The revised contract is coming!

It looks like things are going to work out with M. Press this time! Whew! What a relief! Thanks to MF, who not only reviewed the contract and answered questions, she also negotiated it for me. So I got to stay out of it entirely.

MF told me last Friday that M. Press had agreed to all our requests for changes, but I wasn’t holding my breath yet at that point. I thought they’d agreed to all my requests 9 years ago and then they pulled the contract. Then, yesterday, MF received the revised contract and told me everything looked good (M. Press even gave me an advance…and not too bad of one), except they hadn’t removed the options clause. They revised it, but they didn’t remove it. And that nasty “author agrees not to sign any other contract with any other publisher during the option period” was still in there. MF told me again that I could just ignore it. Or if it really bothered me, I could dig out my worst piece of writing and send it to them to honor the clause and then I’m out from under it. But that seems so wrong. At that point it’s a relationship built on dishonesty. So I asked MF if she would politely ask again that they remove the clause (since he’d SAID they agreed to all our requests). I wasn’t sure she’d want to do it (I know she thinks I’m silly for worrying about it), but she did. And he agreed! The revised contracts are coming via Fed Ex. tomorrow.

Hooray! I feel like I’m finally getting out from under this cloud that’s been hanging over me for 9 years. M. Press likes me and will work with me after all! And I know they’re going to do a beautiful job with this book. I’ve even got another manuscript that might be right for them…and now that I don’t have to worry about a nasty options clause, I actually WANT to send it to them…after we finish with this one…