Are you laughing yet? Yes, contracts are hard to negotiate. An author without an agent can only begin to guess at the things that can be added, deleted or otherwise enhanced in a publishing contract. No matter how many workshops you attend about deciphering contract language, there's just no substitute for real-life knowledge.

I negotiated one contract by myself. It was 16 pages of legalese. In retrospect, I didn't ask for things I know I could have easily gotten, like more author copies. I tried to fight for clauses that weren't advantageous to me and couldn't get them to budge an inch because as a newish author, I didn't have the clout an agent would. I think I asked for more money, but didn't counter with a specific figure, which is not a good tactic. I could go on, but the point is, most agents negotiate their own boilerplate with many of the print publishers. These frequently automatically entitle you to more author copies, quicker acceptance of manuscripts and proposals, limiting of option clauses, sometimes even better royalties, limitations in electronic, movie, serial, periodical, audio rights, etc. The last few may seem like no big deal, like who would ever make a movie of your book, right? You never know...

Then there are the fun things publishers try to sneak past you. Clauses that say that if the publisher asks you to take a pseudonym at any time, you'll do it, no questions asked. Delaying more payment of the advance to the actual publication date, rather than half on signing (of the contract) and half on D&A (delivery and acceptance).

Would you know what to ask for in terms of rights? North American only? World? What about payments for foreign language editions, if you sold World, including non-English? If you don't have an agent who's comfortable selling to foreign markets, you might be better off allowing your publisher to sell them to foreign partners.

And the ever-fun topic of reversion of rights... How long is too long for the publisher to keep your rights? I know authors who have signed their rights away on a book for 10 years, not realizing they they might have been able to get 7 or 5 or even 3, depending on the publisher.

What do you do, especially if you don't have an agent or don't want one? You have a few options:

1) Hire an entertainment attorney - They aren't cheap, but a good one will, if s/he does their job right, keep you from getting totally screwed. The down side...they don't have any clout with your publisher and may not be able to get all of the perks a good agent would.

2) Buy some of the great books on negotiating your own publishing contracts and consult the contract reviews completed by the RWR about 5 years ago. These sources will give you some ideas, not only of clauses to amend but some guidelines on what's acceptable, industry standard, norm. The down side...The former sources may not be specific enough to romance publishing, which can be like its own little world. The latter source is getting old and many publishers have since changed their contracts, some more than once. And again, you don't have the clout an agent does.

3) Ask other authors - Fellow authors can be a great source of information. They can tell you things their agents (or they themselves) were able to get from the publisher. This is wonderfully specific information and may be invaluable. The down side... Some authors won't be forthcoming about contract clauses. Others may misinterpret what they say, sending you scurrying off to the publisher to ask for the wrong thing. The things you ask for based on other authors' information are only as powerful as that author or author's agent.

There may be more options. But if I didn't explore them in any detail after receiving a contract for a trilogy that was upward of 30 pages. The right choice for me was to hire an agent and let her handle these headaches. If you're strictly epublishing, publishing with a very small press or writing category, you're less likely to need an agent, especially in the beginning, as the contracts are more standard. But think long and hard--and do your research--before you start negotiating.