John asked James M. Jackson:

How was your association with your publisher established? Did you have multiple alternatives or choices? Is their a different or distinction in publisher based upon geography, e.g. domestic or international, or media type, e.g. trade paper back, hard cover , paper back, electronic or audio? Are there any contract clauses or sales targets which enable either party to terminate the long term obligations?

James M. Jackson John -- every author has a different route to publication. In my case, I had tried to find an agent I wanted to work with. (I did in fact find an agent who wanted me, but the contract terms had problems in the unlikely situation the agent became unable to perform her work,, so I stepped away.) I finally decided that Bad Policy was strong enough to deserved publication, and I researched mall US publishers with good reputations who handled mystery/suspense/thrillers.

I chose three, sent out query letters. All three asked for full manuscripts. Two offered contracts. (I pulled the query from the third since I already had the two and didn't want them to waste their time.)

Each publisher's contract is different with respect to what geography (or even languages) they cover. My first two contracts covered worldwide English-only in print and electronic ebook (for all retailers: Kindle, B&N, Kobo, etc.). I retained audio, translation, etc.

Terms in those contracts specify both publisher and author obligations and include termination clauses for both parties. In this case, the author's rights to request termination relate to time since publication rather than any sales of royalty targets.

The contract for my third published book, Ant Farm includes reversion rights based both on time and royalties earned.

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