Draft Fatcat Press Contract

This agreement is made this ___ day of _____, 20__, between
_____________________________
(hereinafter referred to as the Author), whose address is:

and Fatcat Press, LLC (hereinafter referred to as the Publisher), whose address is:

Fatcat Press
PO Box 130281
Ann Arbor, MI 48113-9998 USA

This contract is considered legal and binding in all countries. Should any legal disputes arise, the laws of the state of Michigan will apply.

1. Grant of Rights

The Author, on behalf of herself or himself and his or her heirs, executors, and assignees, grants to the Publisher exclusive rights to publish and sell in readable digital format (e.g., electronic download, .prc, .pdf, .lit, or any other digital format known or unknown), in English in all countries, the work tentatively titled:

____________________________________________________________

and hereinafter referred to as the Work. All rights in the Work that are not specifically granted to the Publisher in this contract are reserved by the Author.

2. Author's Warrants Fatcat Press

A. Authorship The Author warrants that she/he is the author and sole owner (or joint owner with _________________ ; strike one) of the Work or has been assigned the rights of the author or authors; that it is original and that it does not contain any content that is libelous, plagiarized, or otherwise unlawful; that it does not violate the rights of any third party; that the rights granted in this contract are free and clear; and that the Author has full ability to grant such rights to the Publisher.

B. Previous Publication The Author warrants that any and all Works covered by this contract have never been previously published in any other format with any publishing company that may still own proprietary rights to the Work.

C. Legal Issues The Author agrees to hold the Publisher harmless and indemnify it from all reasonable damages, costs, and expenses directly resulting from a finally sustained judgment relating to any legal actions incurred by the Author or arising from a breach of the Author's Warrants.

The Author agrees to cooperate fully in any legal actions concerning his or her works. The warranties contained in this article do not cover programming code, illustrations, or other material not furnished by the Author.

D. Competing Works The Author agrees not to publish or otherwise disseminate works that might compete with sales of this Work, during the term of this contract, including but not limited to a conventionally printed version (paper and ink) of this Work.

3. Copyright and ISBN Fatcat Press

A. Copyright of Work The Author warrants that the Work is not currently in the public domain. If the Work has been previously copyrighted, a clearly legible photocopy of the copyright registration must be submitted to the Publisher together with this contract. If the Work has not been previously copyrighted, the Publisher will provide suitable materials for the Author to use when obtaining the copyright from the Library of Congress.

If the Author prefers that the Publisher hold the copyright, then the Publisher will apply for copyright in its own name.

B. Copyright Notice The Publisher will to the best of its ability make sure that the copyright notice will appear in the Work in accordance with United States Copyright Law, showing the Author (or his or her representative) as the holder of the Work's copyright.

C. ISBNs The Publisher will secure suitable ISBNs (International Standard Book Numbers) for the Work in the name of Fatcat Press, and will use such ISBNs as part of the formal identification of the Work in the Work's frontmatter and in catalogs, promotional material, and on the company website (http://www.fatcatpress.com).

4. Earnings

A. Price and Royalty Rate The Publisher will set the list price of the work, based primarily on the Work's length and on the prices of comparable works published by the Publisher and by other similar presses. The Publisher will pay the Author a royalty, in U.S. dollars, of 50% of net receipts. The Publisher reserves the right to alter the price of the Work as required by market conditions and other such outside forces.

B. Royalty Payments Royalties will be paid no later than the last day of the month following the end of each calendar quarter (quarters end on 31 March, 30 June, 30 September, and 31 December). The Publisher will provide a written report of sales with payment and provide any further reasonable information relevant to sales of the work upon the Author's request.

The Publisher will provide an annual 1099-Misc. Income Form reflecting all royalties paid for the calendar year, or other such appropriate tax information if the Author is not a United States citizen. However, if the Author's royalties are below $400, his or her royalty statements will suffice for income information per Internal Revenue Service regulations, and a Form 1099 will not be generated.

