© Bridget Whelan
If you want to use any of this material contact me and there is a very good chance I will say YES.
However, if you just cut and paste into your own blog or whatever and pass it off as your own then there's a very good chance I will find out. Don't fall into the trap of thinking the internet is so vast and expanding so fast (note the fancy internal rhyme)] that no one will know.
“I would say May the force go with you but I’ve got a feeling that’s the wrong genre…”
Arf!
And actually I even got the wrong film because that is a Klingon in the picture, isn’t it?
What I really meant was – Live Long and Prosper as in Star Trek. And none of this has anything to do with Dark Crystal so I better shut up now.
(Back away if you see me download the application form for the Jim Henson company…I will have lost it completely… )
When you say a $10,000 dollar contract does that mean all they get is that all the time they write the books? Sorry I am not a professional writer so I may be missing something here Bridget.
I don’t think you’re missing a thing. In fact I think you’re flagging up something very important: writers don’t get paid much.
I don’t know the details of the contract of course – the sponsors haven’t posted much on the website – but it could be a standard contract and the $10,000 is an advance given to the winner. Royalties would be paid on top of that once – and only once – the published book produces more profit than the $10,000 paid out. And by profit I mean the share of the profit that is due to the writer. There are plenty of people who also need a cut: the publishers naturally and the bookshop or store that sells it and the warehouse that stores it etc.
But maybe that’s not what the Jim Henson Company have in mind. Perhaps the $10,000 is a fee for writing the book and that’s all the writer would get – except perhaps the chance of more work from the same company. Either way it’s not exactly riches beyond the dreams of avarice but it is a chance to establish yourself with a major company in an important niche market.
BUT your comment made me study the rules more closely and I see that:
“Each entry will be the sole property of the Sponsors…” Not just the work of the winner. Or the five who will be shortlisted, but ANYONE who submits an entry no longer owns it because it automatically becomes the property of the sponsors..
For how long I hear you ask?
“in perpetuity, including publication on http://www.darkcrystal.com….”
I thought this was an interesting opportunity. I’m not so sure now.
Actually, media-tie-ins don’t receive royalties. The $10 grand is the author’s fee, not an advance. The “sole property” clause makes sense because the writers are writing in an established fandom and cannot try to publish it elsewhere else, like on amazon, which is a reality these days. Also, it covers their rears in the event that an author who did not win raises a furor over the content of the finalized/published novel and accuses the “winning” author of plagiarism. A lot of people are seeing it as the opposite, that the clause gives Henson Co and Penguin Group the right to take your ideas and throw them at the winning author for “inspiration”, which I highly doubt is the plan.
Hope that helps!