What to ask for in a publishing contract (when you’re a Filipino author working with a Philippine publisher)

Sharing, with the hope that it will be helpful to you, my list of things I ask for in a contract when working with a Philippine publisher.

I’m not a lawyer. But I am an author with 28 published titles, as of my posting this. I have been published by, or have worked on projects with, Philippine publishers Summit Books, Anvil Publishing, Adarna, the RomanceClass print editions published by Visprint, and most recently, Komiket. I have also been consulted by authors of other publishing companies about their contracts, and I do my best to help them. 

Philippine publishing as an industry is full of bad contracts, or contracts that do not value the author, and also authors who are not aware that they can negotiate for better terms, or are afraid to negotiate, or cannot simply walk away from a bad contract. 

This is a list of things that are already offered, or I have successfully negotiated, in a contract with a Philippine publisher. This is all possible and already being given to other authors, and I believe that this should be the standard practice for publishers of any size.

1. Copyright remains with the author. Yes, there are publishers who ask authors to turn copyright over to them. Insist that copyright remain with you, the author.

2. The author receives a talent or signing fee, or an advance. Amounts offered will vary depending on the publisher, but I believe this should be basic and standard. Yes I believe publishers should pay authors upon signing or turnover of the manuscript.

3. Royalties on books sold, up to 20%.

4. Online option for contract signing.

5. Contracts must be open for evaluation and review. Give only Philippine print rights to a Philippine publisher who mainly does print. (Meaning, don’t give them digital rights, or film, or audio, unless you know they are the best at it. Most of them are not.)

6. Authors must receive at least 10 complimentary copies of print books.

7. Publisher commits to a release date or release period and rights must revert back to the author if the release date is not met because of the publisher’s decision.

8. Publisher discloses to the author the print run (number of copies printed), and reach of distribution (how many retail outlets x how many copies). 

9. Contracts last from 5 to 7 years and publisher presents a marketing plan (including the channels, marketing activities, event schedule) covering the duration of the contract. 

NEW thing: 10. Publisher commits to not feed the work to AI and machine learning tools and commits to protect the work against the unauthorized feeding of the work to AI and machine learning tools.

This checklist for authors has been updated over the years and I feel like it will always need an update. The checklist is helpful but we shouldn’t be limited by what I did or didn’t get to include. We should agree on what the publisher’s role is, so we can make decisions based on what’s fair to authors and what a publisher can reasonably deliver. 

This is what I believe the publisher’s role is: 

I believe that publishers are supposed to amplify an author’s work and make it reach a larger audience than an author is able to do for themselves. 

I believe a publisher should pay for all the expenses related to publishing. If they are not covering all expenses, if they are charging authors for any service, then they are service providers, and are not that author’s publisher. The agreement an author signs with a service provider is not a publishing contract. It is a transaction, the service providers, do not get copyright, or subsidiary rights, or anything else of value related to the book. (Don’t “hybrid publishers” exist? Yes, but that’s not what I’m talking about here. I’m talking about the situation where authors think they’re signing with a traditional publisher, not a hybrid one, and have been led to believe it’s “normal” to pay for printing or distribution or other services.)

This list has worked for me and helped me get better contracts because of fellow authors and publishers who believe that our work has value. Is your publisher doing something awesome that everyone else should be doing too? Let me know!

[A version of this was presented at the webinar “Creating Author-Friendly Publishing Contracts,” hosted by The Indie Publishers Collab Philippines.]

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