C. Minimum Payments If during any royalty period the amount due is less than US$20.00, Publisher reserves the right to retain all royalties due on the Work and to defer payment of royalties to the Author until such time as the royalties exceed US$20.00. Any and all royalties withheld in this manner are to be paid immediately upon contract termination.

D. Royalty-free Copies No royalties shall be paid on copies that are distributed for review, publicity, promotional purposes, samples, or other similar purposes, or on copies sold below or at cost.

E. Change of Address It is the Author's responsibility to keep Publisher informed as to changes in postal mail ( snail mail ) or email address, legal name, Social Security Number or other such identifying number. If royalty statement(s) duly sent by the Publisher to the Author are returned as undeliverable, Publisher will hold such funds for six months (180) days, and thereafter may at its discretion donate the funds to a recognized charitable institution such as Heifer.org or Doctors Without Borders.

5. Sales through Special Channels

A. Non-Fatcat Press Sales Royalties on copies of the Work sold through online or brick-and-mortar venues other than www.fatcatpress.com or its official subsidiaries will be paid to the Author at a rate of 30% of net receipts, in reflection of the discount rate required by such venues.

B. Sales Initiated by the Author Royalties on 100 or more copies of the Work sold at one time to one recipient shall be paid at the rate of an additional 1% of net receipts for each increment of 100, up to a maximum of 10% of net receipts above the Author's normal royalty rate. All such sales must be approved in writing by the Publisher in advance of the actual sale, and all sales must take place through the Publisher's website.

6. Term of Contract

This contract shall be in force from the date the contract is signed by all parties until 36 (thirty-six) months from publication date. Publication date is the last date of the month in which the Work is published on the Fatcat Press website. The contract may be renewed for periods of 3 (three) years by mutual consent of the Author and the Publisher.

A. Termination of Contract after Publication If, after the Work has been published for a period of 36 (thirty-six) months, the sales should reach a level of no more than 2 (two) regular sales per month for 6 (six) consecutive months, the Publisher has the right to discontinue publication by removing the Work from company server(s).

B. Reversion of Rights on Termination Should the Publisher choose to do this, all rights in the Work immediately revert to the Author. The Author shall be notified within 30 (thirty) days of the Publisher's discontinuing publication by certified mail notice or other receipted delivery service.

7. Author's Name and Publisher's Trademark Fatcat Press

A. Publisher's Use of Author's Name The Publisher shall have the nonexclusive right to use the Author's name, likeness, and submitted promotional materials in order to advertise, publish, and promote the Work itself, its title, and all material, including characters in the work, through their use on or in connection with the Work. The Author retains the right to characters or trademarks that he or she developed. The Author grants to the Publisher the right to nonexclusive use of such characters and trademarks needed to publish and promote Author's work.

B. Pseudonyms The Author may use either a pseudonym or her or his legal name on the Work itself, but the Author must indicate on the Title Approval Sheet which name is to be used in public documents and situations. Normal, internal records of Fatcat Press (including royalty and tax records) will customarily bear the Author's legal name.

C. Author's Use of Publisher's Property The Author shall not have the rights to, in, or to use any trademark, service mark, trade name, or logos used by the Publisher, unless expressly permitted in writing to use them. The Author may, with the Publisher's permission, have limited use of Fatcat Press logos in approved material such as an author's website. The Author may also use any cover illustration in his or her promotional materials.

8. Delivery See further information on submissions in the Fatcat Press Author's Guide.

A. Date The Author agrees to deliver to the Publisher no later than _________, 20__, a complete electronic file (or files) of the Work. If the Author fails to deliver an acceptable, final revised electronic file within three (3) months after that date, the Publisher may, at its option, terminate this agreement by notice in writing snail-mailed or emailed to the Author.

B. Format The final Work for production purposes shall be provided to the Publisher by the Author in Microsoft Word format, rev. 6.0 or later, as itemized in the Fatcat Press Author's Guide. The Author shall verify to the best of his or her ability that any and all files submitted to the Publisher for production are virus-free, by scanning the file(s) with a current, updated standard virus-checker such as Norton Anti-Virus or McAfee Virus Scan.

