no it was a standard give us your book we will give you 8% for first 2000 copies, 25% next 4000 and 50% after 6000 of sales.
There's your first red flag. You don't GIVE your book to anyone. They PAY you for the right to publish it. They pay you an advance based on what they expect the book to be worth over its life. PA gives $1...
No binding of the characters or sequels. even movie rights and audio books are 50/50 rights and obligations. They don't have to promote book to hollywood but can't stop me from getting agent and promoting it myself.
More red flags.
Make sure on the "no binding of characters". PA, in the past, has refused to allow people to do so much as put their book into another format (like graphic novel) and has had the 1st right of refusal on sequels. They can (or at least used to be able to) refuse to allow you to even use "look inside" on Amazon or put up excerpts on your own blog/site.
Right now, this second. STOP TRYING TO GET PUBLISHED AND DO YOUR HOMEWORK. You're operating on bad information, not the least of which is that agents will help you with promotions.
Agents sell your book, and the rights associated with it. You WILL HAVE to tell the agent at some point that you've got a book out with PA, if an agent makes an offer. PA doesn't count as a publishing credit, but it does blow your "debut author" status. And should an agent take on book 2, they need to know that the "prequel" is locked up.
It was/is a standard non-sequel contract. I have full copywrites of my book.
You own the copyRIGHT from the moment you write the book. Again, make sure they don't have 1st rights of refusal. Some of their contracts do, some don't. And there is NOTHING standard about a PA contract.[/quote]
Again they made it so they can get out of stuff but also leaves enough room that if i wish to do so myself they can't and won't stop me.
Their contracts are one sided. You don't have as many rights as you think you do.[/quote]
Had a writer/professor check the contract out. She informed me that it was a typical contract but wished they gave me more royalities...lol.
She's wrong. It's not a typical contract, and even among other vanity presses, of which PA is one, it's just about the worst contract out there. It wouldn't matter how high the royalty on the book, percentages of $0 are still going to add up to $0 for you.
PA doesn't pay on books you buy yourself, which will be 99% of your sales. Plenty of people here can tell you how likely it is to get paid on any other sales you might make by chance, though since 99% of that other 1% will be to friends and family, you're still looking at dismal numbers.
You got played. Your book is sunk. It stinks, but it's technically legal with their contracts. Move on.