THE CAREER NOVELIST
might still be sold overseas. Also, movie rights to out-of-print nov-
els are sometimes bought, and if they are the chances of bringing
that novel back into print go up dramatically.
It is a good idea to revert your rights as soon as possible. These
days, however, there is a potential obstacle to doing that: electron-
ic editions. If your novel is offered on-line or on disk, it may techni-
cally still be on sale and "in print." Never mind that it is not in stores
and nobody will buy or read it in electronic formats (unless they
want to go blind), your publisher nevertheless may be satisfying the
strict letter of the contract.
To prevent abuse of this potential loophole, many agents are
negotiating into termination clauses the phrase "out of print in its
printed and bound edition," that is, your book in book form. Leave no
doubt in your contract about when your novel is no longer on sale
and all the rights should revert to you.
Bankruptcy. Here is another subject that authors do not like to
think about: the possibility of their publisher going belly up.
Most contracts have comforting clauses that assure the author
that if such an unlikely event should occur, all the rights to their novel
will automatically revert. I am sorry to report, though, that those
clauses have got it all wrong. If your publisher goes into bankruptcy,
your book and any rights granted with it are legally considered assets
that the publisher owns just as surely as they own the desks in their
offices. Such assets can be seized, sold, and the proceeds paid to the
publisher's creditors in an order fixed by a bankruptcy judge.
There is more to this than just collecting royalties that you may
be owed (which, by the way, you may have but a snowball's chance
in hell of getting). What is at stake is the control of your book, its
overseas and audio rights, and any other rights that you may have
granted your publisher in your contract. In bankruptcy, those are
gone. Poof! The receiver appointed by the court is free to dispose of
them as he sees fit. If you want any money that is rightfully yours
you will have to wait in line.
A practical demonstration of this principle was given a decade
ago when a publisher called Pinnacle went under. Its entire list was
acquired by Zebra, and scores of authors suddenly found that they
had a new publisher—one that some of them did not care for.