The Author shall provide two copies of the final Work, either on two 3.5 floppy disks, or on two CD-RW disks, or on two Zip disks. These two copies will be submitted together with all permissions (if any) necessary for the Work, according to specifications in the Author's Guide.

C. Backups The Publisher will not be liable for damage or loss of manuscripts in snail-mail or e-mail. Authors should always keep write-protected backup copies of their works in multiple formats (e.g., floppy, zip, and CD) and in multiple locations (e.g., home and office).

9. Editing and Proofreading

A. Final Approval The Publisher reserves the right of final approval on revised manuscripts before ebook production begins.

B. Author's Review of Editing Once the Work has been copyedited, the Author will receive an edited copy of the Work so that he or she can review changes, queries, and other such issues. The Author will review, correct and return this edited version of the Work by an agreed-upon date. Failure to return the edited version by this date will delay the publication of the Author's work, and may have a negative effect on promotion and marketing efforts.

10. Publication Fatcat Press

The Publisher agrees to publish the Work in electronic form at its own expense not later than four months after receipt of the copyedited work that has been reviewed and approved by the Author, except in cases where review media (e.g., Publishers Weekly, Kirkus) require a longer lead time than this schedule allows. In the event of delay from causes beyond the control of the Publisher, the publication date may be postponed accordingly, but not to exceed twelve months from the delivery of the completed work. Should any such delay take place, the Publisher will inform the Author and provide an estimation of the new publication date.

11. Promotional Items

A. Promotional Information The Author agrees to complete fully the Author Information Form, used for publicity and promotion, and to submit it together with the production copies of the Work. The Author may provide the Publisher with a photo of him- or herself if desired.

B. Web Self-Promotion The Author may use up to 10% (as calculated in bytes) of the final, edited version of the Work on her or his own website to promote the Work. Any such website must maintain an active hyperlink from the excerpted work to http://www.fatcatpress.com or to the author's own area of http://www.fatcatpress.com.

C. Sales by Author The Author may not sell copies of the Work except as follows: the Author may purchase his or her ebooks at a discount rate of 40% off of full cost to use at signings, giveaways, lectures, or other agreed-upon promotions. The Author will not receive a royalty on copies purchased in this way. The Author may not make and give away copies of more than 10% of the Work without permission from the Publisher.

D. Other Sales Any other sales must be through the Publisher, and/or through Publisher-approved vendors.

E. Publisher's Website The Publisher will make every effort to make available an accurate, professional website. The Publisher will not be liable for site downtime, interrupted sessions or shopping carts, or other technical difficulties beyond our control including but not limited to DNS attacks or attacks or slowdowns on the internet backbone.

F. Promotional Venues The Publisher will promote the Work through venues it considers appropriate to the Work. Such venues include the company website and advertising in print and online venues, and may include other venues such as mailing lists, published literature both online and off, targeted email, etc.

12. Royalty Records

The Author may, on reasonable notice, through her or his designated representative, examine such records of the Publisher as relate to the Work. Such an examination shall be at the Author's expense, unless the following shall be found in the Author's favor: errors representing 5% of royalties or other sums due the Author by the Publisher, when such errors total at least the sum of $50. In such a case, the Publisher shall defray all reasonable costs of the examination and pay the Author any sums due, up to the amount owed Author by the Publisher, within thirty (30) days.

13. Assignment of Rights

In the event the Publisher shall be ruled in receivership, bankruptcy or liquidation, all assigned rights in the Work shall revert to the Author.

14. Alteration

This agreement may not be modified, altered or changed except by notification in writing signed by the Author and the Publisher.

15. Author's Approval

Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this document, the Publisher will obtain the Author's written advance approval of any contracts with third parties for the publication of the Work; which approval shall not be unreasonably withheld.

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