Although I'm loath to discuss private matters, such as our contract, on an open forum, I'll address certain issues here.
I'm sure everyone can respect the fact that we, as a business, must protect our company's best interests. Those contracted with us know by now we do not do this at their expense. Meaning, we do not purposely set out to do harm to our authors - or potential authors - by adding harmful or confusing clauses to our contract. Nor do we conduct our company's affairs in a way that does not keep our authors paramount in our decision-making.
The 'kill fee' is there to protect our company against authors who may decide, for whatever reason, to terminate their contract prior to its expiration. Please remember, Lyrical is a business and as such, we make a financial investment in the development of a manuscript for publication. One fee is for digital, which requires less of a financial investment. The fee is naturally higher for print, as it requires a greater financial investment. It is not unreasonable for a business to add a clause to a contract that will protect their investments.
As for what rights we claim, we feel our lawyer was quite clear regarding that issue when he drafted our contract.
We've made it abundantly clear that we are open to addressing any concerns or questions authors may have regarding any aspect of Lyrical. We do, however, ask that sensitive matters, such as our confidential contract, be discussed in private and not on an open forum. We welcome any further questions or concerns to be sent to
[email protected].
I think it says something about our ethics and respect for those contracted with us that even though Lyrical is less than a year old, our house ranked #4 on the Preditors and Editors readers poll. We may be young and people may look at us with a critical or wary eye, but we're doing our best to remain author-friendly, while at the same time building a strong business that will endure in this industry.
