Book Shopping Agreement Attorney
Book Shopping Agreement Attorney Sebastian Gibson, Named A Top Lawyer 14 Years in a Row and Today With Over 45 Years of Experience
As a Book Shopping Agreement Attorney and with over 45 years of combined experience in California and London, California Book Shopping Agreement Attorney Sebastian Gibson has his pulse on the entertainment industry and publishing world.
In the past, authors with books that producers wanting to option for films and television, have presented writers with Book Option Purchase Agreements which in most cases have not been favorable to new writers.
These Book Options have provided authors with small sums of money while tying up their works for years and years making it impossible for the writers to market their best selling novels to other networks, studios, and producers.
In addition, Book Options have rarely rewarded authors with the compensation they deserve for writing such a great book. Instead, they have routinely been offered small percentages of undefined terms such as “modified adjusted gross receipts” (not knowing that there are other terms such as “gross receipts” or “adjusted gross receipts,” which could be used instead.
Consequently, a common book option provided to a new author may limit what an undefined or poorly defined term includes or in the case of compensation based of the budget of the film, by including deductions which the producer uses to deduct such items as their overhead, legal fees, and even more blatantly, terms such as the use of the word, “etc.” which can greatly reduce the author’s compensation, or by unscrupulous accounting tricks, reduce the writer’s compensation to virtually nothing.
Today, however, as Book Shopping Agreement Attorney Sebastian Gibson will show, a different type of agreement is more commonly being used and demanded by authors, Book Shopping Agreements, which if drafted with the interest of the author in mind, can solve many of the problems which in the past have reduced the rewards of writing a great book which becomes a great film and yet still leaves the author vastly unrewarded.
Book Shopping Agreements As An Alternative to Book Options
The first thing to know about Book Shopping Agreements is that instead of the author transferring all of his or her rights in their book to a producer often for a term of years, with extensions of time for more years and in some cases even years more, the writer retains all of the rights in the work during the term of the Shopping Agreement.
This also resolves the sticky situation which can occur after the term of a Book Option, even after it’s been extended has expired, but the producer refuses to, or is nowhere to be found to, transfer the author’s rights back to the writer.
Another great feature of most Book Shopping Agreements is that they are for much shorter periods of time – commonly for only 6 to 9 months, with the occasional 90 day extension of time if a producer is in negotiation with a studio, network or financing entity. This vastly favors the author who is then free to find another producer or other entity to seek a development deal for film or television after this period, with all their rights in hand, instead of being tied up for option periods which can be up to two years for a first option, with a right to extend it for another two years or even more time after that.
The negative side of Book Shopping Agreements when compared to Book Options, is that the author isn’t paid a fee for the period of time during which the producer has the exclusive right to shop for a development deal for the 6 to 9 months of a Book Shopping Agreement. However, when many authors find themselves either not being paid despite what’s provided in their Book Option, or the amount they agreed to be paid is paltry at best, this is not a great difference.
A well-established writer is in a much different situation than a first-time novelist. The writer with a best seller will likely have the money to find an experienced publishing lawyer or entertainment attorney who knows how to negotiate a Book Option with a limited term of time, a much greater fee to be paid to the author for the option (the rule of thumb being at least 10% of the purchase price), and provisions of exactly when the option payments will be made. The experienced publishing attorney negotiates the percentages of the film’s gross receipts and budget with well-defined terms, and thus obtains for the author, the compensation he or she deserves for the rights to their book.
Is A Book Shopping Agreement Right For You?
It’s quite common for a writer whose book has done reasonably well, or whose book has subject matter that would make a great motion picture or a video on demand movie for Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, Apple, or Disney + to still be offered a Book Option Purchase Agreement (sometimes titled a Short Form Option Purchase, or a Long Form Option Purchase) as opposed to a Shopping Agreement.
Sometimes, right off the bat however, a producer comes along who offers a Book Shopping Agreement instead. Other times, it’s the author or the author’s attorney who has to steer the producer away from a Book Option Purchase to a Book Shopping Agreement.
What the producer commonly tells the writer, however, is that the producer has very little money, but is rich, or allegedly rich in contacts within the entertainment industry.
If that’s the case, a Book Shopping Agreement is clearly in the best interests of the author. The producer who is cash poor, has little experience in the industry and virtually nothing to speak of as a producer, will likely have a very difficult time finding investors to put up development money which can be used to write a screenplay and put together a package that will entice a network, studio, production company or a major financing entity to agree to a development deal for the author’s work.
Development money is the hardest money to find in Hollywood because they’re almost always a losing proposition for the investor. Knowing this, investors who put up development money will do so, for the most part, only with producers who have a track record of getting projects made. Otherwise, it’s a bad gamble. It can pay off, but it’s a long shot when the producer doesn’t have the experience or the contacts to get financing, a lead actor, or director committed to the project who makes the author’s work attractive to a studio, network, production company or financing entity who’s been burned before when deals have gone south.
With that in mind, it behooves the author not to transfer the rights to their work to such a producer, to accept a paltry sum for a book option and to have their rights tied up under the provisions of a book option for years and years without the reward at the end of the rainbow, or if it’s ever paid, to be a much smaller sum than the author would have ever believed because the Book Option was poorly negotiated and contains vague terms that favor the producer and not the author.
If the producer fails to obtain development money or it turns out those great contacts they claimed to have in the entertainment industry weren’t so great after all, the author can simply walk away with his or her rights safe in hand and seek greener pastures. The producer as well will be happy not to have expended any amount of their own development money in granting a Book Option to the author.
