ArtBomber ([info]darkkof) wrote,
@ 2008-05-28 10:18:00
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Tokyopop's new Manga Pilot contract
I dunno what's the big hullabaloo's about? I think the contract is great...

IF YOU DON'T VALUE YOUR CREATIONS!!!

People who has an inkling of wanting to get published and thinking that this is one of the best way to do it, I beg of thee, don't go near such a deal... Moral Rights is one of the most important thing in a creator's... uhhh... creation, so when they say wave that away, I say Nay! Kids who thinks that the exposure this will bring is important, don't be fooled by such frivolous words... whilst exposure is not a bad thing, but when you work on your tokyopop book and not being able to work on anything else because of it, then what's the point of said exposure? I say thee be smart...

Now, for a fuller details on why this contract is horrible for your health, please proceed to creator of Scott Pilgrim, a comic he has moral rights and IP (I'm assuming so anyway, please don't quote me on this) for... Bryan Lee O'Malley's journal on the whole ordeal.

I'm just posting this on my LJ for those who read my LJ and doesn't know about this whole thing... you are in the world of comics now, creators... BE WARY!!!

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[info]sonictail
2008-05-28 02:29 am UTC (link)
Already commented on Bryan's journal.

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[info]sonictail
2008-05-28 02:50 am UTC (link)
It is serious bull... *sighs* but i've seen it before.

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[info]darkkof
2008-05-28 02:55 am UTC (link)
Yeah, but it still needs to be pointed out for those hopeful individuals who wants to be published so much that they ignore the fact that this contract will do you no good

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[info]athenaprime
2008-05-28 02:36 am UTC (link)
Are comic contracts like fiction ones, where you can strike out portions you don't like? Some of the more take-every-media-right-even-ones-not-invented-yet publishers put those sweeping clauses in, but pretty much with the understanding that every author who can read will strike 'em out before signing anything.

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[info]darkkof
2008-05-28 02:56 am UTC (link)
I don't think it is, per se... I mean, I dunno about Tokyopop contract but some contracts I've dealt with is negotiable, but most contracts I've dealt with, I'm happy with...

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[info]shanejayell
2008-05-28 03:47 am UTC (link)
According to other comments Tokyopop doesn't negotiate. It's take it or leave it.

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[info]athenaprime
2008-05-28 04:33 am UTC (link)
There must be some key differences. I looked over what he posted, and I can see some familiar clauses. Firstly, they leave the money number blank because the boilerplate needs to be free for them to give you an individual number. It can work for you if you come back and say, "I want more" or against you, if you accept a number that may be lower than what the other guy with the other manga pilot is getting. Or they could be identifying a range.

And with book publishing, a, "thanks but no thanks" is merely a courtesy - as is anything that's not a contract leading to a manuscript delivery leading to galley proofs and a product you can either hold or download for money. In book publishing it's not uncommon for an editor to send back a submission to an author or the author's agent and request changes, without guarantees of acceptance. You as the author have the option to change and resubmit, or not, if you feel your work's integrity would be compromised by the change requests. Most authors have to sell at least one to three novels which they wrote and completed (and possibly changed on request) to a publisher before that publisher will let them sell on spec or proposal. This is something that's rather standard in book publishing.

By and large, publishers will try to take as many rights as you let them, and you will try to keep (or negotiate separately) as many rights as you can.

What I don't see is royalty percentage rates. It sounds like this is what's called a "work-for-hire" in book publishing. An author gets paid a flat fee and maybe his/her name on the book, writes the book, and the publisher gets the rights and everything. If you've ever read a Star Wars or Star Trek novel, those are work-for-hire--the authors don't receive royalties, but they did get a flat fee. It's an acceptable thing for an author because the flat fee is usually respectable, and the bump their name gets from the licensed property will bump up their other original works and let them put "New York Times Bestselling Author" on all their books, even if the Times only saw their name attached to a Star Wars novel.

They do specifically say you're allowed to have an agent or lawyer look at and comment on the OPA--customarily, any alterations you make to a contract you sign, as long as you made the alterations before signing it, should hold up in most courts because you signed in good faith that changed contract.

We have moral rights clauses in book publishing too, but they're there mostly for foreign markets, and there are some authors who won't accept them and some who will. Long and short of it is that in book publishing, a publisher like Harlequin or Mills & Boon will translate a book and even go so far as to negotiate foreign rights for it, but different areas of the world will accept different things, so your hot'n'spicy romance may need to be toned down for release in more conservative regions, or some convention you use in a story may simply not translate to something familiar to a foreign culture, or something acceptable in your home culture may be taboo in another, but the rest of the book will still sell. Or even the line your story was written for is shorter in another market, so they have to cut a few thousand words. So the publisher reserves the right to edit it to fit the market. It's one of those gray areas where marketing and creativity tend to butt heads. I know an author, f'rex, who accepted the Moral Rights clause on a few of her books, but refused it on another few. Sometimes the publisher agreed, and other times, the publisher declined and she withdrew her manuscript.

