'Kill fees'?

If you want legal advice, find yourself a lawyer. We can't help you.

My personal opinion, which isn't legal advice at all, is that that sounds really dodgy to me, but if you signed the contract there is probably little that you can do.

All my publishing contracts have clauses which state very clearly the circumstances under which the contract will be cancelled, and there is no fee for doing so.

A kill fee is usually paid to the author if the publisher decides not to publish the book; or to the publisher if the author decides to withdraw the book prior to publication.

If the book has been published for a number of years but the publisher expects the author to pay a fee in order to get the contract terminated, I'd be worried.

Who is the publisher?

You might want to contact Victoria Strauss at Writer Beware about this.

Fmate66 said:

Hi - is it typical for a publisher to demand a kill fee if an author asks for her rights to be reverted after the initial contract period is over? My contract was for, lets say, 6 years and contained a clause stating that I was responsible for hundreds of dollars of fees minus royalties, for the editor, if I terminated the contract. I have looked online and find lots of guidance about kill fees if you end a contract early, but none about kill fees that have come about by simply choosing not to renew the original contract when it comes to the end of its term.

Does anyone here have any experience of this or any advice regarding the legality?

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Sorry, I'm not a lawyer. But you should really seek professional advice on this one. An initial consultation with a lawyer who specialised in intellectual property might set you back about £100 in the uk, but it could help clear things up for you and let you understand a little better where you stand and what you need to do about it.

Hope you find the answers you need.

I'm not a lawyer, either, but I have dealt with kill fees of several sorts. If you break a contract, the other party can expect to collect money already spent on you, and sometimes money that they would have made had you carried out the contract. This is why we have contracts. They make sure both sides agree, and that each side has certain responsibilities if the contract is kept, and if it's broken. Once signed, you have agreed to what the contract states.

If you broke the contract, you definitely need a real lawyer, and fast.

Fmate66 said:

Hi - is it typical for a publisher to demand a kill fee if an author asks for her rights to be reverted after the initial contract period is over? My contract was for, lets say, 6 years and contained a clause stating that I was responsible for hundreds of dollars of fees minus royalties, for the editor, if I terminated the contract. I have looked online and find lots of guidance about kill fees if you end a contract early, but none about kill fees that have come about by simply choosing not to renew the original contract when it comes to the end of its term.

Does anyone here have any experience of this or any advice regarding the legality?

Click to expand...

Also not a lawyer, but what is there in writing? Is there anything in the contract? That sounds mighty dodgy from a strictly logical point of view- if the contract is written for a specified time, then it should just expire after that time unless there's something written into it that stipulates otherwise.

Read the contract closely, what did you sign your name to? If its not there on the paper, I can't even begin to think how it could be enforceable but like I said, I'm working off of logic, not a law background.