Signing on the dotted line: the lived experience of book contracts in contemporary Australian small-press publishing

ABSTRACT

The publishing contract is the central legal feature of any publishing professional's life, whether creator, literary agent, or publisher. And with small press becoming an ever more important part of the Australian publishing scene, the contracts landscape has diversified and become more complex. There's a wealth of information on what you should and shouldn't do, and what the perfect contract looks like. But what's it like in reality, beyond the clause and sub-clause? For though it's an important legal document, the contract also represents an intense lived experience for all those who are a party to it, especially in the small-press sector. This article, based on interviews with a range of creators (authors and illustrators), literary agents, small-press publishers and industry body representatives, presents an illuminating snapshot of the contemporary contract experience in the Australian small-press sector. Not intended as a formal analysis of the contracts landscape but rather as an intimate insight into the individual lived experience of contemporary Australian contracts, whether that be for creators or publishers, the article addresses questions covering the contemporary challenges and opportunities of ‘signing on the dotted line’.

KEYWORDS:

• Book contracts
• publishing
• authors
• publishers

Notes on contributor

Born in Indonesia of French parents, and brought up in France and Australia, Dr Sophie Masson AM is the award-winning and internationally-published author of over 60 books for children, young adults and adults. She is also a founding partner and publishing director of acclaimed children's books boutique publisher Christmas Press, based in regional NSW and launched in 2013. A recent PhD graduate in practice-led research at the University of New England, she has presented her research work on literary and publishing topics at conferences around the world and her scholarly articles have been published in many journals, amongst them “Imagination's Afterlife: Influences on and Transformations of Literary Creative Practice within a Creative Practice PHD”, which was published in New Writing in 2017. She has also published chapters within recent scholarly books on publishing and her non-fiction book The Adaptable Author was published in 2014. A former Chair of the Australian Society of Authors, she is the current Chair of the New England Writers’ Centre and Vice-President of the Small Press Network. In January 2019, Sophie Masson received an AM (Member, General Division) award in the Order of Australia honours list. Her citation read ‘For significant service to literature as an author, publisher, and through service to literary organisations’.