SigninG a Publishing Contract

The contract should specify a limited time period that it is good for — often a base period of 3 to 5 years. The cleanest contract language will offer clear dates for the beginning and end of the contract period. This could be either a specific date written out in the contract language, or a specific number of years starting on the day the contract is signed. 

Dates that rely on future behavior by you or the publisher can lead to ambiguity or frustration, and should be avoided. For example: 

• Some contracts start the license when you hand off the game to the publisher. This could create ambiguity if there is ever disagreement about what constitutes handing over the game — is what you gave them good enough? (This is a more common dispute in book publishing.)
• We heard about one contract that was set to expire two years after publication of the game. Several years after the contract was signed, the game had still not been published. The designer asked for the rights back, but the publisher refused.

Allow the license to automatically renew — with caveats

If your game is successful, and stays in print, you don’t want your contract to accidentally lapse. It should provide for automatic renewals, so that you can just let things keep rolling when times are good. However, the contract should also be clear about how you can stop the license from renewing. We cover much more on this in Section 5.