Samples
Recent contracts, clause by clause
Three composites drawn from UK and US trade deals of 2024–25. They are not anyone’s confidential file. They are the shape of the paper that lands on a desk after the champagne email. Click a clause to see what it is doing, and whether you should leave it alone.
Composite · 2025 · UK · Unagented
The small-press licence
A composite of 2023–25 UK small-press contracts that treat the author as a partner: short licence, narrow grant, high royalty, no advance. The risk is capacity, not the clauses.
- House
- Small press (UK)
- Advance
- No advance; 50% of net receipts
- Genre
- Literary novel / essay
One of the better shapes of deal if you can live without an advance. The contract is not the danger; under-publication is. Date the publication duty and keep the term short.
Clause 1
Grant of rights
Better than the going boilerplate. Keep it.
Contract language
The Author grants the Publisher an exclusive licence to publish the Work in print and ebook form, in the English language, in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, for a period of seven (7) years from first publication.
In plain English
Narrow, timed, and a licence. After seven years the book comes back unless you both renew. This is what a grown-up small-press grant looks like.
What to do
Confirm the open market is non-exclusive so a later US edition can sell into Europe. Renewal should be on terms to be agreed, not automatic on the same split.
This is a practical guide, not legal advice. The sample contracts are composites drawn from typical UK and US trade terms in the mid-2020s, not copies of any one publisher’s agreement. Always have an agent or a publishing solicitor read a deal before you sign it.