Legal aid

The impending tryptophan-fest has me reminiscing about turkeys of yesteryear. And I do not mean Thanksgiving dinners passed. I mean the crappier project contracts I was stupid enough to sign during my early days as a freelancer.

At some point it dawned on me that if I couldn’t make heads or tails of the legalese I was agreeing to, I should ask someone who could. (Duh.) Last year I joined the National Writers Union so that I could take advantage of their peer contract advisor service. Basically the NWU trains veteran authors to walk newbie authors (yours truly, for instance) through their contracts. Since I wasn’t working with an agent, I found this service invaluable and used it to negotiate three book contracts — an anthology I contributed to, a single-author book, and a ghostwriting project. Worth the price of admission (sliding scale based on income) right there.

And last week I had an appointment with an advisor at the Washington Lawyers for the Arts, a nearly free legal clinic for artsy-fartsy folks who can’t afford the $500 it would cost to clear their throat in an attorney’s office (ahem). I met with my WLA advisor (a bona fide lawyer!) to review a co-author agreement I’m putting together with another writer. Again, I walked away with far more knowledge about copyright law than I walked in with — and I didn’t even have to empty my wee savings account to do so.

Over the years, I’ve also found these other industry/legal resources helpful:

• Authors Guild: Offers contract assistance similar to that of the NWU, but annual membership fees are lower. Now that my NWU membership has expired, I will likely join the AG.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Often hosts copyright and legal workshops for we writer folk. So, so helpful, especially when it comes to those elusive electronic rights.
• Graphic Artists Guild: Offers this groovy book about managing the business end of your design enterprise.
• Nolo.com: Legalese for dummies, online and in book format.

Now that I’ve become more hip to contract matters and copyright law, I can see the merits of having a steady contract advocate. Thirty minutes here and sixty minutes there from some free or sliding-scale advisor just ain’t cutting it anymore. I guess that’s why the publishing gods invented agents.

2 comments November 22nd, 2006