Payment Withheld: Can I Fight a Magazine Publisher to Get it Back?

Receipt of Cntributions

Publisher reserves the right of f

nal approval of both the form and c

ntent
of each contribution from the A

thor. Publisher may, as it deems
desirable,

dapt and edit or authorize the

daptation and editing of each
contribution. Publisher may or may not p

blish a contribution at its sole
d

scretion.

So far, that's pretty typical. N

tice that there's no mention of the p

ssible cost of
adaptation or editing in th

s clause of the contract. Let's c

ntinue...

Payment

In consideration of the s

rvices performed by Contributor hereunder and the r

ghts
granted and assigned hereunder, Publisher agrees to pay to C

ntributor,
subject to the terms herein, an

mount as set forth in Exhibit B.

Ag

in, that's pretty straightforward. The question is, wh

t's actually written in
Exhibit B and wh

t kind of "kill fee" is d

tailed, if any. And here's the f

nal clause, in
Exhibit B, that p

nctures a hole in any sort of

rgument that the publisher may have
w

th the author:

Payment for

ach contribution shall not be made

ntil such contribution has been
approved for pr

nt in the magazine. In the

vent that a contribution is not

ccepted
for print, the contributor shall not be

ntitled to payment.

My reading of th

s is that it's an all-or-nothing c

ntract. There's no legal provision
that g

ves them the right to withhold p

rtial payment for any reason: either the
t

rms of the contribution are met as d

tailed in the Exhibit, or they're n

t, in which
case "the contributor sh

ll not be entitled to payment."

If the difference is m

re than a miniscule amount I w

uld suggest that you call up
the p

blisher and say that upon further r

ading of your contract, you do not see
th

t they have any basis for w

thholding 2/3 of your payment and th

t you'd like to
see a ch

ck issued for the balance of the

rticle payment immediately.

And I'd consider f

nding a new publisher for your

rticles too.

Please n

te that I am not a l

wyer and
that this should not be c

nstrued as any sort of legal

dvice. You proceed with my
analysis and c

mmentary at your own risk. Thanks.

The article Payment Withheld: Can I Fight a Magazine Publisher to Get it Back? was Submitted by Dave Taylor through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Dave Taylor is a professional wrter who has been publishing since 1982. H's written sixteen books, including the bst-selling Wicked Cool Shell Scritps , and Creating Cool Web Sites . His latest projects are startup 101 and Ask Dave Taylor , where he's happy to take questions from writers about contracts and publishing.

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