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I Curate an Anthology
- senko 11mo agoHow do rights/contract work in case of anthologies? As I understand it, the "normal" workflow is, as the author you get an advance from a publisher, and when the book is published and revenue exceeds the advance, you get the royalties. You mention you sign the contract with the authors and pay them, which sounds like a one-time deal. If it's not confidential, how does this work, and how do original publishers (if any) figure into this?
- mojoe 11mo agoGood question, original publishers (the magazines, in this case) set the terms for how long an exclusivity period they want to purchase for first print rights. It's usually a year, but many magazine contracts have a carve-out for "year's best" anthologies like mine. I deal directly with the authors, not the original publishers. I pay a fixed rate for reprint rights, which is a one-time deal. This is mostly because pro rata royalties on an anthology are a pain to calculate (I've done this before), but also because it's unlikely for me to make back the money I spend on anthology creation, so if there were ever royalties they would be tiny in any case. There's not much money in short fiction -- many authors tend to use it as a stepping stone to novels, or just as a hobby.