Re: how much to bill?

**F*@aol.com**

This thread certainly underscores the need to reach clear agreement 
beforehand, leaving as little wiggle room as possible for either party later. 
 I write a monthly column.  When the contract came, it bore the 
all-too-common "All rights everywhere forever" verbiage.  Forewarned by 
horror stories I'd read right here on this list (thank you, Lon et al!) I 
politely demurred.  The editor and I quickly agreed that the magazine would 
purchase only the rights it really needed -- i.e., one-time print rights plus 
use on their website. 
At the time I thought it was simply good business practice, an exercise for 
the principle of the thing, and nothing would really come of it.  But the 
publisher later used several columns in a book, and that demurral, a very 
cordial three-email exchange, meant a few hundred extra $$ which otherwise 
would not have been forthcoming.  I know that at least one other author was 
not paid for her work in the same book, because she'd signed her rights away 
the first time.
Graham's right: It IS outrageous for a publication to expect more work for 
the same pay, a de facto reduction in an agreed-upon word rate. But the time 
to establish -- or in this case, re-establish -- the pay was when they 
redefined the length of the piece.
JF
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