False Equivalencies
So how do you push back against onerous publishing clauses that will probably never be deal-breakers for an author? I'm pondering on that question a lot as I think about the ever worsening audit clauses which publishers are offering. The audit clause is the one that says you've got the right to hire an accountant to go and look at the publisher's records for your book to be sure the royalty reporting is accurate. I've never done an audit in the 27 years I've been in the business. They're expensive. An accountant might cost hundreds of dollars an hour, a single day of looking at the publisher's records and the prep work and reporting could easily cost a few thousand dollars, and a complicated situation might bring that cost up considerably. You have to have a lot of money to do this, and you have to be pretty convinced that it's going to be worthwhile. There have always been some restrictions on the author's right to audit. It has to be done durin