Sunset Clauses

I was reading something on Writer Beware which reminded me of this.

Don't sign a contract without a sunset clause. A sunset clause means your rights revert to you after a period of time. Normally, the sunset clause specifies both a time limit for publication and when your rights revert after publication.

With short stories, it's common to have a perpetual non-exclusive contract with an exclusivity period. That's perfectly fine for shorts. It's hard to sell reprints and the contract does not interfere with you, for example, putting up your backlist on Smashwords. Exclusivity clauses range from three months to two years, and some publishers will waive if the story is wanted for a Best Of anthology or similar.

With novels, a sunset clause should specify that you get your rights back 2 to 5 years after the date of publication. They normally contain an option to extend (so if your book is doing fine with that publisher and still selling, you can just renew).

Never sign a life of copyright contract on anything except a work for hire piece (And you should charge well for work for hire). Never sign a contract that does not return your rights to you if they don't publish it.

Oh, and never sign a contract that includes all subsidiary rights unless you are getting a lot of money. You want to be able to pocket that movie option if you happen to be amazingly lucky and get one.

Seriously...

We have all of this technology and somebody uses it to broadcast screams in space? I'm geeky enough to love it.

(Hey, I write science fiction. That's how many geek points right there? Oh, and I wear glasses. That's worth a few too, even if it's not exactly by choice.)

And I'm a Trekkie.

And...

Yeah. I'm a geek. So I love random Alien references, but still... In all seriousness, the smartphone as a satellite core is going to significantly reduce the costs for certain applications.

Review: Captain Vorpatril's Alliance

Lois McMaster Bujold is rightly well known for her Miles Vorkosigan stories - the little guy with the physical handicap who leaves a trail of chaos behind him wherever he goes and always comes up roses.

Through a lot of that, Miles has a sidekick, Ian Vorpatril, who's the Watson to his Holmes in many ways. Not dumb, but often looking so next to his genius cousin, Ian is always getting in trouble with or over women.

Which is pretty much the entire premise of Ian's first solo book. It all really does involve a girl. And Imperial headquarters. And moles in several senses of the word. It's not a particularly deep or thoughtful book - in fact, I'd call it a caper novel - but it's a lot of fun...even if I found parts of the plot horrendously predictable.

I still recommend it if you like your science fiction more to the sci-fi end of things and a good story.

4 stars.


Captain Vorpatril's Alliance (Vorkosigan Saga)

Argh. MARTIN!

I love George R.R. Martin...although not quite as much as my husband, who genuinely believes he's the best currently active speculative fiction writer in the world.

My love affair started before I knew who he was. I don't go for romances. I don't really like love stories that much. Or even love songs. There was one notable exception. A little American show called "Beauty and the Beast". (My nostalgia for it is such that I can't bring myself to watch the remake). That show was amazing. Beyond amazing. But I didn't know who to hold responsible for it until my husband handed me "Windhaven".

From then on...hooked. I might not go quite as far as Greg does, but I do think he is a quite excellent writer. I just finished reading the second volume of his "Dreamsongs" collection.

So, why am I tearing my hair out?

Windhaven, in collaboration with Lisa Tuttle, was up there for his best work. Possibly better than A Song of Ice and Fire - although hard to compare. Tuttle has done nothing I've found worth mentioning since.

So.

ARGH MARTIN.

He and Lisa started a sequel to Windhaven.

They didn't finish it!

Apparently it was a combination of Tuttle having another project and Martin's chronic Too Many Ideas Syndrome. (Why is ASoIaF taking so long to finish? Hint, it's not just because he's slow).

Don't worry, George. You still get a drink if I ever bump into you in a convention bar.

Updates

Still working on getting Transpecial finalized. Yeah, taking slightly longer than expected, but every time we think we've caught all the problems - the line editor found a couple of plot potholes I had to fill in.

Also working on the RPG. Which I swear will have a formal title soon.

The art is done and sent in for the graphic short for the Gods & Cattle anthology.

Also, I have a couple of slots available for proofreading - please let me know and I'll give you a quote, which will likely be lower than standard because I need the work.

Contest "Scam"

I've seen this twice in the last month. I don't know whether it's intended as a scam or whether these people think publication in their magazine is really worth enough on its own to constitute a "prize."

The trick is this. They host a contest with a decent first prize...the last one I saw was $150 for a flash fiction, which is a good prize.

Then they state that "runners-up" or "honorable mentions" will receive publication.

Thing is, they don't compensate the "honorable mentions". So, the magazine gets five or six hundred dollars worth of content for that $150 prize. Which in some cases they're recouping from entry fees.

Don't fall for it. It's not quite as bad as rights to publish all entries, but it's close. Always read contest rules carefully. It's not uncommon for them to hold hidden traps like this.

The more things change...

I wish I had a cat, but it's really unfeasible in this apartment.

Of course, if I did have a cat, it would be on my keyboard when I'm trying to write and probably end up locked in the bedroom.

That's probably what happened to this cat.

Yeah.

Cats haven't changed. Nor has their relationship to humans. Nor, perhaps, has the tendency for writers to own cats.