Publishing House Continuity
I’m assuming most publishing contracts are like mine. There’s a "thou shalt give us the right to review your next XXX book first" clause in there. The general idea is if the publishing house invests in you they want to keep you and have the first shot at your new work. I get that. Makes sense. Good business and all that.
So, I’m looking at Janelle Denison’s website and her Wilde series. Seems the first several books in this series came out through Brava. I’m thinking they did well because some are in the Bad Boys series and that seems to do well, or so I keep telling myself since I have two Bad Boys books coming out next year. Well, it looks as if the next Wilde book, Too Wilde To Tame is a Berkley, not Brava, release. How does this happen? Not sure. I’m guessing this is a result of the publishing house moving on or Denison moving on, just seems strange.
August 19th, 2005 at 7:45 am
I’m interested to see this because it looks like Berkley is the publisher most closely emulating the Brava model. They started doing “erotic anthologies” before anyone else except Brava, and they’re producing more trade paperbacks. And they seem to be picking up some Brava authors– Erin McCarthy’s first paranormal was issued through Berkley, too.
August 19th, 2005 at 3:35 pm
CW sent me something about that clause — I think that most agents ask them to take it out? Not sure, I’ll have to double-check.
MJD is another Berkley/Brava author.
August 19th, 2005 at 4:08 pm
Most changes in publishing houses come down to money or contract disputes. As for the clause, most publishers refuse to remove it (unless you’re a top seller), but you can make it specific (ie contemporary novellas only sort of thing).
August 20th, 2005 at 1:38 am
Yeah, I’m thinking the clause is non-negotiable for many publishers except to the extent you can trim the type of book you need to give to them for a first look. I’m also guessing the change had something to do with money. It’s just odd to see a continuing and popular series get passed off to another publisher.
August 22nd, 2005 at 3:00 pm
Just because they have the first right to review your book doesn’t necessarily mean they have the right to buy it. This is why the wording of options clauses is so important. If you work it right, even if you do get that “first right of review” option clause, they can look at it and make an offer, and then your agent can toddle off to another house and get a better offer, and, depending on your contract with house number one, you can accept the better offer with house two.