If you're interested in going to sleep over legalese, SFWA has some samples of contracts customary to book publishing to compare and contrast.

As always, go with your gut. If your gut says it's a bad deal, back away slowly, smiling, and go somewhere else.

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[info]darkkof
2008-05-28 03:10 pm UTC (link)
But the thing of the problem with the whole creativity editing in here is that they reserve the right to actually change artworks... that's kinda a REALLY bad deal there, cos I've been through that with a local comic magazine and it really hurts... I mean, yeah, I bet it hurts to see lines cut off too, or an entire chapter discarded because the editors deemed it useless and stuff, so basically it's about the same deal... we work hard on our stuff and to see it changed, it just hurts... but it just seems even more obvious when it's a visual spectrum rather than worded spectrum, y'know what I'm sayin'? Of course, I'm not saying it hurts less cos it's editing words, it probably hurts as much too... in any case, we really don't wanna have our works changed...

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[info]athenaprime
2008-05-28 05:30 pm UTC (link)
It wasn't clear from the citations if they reserved the right to request changes or change things on you without warning or approval. Requesting changes seems reasonable--if a plot point seems weak or they know their target audience won't get some reference. Making changes behind your back or without your approval, though, is dirty pool.

In book publishing, I've never had a manuscript changed without the editor or copyeditor either asking me to change it for a specific reason, or at least notifying me that changes were made, and waiting for my approval, rejection, or further edit. It's happened to other authors, though, and sometimes for pinheaded things like production errors (one author had a huge print run with three chapters of her book just missing), other times for copyediting gaffes and such. And the result of the affected authors raising the issue led to more authors paying closer attention to final galley proofs and being more careful about the whole process, so good did come of it eventually.

It does hurt to be asked to make major changes to a manuscript, but in fiction, it's often an individual thing--many times, the requested changes work to make the end product a better read, more marketable, and result in better stories. Sometimes, though, the changes will change the core of the book, and the author has to decide if she wants that book to be published bad enough to suck it up and change it, or if she wants to wait and lose out on the contract and opportunities/cash/recognition that it comes with.

I saw somewhere that the price quoted was 750 bucks. For the time, effort, and surrender of work taking that much focus, that seems more than a little stingy. That won't even keep you in markers and paper for the length of a manga, I'd expect.

Hopefully, if enough manga artists come together and decide what's fair and reasonable, the publishers--if they're smart--will fall back and realize it's in their best interests to be more friendly to the artists. You guys need a union, or at least an organization to identify what your base expectations are or should be. Enough of you get together and you can start pushing for change.

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[info]darkkof
2008-05-28 07:32 pm UTC (link)
This is the part that I read that says they have the right to change/modify the artwork:

"You give us the right to reformat, adapt, and modify the Manga Pilot for iManga, our motion graphics video format, as well as for other ways that we may change it in order to display, print, and exhibit it."

Granted, it's not for print, but it's still giving them the rights to change the artwork if they deem it necessary for other format... I mean, at first, it'll just be a sliding panel or a moving character, but this is still giving them the right to change the artwork and this has happened to me in my local comic magazine and the changes can go from "changing a line to change expression" to "Deleting a background and replacing it with a whole new background" so that's the really scary part

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[info]v_lockhart
2008-05-28 02:47 am UTC (link)
Yeah, I had to post about this one, too. Going with small press places is WAY better... and having a web comic. Money is next to nil everywhere in the industry but at least going to places like Antarctic Press and Radio Comix you still get to keep your creations. And they are ran by awesome people.

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[info]darkkof
2008-05-28 02:56 am UTC (link)
Ha ha ha, yeah, I need to actually start doing something about that too... getting my comics there, I mean...

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[info]v_lockhart
2008-05-28 03:13 am UTC (link)
One other really bad thing about TP is that they usually cancel a book after one or two issues so you will NEVER be able to finish your story.

Antarctic Press is an awesome company to work for if you ever want to try them out. I get paid, but it might be iffy on a book on a non-established title (since I've been working with Gold Digger). But still... it's exposure, a professional publication, and you get full creative control over your book.

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[info]redneckgaijin
2008-05-28 03:59 am UTC (link)
Speaking of...

I need an updated address to send you your long-long-LONG promised money , plus a small advance on a TPB of Maid Attack and payment for that MM/CM pic you did and that I completely forgot about until last week when I stumbled over the thumbnail you sent...

... email redneck@wlpcomics.com with your address, and I hope international money order works.

Thanks!

(P. S. I've loathed Stu Levy since back when TokyoPop was still Mixx Publications...)

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[info]darkkof
2008-05-28 04:53 am UTC (link)
Holy crud, Maid Attack is being made into a TPB? That's awesome! I'll e-mail you the address asap!

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