> tying compensation to total sales numbers, tying compensation to milestones, or even just lowballing them. Author contracts already do all of those things.

> tying compensation to total sales numbers, tying compensation to milestones, or even just lowballing them. Author contracts already do all of those things. Advances have gotten lower and lower over the years ("lowballing them"), and typically pay out incrementally at various phases of completion ("compensation to milestones"). Once the book is done, most of the author's compensation comes from royalties ("tying compensation to total sales numbers"). Authors are already highly incentivized not to commit "moral turpitude" because doing so will tank sales of their book and thus their royalties. Publishers aren't adding morals clauses to incentivize authors. It's just another example of the classic move a large corporation in a position of power trying to grab even more power. If they could get away with it, publishers would add a clause to every contract saying, "We can demand your advance back at any time for any reason or no reason at all, just because we feel like it."