Alex Adsett Publishing Services offers advice to authors who need help understanding the publishing industry, the business of publishing or negotiating a publishing contract. It can provide reassurance that the agreement about to be signed is consistent with Australian publishing standards and has no hidden traps. With its broad publishing experience, AAPS can also help negotiate directly with your publisher, close a subsidiary rights deal, and draft, review or amend existing contracts. Alex Adsett has successfully finalised author contracts, film agreements, translation and overseas deals, and all manner of licenses.
Fees and charges
$90 per hour, with a minimum initial consultation fee of $210.
Consultation includes consideration of the issues at hand, discussion of forward strategies, review of standard contracts, tailoring of existing contracts, negotiating on the author’s behalf or provision of explanatory letters to be used in negotiations by the author.
A review of a standard contract, including a written report identifying potential publishing issues, irregularities and negotiating points, takes approximately three to four hours. This is a rough estimate, and some matters take longer or shorter amounts of time, depending on the complexity and surrounding issues. A reasonable amount of follow up questions and clarification are included subsequent to the initial advice at no additional charge.
Please note, if after a cursory initial assessment it appears likely AAPS will advise you not to sign the contract, you will be notified before incurring any charges, and given the opportunity to decide whether to continue with the contract review or not.
A discounted rate of $85 per hour is available to members of the Queensland, Victorian and ACT Writers’ Centre.
Author advances above $15,000: If the author is due to receive a total advance of $15,000 or more from the licensor (eg publisher or film producer), and if the author requests AAPS negotiate directly with the licensor on the author’s behalf, AAPS’s fee will be the greater of the hourly rate or 5% of the total payment.
This does not apply to:
a) authors who choose to use AAPS to review and report on the contract only, and then negotiate directly with the publisher themselves, or
b) any royalties or licensing income otherwise received under the publishing agreement.
The 5% fee is due upon receipt by the author of the first payment from the publisher.
Please note, Alex Adsett Publishing Services does not provide legal advice or the services of a solicitor. It does provide publishing business and contract advice based on Alex Adsett’s publishing experience and training. Please contact a solicitor if you require legal advice.