If the producer does obtain a development deal that’s attractive to both the producer (his terms will already have been negotiated as well as his title either as producer, co-producer, executive producer, etc.), while the author on seeing who is coming on board with the project can negotiate his or her own deal with the help of an experienced California entertainment lawyer or publishing attorney on terms that may well be much more favorable than what the author would have settled for under the terms of a Book Option the producer would have, or may have offered.
That’s not to say that negotiating with a network or studio or financing entity will be a walk in the park during which money is thrown at the author without any rhyme or reason. But at this stage in the dance, the author is likely to be better educated in how these deals go down and may as well be able to afford the assistance of an experienced California entertainment attorney or publishing lawyer. And rather than negotiating the cost of an option, at this point the author can go straight to negotiating the purchase price of the author’s work.
Since it remains for the author to negotiate his or her own compensation, the writer in effect has the right to approve or reject the potential purchaser of the writer’s work. While that might scare a producer into thinking he or she will be spinning their wheels to get a deal when the author can turn around and reject it, it’s quite unlikely an author without much knowledge of the entertainment industry will reject their first film or TV deal for a book they’ve written which can provide the author with the financial security to write more great books in the future.
It should be pointed out, however, than in many cases, while the producer is negotiating his or her deal with a network or studio, he or she also is presented with terms for the author’s compensation who then turns around and presents those terms to the author as if it’s all a done deal. While the knowledgeable author knows they can still negotiate their rights, the inexperienced author may feel they need to accept those terms in order to avoid blowing up the deal.
As with Book Option Purchase Contracts, Book Shopping Agreements have the potential for pitfalls which should and in many cases must be avoided by the author’s entertainment and publishing lawyer. But they are fewer than in Book Option Agreements and since Book Shopping Agreements are routinely shorter than Book Option Purchase Agreements, the cost of retaining a California entertainment attorney or a publishing lawyer or, best of all, a California entertainment lawyer with a good deal of publishing knowledge, can be significantly advantageous for the writer.
With either a Book Option or a Shopping Agreement, the author’s entertainment or publishing attorney must be careful to ensure that either a Book Option Purchase Agreement or a Shopping Agreement does not beach the terms of the author’s publishing agreement with the book publisher, if the author signed one with a traditional publisher as opposed to being self-published. For instance, if the author’s publishing agreement transferred not only print rights but film and television rights, stage rights, radio rights and so on to the publisher, to turn around and grant these rights which have already been given away, now to the producer as well, would be a breach of the warranties and indemnities contained in any of these agreements.
If, however, the producer in question is not only experienced in obtaining development deals with networks, studios and financing entities, but also has the contacts to get a lead actor or actors and possibly even a top director committed to the project, in that case a Book Option Purchase Agreement may be best. It can certainly be worth the time for both the producer and the author to determine the exact compensation the writer should receive so the producer can approach networks, studios and production companies not only with full control of the author’s work, but with the author’s compensation determined in advance for the network, studio or financiers to consider in terms of the full cost of the project.
That being said, if a network were to feel that the author’s work is worth three times what the producer has agreed to pay an author under the terms of a Book Option Purchase and is able to in effect pocket the difference between what the producer must pay the author on exercise of the option and what the studio has in effect paid for the author’s work, the author, in hindsight, will clearly have made a bad deal by signing a Book Option Purchase not knowing how much interest a studio, network or production company might have in a film based on the writer’s work.
But if an author can both limit the period of the term of an option and any option extension as well as receive a significant payment for granting a producer the time to get a deal, a Book Option Purchase might still be best, if not the only choice to make for an author who is badly in need of money after spending years writing the next Pulitzer Prize winning novel in coffee shops while holding down two or more jobs and struggling to raise a family.
California Entertainment and Book Shopping Agreement Attorney Sebastian Gibson
Where do you find a California entertainment and Book Shopping Agreement Attorney with the knowledge of an experienced publishing attorney? We’re right here in California and occasionally in London as well. California entertainment attorney Sebastian Gibson has over 40 years of combined experience in California and London and has been named a 2023 Top Lawyer for the 13th year in a row by the prestigious Palm Springs Life magazine.
He is rated as a “Superb” Lawyer (their highest rating) by Avvo, which rates attorneys all across the nation and is himself a published author, an experienced musician and performer and has law degrees both in California and Great Britain where he graduated magna cum laude after also graduating from UCLA (cum laude) and the University of San Diego School of Law despite working full time during his years of study at USD.
If you have need of a California Entertainment Attorney with the knowledge and experience of a Publishing Attorney for your endeavors, make the right choice. Call Book Shopping Agreement Lawyer Sebastian Gibson as soon as you’re presented with a Book Option Purchase Contract or a Shopping Agreement for your book by a producer or anyone in the entertainment industry so we can review it and advise you before you sign away your rights without being fairly compensated.
Remember, without your book, a producer, network or studio has nothing. Your hard work, your imagination, your book, your characters, and your prose are the core, the very essence of any film, screenplay or television project that’s eventually made. Whether it’s your first book or your tenth, published by a traditional publisher or self-published, any book that a producer feels has the potential of making a great motion picture or popular project for television is, by virtue of their interest and the work you’ve put into it, an extraordinary work of art and literature. It can make people’s emotions soar and tears come to their eyes when they see the final edit on the screen. When you need an attorney to stand by you and protect your rights, call California Entertainment Lawyer Sebastian Gibson.
