Before You Sign: A One-Page Checklist for First-Time Indian Authors Reading a Publishing Contract

⏱ 7 min read|Published 22 October 2026|By Dibyendu Choudhury

A first contract arrives at an emotional moment. Years of writing, a hundred small doubts, and then an email that says a publisher would like to bring out your book. The natural response is gratitude, and gratitude is exactly the wrong state of mind in which to read a legal document. This note is a checklist for reading the contract with a calm head. It is written by an author, not a lawyer, and it is not legal advice. Its purpose is to help you arrive at a lawyer's office, or at your own decision, with the right questions already written down.

I publish my own books through Amazon KDP, so I know both sides of the choice: the freedom of keeping everything, and the appeal of a publisher's reach. Neither is right for every book. What is wrong for every author is signing something they have not understood. The ten questions below are the ones I would ask first.

1. Which rights are you actually granting?

A publishing contract is a licence, and the first thing to read is its scope. Does it cover print only, or also the e-book, the audiobook, translations into other languages, film or stage adaptation, and any format not yet invented? Many contracts bundle all of these together. You are entitled to ask that rights the publisher is not going to use be kept back or granted separately. A publisher who will never make an audiobook has no reason to hold your audiobook rights.

2. Is the grant exclusive, and for how long?

An exclusive licence means you cannot sell the same rights elsewhere while it lasts. That is normal, but the length matters enormously. A grant that lasts for the full term of copyright, which is a very long time, is a very different thing from one that lasts five or seven years and then comes up for renewal. Look for the words that state the period. If the contract is silent about duration, ask why, and do not assume that silence favours you. As I understand Indian copyright law, the Copyright Act contains default rules for an assignment that does not state its period or its territory, but the rules are no substitute for stating both clearly. A lawyer can confirm exactly what applies.

3. What is the territory?

Does the contract cover India only, the subcontinent, or the whole world? An Indian author whose book sells well abroad can lose that opportunity by granting world rights to a publisher who only distributes in India. Grant the territory the publisher can really serve, and keep the rest.

4. How is the royalty calculated?

This is the line that decides what you earn, and it is often written in a way that is easy to misread. Is the percentage applied to the printed price of the book, or to the money the publisher actually receives after discounts to distributors and bookshops? A royalty of ten per cent on the cover price is a very different number from ten per cent on net receipts, because the discounts to the trade can be large. Ask for an example in rupees: if one copy is sold through each channel, what lands in my account? A fair contract can answer that in a line.

Check also how e-book and audio royalties are treated, whether there are deductions for returns, and whether any part of the royalty is held back as a reserve. If there is a reserve, ask when it is released.

5. What is the advance, and is it really an advance?

An advance is money paid before the book earns anything, set against your future royalties. Find out whether it is paid in one instalment or several, and when each falls due. Find out also whether it is returnable. If the book is never published, or the publisher rejects the final manuscript, do you keep what you have been paid? Many first-time authors receive no advance at all, which is not unusual, but then the contract should say so plainly and the other terms should be correspondingly generous.

6. What happens if the book goes out of print?

This is the clause I would read three times. In the days of printed stock, a book was out of print when the last copy sold. In the days of print-on-demand and digital files, a book can be technically in print forever, which means a publisher can hold your rights indefinitely while doing nothing. Look for a reversion clause that says the rights return to you if sales fall below a stated number of copies in a stated period, or if the book is not available for a stated number of months. Insist that the definition of out of print is written down in numbers.

7. Who controls the price, the cover and the title?

Ask who has the final say on the title, the cover and the price. Ask also whether you will be consulted. You cannot always win these points, but you should know where you stand. A book with a cover you dislike and a price you think too high will still carry your name for years.

8. What is the publisher committing to do?

Contracts are very specific about what the author must deliver and very vague about what the publisher will do. Look for a date by which the book must be published, and a consequence if that date passes. Ask what marketing, if any, is promised, and get it in writing. A promise made in a friendly phone call is not a term of the contract.

9. Is there an option on your next book?

Some contracts give the publisher the first right to see, or even to publish, your next work. An option to read is harmless. An option that binds you to offer the next book on the same terms, or that stops you from approaching anyone else until the publisher has replied, can freeze your career at a moment when you may be at your most productive. If an option clause is present, limit it to a short period for reply and make sure it does not fix the terms in advance.

10. Can you see the money, and can you leave?

Finally, ask how and when you will be paid, how often you will receive a statement, and whether you have the right to inspect the publisher's accounts for your book. Ask also what happens if either side wants to end the agreement, and how much notice is required. A contract that is easy to enter and impossible to exit is a bad contract, whatever its other merits.

Working through it in practice

Print the contract and read it with a pen. Write a question in the margin wherever a sentence is unclear, and a tick wherever you understand and accept it. When you have finished, you will have two piles: what you understand and what you do not. Take the second pile to a lawyer who works with authors or in intellectual property. An hour of their time before you sign is cheaper than years of regret afterwards.

Then write back to the publisher with your questions, politely and in writing. A good publisher expects questions and will answer them. If a reply is evasive, or if you are told that the contract is standard and cannot be changed, remember that standard contracts are changed all the time for authors who ask. The attitude of a publisher during this conversation tells you a great deal about how they will behave later.

A word on the self-publishing alternative

Self-publishing through a platform such as KDP lets you keep your rights and set your own price, and it is a legitimate choice, not a consolation prize. The trade-off is that you carry the work of editing, design and promotion yourself, or pay others to do it. If you enrol an e-book in a programme that asks for exclusivity for a period, read those terms with the same care as you would a publisher's contract. The checklist above applies, in spirit, to every agreement an author signs.

A closing thought

The Gita tells us that we have a right to our actions and not to their fruits, which is sometimes misread as advice to be careless about results. I read it differently. It asks us to give our full attention to the work in front of us. Reading your own contract is part of that work. The book is the labour of years, and the few evenings you spend understanding the agreement that will govern it are among the best investments you will make in it.

This note is general information for authors and is not legal advice. Contract terms and the law differ, so please have your own contract reviewed by a qualified professional before you sign.

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Published 22 October 2026 · dibyenduchoudhury.com