The Shocking Truth About Letting Your Editor or “Author Rep” Sign Your Publishing Contract—What They’re Not Telling You!
As we discussed in Episode 16 of the WritersWeekly Podcast, I recently noticed two questionable contracts come across my desk. Yes, I review ALL BookLocker.com contracts just in case I see something odd. It could be something mundane, such as a missing street address, or something more serious. One recent contract listed the author’s editor as the author’s beneficiary. Another author had allowed her “author rep” to complete her contact and the rep had listed herself as the author’s beneficiary.
At BookLocker.com, we have a beneficiary section in our contract for authors. Almost always (99.9% of the time), the beneficiary is a spouse, the author’s children, or other close relative(s). For co-authored books, sometimes the co-author is the beneficiary (I’ve seen it but it’s rare). I had NEVER before seen an editor or author rep listed as the beneficiary!
