File Your Contracts
File Your Contracts
Everyone pursuing publication has contracts they need to deal with. Be it their agency agreement, their book sale, or the publishing terms with KDP or Ingram Spark. Books come with paperwork and paperwork needs to be stored somewhere so you can get back to it.
But once you have them and have read them, then what?
Paper Copies
The first thing to do with any paper copy of a contract is to digitize it. The easiest way to do that? Take a picture of each page.
Digitizing
In a well lit room, place your paper on a flat surface that has good lighting.
Hold your phone about three feet above the paper, but whatever it takes to frame the sheet of paper nicely.
Tap the smallest text on the page to make sure that your phone is focused there and then snap the picture.
Review the picture, zooming in to ensure its legible. If not, delete and retake the picture.
Repeat for every page.
Storing
Once you have digitized copy of your contract you still need to store the contract somewhere. A fire safe is one of the best resources for all your adulting needs. It’s a good place to keep your passport, social security card, car titles, and any other valuables along with your various author contracts. A simple version from Target is really all you need, unless you want to go hi-tech, (who am I to stop you?)
Pro-tip: Grab some desiccant and air your documents out now and again just to make sure the moisture you accidentally trap in the box with your documents doesn’t begin to mold.
Electronic Copies
Either with your electronically signed contracts or your digitized photos keep all your agreements in one place so it’s easy to pull up whenever and wherever you need them.
Pasting the pictures from your album into a word document or stitching them together using Preview or some other PDF processor is a good way to have a single file.
Labeling Files
Dating your documents is vital. Personally I prefer a “Big-Endian” approach with year first and date last. (YYMMDD)
Add the book title where appropriate.
Including all the parties is also extremely helpful. This includes people like you, your agent, agency, editor, and the publishing house.
An example of a file name I use is:
200902-SpeakForYourself-LWJ-BridgetSmith-JAB-Scholastic
This may seem like overkill, but it really helps to know a lot of key details without even opening the file up.
Storing Files
I like to keep copies in two different places, one is my regular online file storage system. (See Author’s Guide to G-Suite and Office 365 if you don’t have one.)
But as a massive fan of my iPad, I also keep copies of my contracts in Goodnotes 5 so I can mark it up and make it easy to find key points like royalty splits and option language.
Contracts are one of those things that it’s really easy to forget about until you desperately need. Taking the time to properly store them and know where you put them will help in stressful situations where contracts become more than just a piece of paper.