From the desk of Kelly Rizzetta...
To be eligible for the giveaway, the author and her manuscript have to meet the following criteria:
- The manuscript has to be the original work of the author -- she's got to be the only one with creative or legal rights to the work!
- The author can't have already published the manuscript in any form -- either in print or online -- and she can't be under contract to do so yet.
- The manuscript can't be more than 100,000 words long.
- The author has to get the manuscript to me by the end of the year. That way, if the contestant hasn't started her book yet, she could conceivably still put her name in for the giveaway.
- The manuscript could reasonably be categorized as “chick lit.” If somebody gives me Bridget Jones's Diary set on, like, a spaceship in the year 2165, I'm not going to split hairs -- Mr. Darcy is still Mr. Darcy at zero gravity! But if you're entering a contest on Chick Lit Central/Book Mama that's sponsored by the author of The Chick Lit Cookbook, you've gotta play the game a little, you know? So, like, War and Peace is out. (Watch, I'll go down in history as "the editor who passed on the next War and Peace.")
I will present a contract to the winning authors and I think you'll find it's a pretty standard document that just spells out the basics of our temporary working relationship and codifies the parameters I listed above.
In case you don't find legaleze as titillating as I do, here's the Reader's Digest version of the contract:
- As part of the giveaway prize, the author is essentially hiring me as a consultant -- on a limited independent contractor basis -- to review, appraise and provide feedback on her manuscript. (In other words, I'm not her employee or otherwise engaged in a business relationship with her.)
- The author has until the end of 2014 (11:59 p.m. on Dec. 31, 2014 to be exact!) to send me her manuscript or she forfeits the giveaway prize. (In other words, she can't come to me 10 years from now and be like, "Hey, I won this contest a while back, and I was wondering if you could take a look at this ...")
- Once the author sends me her manuscript, I have 45 days to read it and provide feedback, which will consist of a marked-up copy of the manuscript plus a one-page report summarizing my observations and suggestions.
- I promise to be really, really good about not leaking or in any way disseminating the manuscript; that stuff and any other materials the author sends me are solely her possessions, and my job is just to review and discuss them with her.
- No money is changing hands here; I'm not entitled to any compensation for reviewing the manuscript, and if I somehow incur costs for myself in doing so, that's my problem.
- The author can give up the manuscript review (or cancel it, if it's already under way) at any time, provided she shoots me an email.
- After the manuscript review is complete, the author and I are in no way obligated to one another. (In other words, she can't sue me if she doesn't like my feedback, or if she starts shopping the book around to publishers and gets turned down. Likewise, I can't come knocking if I see her book on the New York Times Bestseller List complaining that she owes me royalties because the manuscript I once edited is now worth a lot of money.)
- In that vein, the manuscript and all related materials the author might send me during the review process are her property and hers alone -- not mine!
- If I get hit by a bus, no manuscript review for you!
