Contract Terms Series (IANAL)

There’s a bunch of contract terms for writers that can be difficult to parse for newcomers to the genre, so I want to go over a few in a short, easy contract terms series.

(Note: I am not a lawyer. I am merely speaking from experience on the author side.)

ATTRIBUTION

This is an easy one and is mostly in reference to pen names, but ultimately, anyone who wants to be attributed probably needs to have at least something written in their contract about it.

Attribution is just how you, as the author, will be attributed within/on the book. IE, your author name and your copyright on the copyright page, etc.

This is important particularly for pen names because legal documents are written up with the use of your legal name for legal reasons. Which can mean that the author’s pen name/name they want to be attributed as, isn’t anywhere on the page UNLESS some form of attribution phrasing is used somewhere in the contract.

It’s a small thing, but very important for a lot of people.

In other words, make sure they have a legal requirement to get your names right :)

~Emmi