ABSTRACT
For the contemporary publisher, the contract has legal and economic significance. Historical developments in publishing and law since the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century underpin these focuses, the expression of which are perpetuated in the present day. However, this expression does not necessarily reflect the contemporary field. Our current understanding of publishing contracts and of publishing contract negotiations has been stymied by historical understandings of what authors and publishers represent, as well as what we expect of contracts via our understanding of how they are used in other industries. In untangling these representations, a striking difference between the theory and perception of contract negotiations and what transpires can be observed in a post negotiation space. The post negotiation space brings the agents involved in book publishing together to strengthen their work and its success and reveals the potential for, and indeed existence of, collaboration. The power imbalance between publishers and authors is much more complex than is currently portrayed. The post negotiation space is where the author–publisher relationship is tested and sometimes recast; it is where the contract as a malleable artefact, and not a physical document, becomes an extension of the space – a forum for discussion and renegotiation with editors at its epicentre.
