Please don't stop these posts! I'm right now going through a draft contract from a major publisher with my agent, waiting on advice from the Society of Authors, and your posts are INVALUABLE! Such brilliant, clear advice. Thank you!
Oh, thank you, Kit :-) We have quite a lot of clauses still to go, and then I'll do a few extra clauses that aren't in this particular contract but are in some others. I'll do a trawl through all my contracts from different publishers picking out any odd clauses.
Congratulations on your contract, by the way! I am glad to hear you are letting SocA see it - that is very sensible, even if you do have an agent looking at it too.
Is 24 months a bit unreasonable for a small press publication agreement?
24 months is rather a long time. It rather depends whether they give you a fixed publication date and stick to it. It also depends on the type of book. It's not uncommon for some publishers to plan their schedules so far in advance that all publishing slots for the next 12-18 months are already full. The real point is whether they stick to what they have agreed. If you have to agree to publication 24 months in the future, resist any attempt to make a significant part of the payment fall due on publication. There is no good reason why you should wait so long when your work is finished.