I just had a close call with an outfit called Yellow Bird Press in Summerville, SC, and can't decide if what happened was predatory or just plain stupid.
The owner, Lorna Hollifield, sent a boilerplate contract apparently taken from another publisher now defunct. It was made out to another author and included stipulations that AuthorsAlliance and others warn against. There was even the requirement that the author agree not to slander the publisher. When I suggested we either delete it or revise to “the Parties agree hot to slander one another” she said this and all other stipulations were non-negotiable.
In fact, she said “when a book offer is made, that is the offer” and that “it should be respected.” She went on to say that my refusal to sign showed a lack of team work and bad attitude—making us not a good fit. She went on to try legitimizing her non-negotiable claims by saying, “I know this business. I have been published (novels, magazine articles, anthologies); I have had high-powered NYC-based agents; I was President of The South Carolina Writer's Association. I have toured with writing conferences critiquing authors and guiding them. I have spoken on the subject throughout The Southeast.”
She also implied her non-negotiable contract was justified because she was, in her words, “fully funding an author’s dream.”
If she indeed had a high powered agent and was a speaker at writing conferences throughout the Southeast, you’d think she’d know that publishing contracts are commonly tweaked so that both parties will be comfortable working together. Getting along on the contract is the first step to successful author-publisher collaboration. If she knew negotiation was the industry norm yet still insisted on a lopsided agreement, that seems fishy to me.
There were other red flags too. For instance, asking that I change the title and the name of a main character yet giving no explanation why, no creative direction toward a viable solution. The contract she sent as a sample was in another author's name—it would have taken seconds to change that to mine. And although I mentioned contract negotiation several times she seemed to put off for several weeks telling me her terms could not be changed.
Have any of you had run in with this publisher before? Have you run across non-negotiable publishing contracts before? I don’t know if I should report this someplace or just write it off as having met up with a nitwit. Your thoughts?