Breaking All the Rules

You know how they say you have to know the rules before you can break them? Mary Robinette Kowal has a few words to say about that, and I think they're worth reading, whether or not you've read Ender's Game [which I haven't].

Excerpt:

In 2005, I was fortunate enough to attend Orson Scott Card’s Literary Boot Camp. I had read his books Characters and Viewpoint and How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, but his boot camp itself was a transformative experience. Before boot camp, I felt as though I could write a good story by accident, and afterward, as though I could write one on purpose.

Card explained the rules and how fiction worked so clearly that it had gone from being a mysterious process to being something repeatable. After the camp, I pulled out my battered copy of Ender’s Game and re-read it because I wanted to see how he applied the rules that he just taught us.
I was stunned. 

Card breaks the rules all over the place. Pretty much every piece of wisdom I’d received in his boot camp, he took and inverted at least once in the book...

A Cautionary Tale

I stress that when you sign a contract with a publisher you need an agent. There are so many ways a publisher can take advantage of you, and no matter how nice or professional or respected your editor is, that editor has a responsibility to the publisher to present their contract without caution or advice to you. They represent their bosses. They are paid by their bosses. They have no control over the contract.

Today Roxanne St. Clair writes about a small clause that is costing her thousands of dollars and much heartache. And I'm sure many agents allowed that clause to pass without realizing its danger, because it was in the early part of the century and electronic books weren't a Thing like they are today.

But there were many other clauses that her agent did catch, that other agents struck from contracts to protect their writers' money [because they were protecting their own money, too, since the only pay they get is a percentage of the writers' money].

You need an agent or a very good intellectual properties lawyer who specializes in NY publishing contracts.

Here's just one reason why.