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When I first started working with small, independent presses, I thought it would become a spring board to the Big Time (New York, fame, fortune, movie deals). I wasn’t totally surprised when things didn’t quite work out that way.

Nothing about my writing career has gone according to plan.

Why should it when I commit random acts of writing? I plot from the seat of my pants, hop from genre to genre, even venturing into science fiction when I almost flunked science in high school. Luckily my high school science teacher doesn’t have the power to veto my writing.

My former agent called it a lack of “focus,” and it is probably what doomed me as far as New York is concerned, but as I’ve mentioned, I’ve managed to find a lot of satisfaction and joy in writing for the “little time.”

While I obviously have no problem with random when being creative, I still try to be professional in my dealings with my small press publishers. I feel I owe them my best because they are brave enough to do business on the edge and take on the risk of publishing me.

And it’s a surprisingly small community. There is an element of the personal in your interaction, so it’s even more important not to take advantage or expect more than is reasonable. It doesn’t take long for word to get around if someone is difficult to work with or unwilling to honor their contract.

We had a lawyer come talk to our local writer’s group and he said something that has really stayed with me. He said non-lawyers “see” things in their contracts that just aren’t there. The law only deals with what is actually in the contract. Nothing more, nothing less.

That seems pretty obvious, but I’ve seen so many writers assume something was “implied.” Nothing is implied in a contract, whether from New York or anywhere else. Learning to see what is actually there takes time and experience.

Working with small presses has forced me to be informed about contracts and the rights attached to my books, and how it all works, in ways I probably wouldn’t have been if I’d had an agent doing this stuff for me. Some authors just have to know, whether they have an agent or not, but others don’t want to deal with “business.”

When you sign a contract with a publisher, big or little time, you become a small business owner. It’s just good business to get familiar with everything you can. It’s all part of controlling what you can and being professional and business-like.
It’s helped me navigate the “little time” with only a few bumps and bangs. J