Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Kirsch, a prominent intellectual property attorney and Los Angeles Times columnist, has created a clear, comprehensive, up-to-date guide to publishing law in this handbook, which follows the path of a publishing project. From protection of the original idea, coauthorship, agents, and packaging, through a clause-by-clause consideration of a typical book publishing contract, to legal aspects of manuscript preparation, copyright registration, electronic and subsidiary rights, remaindering, and reversion, this manual is as lively as it is useful. Sidebars provide anecdotes, tips, publishing 'war stories', and interesting illustrations of key points.
Customer Reviews:
Review #1: Kirsch's Handbook of Publishing Law
2009-07-18 
This book is very helpful to get started and can save you money before consulting an attorney. It covers very important aspects of publishing law and it is especially helpful to the first-time writer. I would recommend it.
The only downside to receiving this book was the delivery time. This book came from [...] and it took weeks to arrive. I will not order a book from Anybooks again and if other books take this long, I will not order them. If it is available, as it stated, it should ship accordingly, not a month later.
Review #2: Kirsch makes publishing law easy to understand.
2003-07-15
Jonathan Kirsch is an interesting combination: he is both a novelist and an attorney. He puts both skills to use in this book by creating an interesting, easy-to-read, easy-to-understand dissertation on all aspects of publishing law. The book is highly recommended for both authors and publishers.After a three-chapter introduction of some basic publishing law concepts, he spends almost 80 pages in chapter four going over the book publishing contract clause by clause. He examines the legal implications of each clause, the profit/loss implications for both the author and the publisher, as well as typical practices throughout the industry. Every author and every publisher should read this chapter twice! Chapter five examines defamation and privacy issues that every author and publisher should know before they write or publish a book. Can you risk not knowing this? After that he examines copyright, subsidiary rights, and trademark issues in detail-essential information for publishers. A well-read copy of this book belongs on the shelf of every publisher and author.
Review #3: Kirsch makes publishing law easy to understand.
2003-07-14
Jonathan Kirsch is an interesting combination: he is both a novelist and an attorney. He puts both skills to use in this book by creating an interesting, easy-to-read, easy-to-understand dissertation on all aspects of publishing law. The book is highly recommended for both authors and publishers. After a three-chapter introduction of some basic publishing law concepts, he spends almost 80 pages in chapter four going over the book publishing contract clause by clause. He examines the legal implications of each clause, the profit/loss implications for both the author and the publisher, as well as typical practices throughout the industry. Every author and every publisher should read this chapter twice! Chapter five examines defamation and privacy issues that every author and publisher should know before they write or publish a book. Can you risk not knowing this? After that he examines copyright, subsidiary rights, and trademark issues in detail-essential information for publishers. A well-read copy of this book belongs on the shelf of every publisher and author.
Review #4: An Essential Tool for the New and Growing Writer
2003-02-03
Are you about to finish writing a book? Are you an editor, agent, publisher, or even rookie lawyer in publishing? If so, or even if you are considering publishing something- anything, really- than this book is an essential tool/workbook in navigating the potentially dangerous/potentially treasure-filled waters of the printed word industry. Do not sign any book contract- no matter how good it 'sounds'- without first reading this book. Do not quote another source in your material without understanding the possible copyright consequences as explained in this book. Do not sign on with an agent or collaborator without first studying this book. I have seen too many musicians get screwed in boilerplate recording contracts and now that I have moved into writing I am very thankful that I have found and read this book- as I do not want to be the next victim of the 'small print' of a powerful publisher or by a indemnity lawsuit due to any negligence on my part. What Kirsch does in this publication is go through a book contract step-by-step, clause-by-clause, he 'reads between the lines' for us, he dissects the main deal points in a negotiation and summarizes the critical areas to pay attention to; he hems out publishing law as it applies to writing your book, selling your story to a publisher, and reaping your rewards without incurring a hefty lawsuit. This book is very-well formatted in a visual sense, is user-friendly, even for the publishing law novice, yet it teaches its concepts at a fairly advanced level. What more could you want?
Review #5: Very Helpful
2001-02-15
Read this before you sign your first book contract. I'm glad I did. I made this material my crash course and it paid off. - DaveDavidson.com - author |
