Contract writing help request.

[RangerWickett]

I'd like to tap the more experienced publishers here for a little help. If you have two people who are collaborating on a work, how do you write the contract for them?

Say, for instance, Larry and Curly are working on the "Librum Stoogicus," and if all goes well, you're going to pay them $20 for their troubles*. How do you handle the possibility that one person might not hold up their end of the bargain?

A couple of possibilities:

• Split it even: Both people co-sign on one contract. You agree to pay them both $10 when the book is turned in, regardless of whether one of them shirked his responsibility. This is unfair to the writer who had to do twice as much for only half the money, and it forces you to pay a lazy bum.
• Split the work: You have Larry and Curly sign separate contracts, in which each of them agrees to do certain parts of the book, agreed on in advance. Then you pay each person $10 if they fulfill their obligation. If Larry drops out, you just write an extra contract for Curly to cover the difference. However, if Curly wants to, he might just do his part of the bargain and not write Larry's part, but you'd still have to pay him $10, and you'd be stuck with half a book that you probably can't use.
• Gentlemen's agreement: Larry signs a contract for $20 from you. Then he has Curly sign a contract with him for $10, or maybe they just agree to split the money. This works well if they're good friends who trust each other, but if they don't, they might not be comfortable with this agreement.

I'm sure there are other options, and I'm hoping some publishers here will help me out.

*This does not accurately represent how much we pay our writers at Natural 20 Press. If we ever do, in the future, hire people named Larry and Curly, though, be forewarned; you ain't gettin' more than $20!**
**Unless you have someone named Moe with you.Then we'll be willing to negotiate. I mean, c'mon. Who wouldn't buy the D20 "Librum Stoogicus," by Larry, Curly, and Moe?

 

[HellHound]

Hey, no spreading trade secrets about "Librum Stoogicus"!

 

[HellHound]

forgot the cover image!

 

[HellHound]

The way I've worked in my experience was a per word payment and each person is told to produce X words, along with the agreement that if person Y doesn't produce his share, then person Z can make up the difference and get paid the difference.

 

[MThibault]

I'm not a publisher, but Hellhound has sidestepped this issue nicely by not laying down a dime at least until the point a near-finished manuscript was in his hands.

Variations on this theme are probably the cleanest. Otherwise, as with any project management, set benchmarks and dole out the rewards based on hitting those benchmarks, if possible adjust subsequent benchmarks based on how close you've come to the original plan.

Gross word count is a good benchmark. Gross word count of a quality that is acceptable to the publisher/editor is even better. 20,000 words of crap, or OT rambling is worth less than a blank page because you have to read it first to figure out that you can't use it.

Just my 2 cents.

MT

 

[tensen]

[
*This does not accurately represent how much we pay our writers at Natural 20 Press. If we ever do, in the future, hire people named Larry and Curly, though, be forewarned; you ain't gettin' more than $20!**
**Unless you have someone named Moe with you.Then we'll be willing to negotiate. I mean, c'mon. Who wouldn't buy the D20 "Librum Stoogicus," by Larry, Curly, and Moe? [/B]

Well. I'd accept it if Shemp was the 3rd writer, too.

 

[Mistah_Richard]

There is actually a very simple solution for this. When I was a partner at my former game company we would simply write contracts that were open ended for the writer (writers only, not artists). We would pay a per word rate, POST edit. There would be a total word cap...say 100, 000 or 24, 000.

You could also simply say the project is worth X number of dollars and pay a simple project rate.

It is best if all parties are on the up and up even after copntracts have been signed. One of the parties getting screwed means ALL of them do, even the publisher.

The publisher should make it evidently clear that the person handling the work (should there be other talent involved besides the front man) should have a percise listing of each talent and their contribution, both in word count and content. The publsiher should credit each of the talents int he book as the publisher normally would.

Currently, I work with two other gentlemen, and we all get seperate contracts. Unfortunately, our model is different since we are two artists and a single writer. We plan to expand though with each of the three acting as reps for several talents. We will see how it goes. Should be interesting.

 

[Mistah_Richard]

Hellhound, is that cover actually completed? Seems like it needs some inking. I know this 't the forum for it, but I figure I would ask.

 

[HellHound]

LOL

Actually... that cover is a joke.

I created it spur-of-the-moment to poke fun at Ryan Nock for using the "Librum Stoogicus" title - I'm sure he was trying to create a mythical book of generic title, but the fact is that "Librum" has been pretty much branded as an Ambient naming convention. So I quickly threw together that cover using a VERY nice piece of art from one of our friends that was originally intended for Thee Compleat Librum ov Gar'Udok's Necromantic Artes, and slapped up the basic layout that I used for the cover of Librum Ex Veritas (d20 and ambient logos, etc) and named it Librum Stoogicus.

So, no... there is no Librum Stoogicus, and that isn't a real cover, and Ryan Nock is therefore off the hook.

(The piece is a pencil sketching of a girl inside some foliage... it was purposefully done as it is, with the foliage actually being a second layer that sits above the sketching - but the 3d effect is of course lost when it is slapped onto a flatbed scanner and turned into a 300pdi image...)

 

[tensen]

Hellhound, is that cover actually completed? Seems like it needs some inking. I know this 't the forum for it, but I figure I would ask.

I dunno. It looks pretty good for a thrown together spoof.