Romancing the Blog | Romance Authors and Readers Who Blog

I spent a good amount of time last week writing back and forth with an editor, trying to close a deal for one of my clients. While the deal points that she offered were great, I knew that my author wrote about two to two and a half books every year and I knew that this editor’s house usually put out one book per author each year. So decisions had to be made. I had discussed the issue with my client – what his choices were, where he saw his career going, if he’d be willing to write for multiple houses, if he’d be willing to write under a pen name. We discussed almost every conceivable possibility, including the pros and cons of each, until I felt that I had the information in hand that I needed to negotiate this contract – and more specifically – to address the option clause in this contract. I wanted it taken out, I wanted that clause to “swim with the fishes.”

The basic language of a clause reads like:

The Author agrees to offer to the Publisher in good faith the same exclusive rights contained herin in his/her next book-length work before submitting the same to any other publisher.

And my job as the agent is to narrow this sucker down as much as possibile until it reads something like:

The author agrees to offer to the Publisher, in good faith, his/her next sexy contemporary single-title romance novel under the name (insert pen name) before submitting the same to any other publisher. The Publisher shall be entitled to a period of thirty days after submission of three chapters and a detailed synopsis – which period shall not commece to run prior to thirty days after publication…etc….

So, in many cases you can legally get around an option clause by writing under a different name, or handing in one proposal – fulfilling your obligation for that contract. What some agents/authors do is submit a “false” proposal, a throw away, a project they know their editor will reject so they are then free to submit their work else where. Some agents have even told me that even if it’s in the contract, the option clause is not legally binding anyway – and the house isn’t going to sue over it!

But it comes down to this: my author had a good working relationship with the editor and with this house. And when I mentioned taking some of his work to another house, the editor balked and said that she wanted to keep the right of first refusal for his projects. They treated him well, had “discovered” him, and now they were looking for a little loyalty.

Isn’t that what everyone wants? I know my authors wanted loyalty from their editors, but I’ve never thought as much about what an editor wants from authors and agents…

Now, I knew that I could forceably move my author, or lie and submit him under a “secret” pen name to another hous e (which would never really remain secret), or even insist on killing the clause or having my client not sign the contract. But the word “loyalty” kept getting stuck in my head. How far would you go to be and remain loyal? How important is that relationship between the editor and the author?

I picked up the phone and called the editor.

I want my client to be able to write to his heart’s content. He has these great projects, but he writes more than you are willing to publish – what can we do here? Do you have a solution I haven’t thought of yet? Fast forward another few hours and we had a solution, or rather a set of solutions – but one fit really well: he could take a pen name, he would be able to publish under the same house with two names – being able to produce/publish twice as many projects per year while remaining separate in the eyes of those that matter (i.e. the sales people and the book buyers).

I went back to the author with the proposed solution, which he was happy with. The editor was happy. The relationship was left intact. I didn’t have to lie, cheat, steal or kill. Today. So, I’m happy too.

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