Awake

[Firemeboy]

Angela 'Iforgetwhathernewmarriednameisbutitusedtobe' Colvin.  I met her last week when I went down there.  She is very nice.  The managing editor wasn’t there, but I also met Melissa Stockdale.

So did you originally send your book to DB?  I have a sister-in-law who said the only way you get your book published there is if you are a GA.  I had originally sent my book there, and got a very nice reply from one of the editors, something about keeping my stories on file so they could possibly use them in their 'chicken soup for the soul' knockoff books.  But when I finally got around to sending it out again, I didn't even bother with DB because of what I had heard through the grapevine.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Does Covenant still put your firstborn in their contracts...or at least all rights to your future books for the next 40 years?

[Spriggan]

Ya, at least that's the deal Mustard has.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

It's only all your LDS-themed books. WHich, I suppose is what you write if you're publishing with Covenant, so it ammounts to close to the same thing.

[Entsuropi]

I can just see it - HoM writes a fantasy book, Covenant claim the Paladin in it is a LDS character, and demand the rights.

Harhar.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

THat sounds like a scenario to happen in the next LDS comedy I write.

[House of Mustard]

It's not forty years -- it's only 21.  And I'm already 2 into that, so only 19 more to go!

And Firemeboy, I'm with Angela too -- her married name is Eschler.  No, I never submitted to DB, but I had a pretty good reason (in my head).  Robert Farrell Smith goes through DB, and my first book was VERY similar to his stuff.  I figured that DB wouldn't want another author who writes the same kind of thing, so I went to Covenant.

As far as only GAs getting published, it's not quite true, but it sometimes feels like it is.  DB just doesn't put out a lot of fiction (and therefore, don't accept a lot).  They only release ten or twelve fiction novels a year, and they're very reluctant to sign new authors.  On the other hand, Covenant puts out four or five novels a month.

[Firemeboy]

That is interesting...

Yeah, my book actually isn't LDS themed.  I wrote it from a generic perspective, it's just about what normal kids do over the course of a summer.  There is not mention of church or anything outside of 'on Sundays we went to church'.  A Baptist could pick it up and relate to it.

When I sent it to Covenant, they brought this up, and asked if I couldn't make it more LDS.  I hesitated to do that because I thought the message of the book applies to everybody, and I didn't want to make it over 'Mormonesque' just for the sake of doing it.

Anyway, I thought about re-writing it and throwing in all sorts of LDSisms, but finally opted to write an introduction that involved the main character comparing the family on his family home evening manual, to his actual family.  It's about two pages, and that was the only change I made.  I sent it back and Covenant accepted it.  So I'm telling all my non-Mormon friends to buy it, skip the introduction, and they won't be confused.  

[EUOL]

I'm still curious to hear if you got the 21 year first-refusal contract, FMB.  HoM is only contracted to them for LDS works, but that's because he made a stink and got them to amend the contract.

[Firemeboy]

I am fairly certain that I got the same clause in my contract.  In one place they just said they had first rights of refusal, but in another it said only on LDS works.

What I'm more curious about, since my book really isn't specifically for an LDS audience, is if I will ever get the copyright back so that I can try to market it to a larger audience.  There is a clause that says is they don't print the book for 6 months, then I can request them to do so.  If they still haven't in another 6 months, then the copyright is mine.  But does that mean they can print 25 copies ever year and keep the copyright forever?

[House of Mustard]

Kind of.  I heard a horror story about another LDS publisher -- I can't remember which one -- but they considered a book in print as long as they had copies in their warehouse - even if no one was buying them and hadn't bought them for years.  The author ended up buying the publisher out of all their copies, just so they could go to a different company.

[EUOL]

This is usually the sort of thing an agent handles, and the LDS publishers are infamous for hating agents.

You need to read over that contract again, FMB.  Find out specifically what they have First Refusal on--unless you made a point of them putting in the 'LDS-only clause,' they have power over EVERYTHING you write for the next twenty years.

It's only a small amount of power--if another publisher can out-bid Covenant, which they should be able to do, then you can sell the book to them instead.  However, it will slow down any proceedings--you'll have to send a book to Covenant first for rejection (or for offer) before you can take it to a national press.

[House of Mustard]

No EUOL, from what I understand, it's now Covenant's standard procedure to contract first refusal for LDS stuff only.  They send out the contract, with an addendum already attached -- at least, that's what a few other authors have told me.

Specifically, they demand refusal on works that:
1) Deal with LDS subjects -or-
2) Are more marketable to an LDS audience than a mainstream audience.

Of course, both of those are subjective categories...

There's an interesting article in the LDS Storymakers book, LDS Publishing Secrets, which basically says the Covenant contract is unenforceable.  They give several reasons, not the least of which is that unconscionable contracts aren't legal, and no other reputable publisher would consider Covenant's contract conscionable.  (That article is written by a handful of very bitter, unhappy people.  It's entertaining.)

But truth be told, I don't mind the Covenant contract at all.  Maybe I'll regret it years down the road, but I don't have any trouble with it right now.

[Entsuropi]

If you do, get JP to write some hentai, sign it, then send it over as a LDS themed novel. Then insist they publish it or you'll ignore the contract. Sit back and watch.

JP, please do not write more hentai. (Yes, he has written some I believe. He linked me to it as well, ugh).

[Firemeboy]

Would it be unethical, when a book was 'sitting in the warehouse, as you metioned, to send it out to other publishers?  Then if they agree to publish it, you could buy back the rights, knowing you have another outlet.

Although I can't imaging them doing something like this...  I would think they want good relations with their authors.  So far I have had nothing but positive experiences.   We will see.    I may never write anything else, so I can always just say, "that was fun" and move on.

Maybe I should send them my dissertation and give them first rights of refusal on that?