Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

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SFWA

Contracts and Copyrights

Podcast: Google Book Settlement at WFC

At World Fantasy there was a one-hour panel on the Google Book Settlement with Russell Davis, Karen Wester Newton, Charles Petit, Jay Lake, Christopher Kastensmidt, and Dan Gamber moderating. This is a podcast of the full panel discussion.

Rights and Copyright

Copyright, literally, is “the right to copy.” It guarantees the authors of creative works–including books, artworks, films, recordings, photographs–the exclusive right for a set period of time to allow other people to copy and distribute the work, by whatever means and in whatever media currently exist. It also prohibits copying and distributing without the author’s permission. You own copyright by law, automatically, as soon your work is fixed in tangible form–i.e., the minute you write down the words.

Intro to Publishing Contracts

This 34 page .pdf document by Sean P. Fodera and C. E. Petit provides an overview to publishing contracts.

SFWA statement on proposed Google book settlement

Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. (SFWA), in conjunction with outside counsel, has reviewed the terms of the proposed settlement between Google, Inc. and the Authors Guild, Inc., and other class action plaintiffs.

Book Authors’ Bill of Rights

This document has been endorsed by the Romance Writers of America (RWA), Novelists, Inc., Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. (SFWA), and Western Writers of America, Inc. (WWA), representing a total of nearly 11,000 writers.

Ratified version (2002)
While affirming the freedom of every writer to negotiate in his or her own best interests, the [...]

SFWA® Contracts Committee Mission Statement

Purpose
To provide expert advice on contractual matters that affect significant numbers of SFWA® members, and to provide a clearinghouse for new developments or issue alerts to SFWA® members regarding those contractual matters.
Typical Functions

Evaluating standard contracts from new publishers with a view to improving their model forms.
Notifying members about questionable or contentious contractual provisions about which [...]

Amazon Kindle Contract Review and Annotation

This .pdf document is an annotation of the Amazon Kindle contract as it was posted on Amazon’s Web site (downloaded in February, 2008).

SFWA Model Author-Agent Contract

This contract was written under the direction of the SFWA® Contracts Committee. The model or sample contracts have been written as a guide to writers in understanding common publishing contracts and to help them negotiate better contracts. They are not intended to be used as boilerplate contracts by publishers, writers, or agents, nor should such [...]

MODEL CONTRACT: HARDCOVER

1989
This contract was written under the direction of the SFWA® Contracts Committee. The model or sample contracts have been written as a guide to writers in understanding common publishing contracts and to help them negotiate better contracts. They are not intended to be used as boilerplate contracts by publishers, writers, or agents, nor should such [...]

MODEL CONTRACT: ANTHOLOGY

1989
This contract was written under the direction of the SFWA® Contracts Committee. The model or sample contracts have been written as a guide to writers in understanding common publishing contracts and to help them negotiate better contracts. They are not intended to be used as boilerplate contracts by publishers, writers, or agents, nor should such [...]