queen]

i think joey said the book had to be out within a year, which meant march. so that's a violation really (she's going to check tho)

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

If the contract explicitly states that the book must be published within a year, the publisher is in violation of the contract and she can take back the rights. But ...

She needs to see exactly how the contract is worded. It may not say "within one year of receipt of the manuscript," but may be tied to written approval of the last revision or something like that. Often there isn't formal written approval of the last revision, which means that the publisher basically has forever, but reputable houses don't hold you to that. In fact, if there is a delay past the time agreed on (usually 18-24 months at a large publishing house) they ask you to sign an extension.

For a small publishing house a five or six month delay is not surprising, because they're operating on a shoestring financially and with few hands to do many tasks. So they may have perfectly legitimate reasons for the delay and be acting in good faith. But she should have seen something by now -- copy-edited manuscript, page proofs or galleys, cover art, etc. -- to show that her book was actually in production within the agreed upon time frame.

 

[the_faery_queen]

they've actually asked her for the squel, and she's been editing that, which i thik is partly what annoys her. that they are starting work on book 2 (have the cover, she's doing the editing) and yet nothing for book 1 yet!

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Things in publishing move very slowly. They set you deadlines, you turn in the manuscript, and then nobody does anything with it for months and months. It can be very frustrating. And especially when you publish with a smaller house, thinking it will get you in print faster than going through the long tedious submissions process with the big publishers -- and because the small publisher promises to bring out the book in a few months. The November pub date they gave her was unrealistic. March was more reasonable, and they're only a month over on that one.

If she's seen cover art and other signs that they really are working on the book, she might want to wait a little longer before doing anything. She's not going to speed things up by withdrawing the book and starting all over with somebody else. But she should definitely look at the exact wording of her contract and find out what her options are. And talk to some of their other authors, to find out what their experiences have been, and what she can reasonably expect. If there are a lot of writers waiting for them to come through with agreements that are long over-due, that would be a bad sign.

Also, here is a link to a website run by Science Fiction Writers of America, where she can check for warnings or ask questions, to see if the publishing house in question has a reputation for fair or shady practices:
http://www.sfwa.org/beware/

 

[the_faery_queen]

ok
she's seen teh cover art, but only because it was done by a friend of hers, so i don't thik that is anything to go by. but i will suggest she emails some other writers. i know that they're an ebook publisher usually, but agreed to do hers in print, which should be some sign, i guess, of how much they want her work. but she's just a bit annoyed with lack of publication date and the fact they asked her when she wanted it out (which seems a bit cheeky to me)

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Well now, that sounds like rather a bad sign, if they've agreed to make an exception in her case. If they usually do ebooks they might not be very capable when it comes to putting out printed books.