Publishing attorneys represent authors, collaborators and illustrators through the publishing life of their books. This can involve working with a client in crafting a strong book concept, developing a comprehensive book proposal for presentation to the premier publishing houses, engaging a collaborator and negotiating a collaboration agreement, securing and negotiating a publishing agreement, identifying and engaging publicists and providing ongoing support in the licensing of subsidiary and ancillary rights, such as motion picture, live theater, television, and merchandising, as well as developing emerging new content opportunities. Books can include memoirs, personal finance books, health books, cookbooks, self-help books, business books, inspirational books and other narrative non-fiction books.
AXIS Legal Counsel’s literary and publishing law and entertainment practice focuses on both transactional and litigation issues faced by members of the publishing industry. AXIS has experience with a variety of issues pertinent to the publishing industry, including
Read More. 03. Lorene Cary. Lorene Cary is a triple threat — author, lecturer and playwright — as well as a Philadelphia native who still lives and teaches in the city.
Buzz Bissinger. Pulitzer Prize winner, Vanity Fair contributing editor and HBO documentary subject — Buzz Bissinger is clearly one of Philly’s most decorated authors, thanks in part to his 1990 nonfiction book about a Texas high school football team, Friday Night Lights, which became a massive television hit.
Fagone spent years writing about Philly and its people during his time at Philadelphia magazine before heading to the West Coast, and his first book, Horsemen of the Esophagus, was inspired by the Wing Bowl, Philly’s former competitive-eating event.
The Soloist might have put him on the nation’s radar in 2008, but Steve Lopez became a Philadelphia staple in the 1980s and 1990s. Long before his nonfiction book of a talented musician who became homeless was turned into a film starring Jamie Foxx, Lopez reported on politics and city life for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
27. Walt Whitman. The famed poet spent the last 20 years of his life in Camden, New Jersey, traveling across the Delaware River to visit Philadelphia frequently. Whitman ’s seminal work remains Leaves of Grass, a poetry collection he continuously edited and updated.
Ken Kalfus. After stints in Paris, Dublin and Moscow, Kalfus settled in Philadelphia. His 2006 novel, A Disorder Peculiar to the Country, was a National Book Award finalist, and his catalog includes two additional novels and two short-story collections. Read More.
This means an attorney whose area of practice is or includes the publishing industry, and who regularly represents writers in contractual negotiations and in legal matters/problems in their writing careers. Like many other forms of business, the publishing world is specialized.
A lawyer works on the basis of hourly fees, rather than a commission on your earnings ( a commission is how an agent works). You will be billed for any time the lawyer spends working on your behalf, and the bill you receive should itemize how the time was spent. The lawyer should clarify with you up front what his/her fees are, ...
Finally, a literary agent isn’t qualified to advise you on legal problems, though he might offer an opinion. When a legal problem arises in your business, you need a lawyer to assist you, not someone with no legal qualifications whatsoever.